Twice Bitten

by Diana Greenbird

  Jenny shuddered like it was the worst thing in the world to be stuck inside that building listening to the sermon or whatever happened in there. Gospel singing? Bible reading? I didn’t actually know. Today would have been the first time I wasn’t in a church where the sole focus was on mourning and saying goodbye to the dead.

  ‘It’s not that bad, but if you don’t believe in God, I can see why some people would think it’s a waste of time,’ Gi said.

  ‘And you guys are…?’

  I wanted to know how they fit in. Did they believe in God, and the whole going to church deal to worship him? Because if so, why were they outside?

  ‘The AA Team,’ Robbie chuckled.

  I screwed my face up in confusion.

  ‘Not Alcoholics Anonymous,’ Gi rolled her eyes. ‘Anti-social Agonistics. Our parents make us come.’

  ‘Well our parents make us come,’ Robbie started, referring to him and Martha. ‘Gi’s here for a whole different reason.’ He waggled his eyebrows, as if the dragged-out teasing tone wasn’t enough.

  Gi blushed.

  Jenny tried to save her. ‘Gi’s mom left when her twin sisters were three. Maybelle thought that it might be good for her and her family to get back out into the community. Maybelle is kind of… invested in everyone’s wellbeing. Her dad became a total hermit since the divorce. But going to church helps him get out. And the twins have a lot of friends at the Sunday school.’

  ‘Oh, yeah, Gi’s intentions are all pure and magnanimous – just here to help out her dad,’ Robbie snorted.

  ‘Can you not be a dick for a second, Robbie?’ Jenny scalded him in a hushed whisper.

  ‘Gi has a crush on the priest’s daughter,’ Martha said, supplying the information that Robbie had been teasing at.

  Jenny hit Robbie in the chest.

  ‘What?! I didn’t say it!’

  The group paused for a moment, as if to see what I thought about the news. Martha particularly gave me a shrewd eye like she would boil my brain from her gaze alone if she didn’t like my answer. If they were scared this was the moment I’d rear some ugly homophobic head, I could put that to rest right now.

  ‘She hot?’ I asked.

  The group seemed to let out an inaudible sigh of relief, as if I’d dissolved the invisible tension with two words.

  ‘Immensely,’ Robbie said. At that, Jenny got up from his lap and joined Martha and Gi who were sat leaning up against a few smaller oak trees. I was still standing on the periphery.

  ‘What?’ Robbie said, not understanding what he’d done wrong. ‘Richard even considered coming back because of her. Her hotness is a well-known factor.’

  ‘Gi started the AA Team when she realised she was probably going to get smote by God for having impure thoughts about the priest’s daughter whilst listening to the word of God by her dad in the pews,’ Martha said, telling the story. ‘She’d hide in the graveyard whilst the sermon went on. Robbie was the first one to catch on when he snuck out to smoke-’

  ‘Hey!’ he said.

  ‘What, it’s not like your smoking’s a secret,’ Martha rolled her eyes. ‘And I saw them both out here one time when I overslept after waiting for Wicked! tickets to go on sale and drove myself in,’ Martha said. ‘Because apparently Gi had sworn him to secrecy so even though he was my friend first, he decided to keep his little hide out a secret from me.’

  Okay… a little resentment there from drama girl. At least she’d be able to use that for some Stanislavski acting.

  ‘We let our parents see us arrive and going to “sit at the back” then sneak out here until the last few minutes of the service and slip into our seats like we never left,’ Gi said.

  ‘And the priest doesn’t rat on you…?’ It was obvious he’d be able to see them from where he stood.

  ‘Gi persuaded Marion to allow it,’ Martha said. I guessed “Marion” was the hot priests’ daughter.

  ‘Is the feeling mutual?’ I asked. I figured I might as well give this whole teen-gossip-social thing a go. I’d literally found the anti-social outcasts to get social with, but still.

  Gi self-consciously adjusted her glasses. ‘Gosh no. Even if she was gay it’s not like I’d want to put her in that position of coming out when her dad’s still pretty old-school about the whole Adam and Eve fundamentals of a relationship. She’s home-schooled so she wouldn’t be able to get away for even a second if it went bad.’

  ‘I totally think Marion’s into her,’ Jenny said.

  ‘That’s because you’re a hopeless romantic,’ Martha said. ‘And it’s not like you’ve ever stepped foot in the church to say you know what’s going on.’

  Jenny rolled her eyes. ‘I’ll come in after the sermon finishes this time, then. Anyway, I haven’t needed to see for myself. Emerson agreed with me,’ Jenny said. Her tone might as well have been punctuated with her sticking her tongue out.

  ‘Who’s Emerson?’ I asked.

  ‘He’s the second Son,’ Gi said.

  ‘The second son of who?’

  Martha spluttered a laugh. ‘No, the second Son. Grayson and Emerson. It’s like the name everyone at school’s given them: they’re the two Sons, Charlotte’s the third, what with her surname being Bryson and all.’

  I remembered why the name Grayson had been familiar when I heard the other vampire say it now. Lawrence had been gossiping about the “Sons” and how great they were. At the thought of these guys not only knowing the vampires, but being close enough to them to have ordinary conversations about high school crushes, my stomach clenched with unease.

  ‘They transferred in at the beginning of the year, too,’ Gi said.

  ‘Grayson’s already dating Charlotte – another transfer – but Emerson’s single,’ Jenny supplied. ‘Martha’s completely smitten.’

  ‘I’m not,’ Martha insisted. ‘I’m too focused on my studies and rehearsals to get involved with anyone. Men are an unwanted and unneeded distraction in the face of a woman’s career.’

  Jenny and Gi rolled their eyes at her. Jenny mouthed to me, ‘she wants to bone him bad.’ I tried not to laugh.

  ‘Speaking of, have you guys seen him?’ Gi asked.

  ‘No. He wasn’t here when we came,’ Jenny said. ‘Has he text you?’

  Gi shook her head, not bothering to check her phone. I was stunned into silence. Maybe this “Emerson” wasn’t the vamp I’d spotted with Grayson… even if something told me not to doubt the truth so plainly put in my face.

  ‘Emerson usually comes to the service to help out with the Sunday school. It’s weird that he didn’t show today,’ Gi commented, clearly thinking that my silence was because I was out of the loop of what was going on and not because I was thinking about a vampire coming to church and talking to these guys like some normal kid.

  ‘The most recent of our AA Team,’ Robbie said. It wasn’t like he was displeased that Emerson had joined their group, but he wasn’t as infatuated as the girls seemed to be.

  ‘Brown shaggy hair, god-like looks,’ I rattled off a few more defining features of the vampire I’d spotted.

  ‘You’ve met Emerson, then?’ Robbie asked.

  ‘We’ve crossed paths,’ I shrugged. ‘And the black guy he hangs out with would be Grayson?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Martha said.

  And so Charlotte was dating the vampire, Grayson, and had transferred over with them? Is that what the vampires were up to. Were they cornering some normal human girl and following her as she transferred schools?

  ‘What’s Charlotte like?’

  ‘Gorgeous, instantly popular, kind of aloof,’ Gi answered.

  ‘That’s Gi’s way of saying “bitch”. She’s kind of a bitch,’ Martha said.

  ‘She joined the cheer squad her first day and had the footballers wrapped around her tiny pinkie finger by lunch,’ Jenny said. ‘Martha just hates her because she did the impossible, whilst we’re still bottom of the food chain.’

  I was starting to lean towards maybe Charlotte being
another vamp then, rather than a human. I’d still have to check it out, but either way – something was weird. Three vampires in one high school or two in a love triangle with a human. This was becoming a regular Young Adult novel.

  ‘But only Emerson shows up to church, not Grayson or Charlotte?’ I asked.

  It was a misguided belief that vampires couldn’t walk on consecrated grounds or suffered from the inability to touch holy water or crosses. Like, what happened if a Muslim vampire touched Christian holy water? That wasn’t his God – would it still burn? Like a lot of stuff out there, there was truth in some of the mythology, but a lot of it was outdated with the times.

  ‘Totally not their thing,’ Jenny said. ‘Not that it seems like Emerson’s thing. I dunno, I think he was raised, like, in a religious household or something and it all just stuck.’

  ‘Church is how me and him met, actually,’ Gi said. ‘I was on my way to church with the twins and he caught up with me. He said he was new to the town and starting school in the fall and wondered if I happened to know the best church to join around here.’

  ‘Not exactly the ideal member for the AA Team,’ Robbie said.

  ‘You’re just pissy because you’re not the only guy anymore,’ Jenny said, sticking out her tongue. ‘Frankly, we needed fresh blood.’

  Jenny really needed to choose a different phrase.

  ‘You don’t usually see kids our age into church, you know?’ Gi laughed. ‘But Emerson’s a pretty cool guy. Once he’s finished teaching Sunday school he meets us afterwards to hang.’

  ‘Cool’s one word. I think he’s heaven sent,’ Jenny said.

  ‘I’m right here,’ Robbie said. Like he hadn’t just talked about how hot another girl was a few moments before.

  ‘Lordy, Robbie. I don’t mean like that. I just mean cos God gifted him with a holy defence mechanism.’

  ‘What?’ I asked, clueless.

  ‘Jenny’s got it into her head that he’s got some superpower that makes him immune to normal high school BS,’ Gi said. ‘Like whatever makes normal guys go gaga for the Cheer crowd doesn’t work on him.’

  ‘I’m not insane! Robbie even said he believed me.’

  Martha and Gi looked over to their male friend for confirmation. He put his hands up. ‘All I said was that it was pretty weird that he looks like he does, and has that jock popular guy persona and instead of hanging out with the It crowd, chose to chill with us.’

  ‘That’s because he has an artist’s soul and can see a person’s true worth – beyond their superficial packaging. It has absolutely nothing to do with superpowers. It’s just true character,’ Martha said.

  I thought it was a little ironic that it was Martha who was commenting on someone’s inner soul considering she’d been the first one to judge me on how I looked and also happened to look like the most concerned with her outward appearance. With her cat eyeliner, rainbow (yes, rainbow) coloured eyeshadow and clothes that looked like they were compiled from items belonging to several different eras, you couldn’t exactly say she screamed: effortless.

  ‘I admit that him being immune to the Cheer crowd is rather impressive,’ Gi conceded, ‘but it’s no superpower. I’m with Martha. Some people just don’t buy into the popular crowd.’

  ‘Funny for you to say since you were one until a few years ago,’ Robbie muttered under his breath.

  ‘Shut up,’ Jenny mouthed to her boyfriend.

  ‘The Cheer crowd would be the popular kids?’ I asked.

  ‘Yeah. Along with their football team boyfriends. Homophobic, racist, elitist – the whole high school cliché,’ Martha said. ‘Gi used to be their co-queen bee with Emma. BFF’s for life. Or at least until she came out and her social status took a nosedive.’

  Emma bitch-queen head cheerleader was once best friends with Cabbage Patch girl Gi? I couldn’t imagine that. Her being a homophobic bitch and ditching her friend when she came out gay, that I could imagine.

  ‘Real delicate, Martha,’ Jenny scolded.

  ‘It’s fine. It is what it is,’ Gi said, but there was an underlying pain in her voice. Coming out in high school sucked ass. Having your best friend literally ditch you was quite possibly one of the worst outcomes.

  ‘They sound delightful,’ I said, sarcastically, commenting on the whole of the Cheer crowd, not just Emma.

  ‘They are when they want to be,’ Gi admitted. ‘That’s why half the school falls on their knees for them.’

  ‘But not you guys?’

  ‘The AA Team is a strictly no Cheer group,’ Robbie said. ‘We’re not really into cliques here. It’s like there’s the It crowd, then the normals, then us.’

  ‘We’re the rejects of what would be the typical cliques,’ Martha said, matter-of-factly. ‘Academic, sport and arts.’ Martha pointed at Jenny, Robbie and herself, respectively. ‘The only clique we didn’t have was the Cheer crowd.’

  ‘Until Gi,’ Jenny said. ‘But they really hate us now because we stole Emerson from them. The Sons were one hundred percent going to be Cheer crowd, but then Emerson met Gi and he decided he didn’t want to be part of the popular crowd, he’d prefer to hang out with us.’

  ‘Emerson even had a go at Emma when she dumped spaghetti all over my dress – accidentally,’ Gi said.

  Jenny interrupted, ‘like, it’s one thing for him to want to hang out with us, but he actively goes against them, you know?’

  No, not really. I didn’t know. High school, church, and sticking up for the underdogs. What game was this vamp playing?

  ‘So, new kid Emerson is your guy and Grayson and Charlotte are full on Cheer?’ I clarified.

  ‘Well, not full on,’ Jenny hedged. ‘The Sons are in a league of their own. Emerson might be AA Team, but he’s still part of them by default, you know? Cos he’s into sports and is so attractive. Like, no matter how much he chooses to hang out with us, everyone always forgets and stuff.’

  It was the natural vamp-glamour. Just like how it had worked on me, a vampire couldn’t remain a reject loner since everything about them was tailored to draw in humans and garner their respect, admiration and desire to be near them.

  ‘And even though Grayson is a footballer and total jock, he’s still wicked smart and only really hangs around the Cheer crowd because of Charlotte. If Emerson didn’t spend lunch with us, then they probably would have just created a separate clique all to themselves.’

  If Charlotte was human, then it seemed like I’d found my reason as to why there were vampires at this school, but if not – then I had no idea. It was weird Emerson split up from Grayson to hang out with the AA Team. Like what was that about?

  Missing school was no longer going to be an option. I had to fully immerse myself and figure out what the Sons were up to. They might appear to be following the Code, but I – one hundred percent – didn’t think they were just attending school for the benefits of a rounded education.

  4

  The AA Team seemed to know the exact time we had to get back inside, so it didn’t look like we’d skipped the entire service.

  We quietly slipped into the back of the seats, and stayed sat long enough so that when Gi’s dad and my foster parents came up to us from the front pews, it looked like we’d been there the entire time. We were awkwardly crammed into too small a space, since Jenny had decided to come inside with us – even though she’d considered it next to torture. I noticed Martha looking around, possibly to check whether Emerson had turned up or not.

  When the Sunday school kids all came out from the room upstairs, I caught a glimpse of the priest’s daughter that Gi was crushing on. Whilst I was straight myself, I could completely understand Gi’s infatuation. She was naturally blonde, with big doe eyes and rosy cheeks. Not unlike Jenny – then again, Jenny was a lot slenderer and SoCal looking than the rounder, paler Marion. Her smile was wide and all-consuming and looked like she literally radiated joy.

  Whilst Maybelle asked me whether I was wanting to go home or stay and hang
out with my friends, Jenny had already dragged Gi off to Marion (the priest’s daughter) to chat. She appeared to be taking the taunt that she’d never been to see Marion and Gi’s chemistry in person a little too to heart. Martha mumbled something to Robbie about his girlfriend being Cupid before they followed their friends. Clearly Jenny’s hopeless romanticism extended to playing matchmaker, too.

  I told Maybelle I was fine with just heading home alone, even if I was intrigued to see if Emerson ever turned up. I doubted it, since Gi had said she would have gotten a text from him by now if he wanted to hang. What had Emerson been up to that made him cancel his usual plans?

  ‘We can give you a ride, honey,’ Maybelle said.

  I could see that she was itching to get back to her friends and chat. Apparently, the socialisation after the service was as big as actually coming to church in general.

  ‘No, it’s fine. I’d like to have a walk about town anyway,’ I said. ‘I’ve not really had a chance to get acquainted.’

  ‘Okay. If you’re sure. Text me if you want to get picked up from anywhere. I won’t mind. Or if you’re not feeling well.’

  ‘May…’ Ken said, probably trying to warn his wife that she was being a little overbearing.

  ‘Are you sure you don’t want to stick around and talk to your friends?’

  ‘They’re busy,’ I said, not bothering to deny the “friends” comment. That would be more hassle than it was worth.

  After days of being stuck inside, I gladly welcomed the feel of the fresh air and the ability to see my “home” for the next year before I was able to be rid of the foster system for good.

  The small town was exactly like you might expect from Seattle, Washington. Family owned businesses, a few chain stores and a mall closer to the centre. The roads were old, and the sidewalk was cracked from the roots of trees bursting through. The fresh smell of fall was in the air and slick leaves covered the floor after another relentless downpour of rain.