Scholarship Girl

by Kat Cotton

  “No one will be doing a thing,” I said. “Because I will not be going to that dance.”

  I folded my arms and glared around the room. “There’s something you don’t know. Oscar threatened to take us down, not just me but all of us. He might be an idiot but there’s no telling what he’ll find out if he does that.”

  I thought that might change their minds but nope.

  “That’s something we’ll have to deal with in the long term but right now, our most pressing concern is saving Ren.”

  Chapter 28

  The next day, Ren didn’t look great.

  “I’m fine. Nothing wrong at all. I’m just bored out of my brain. Surely, I could be allowed out of my room for a while. I need to tend to Thunder.”

  I put my hand to his forehead. “You feel feverish. I’ll have to tell Mr. Norton.”

  He sat up. “No. Don’t tell him. I think the air conditioning isn’t working properly, that’s all.”

  I couldn’t let him get away with that.

  “You have to be honest about this. It’s not a game. If you have any symptoms at all then you need to tell me. We have to do whatever we can to make this right.”

  Ren screwed up his face. “Anything? Yet you won’t go to the dance with me to lure the vampires out.”

  I jumped. How did he know about that?

  “You think because I’m bedridden, I don’t know what’s going on. I know, oh, I know. I still have a phone.”

  Damn, who’d told him? I’d kill them.

  “You’re not exactly bedridden, you know. You’ve got a room bigger than most people’s apartments and everything else you need. Stop complaining. Think of it as time to catch up on study.”

  Ren groaned. “Why are you so reluctant to go to this dance anyway? It’d be like a Cinderella story especially since you’re so poor and all that.”

  “Yeah, but you’re no Prince Charming. More like Prince Kinda Rude and Obnoxious.”

  “That hurts.”

  I shrugged and left him to go back to class.

  I sent Mr. Norton a message, telling him that Ren had a fever. He replied asking how high.

  I have no idea. I’m not a thermometer. I used my hand.

  He had a thermometer for me at training that afternoon. “Take his temperature and monitor it to make sure it’s not going up. Also, give him paracetamol and see if that lowers his temperature.”

  “I’m not a nurse.”

  “You’re the only one who can go near him.”

  There was a lot less Ren talk and a lot more fighting at training, just the way I liked it.

  “Have you thought more about this dance?” Mr. Norton asked as I was leaving. “I know it’ll be tough for you with the other students but I think it’s the only chance we have.”

  I rubbed my leg. The birthmark on my thigh burned. I must’ve knocked it in training.

  “I’ve thought about it, I haven’t changed my mind. What makes you think the vampires will even know about the dance?”

  “I think there’s someone feeding them information from the school.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “A mole?”

  “Something like that.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. It did seem that those vampires knew a lot about our comings and goings.

  “We’re running out of time,” Mr. Norton said. “You’ll need to make the decision pretty soon.”

  I sighed and went back to my room. I really needed to have some personal time. Time without Ren especially. I hadn’t had much of that lately. My birthmark still burned. Maybe I needed to put some cream on it. It’d been strange ever since that fight with the vampires.

  Later, I went to take Ren’s fever. He sat with the thermometer in his mouth.

  “That’s a great sight. You not able to talk.”

  Ren mumbled something but I couldn’t understand him. Eventually, I had to take that thermometer out of his mouth, though.

  “So, about the dance...”

  I wrote his temperature on a notepad then sent the results to Mr. Norton.

  “Not doing it.”

  “I’ll pay you.”

  I shook my head. “Aren’t you worried? You’ll be bait. Your life will be at risk.”

  “I don’t want to be a vampire, Cherry.” That look on his face almost broke my heart. Was he playing me? I couldn’t tell. “I really don’t want to be a vampire. I like being me. I’m pretty awesome. Everything I have will be destroyed if I turn. Everything would be darkness and awful. I hate the dark.”

  He might be playing but there was no denying his words. It would be an awful future to face.

  “It’s unlikely you’ll turn anyway.”

  “Anyway, I trust you to protect me.”

  Whoa, he put a whole load of guilt into those words.

  “You do?” Was he an idiot?

  “You did when we were in the woods. You could’ve just let the vampires take me.”

  I couldn’t tell Ren that was because his father paid me but I didn’t want him reading too much into what I did either.

  “It’s part of our job as scholarship students here. I’d have done the same for any other student.”

  Ren grinned. “Come on, a bit of it is because you like me.”

  “I don’t like you. It’s a job.”

  “You like me a little bit. I know you do.”

  Why did my insides turn to mush when he looked at me like that? I didn’t want to like him. Hating Ren seemed the all-round best option.

  “I don’t hate you.” That’s as much as I’d say. “But you’re not exactly on my top ten list of people I like either.”

  “I bet I am. I’d be on there by default because you don’t have any other friends.”

  “And that’s exactly why I don’t like you.”

  I punched him on the arm and he winced. Then he looked away.

  “Say you’ll go to the dance with me. Just do it.”

  There was no doubting the sincerity when he said that. Deep down inside, Ren was scared as hell.

  Despite myself, the words came out of my mouth. “I’ll go.”

  “Yes!” Ren jumped out of bed. “Now I have to work out what I’ll wear. You know you’ll have to get your hair done and wear makeup and all that? It’s important to look the part.”

  I sighed. That was exactly what I didn’t want.

  Ren pulled a few things out of his packed wardrobe. “How many days until the dance? Three, right. I might have to get you to take some things to dry cleaner for me.”

  Before I could argue, he whelped. I ignored him, thinking that he was fooling. Then he fell to the floor, convulsing.

  I rushed and grabbed him. Electricity sparked between us, making the convulsions worse.

  Where had I put my phone? The desk.

  I rang Mr. Norton.

  “He’s not right... he’s on the floor. Foaming at the mouth. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Sounds like some kind of seizure. Put him in a coma position if you can.”

  “I can’t touch him.” I held the phone on my shoulder, staring at Ren.

  “This is no time to be coy.”

  “No, I literally can’t touch him. Every time I do, I get a shock. Zap. Volts through my body.”

  “And you only thought to tell me now.”

  “It didn’t seem important.”

  I threw a thick blanket over Ren and used that as a barrier to move him onto his side. That seemed to work better but Ren groaned at my clumsy attempts to move him.

  Mr. Norton sighed, loudly. “Is he still convulsing?”

  “It seems a little better. His legs aren’t doing that crab crawl thing anymore. Is this part of the turning?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. There is nothing about seizures in any of the research we’re done.”

  Ren had gone silent but he whimpered. Not knowing what to do, I tried to hold him through the blanket. I wasn’t good at this comforting thing but I hoped it’d help a little.

 
“He’s settling down a bit now. But this definitely means we can’t go through with the dance plan.”

  “Yes. Dance.” That seemed all that Ren could mutter.

  He trembled and his body had gone deathly cold. I could tell that much even though the blanket. I reported the symptoms to Mr. Norton.

  “That doesn’t sound right at all. Maybe it is just a human illness.”

  I looked at Ren, thinking about his fit. “It seems to me like his body is fighting the turning.”

  Chapter 29

  Britney did my makeup and hair for the dance. Ren had wanted to get a hairdresser to come to the school but I’d fought him over that. Him paying for me to get my hair done seemed way too creepy. Anyway, Britney offered and if anyone was going to fool with my hair, I’d rather she did it.

  The two of us got ready in her dorm room since she couldn’t come up to my floor.

  “I can’t believe you lied to me about this.” Polly huffed and glared as she walked past us. “I hate you, Cherry.”

  “I didn’t lie. I didn’t...” I couldn’t explain that I’d been forced into this.

  “Stay still.” Britney had my hair in some kind of contraption, turning it into ringlets. Every time I moved, it pulled like crazy.

  “You must be nearly finished.” It felt like hours since she’d started.

  “We still have to do your make up.”

  I sighed. It seemed like a lot of fussing.

  “If you’re going to be with Ren, you’ll get a lot of attention. You need to look fantastic.”

  My stomach clenched. I didn’t need that reminder.

  “He doesn’t even realize the sacrifice I’m making for him.” I sighed. “I worked so hard to stay on the radar at this school and now that’s all blown to pieces. Instead of people not knowing my name, I’ll be forever the girl who went to the dance with Ren Worthington. The girl so far beneath him—”

  Britney slapped my arm. “Don’t ever say that. He’s a human being, just like you. He’s not above you. Actually, I’m not so sure about the human being part for either of you, so maybe you’re more equal than you think. Rather than equal, I think fated.”

  I snorted, getting a nose full of that stuff she sprayed on my hair.

  The makeup seemed to take as long as my hair. I tried to nap as Britney worked but I kept picturing this night ending in a bloodbath.

  Tarragon and Seth had spent the day at the reception center making sure every single precaution was in place for tonight. Vampires shouldn’t be able to enter the reception room. It was a private venue and they didn’t have an invite. If they managed to somehow get an invite, the wards and spells on the place would stop them.

  The main worry was students slipping out to the terrace and this would be the most heavily chaperoned dance in the history of school dances. As well as the school staff and the venue security, specialist operations had been hired.

  Even with every precaution in place, I wasn’t sure we were capable of taking down a gang of determined vampires. We’d been lucky in the woods.

  When she finished, I looked in the mirror. I kept staring, the image in front of me didn’t relate to any concept I had of myself.

  “You look beautiful.” Britney grinned.

  She didn’t look too bad herself, and it’d taken her a fraction of the time to get ready. Her blond hair shimmered in the light and her skin glowed even more than usual. Lucas would go nuts when he saw her. I bet he wouldn’t even be able to speak.

  I kept staring in the mirror. “I look good but I don’t look like me. That’s a stranger. A scary stranger.” I ran one of the locks of my curled hair through my fingers. “I’m going to have to be so careful or I’ll end up with all my makeup smudged. And I’m not sure I can walk in these shoes, let alone fight in them.”

  “Kick off the shoes if you need to fight but hopefully, those vampires won’t get close enough to you and Ren for it to be an issue. Will you let him kiss you?”

  Yikes. If my chest had been tight with fear before, the thought of kissing almost killed me. I’d never kissed anyone before. Ever. Did I want my first kiss to be with Ren? In the middle of all the fighting?

  “That’s not what this dance is about. We’re there to fight not to kiss.”

  “You can always get a side benefit.” She winked.

  It would be impossible, whether I wanted it or not. Ren and I couldn’t touch. I don’t know why that made me feel so disappointed. I wasn’t going to this dance as Ren’s date. There’d be no romantic times even without that zap between us.

  Mr. Norton had made me go into insane detail about what happened. I couldn’t tell him much. Just that it was like an incredibly strong sensation of being electrocuted.

  “What does it mean?” I asked him.

  “I have no idea. I’ve never heard of anything like it. You don’t think it’s psychosomatic, do you? You do have issues with Ren.”

  “It happens even when I don’t know I’m touching him, so I don’t think so.”

  Mr. Norton smirked.

  “What?”

  “How often are you in situations where you’re touching but you don’t know it?”

  “Mr. Norton.” I rolled my eyes. “Are you five years old? Stop with the smirking. I mean, we were playing games on his bed and our legs accidentally touched. Nothing more.” Then I told him about using the electric charge to stop the vampire attack.

  “You have to tell me these details when they happen, Cherry. It could be critical.”

  “Well, since you don’t know what it means, it isn’t that critical, right? It’s probably just cheap carpet or something.”

  “I don’t think they have cheap carpet in the woods.”

  We’d kept on with training and I thought no more of it until Mr. Norton approached me just as I was about to land an awesome roundhouse kick to Seth’s side.

  “Did your powers only activate after you touched Ren?”

  I lost focus. Seth dodged and I went flying across the training room, face planting on the mat. Thanks, Mr. Norton.

  I rubbed my head as I sat up. “Yes.”

  I’d never made the connection but he was right. At least I could use that connection to protect us if I needed to at the dance.

  “Stop daydreaming about Ren.” Britney shook me. “You’ll have the real thing soon.”

  Gross. So gross.

  I slipped the cherry dress over my head and Britney zipped me up. I smoothed the fabric over my body. I couldn’t believe I’d wear something this revealing in public. My curves looked way curvier with everything looked pushed up and ready to go.

  Britney wore a light blue dress that shimmered as much as she did. Her dress didn’t reveal half as much as mine did but flowed over her body.

  “Ready?” she asked.

  I’d never be ready for this. Never in a million years. I’d look out of place and everyone would talk about me behind my back, wondering what Ren was doing with someone like me. I could never, ever be able to slip under the radar again.

  I slapped my thighs. Stake and knife in place. And I wore that pendant Tarragon had given me.

  “Yeah, I guess I am.”

  Chapter 30

  Like all the other girls, the two of us had to meet our dates at the bottom of the stairs in the lobby.

  When we got to the stairs, all the talking in the lobby stopped. The place went dead silent. I gulped and that gulp seemed to echo off the walls.

  “I can’t do this,” whispered to Britney.

  She hooked her arm through mine. “Of course you can. You’re brave and strong.”

  I stopped walking, though. Froze. Without even looking down, I knew everyone stared at me. I could run back to my room and wash off my makeup. I had a lot of things to do tonight. Things that didn’t involve being stared at.

  Then I glanced down and saw Ren staring up at me. He might never look at me again after tonight. He might never laugh with me and call me poor girl. He might never do a single normal thing
. Dead, abducted or turned to a vampire. His future had some lousy options. I couldn’t abandon him to any of those options.

  I clenched my jaw. “Let’s do it.”

  As I walked down the stairs, I ignored everything but putting one foot in front of the other. I could fall to my death in these shoes. The murmurs in the lobby started up, growing louder as I got nearer the bottom. The air seemed charged with hate. I wouldn’t look up. I wouldn’t show I cared. I’d make it through tonight and I’d save the day and we’d all live happily ever after.

  “Nervous about the vampires?” Britney whispered.

  “Nervous about everything.”

  While I took every step gingerly, Britney seemed to glide. Her shoes were much higher than mine and instead of the block heel I had, she wore spiky stilettos.

  When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Ren took my arm from Britney. Well, I assumed it was Ren. I didn’t look up, I just felt the brush of his sleeve against my skin. A solid layer of fabric between us but still my arm sparked with the charge.

  He slipped a garland of flowers around my neck. All the girls wore them. What they didn’t know was that those flowers contained a heap of vampire repelling spells. The boys got sprays too. Just one of the lines of protection. We weren’t taking any risks. Well, not too many.

  “You look beautiful,” Ren said.

  My heart jumped. I wanted to smile back at him but I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t for one minute let myself believe this was a normal date.

  “My looks don’t matter. I’m not sure I can fight in this dress.”

  “You could take it off to fight.”

  I snorted.

  “I’m not wearing these stupid flowers.” A shrill voice cut through the foyer. “They hid my diamonds.”

  Angela Blackstone. Great. She spun and waves of her perfume hit me, making me cough. She saw Ren and smiled then saw me and her expression turned to one of disgust. Ha, I wasn’t the one killing everyone with my perfume.

  “Ren, baby, are you really that desperate?”

  He snorted. “Obviously not, or you’d be my date.”

  Angela narrowed her eyes and gave a fake laugh. “If you’re going to hand out charity, at least buy the girl a proper ball gown.”