"Welcome to Vampire Academy," said the cerulean-eyed teen in front of me. He was very skinny and pale with long yellow hair pulled into a pony tail. He wore glasses – big and thick ones – that almost hid his dark eye bags. "I will be your guardian so I expect full cooperation."

"C-Can you please explain what I'm doing here at the least?" I tried to smile, despite the swirling confusion welling inside me. Honestly, I am so lost. I wake up one day to be in a pearl-white uniform and have some kind of tight bracelet around my ankle. Now, I'm being told by some stranger they're my guardian and that I should do whatever the hell they say. Seriously?

The boy sighs and leans against the black-and-white walls. "Doesn't the name of the school explain enough? You're here because you're a vampire – a danger to the society. Which means that you need to be monitored and taught thoroughly how to control your lust for blood."

"Wait a minute, how do you know I'm a vampire?" I've never told anyone about that, except for Mom and Dad. That's why I take night classes and never go out in the morning. It was to make sure I don't end up getting scorched.

The boy snorts. "Well, we had our suspicions about you. But everything was confirmed last night."

Last night? What the hell did he mean by that?

I try to recall what had happened, but my head throbbed whenever I tried to remember. Did I. . .?

"You know, it was stupid of you to let yourself grow hungry. But because of that, we finally confirmed you were a vampire."

"Well, it's not like I wanted to be a vampire! I wasn't always a vampire, you know; I was once human!"

The boy raises his blonde eyebrows. If he was surprised, I wouldn't know. His expression still stayed placid. I hate people like him – can't they show even the slightest bit of emotion?

I cleared my throat. "Sorry, it's a sensitive subject."

The boy merely shrugged and turned, opening the door. "Come with me, I'll give you a tour."

I blinked, but complied. If I was staying here, I might as well get to know the place. It would be embarrassing and very inconvenient to get lost.

"Hey, can you tell me why I have a bracelet?" I asked, shaking my left foot a little. The thing didn't budge one bit. "It's uncomfortable."

"Get used to it. It's there to know where you are and to knock you unconscious if you ever try to escape."

"Well, that sucks."

"Your opinion doesn't matter."

"I have my rights!"

"That's for humans."

Enraged, I grab his shoulder and pull him to face me. He looks down at me with the same blank expression and speaks in the same monotone voice, "What do you want?"

"Even though I'm not human," I growl, "it doesn't mean I don't have feelings."

The boy smiles coolly and grabs my tie, pulling it up so my face is only centimeters away from his. "I don't care," he says. He spoke with so much venom I couldn't help but flinch. He may not be a vampire – trust me, I could sense my kind – but he was scary as hell.

Slowly, he lets go of me and continues on walking. I follow quietly. I think that I don't like this guy.

"This is the boys' dorm," he says as if nothing happened. "You will live here until you graduate and you will get along with your kind. Curfew hours are at 10 o'clock—"

"But vampires don't sleep."

"It doesn't matter if you can sleep or not, you will stay in your dorms after that time."

I pout, but decide not to complain. I don't want to piss him off.

We exit the area through a door and into a wide room with an arched roof. There were different oil pastel paintings that hung at the walls, mostly about angels and women, and wooden benches here and there. A huge marble fountain was at the center with a cherub spitting out clear water.

"This is where you will hang out with your classmates during recess and lunch. You are forbidden to go elsewhere."

"Wait, we have a lunch? You'll actually provide—"

"From donors. That's where you'll get your lunch. Honestly, I think it's stupid for us to even feed you, but the headmaster is a big softie. 'They deserve a little humane treatment,' he says. Vampires aren't humans!"

I wanted to punch him. Like, really hard. So hard he'll fly all the way to America.

But despite the fact he was skinny, he was still just a few inches taller than me. And he was pretty strong when he pulled my tie. So, in short, it was a losing battle.

"Anyways, that's the girls' dorm." He points to the door right across us. "Go in there and make babies if you want, we're still going to educate you."

"What happens to the baby?"

The boy stops and turns his head slowly to me, a pleasant smile on his face. "They'll have to take care of it. We're not responsible for it until it grows up to be a kid. That's when we'll start educating it."

I couldn't suppress my anger anymore. I brought my fist up to his face, but he quickly blocked it. He didn't flinch. He just stared at me with a venomous glare.

"You do not try to hit your guardian, vampire."

"I don't care anymore! You're a huge asshole! Even if that baby is not human, it's still a child—it did nothing to hurt or offend you in any way!"

I try to punch him again, but he grabs my arm and twists it so hard I heard my bones dislocate. I let out a scream and he just swipes his foot under my legs. I fall back.

He hovered over me and brings out a bottle, pinning me down with his foot on my chest. "I could pour this holy water into your eye and blind you," he says. "Do you want that? You've already lost one eye; do you want to lose another?"

"Bastard! Let go of me, monster!"

He grins. "Call me what you want, but it won't matter. We all know the real monster is you."

"Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar!"

Hot tears stream down my eye as I struggle under his foot. He was so strong, I was nothing compared to him. Vampires were supposed to be strong, but I wasn't. The only time my vampire strength came was when I've starved myself for far too long.

"Len, don't be so harsh on the guy. He's just a little boy."

Our attention is diverted to a young girl with teal-dyed twin tails. They were so long they reached the floor. She wore the same uniform as Len: a black and white suit with a star arm band.

"I'm surprised you actually pity him after the incident with your brother," spat the boy. His name was Len?

"Don't talk about him," hissed the girl. "It's like bringing up your parents!"

Len's face, for once, contorted into something hideous: anger. He kicked me to the side and stomped to the teal-haired girl, pointing a slim finger onto her chest. "If you don't like it," he growled softly, "don't do it."

Before their attention returns to me, I quickly get up and run back into the boys' dorm. I don't look back, I just keep running. I'm too scared to see if they were following. But I highly doubt it; vampires don't have a weight so they make no sound at all when moving, lest it's fast. It's a complicated matter.

"Come back here!"

Crap. They're following me. How did they know? Just how?

Suddenly, I felt a pain in my ankle. My leg gives out and I fall down on the cold floor. Weakly, I glance at my left foot. Then realization struck.

The bracelet. Of course, how could have I forgotten about that? It was supposed to knock me out whenever I tried to escape.

"Dammit. . .," I muttered, trying to get to my feet. But it was all in vain; my legs – my whole body – felt like jelly. I couldn't move, no matter how hard I tried.

I felt something hard kick me in the stomach, so hard I collide with the wall.

"You insolent brat," Len growled, planting his shoe on my chest. "I told you I expected your full cooperation. And what do you do? You run off. You're such an idiot."

He lifts me by the shirt, glaring coolly at me. It was getting hard to keep my eyes open. My head would go bob to one side a little too much and I'd go back into reality. But now, I can hardly feel anything.

"Go die," he spat.

And that's when everything went black.