Sarah was assembling her birthday present for Jenny. It was Thursday, and she had to make it at the last minute. She sighed. Why did all her presents have to be last minute, late, or even non-existent? She loved her friends and she knew how good it feels to give someone a present they like, so she wasn't greedy, selfish or forgetful. Lazy. Yes, that was it. Lazy, too lazy to buy her best-friend's present early. What kind of friend was she? She'd spent most of her time imagining Jenny's reaction when she gave her Darren, but that was just a silly daydream. Darren wasn't real. She looked at the presents she'd got Jenny, maybe they weren't that bad. A packet of fabric markers, a blue t-shirt saying "I love Darren", a pair of fake feather eyelashes with "from Kurda" taped on the back, a no-entry sign, a notebook and a badge with a picture of Darren and his name written above in bloody letters.
Each gift was from a vampire or a group of vampires, some of them even explained why. For example, Gavner had apparently given Jenny the notebook so she could draw Larten (he hates it ever since 1906), and Kurda had co-gifted it so she could draw maps. The T-shirt was from absolutely everyone, including some people from the Hunger games, (Sarah got bored). The badge was from Sarah and Larten. The "no-entry" sign was from Vanez… Basically, everyone had joined in. Then there was the birthday card. A sweet little fic with different handwriting for each person, Larten had bad spelling and handwriting (she always imagined him as learning to read), Vancha just scribbled angrily, Gavner had old-fashioned French handwriting, and Kurda was neat… Darren was "average" and had the pleasure of using Sarah's fake normal handwriting she used for anything anonymous.
She put the gifts in a cone and stuck a piece of paper saying "YOU HAVE WON THE MEGA SARAH-LOTTERY" on the side. She pursed her lips thoughtfully and added, "Prizes inside package", in small writing beneath it, already anticipating the sarcastic remark. Only one thing missing, the-impossible-to-get-yet-would-be-ultra-cool-and-awesome-if-it-was-possible present, only it was impossible to get. Darren. Why did he have to go and stick himself in a book instead of being real? Oh, right. It was impossible for him to make a choice. But come on! What sort of friend wouldn't want to get their best (or bestest) friend the boy of her dreams for her birthday?
She turned the cone over and yawned. Maybe it was time to go to sleep. Tomorrow was an exciting day…
The next day, Sarah had a rather bad day at school, but she was too preoccupied with Jenny's birthday to care. The minute her lessons ended, she rushed off to her home and waited anxiously for Jenny's driver to pick her up. This evening was going to be flawless. The driver came and drove Sarah over to the restaurant where Jenny was celebrating her birthday. It was kind of dark and orangey, something Sarah wasn't used to, but she had to get to Jenny and give her her present. Jenny was already waiting for her.
"OPEN THIS!" Sarah thrusted the present into Jenny's open arms. Hoping she might take the less that subtle message and open it.
To make a long story short: Jenny opened it.
"CHARNA'S GUTS! THAT IS THE BEST PRESENT I HAVE EVER BEEN GIVEN!" Jenny hugged Sarah "And I've had a LOT of presents!"
Sarah grinned, then realised that Jenny had forgotten to look in the pointy part of the cone, "You forgot your badge!" she exclaimed.
Jenny looked confused for a split second, and then rushed off to search her cone. "CHARNA'S GUTS! SARAH! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!" she cried, pulling out the badge.
"Why do we have to go to restaurants?" asked Larten, "I can cook perfectly good stew, and so can you!"
"Because eating stew in crypts is boring and dirty!" retorted Darren.
"I regret blooding you, Darren. You will never learn the ways of the vampires," grumbled Larten.
"What else are you going to do with the money?" Darren was, of course, talking about the money Larten had earned in the Cirque.
"I do not know, but certainly not go to restaurants with such loud music!" answered Larten.
"Calm down. You agreed to come here!"
"Yes, but that was before I realised how loud this place was."
"Well, we're here and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"I could just leave." said Larten.
Darren regretted what he said instantly. "I'm really, really sorry! Can we, please, please, please stay?"
Larten grinned, pleased he won the argument. "Yes, if you insist."
A waitress walked over to them, and said something Darren couldn't understand.
"Excuse me, we speak... uh... English?" tried Darren.
"No, let me," smiled Larten, "I can speak a little Turkish and I believe that is what she is speaking." He ordered the meal quickly and politely, though he was speaking with a slight accent.
An awkward silence fell and Darren soon got bored. "I'm off to check out what the rest of the restaurant in like!" he yelled, already walking away, "Maybe there's something interesting happening!"
"Aye, you do that, I will wait." muttered Larten, rather annoyed.
Darren ran off to find something interesting. It was getting quite late, and he could see a long table, with two girls talking obsessively about a guy named Darren...
What a coincidence, he thought, I wonder who that guy is? Lucky bastard. I bet he isn't a half-vampire. Curiosity got the better of him and he decided to investigate.
"Hello," he said, as casually as possible. Which isn't very easy when you're a strange half-vampire talking to two normal girls.
"Hi!" mumbled one of the girls, "I'm Jenny!"
Sarah nudged her, "He might be some creepy stalker!"
Darren felt offended, "I just came because I noticed the long table, oh, and you were talking about a guy called Darren... It happens to be my name."
Sarah gasped and whispered something to Jenny.
"NO! I..." exclaimed Jenny, Sarah whispered something else, "Ok... I guess... FINE!" grumbled Jenny.
"What are you talking about?" asked Darren.
Jenny went red, "I... Do you have a mentor called Larten Crepsley who always wears a red cape and never uses any contractions?"
Now it was Darren's turn to gasp. "How did you... I..."
Sarah's eyes widened, "You're kidding, right? You don't really have a mentor like that? You aren't a half vampire are you?"
Jenny giggled nervously, "Of course not... he's just kidding..."
Darren just stared. How could they know all this? It was almost as if they thought it was fiction, or like he was a hero or something.
Sarah pulled herself together and tried to act cynical, "Could we meet Larten please? We won't believe you unless we meet him."
Jenny couldn't help laughing despite the situation, "Don't encourage her, Darren, she has a crush on him!"
That last sentence broke the spell. "A CRUSH? On him? But he's like... like... two hundred or something!"
"Can we see him? PLEASE?" asked Sarah, a guilty smile making its way across her face.
Darren nodded, still stitched up from laughing and lead them both towards his table.
"This is Larten," said Darren, simply, pointing at him, "Larten, this is Jenny and..." He stopped, realizing he had forgotten to ask her for her name.
Sarah blushed, "My... uh... name is... it's ... uh... Sarah." She grinned, "Pleased to meet you," she decided to try some French, "Enchanté."
Larten smiled, "You speak French? I once lived there, it is a very nice pla-"
"I know! Alicia, right? She sounds like an amazing person and-" Sarah remembered that the end of Palace of the Damned had been less than promising for Alicia, "Sorry..."
Larten glared at her, "How do you know this? Who told you?"
"Told me what?"
"You do not know? But how did you know about Alicia?"
"I just... um... I... uh... It's a long story..."
Jenny was still silent, scrutinizing Larten, noticing every detail about him, his cape... his scar... It was him. Definitely him.
Darren remembered why he had spoken to them. "So, who were you talking about, you know, at the table?"
"Isn't it obvious?" said Sarah, "We were talking about you!"
Darren's first though was, I can't believe I called myself a lucky bastard... but then he realized that it was much, much graver than that. "How the hell did you know me?"
"Can we skip that bit? It's kind of tiring. And it's a long story..." groaned Jenny.
"CAN WE PLAY TRUTH OR DARE?" interrupted Sarah. She had an idea...
"Sure..." said Darren, "but it won't be much fun with just three people..."
"DON'T CARE!" yelled Sarah. She pulled out a bottle and span it. It pointed at Darren. Sarah's plan was working perfectly.
"Truth or dare? Please bare in mind that since we already know pretty much everything about you, our 'truth' questions will be VERY private" she said.
Darren hesitated, "I think... uh... I'll take dare."
"Perfect. Kiss Jenny. On the mouth."
"What? But... I..." Darren spluttered, going about as red as a tomato.
"C'mon! It won't hurt..." pleaded Sarah, "One little kiss!"
Jenny bit her lip, "You don't have to!"
Darren actually secretly liked Jenny, but like all thirteen year olds, he didn't want them to know, so he chose to look brave and said, "It's a dare, and I will do it, because I'm not scared."
And saying that, he bent down and kissed Jenny softly on her lips.