by Willow Rose
If it happens in school, we'll just have to deal with it, I guess.
"Say, you hungry?" I asked and walked to the closet.
Veronika smiled. We had gotten into this little routine every morning to fill up on crackers and cookies before breakfast, so we didn't have to eat so much of my mom's strange food and smoothies. I usually went past the grocery store and stocked up on snacks when coming back from the diner, where my mom believed I was just meeting up with Jazmine and Amy. My mom wasn't very fond of these meetings since she believed they were causing me to gain weight, which she was probably right about, not that I care about any of that—but she still let me go. I had convinced her it was important for me to have some girlfriends and I think she believed it somehow kept me away from Jayden. She would never set her foot in a place like Sophie's diner, so there was no risk of her ever finding out that he worked there.
I pulled out a box of graham crackers, trying to stay slightly healthy, and we dug in. Veronika ate two at a time and crunched them loudly. I was still the only one she would talk to and I wondered how she was going to get by in school. Maybe she would eventually start speaking. I hoped for her own sake that she would. Kids in fifth grade could be merciless if you were the least bit different than them.
I smiled when I realized this was my last day in prison. Come Monday, I’d be back in the real world again, getting out of the house for most of the day. I sighed happily, then thought about Duncan and the hell he had to be going through. My smile froze, and I grabbed one last cracker and then asked Veronika if she wanted more, but she didn't.
"All right," I said and got up. "Let's go and pretend to eat our breakfast."
Veronika smiled and nodded.
I opened the door to the hallway, then glanced toward Adrian's room. It was also his last day in this house, and all his stuff was packed in boxes and bags parked outside his door. It was going to be strange not to have him in the house anymore, but I had a feeling it was also going to be quite liberating. I would no longer have to protect Veronika from him, which was quite a relief. And she was going to take over his room when he wasn't there. All I had to do now was to make sure my stupid cousins stayed away from her. They usually never came upstairs since they lived in the garage, so I was hoping it wasn't going to be too tough. Besides, I had a feeling my mom was beginning to like Veronika. She had told them she would rip their heads off if they came near her. We all knew she would.
"But…I thought it was a bomb?" I heard my mom's voice coming from downstairs as we left the room.
I signaled to Veronika to be quiet, and we snuck closer to listen better.
Chapter Eleven
I snuck down the first flight of stairs to better see who my mom was talking to and soon I realized that no one was there. My mom was on the phone with someone, and she had put her on speaker, so my dad could listen in as well. They were sitting in the kitchen, the phone placed on the countertop between them.
"There was no bomb," the voice replied. I recognized the person immediately as Delia Pritchard, Duncan's mom. "That was just the official story."
"What on earth are you talking about?" my dad asked. "Delia, tell us what's going on."
"It's them," she said. "They've declared war on us."
I could tell by the sound of my mother's voice that this news frightened her immensely.
"But…but we have a truce," she said. "They signed a treaty hundreds of years ago."
Duncan's mother sighed at the other end. "I know. I was there. So was…Kieran. But clearly, the treaty is no longer in effect. The attack on us Friday night shows us that they are no longer honoring it. They said we broke the treaty first, but I don't see how. I just think they decided it was our turn to be harassed or eradicated the way they almost got rid of the mer-people years ago by attacking them everywhere. But we will not let that happen. We will not be unprepared for this." Delia exhaled and paused before she continued. "I think they enjoyed putting him out like that. You should have seen them and the chaos they created. It was like a regular warzone. They took everyone down. I was lucky to make it out alive. I don't think anyone knows I survived it. I’m trying to lay low. I’m coming back later today. Laura is coming with me and bringing her family. We need to gather as many as we can. There is a war coming, and we need to be prepared."
"A war…but that's…so…" my mom said, stuttering.
"I know, Camille. You're young, but some of us have been through this before. We can win this war, but only if we stick together."
"Of course," my dad said. "Let us know what we can do."
"I'll be in touch. I knew I could count on you all. Please give my best to Robyn. We really should think about getting those two married soon. Dark times for our people are ahead. You should really consider turning her prematurely."
"No," my mom said. "There is only a year and a half left. I want to be sure she can take it."
"All right," Delia said. "It's your decision. But think about it."
She hung up, and my mom grabbed the phone. She grumbled and looked at my dad.
"I'm not doing it," she said.
"You don't think it might be wise? We don't know where we’ll be in a year and a half if there is a war coming. What if we're killed? Who will turn her then?"
"I’ve thought of that," my mom said. "I’ve already talked to Duncan about it. He’ll do it if we're no longer here. He told me it would be his privilege."
Chapter Twelve
The school looked the same. It was the same red brick building, same sign outside reading Shadow Hills High, and mostly the same tired faces walking to the entrance carrying backpacks, chatting with their friends or listening to music, sipping their coffees, as it had been last time I was there. Yet a lot had changed. Not in the school, but with my friends and me. So much that I didn't feel the same anymore.
"You having second thoughts?"
I turned around to see Amy walking up behind me. I chuckled. "No. I’m just…really happy to be back."
"That makes one of us," Jayden said with a yawn.
"I can't believe summer is already over," Jazmine said as she parked her bike and approached us. She looked up at the dark gray sky. "I’m not sure it was even here at all."
Jayden placed a hand on my shoulder as we approached the front door. He held it open for me.
"Welcome back."
I stepped inside and took in a deep breath. So much noise, so many people, so much life. Boy, had I missed it. I didn't even know you could miss school this much.
I went to the front office and handed them my papers and received a new locker, then rushed to my first class, social studies. The only place available was next to Jayden. Remembering what my mom had said, I stared at it reluctantly, but then he smiled and removed his backpack to make room for me, and I decided there really wasn't much else I could do.
A couple of faces turned to look as I walked by and one of the cheerleading girls whispered to the one sitting next to her, but I chose to ignore them. I sat down next to Jayden and couldn't help feeling happy being this close to him again. But sitting next to him soon also filled me with a deep melancholy. Why was it again that we couldn't be together?
"So, this year, we will be exploring the colonization and development of America, then move on to sectionalism, studying the American Civil War and Reconstruction, World Wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War and the nuclear era, and finally civil rights," the teacher, Mrs. Hawk, said.
I looked at what she had written on the whiteboard, then wondered about Duncan who had lived through all of that. He had seen all these wars and lived through it. It was quite overwhelming and a little dizzying to think about. There was so much I didn't know about him.
I hadn't heard from him at all. I was kind of upset with him for not calling me back, but also for the fact that he promised my mom he would turn me into a vampire if they weren't here to do it.
What kind of a promise was that? Didn't it matter how I felt? If I even wanted this
to happen?
I bit my lip when thinking about Veronika's prediction. Was that what she had seen when she believed she saw him killing me? Did she really see Duncan turning me into a vampire? Was it my inevitable destiny and was there nothing I could do about it?
Chapter Thirteen
The day seemed to drag along for Jazmine. She wasn't focused and found it hard to concentrate. So much was going through her mind. Mostly, she thought about Adrian. She had said goodbye to him the night before and, to know that now he just wasn't there anymore felt crushing. To know that he wasn't going to be there when she came home, he wasn't going to just stop by later on, made her feel lonelier than ever. Strangely enough, he had been the steadiest part of her life these past several months. It wasn't fair that she had to lose him too.
Jazmine sighed when lunch break finally arrived, and she walked into the cafeteria. She spotted Robyn, Amy, and Jayden at a table, then rushed to them and sat down. Aunt Tina had packed her a lunch, so she didn't have to eat that yucky school food, but now that she looked at it, she regretted bringing it. The sandwich had some sort of liquid in it that had soaked the bread completely.
Jazmine picked it up and watched it drip onto the table, then put it down again with an exhale. She didn't want to have to get in line and spend the rest of her break waiting to get food.
"Fajitas?" Amy said and pushed one toward her. "I have plenty."
"Thank you," Jazmine said. "You're a lifesaver."
She was eating the fajitas when she spotted Kipp at the other end of the cafeteria, surrounded by at least seven or eight cheerleaders. Jazmine turned her head to look at Amy, who had seen it too but was pretending not to.
Jazmine closed her eyes for a second, then looked at them again. One of them had her hand on his shoulder. Amy had seen it too, and Jazmine could tell it was bothering her. Jazmine bit her lip, then whispered under her breath:
"Blatta."
A second later, one of the girls—the one who had her hand on Kipp's shoulder—screamed as she discovered a cockroach crawling in her hair. The others chimed in too, then began frantically to try to help her get it out of her hair. Soon, no one was looking at Kipp anymore. Jazmine chuckled, then turned to face Amy, who gave her a look.
"Jazmine!"
"What? I was only trying to help."
"Well, you're not helping."
Jazmine looked down at her food and continued to eat when people behind her started to scream as well. With a gasp, she turned her head to look just in time to see what looked like hundreds or maybe even thousands of cockroaches approaching. They were everywhere…on the floors and crawling up the walls. Chaos erupted in the cafeteria as everyone climbed the tables while the many roaches swarmed the floors.
Amy gave her a look, her nostrils beginning to flare.
"I’m sorry, okay? I guess I’m stronger than I thought. Geez."
"You've gotta stop doing this," Jayden said, as they all crawled onto the table, while the roaches rushed by beneath them.
Jazmine stared in awe at the many bugs and wondered when exactly she had gotten so powerful. What she had said was just a small spell, but it had turned into something quite different and a lot more explosive.
Chapter Fourteen
Believe it or not, the worst part of my day wasn't the roaches in the cafeteria causing havoc. That was bad, yes, but a soon as we had all evacuated and they blocked the cafeteria off until a fumigator could come and kill them, we were told to return to class. No one suspected Jazmine of being behind it, luckily.
The worst part wasn't algebra or calculus, either. No, it was when school was over, and we walked outside. That was when I spotted the black limo waiting right in front of the entrance. It had gathered quite a crowd, and many students were gaping at it. I immediately blushed. Duncan rolled the window down and looked at me.
"Wow," Jazmine said. I didn't know if she meant the car or him. He was quite dashing looking in his black suit and sunglasses.
"Just wow," Amy said.
Jayden, who was walking next to me, grunted something sounding like, "He couldn't have picked you up in a normal car?" Then he turned around, grabbed his bike, and left. I stared after him for a few seconds, then returned to face Duncan. He wasn't smiling. In fact, he looked very serious. I left the girls and approached him. He opened the door and let me in. I could hear the other kids whispering even as the door was closed.
"You're making quite the spectacle around here," I said. "They'll be talking about this for days to come."
He took off the sunglasses and looked at me. "I don't really have time for high school drama."
"Of course not. How are you feeling?" I asked.
"It doesn't really matter how I feel," he said.
His answer struck me as very odd. If I had just lost a parent, I would want to talk about it and especially about how I felt. At least, I thought so. I had never lost anyone close to me.
He exhaled. Something was very changed about him. Something heavy and burdened.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"I lost my father, that's what's going on, Robyn."
"Yes, I know. I’m just trying to figure out what…"
He stopped me with another sigh. "I’m sorry. These have been some long days."
"It's okay," I said and placed a hand on his arm. "It must be tough. Is your mom back yet?"
"Yes," he said.
"How's she doing?"
"Not too good. My sister is there for her, though."
"And you? Who is taking care of you?" I asked.
He exhaled deeply. "This is the real world, Robyn. Not some TV show. There is no time for me. Don't you understand? I have responsibilities now. I am the head of the household now. It is expected that I will take over the business along with all the other responsibilities."
I bit my lip. "I heard my mom talking to your mom," I said. I looked up at Duncan and our eyes locked. He was so handsome that it made my heart jump. "She said something about a war coming?"
Duncan breathed heavily and rubbed his forehead. "I had hoped to keep you out of all this," he said. He grabbed my hand in his. "I wanted to protect you. You're so young, Robyn."
"I deserve to know," I said. "Please tell me what’s going on. They said on TV that it was a bomb, but your mom told my parents something else."
Chapter Fifteen
"It was no bomb," Duncan said. "You know that guy who used to live on your street?"
"The weird spider-man?"
"Yes, him. He's not just anyone. He is part of a task force if you want to call it that. Once, many years ago, our people…"
"The vampires?"
He nodded. "Yes, among many others."
"Dragons? Time-travelers? Werewolves, witches, and mer-people?" I asked, naming the ones I had encountered just over the past eight months.
Duncan nodded. "Yes, them too. As you might suspect, we didn't belong to this world originally. We came here centuries ago as part of a colonization program. My parents were among those who traveled here in search of a better world. Our own was being destroyed. We hadn't taken very good care of it, and it was overpopulated. Many people were starving, and there were wars. That was when they decided to colonize us. They decided to send out groups of us to seek new worlds to live in. But the deal was, we couldn't be seen. We couldn't interfere with the new world. We couldn't do to this new world what we had done to ours. They could not know we were here. We had to blend in. So, they created the task force to keep an eye on us. But, as you know—and have seen, unfortunately—it’s very hard not to use your powers when you have them. Like us, for instance, we need to feed on human blood in order to survive, and we can't completely refrain from that, and many don't want to since they find it natural. So, many vampires were eradicated because of this. We risked becoming completely extinct in this world. Political forces that were against the colonization of other worlds created the task force; they wanted us to stay where we were, so they enjoyed getting rid of us. But a
t the rate it was going, there wouldn't be anyone left. This world was a great fit for us; life here was better, and we didn't want to go back. We wanted to stay. So, we started to fight back and began killing them as well."
"The task force?"
"Yes. Soon, a war broke out between us at the same time that the Civil War raged here in America. Finally, after years of war, we all got tired of fighting. It was getting us nowhere, except killed. So, the vampires made a deal with the task force. We signed a truce with them. If any vampire broke the law, they would have to answer to the council, who would determine their fate, whereas other creatures were simply eliminated on the spot by the task force. It was a truce that cost us a great deal of money, which we have been paying them every year since then, and it has held up until now. My mom told me they came to the restaurant and took out all of them, declaring war against us. She was lucky she made it out."
"So…what happened?" I asked. "Why have they broken the truce?"
"They say one of theirs was killed."
I swallowed, hard. "W-who?"
"Mr. Aran. The guy from your street. He was highly ranked in the task force. A leader."
My eyes grew wide. "And he's dead?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out. They haven't found his body yet, which gives me hope. But no one seems to know what happened to him. He has simply vanished from the surface of the earth. If we could find him alive, we might be able to stop the war from happening."
Chapter Sixteen
"Oh, my. Oh, My. Oh, My."
I couldn't stop mumbling to myself as I drove back home in my car. Duncan and I had finished our talk, and he had left, telling me he would take me out on another date as soon as things calmed down a little. There was a lot he had to take care of at his dad's business, and the transition was going to be tough on them. I stopped really listening as soon as he had mentioned the part about Mr. Aran. My brain kept circling around Jazmine's room and the Yeti in her closet.