It was an odd sound to hear at school. Laughter. But it wasn't malicious or fake or evil. It was the kind of laugh that was contagious and made you believe that maybe there was good in this world. It was the kind of laugh that was "too loud" and made your face not look "aesthetically pleasing", but it was the greatest sound in the world. It was this laugh that made Mike Makowski fall in love with Annie Bartlett.

She was such a good kid. Always happy. Always giddy. It was as if she enjoyed life, and that was all she needed. She was kind and gentle, and always had a smile on her face.

And oh god, she was covered in glitter. It was in her hair and on her face, and she would always wear something with sequins or gems or anything that would always fall off and you can always tell where she had been that day. Every single day she was shining, both inside and out.

The sad part was the world really was a cruel and dark place that had people who would take advantage of how kind and sweet she was. The fact that being "too nice" is a bad thing, because it is the evitable that people would take advantage of you proved what a dark world we live in. And Annie's friends were no exceptions.

"Hey Annie. Can you carry this?" "Hey Annie, do you mind taking this to the office?" "Did you finish the science homework, Annie?" "Can you hold this real quick?" "God it's cold, I'll be right back, ok? Can you watch this?"

The saddest part of all, Annie didn't know they were taking advantages of her. She thought she was just doing them favors, and if the places were switched, they would do the same thing. That's what friends do, right? Well yeah, friends. But, of course Mike saw everything. Saw the way they took advantage, and saw the way she had no idea.

The day that Annie fell in love with Mike, was also the day she started to change.

Her friends had told her to run out of her class as quickly as possible and meet them. She managed to keep her things balanced, until she saw them, when her pencil fell. She tried to pick it up, and her folder fell. She sighed and looked up at her friends, expecting them to be halfway down the hall. But they were in the exact same spot, waiting impatiently. Maybe they hadn't saw her? No… They were looking right at her. Odd. She shook her head of the thoughts and sat down, realizing it was best to just shove everything in her backpack. She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard someone lean down and reach for a notebook.

"Hey, do you need help?"

"Jesus. Hi. Uh… yeah thanks." She took the notebook from the helper's hand. "Oh, you're Mike, right? Yeah. Mike Makowski. We have history together." She smiled at him and put everything else away, then stood up, offering him a hand to help him up. He hesitated to grab it, almost like he was scared to touch her, but he grabbed and allowed her to pull him up.

"Uh yeah. You're Annie Bartlett… right?" He added the right to not appear as if he had been watching her since that time he had heard her.

"Hmm mmm." She nodded and smiled. Then looked back at her friends. "Right. Crap. I gotta go. I'll… uh… I'll see you in history I guess." She gave him a small wave, and she ran up to her friends with a string of apologies on her lips, a bunch of questions of why her friends didn't help her on her brain, and an odd feeling of love in her chest.

For the next few months, Annie's smile got smaller. Her laugh got quieter. And every word her friends said left a quizzical look on her face. Everyday it got worse and worse. But there was one good thing. She and Mike, weren't friends exactly. But whenever they were bored in class, they would look at one another and make visual jokes. If they were ever in a group they would be talking so quickly to one each other like they were clockwork, confusing the other members in their group.

It wasn't really a friendship. More like someone you wave at in the hall, or partner up with when none of your friends were in class. And someone who help out occasionally. Like one day. Annie was trying to make sense of what her friends meant, when she saw Mike being thrown against a locker. She wasn't usually brave, but she was kind of angry at the moment, and needed to vent out on something.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Get out of here girly. It's none of your business."

"It is my business." She stepped between the two much bigger men, and Mike. "Mike is my…" Her what? She wasn't gonna confess her love by saying crush, but… what were they? "...He's my… friend."

"Well then, tell your 'friend' to stay in his place." And with that they left. She whipped around and leaned down to help him.

"You ok?" She didn't know where to start, that's how un-ok he was. He was covered in bruises and scratches, and a lot of them weren't new.

"Yeah. I'm fine Annie. You didn't have to do that."

"Yes I did. Any moral person would." She started feeling his face, trying to figure out the damage. It was an odd sensation, to say the least, for Mike. Nobody had ever touched him so gently. It was either nothing or getting hit. "Come on, there's a first aid in the teacher's lodge. Don't worry, they all have classes right now. Nobody will be there." She stood up, and offered her hand to help him up.

Teacher lodges are nice. Like there were couches and a radio and fridges and it seemed weird having all these luxuries so close to all the students who would kill for one of these things.

Annie told Mike to sit and grabbed the kit and went back to him to fix him up.

"Are we even allowed in here?"

"Yeah. I am at least."
"Why?"

Annie shrugged her shoulders "Older people tend to like me. Not… not in a weird way. I don't know, I'm like the kid that isn't just some young whippersnapper. It's amazing the friendships you can make when you... " Her face turned to realization, a thing it had been doing a lot. "When you respect one another."

Mike saw the change in her face. How could he not when she was so close, concentrating on his wounds. He wanted to kiss her. Wanted her to forget her dumbass friends. Wanted her to be the person that made you realize that maybe not everything in the world is bad again. He wanted her happy again. This sort of pain and hurt did not belong on Annie Bartlett's face. It was wrong. Everything was wrong.

"There we go." She smiled at him. "That's the best I can do. Now the only thing to fix it is time. I guess I'll see you around." She stood up and walked out the door.

Then THE day hit. There was something very odd about Annie, she had a plain pink shirt on, and plain blue jeans. Her face and hair were wet, and looked like they had been scrubbed at pretty hard.

"Hey. Where's all the sequins and glitter?"

"Oh… I'm not really feeling like glitter today. My cat di…"

"Oh thank god. We didn't want to say anything before, but don't you think glitter is kinda childish. The only people who wear it are 4 year olds and strippers."

"Oh…" That was it. That's what made her break. That's what made it near impossible to make her smile. That's what made her despise her friends. "I have to go check up with one of the teachers." She stood up and choked back her tears, while heading for the gym. She just wanted to hide behind the bleachers.

"Hey, Annie… you ok?"
"Oh, hi Mike. Yeah, I'm good." God her smile was so obviously fake. "Just need to check something. I'll see you around." And she ran for the gym and hid. Mike wanted to follow her. He wanted to make her laugh. But he didn't know what to do or say, so he just stared at the gym's doors for much longer than seemed sane.

Annie had promised herself that she wouldn't cry at school, she didn't like crying. She kind of had a reputation of being happy, even though she wasn't anymore. She just didn't want anyone to worry about her. She was fine, she was totally fine.

"Is that why you're crying behind the bleachers?" She questioned herself.

"Shut up."

She didn't wear sparkles anymore. She didn't want to not wear them, but it was so obvious it annoyed her friends. And despite her anger and her newly found knowledge about how horrid they were, she still wanted them to be happy. It was an odd feeling of wanting to push them in front of a bus, and then pushing them out of the way.

"Do you want to see that new vampire movie?"

"I hear it's kind of lame, though."

"We can mock it then. Annie, you free Friday?"

Annie looked up from her homework and pulled her earbuds out "Wha…"

"Are you free Friday night? We're thinking of watching that new vampire movie."

"Oh… uh… I'll have to ask."

"You have a phone don't you."

"R-right." She grabbed her phone and asked her parents, and to her dismay, they allowed her to go. "Yeah, I can go."

"Sweet. It's at 7:20."

"Yeah ok." She looked at her clock, and noticing that school was gonna end in a few minutes, she started packing her stuff away, wanting nothing but the bell to be in her way of escape from this hellish place.

The movie was… something. Annie liked the part where they sparkled, even though that was something really stupid for vampires, it meant that maybe glitter will be ok.

That monday, Annie and her friends, bumped into Mike, in different clothes than usual, and a couple kids in similar like clothing.

"Hey Annie." Mike smiled at her "Just the girl I wanted to see."

"Hey… Mike? What's new with you?"

"Have you heard of Twilight? Well, we're vampires now. And we were wondering if you want to join our clan." The vamps behind him them got a look of 'We? The only one wondering that was you.' But decided to not say anything aloud. "You can wear glitter."

One of her friends rolled their eyes "In case you really haven't noticed, she hasn't been wearing glitter as of late."

'Not by my choice.' Annie screamed in her head. God, why couldn't she voice any of her thoughts.

"Well… we're going to the new Hot Topic after school, if you want to join us. It's your choice."

Her choice? She never really had a chance to choose for herself. Before Mike left, she started crying. 'Crap. Fuck. No Stop Annie. People can see. Your friends can see. Mike can see. Stop it stop it stop it.'

"Uh… Annie? You alright?" Her friends looked at her with raised eyebrows.

Mike, with some hesitation, wrapped his arms around her. "Shh sh sh sh sh. It's alright." He started stroking her hair.

She muffled into his shoulder.

"What was that?"

"Being a vampire sounds nice." She turned around to face her friends. "I'm sorry, but… I can't do this anymore. I feel more trapped with you guys then safe." And with that she grabbed ahold of Mike's hand and walked away.

She was bouncing with excitement. "Vampir, vampir, vampir. Look look look. They have rainbow glitter in there." She ran into the arts store, and ran out in just a few minutes, with a small paper bag. "They also had gold and black." She looked at the three vials in her hand. And was smiling like she used to.

Vlad grabbed one of the vials, and just ran.

"I hate you." Annie said giggling, she shoved the other vials in Vampir's hand and chased Vlad laughing and then pounced on him. "Give it back, you asshole." She grabbed the vial, "Aw, I'm being mean." and then she dumped about half of it on his head. "There you go."

"Hey Vam… What's up?" Bloodrayne leaned an arm on him "I know you like her, but do you have to be so stalkery about it?"

"I'm not... " He sighed "She's happy again. That's all I've ever wanted from her."