It was just another repeat of what had become of Darren Shan's schedule. Wake up, get ready, don't wake anybody up while doing so, go to school, avoid the humans' attention, go back to the hotel, stake out (if he had the energy), homework, shower, go to bed, repeat. Day after day this continued, and it was not apart of the plan. Mr. Crepsley had enjoyed making fun of him for it, but Harkat only took part of parts of the jokes. For that, Darren was grateful. He absolutely hated school, and was pretty sure every other human did too.

This endless cycle repeated until one Monday afternoon. It was after school and for once, Darren didn't have any homework to do. Majority of the time he would have to read an entire textbook, figure out how to solve the mystery of how the Stonehenge came to be, and study for a thousand tests the next day. However, when Darren opened up his new planner to keep track of all the mountains he had to conquer, he found it completely empty in today's date. It was such a shock that he had to backtrack to all of his classes to be sure.

Since he found it to be true and he had some leisure time, he went to the library. It had been years since he'd been to one and he wanted to see what had happened to some of his favorite characters since he left. He was especially excited to see if the final update in a web-comic had been posted. Knowing the author, it could be quite a while. The school library was filled to the brim with books, computers, even having a section where you could do homework in peace and quiet with tutors available after school on Wednesdays.

Unfortunately, the library was closed today due to the librarian being sick with the 'flu.'

He made sure to make say a prayer that she was in Paradise, Heaven, where ever is good for her as he passed the closed doors.

Darren opened the doors to the back entrance of the school and turned the corner to start his way to the hotel. It usually only took him about fifteen minutes to get to the hotel from the school on a good day, but that was when no traffic was around. It was still pretty early before the traffic let up a bit. His internal watch wasn't quite ready yet, so he had bought an external one that you would generally wear on your wrist.

The green numbers blared on the screen and he softly cursed in response. He still had another half hour before he could actually go home without being run down by the metal death-traps known as cars. Honestly, he was somewhat glad he walked by the way people were driving these days. It not only saved energy and all that environment stuff, but it made him healthier, kept him in shape, was more peaceful, even sometimes had it's fun with what you saw on the go.

"Let m-me go, Trevor!" A desperate shout cut through his thoughts sharply.

The young half-vampire quickly ran back to find a small kid being pinned to the wall by the school bully. He was pretty nerdy alright. Taped glasses, weird hair, pale as a vampire, even had a bow tie to add to the show. He looked frightened and had his scrawny arms trying to slap Trevor away from him.

Trevor, however, was an entirely differently story. He was very muscular and had a nasty reputation for doing things like to this to anybody who wasn't him and couldn't punish him. His clothes were cut a bit and clearly thrown together by the lack of trying that went into his daily life schedule. He had a bit of a lisp, but if you were caught snickering at it you could wound up being snickered at the way your face looked the next day. He was the basic bully. Failing every class, was very tough, was the bad boy some girls fell for, stole lunch money, the works.

While nerd boy was having trouble, Trevor was having the time of his life. His hands squeezed tightly around his victim's neck and chuckled. Nerdy was beginning to choke and gagged at Trevor's closing hands.

Before things could get much farther, Darren stepped into the picture. "Let him go, Trevor."

Trevor glanced over at Darren, but only sneered in response. "Get, lost loser," Trevor sneered. "I'm dealing with this POS here first. Then I can get to you."

Darren rolled his eyes and stepped closer. "I said let him go."

Trevor tightened his grip on the kid, causing more gags and Darren's patience to run thinner. "Oh, I'm sorry Princess, did you want me to let him go? I think that's a song from you come from. Maybe you could go back to that winter fairy tale and leave us alone."

Darren narrowed his eyes and smirked a bit. Despite his age, he was still a child and could probably get away with this.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say something?" Darren retorted. He was saying each 's' as smoothly as he could. "Maybe you could help me out on what I was saying. Can you please help me? Maybe we could work on your s's while we're at it."

Trevor dropped the kid and took a few steps closer to Darren. "Are you making fun of me?"

Darren tilted his body to watch the boy grab his things and quickly scramble out of the area to get home. His smirk widened and he chuckled a bit in victory. "Nope. Just stating that you need some work. Now, I have to get ho-"

THUNK.

Light flashed behind his eyes as he was knocked to the ground. Darren shook his head to clear anything that was distracting him and he opened his eyes to see Trevor on top of him, pinning him pretty damn well to the ground. "I'm gonna make you a deal, Shan." He leaned closer to Darren's face and grinned viciously. "I think it isn't fair that the geek got away. So I'm going to be generous enough to make you a deal." Darren continued to glare at him and said nothing. He knew that whatever he would've said wouldn't be the right thing and would earn him a black eye. "If you go back and get that kid," the meat sack continued, "I won't pound you into a pulp. Fair?"

Darren watched him in confusion and slowly shook his head. "In what way does that classify as fair? Either way, one of us will get beaten up."

Trevor's laugh vibrated through Darren's body as he chuckled deeply. "That's the point, Princess! Now, what's it going to be?"

Darren didn't even have to consider it. He brought his head up in an instant and it hit Trevor dead on in the forehead. He reeled off in pain and Darren got up. Trevor recovered and struggled to his feet. He held his forehead and growled.

It escalated from there. Darren sniffed and turned to go, but he heard Trevor sprint up to him from behind. Before he could properly block his hit, the vampire felt the pain spread out over his face quickly. He heard a snap before the blood drip down and he cursed loudly. He didn't even have time to recover before another fist hit him in the ribs. And another, and another.

Darren didn't have a chance to try and restrain himself before he punched Trevor in the ribs as hard as he could. Just like with his nose, he heard a few snaps coming from Trevor's ribcage. Trevor fell down like a leaf and began to gasp in pain and for air. Darren immediately felt bad and kneeled down next to him to try and apologize, but before he could properly do anything, he felt a hand placed firmly on his shoulder.

He glanced up to see the AP standing above him with a scowl carved into her face. "I think you two need to come and see me in my office now."

The blood still continued to drip onto his shirt as he continued his way to the hotel. The blood had at least slowed down to a few drops every now and then, but it still hurt like a bitch. It was nearing seven o'clock. Two hours after he was suppose to be home at the latest. He at least had a towel for his nose and was bandaged with white gauze, but other than that and some ice earlier, the school wasn't permitted to do anything.

On the bright side at least the traffic had died down enough for him to get to the hotel in less than ten minutes. He had even beat his record on it.

As he entered the lobby, his memories flickered to the AP's office.

Darren and Trevor were marched into the office had to wait for almost an hour listening to phone calls and heated arguments on the phone. At one point, Trevor's mom came in and started screaming at Darren. It reminded him of when Steve was in the hospital and his mom screamed at him and blamed him for what happened. In reality, this situation was his fault and Darren did feel bad for accidentally using his vampire strength.

When he was finally called into the office, it was nearing six o'clock. Mr. Crepsley was not going to be happy about this at all. He was supposed to be there at five every day otherwise something was very wrong.

"Do you realize what you did? You probably cost that boy a few month's worth of pain! Don't you realize that getting into fights like this will end up on your record? His family could sue! You don't understand the trouble you have just caused for yourself. Try getting into college now, I bet you're going to have to go to a very cheap school that's open to the public. I know I wouldn't take a hooligan into my university!" The AP scolded him. This went on for forty-five minutes before he was finally released into the nurse's room to get what he needed and shooed away.

Because Mr. Crepsley was gone by the time that they tried to call him, and Harkat wasn't allowed to answer the phone, they had given him a purple slip to take home and have signed. When Darren looked at it after he had left the building, he realized it was a detention slip. He'd have to explain what detention even was to his master, and then he'd have to get him to sign it.

With a groan, Darren pushed the card into the door. The 'Do Not Disturb' signs were up, like they always were. By this time, he was sure that they had left already for stakeouts. He would probably just order in again, maybe room service, for dinner.

When he opened the door, however, he was surprised to see Harkat sitting on the bed. Darren was sure that he would have been alone when he came into the room. Harkat looked up when Darren walked into the room and sprang up. "Darren! You're back!" He sprinted at him and knocked him to the floor, very effectively knocking the breath out of him. "I thought you were dead!"

Darren groaned and pushed him off. His nose was started to throb and hurt more. He rubbed his fingers on his nose gently, making sure that it didn't do any more damage. Harkat's words brought him back into focus of the world again and he watched him with a confused expression. "Of course, I'm not dead, Harkat." He was about to ask why he wouldn't be, but that was a very stupid question to ask. "I was just held after school."

Harkat studied him and took his hand off his face and gaped at it. "Darren, what happened? It looks like...you were in a fight." It was directly head on, but it was with the wrong people Harkat was thinking.

His nose was starting to bruise and swell. The bandage made it seem even more obvious he was hurt and it stung his pride to know that a human had done this to him. Blood had made it's mark on his skin, no matter how many times he wiped it off, and on his shirt. He knew that he would have to wash it himself if he didn't want Mr. Crepsley to know about it.

Darren sighed and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Yeah, I did. But not with the vampaneze or the vampets," he added quickly to the look on his friend's face. "I got in a fight with a guy at school. He was bullying a kid so I had to help and well… you can guess the rest."

He gave me a look before sighing and walking over to the fridge. He pulled out some ice and a soda to give to Darren. "Mr. Crepsley isn't going to like this." Harkat said solemnly as he handed Darren the ice for his beaten nose.

Darren groaned and laid back down on the bed. "I know he isn't. Where is the old bat anyway?"

Harkat looked around nervously before finding a very interesting spot on the carpet to look at. "Are you..sure you want to know?"

Darren scrunched his eyebrows and tilted his head. "Yeah, why?"

Harkat seemed to be very uncomfortable. "He went looking for you. I think he...went to the school and everything."

Darren groaned and rubbed his temples. He really hated the old bat sometimes, but he had his reasons. After all, Darren was a Prince. They were suppose to be protected and when Darren didn't show up…

"That's just great. Fantastic." He groaned and closed his eyes. After a minute, Harkat snickered and Darren peaked open an eye to see him laughing. "What?"

"You sound funny."

Darren threw a pillow at Harkat and turned over, trying to ignore his laughing gestures at him. "Wake me up when Mr. Crepsley gets back, okay?"

After a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, Harkat tried to wake Darren. "Darren, Mr. Crepsley is back. He's...pretty angry. He said he wanted to see you." After no response, Harkat narrowed his eyes and shook his shoulders. "Darren?"

Darren groaned and rolled over. "Hmm?" He blinked his eyes awake, trying to get them to act properly. "Is'e back already?" He slurred and rubbed an eye. "I'll be there."

He glanced at the clock and winced at how late it was. The clock read it was around two in the morning, but to Darren it might as well have been five minutes after he fell asleep. He felt and heard the bones creak as he stretched and got out of his bed. It was way too early to deal with his master now, but Darren padded over to the room anyway.

Mr. Crepsley was standing there with his arms crossed. He glared at Darren as he made his way into the room sleepily. After a minute of watching Darren almost fall asleep standing up, he uncrossed his arms and hissed. "Do you have any idea how long I looked for you?"

Darren shook his head. "No. I got here around seven."

A sigh escaped the older vampire's lips. "Harkat woke me up after you did not come home. Where were you?"

Darren shrugged. "At school. They held me back to talk to me and I couldn't get away."

"What happened to your nose?"

Darren put his hand up to his nose and probed it. Judging by the pain it produced, it must've looked really bad. "I uh...ran into a pole."

Mr. Crepsley nodded in understanding and turned to Harkat. "Ah, a pole. My assistant, the idiot, ran into a pole. That makes sense." He turned to Darren and his face darkened. "I am not a fool, Darren. Where were you?"

Darren groaned softly and ran a hand through his hair. "I was at school."

"If you were at school why is your face the way it is?"

Darren narrowed his eyes and shook his head slowly. "It's too early for this. I was at school!" He stressed his words. "I wasn't looking where I was going and I walked into it, okay?"

"There was blood on his shirt when...he got home," Harkat piped up from where he was sitting on the bed. "He said he got into a fight."

Darren glared at him for selling him out and didn't notice Mr. Crepsley's features become more intense.

The vampire turned back to his assistant and he sighed impatiently. "Darren, I insist you tell me what happened."

"A guy was picking on a kid, so I tried to help but got into a fight with him instead. He punched me really hard in the nose and I got him in the ribs, okay?" He snapped loudly.

Mr. Crepsley's features softened a bit and he nodded. "May I see your nose, please?"

Darren nodded and took off the bandage. It wasn't as swollen as before, but it was still pretty bruised. The bone was already starting to shift back into place, which added to the pain, but made it so the break wasn't so bad.

The fingers skimmed the surface of his nose delicately. Darren watched his master's face as he was being examined. It was usually vacant of any emotion at all, not so much as a smile crossed his face unless something very good had happened. This was far from good, but he didn't expect a slight frown to appear on his face. "It is not broken anymore at least. But the human did break it."

Darren sighed and looked down. "Sorry."

"For what? That a human had broken your nose?"

He nodded, ashamed of himself.

"Darren, humans have killed vampires before. Just because they are weaker does not mean that they cannot hurt us." Mr. Crepsley replaced the bandage. "I was almost killed by some humans many times in the past."

Darren perked up at that. It wasn't often that his master would openly talk about his past, and this time was very helpful to boost his confidence in himself and restore his cherry mood. "Really?"

"Aye, it was not a good memory though." He stopped speaking for a minute, clearly lost in his memories before looking up at Darren and nodded. "You will be fine, just be more careful in those fights. You are a Prince, it is time you act like one."

Darren rolled his eyes. "Figure you would say something like that."

The two of them shared a moment of silent happiness. It was very, very rare that they shared that, but Darren (and secretly Mr. Crepsley too), would enjoy it immensely.

Before Darren could fully enjoy the moment, a purple object entered his view. He turned to look at it and realized that it was only the slip from his bag. "Where did you get that?" He inquired the two. "I was going to show it to you later when you got back."

"I was looking at it," Harkat spoke up. "I was trying to understand what it was saying."

"Oh, it's just a detention slip. You have to sign it," he added to Mr. Crepsley. "I have it...tomorrow, apparently."

"What is detention?" Mr. Crepsley asked as he took the note and gazed over it.

"It's like the school's punishment system. You have to do something wrong, like get into a fight, to get them. You stay after school for a few hours and then you go home." He explained as he snatched the note back. "Do you want me to read it?"

Mr. Crepsley nodded and sat down in a chair nearby. "Go ahead."

"To the parents and or guardians of Darren Horston," He read the automatic note aloud. "Your child has received after school detention. They have been caught getting in fights after school and will receive two hours for this action. He paused for a moment while he deciphered the next few lines."There's a handwritten part, hold on.

"Please understand that this is something you need to talk with your child about. It is not acceptable behavior and will not be taken so lightly in the future. School fighting is never okay and considering Darren's background, I will let him off with only a few hours. But if this happens again, I will suspend him personally or expel him."

Mr. Crepsley had crossed his legs and was watching him carefully. "What do you think, Darren? Would this be safe for you to go to?"

He shrugged. "I guess so, it's just school. I mean it's not like I'll be out in the open."

"Could you skip it and say you went to it, or that we don't want you to go?" Harkat asked. "If we can do that, I think...it would be a better idea."

"Nope. You'll get in more trouble if that happens. Trust me, I've seen it before to other kids."

"Well, if you do get in another fight, I think you should be expelled so we can finally get you out of that ridiculous school." Mr. Crepsley smirked then frowned as he remembered what part of the note said. "I cannot believe that they think I must have a talk with you about how fighting is bad. I am the one who showed you how to fight."

Darren gave him a knowing look. "I think you only taught me the basics."

Mr. Crepsley gave him an unamused look and rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean." He grabbed the slip from Darren and signed it before giving it back to him. "Be careful, okay? Take a knife if something goes wrong."

Darren had to bite his tongue before he laughed at the idea of taking a knife to detention. That would not end well for him at all and he knew it. "Okay, Mr. Crepsley. Are you and Harkat going to stake out?"

The two shared a look and shrugged. "We might go and see what is going on around us, but nothing too drastic tonight."

Darren nodded and shoved the note in his bag for school. "Alright. Well, I'm going to go get more sleep is there anything you need before I go, Mr. Crepsley?"

"I require that you do not attract any more attention to yourself, Darren. We do not know what is out there." The vampire warned him in a cautious voice. "I do not want to find my assistant with a stake of wood in his chest, do you understand me?"

Darren resisted the urge to roll his eyes and promised to be safer in the future. The other two gave him a goodnight and climbed out the window, promising to return soon. It didn't matter to Darren, he was perfectly fine being on his own. Especially when he was going to sleep through it anyway. He went back into his room and only had to lay down for a few seconds before he fell deep into sleep.

The next morning he woke up thirty minutes before he was suppose to leave for school. He didn't have any problems with being rushed, so he remained in bed for a few more minutes, enjoying the peace. That was, until he remembered that he had detention today. With a scowl, he got out of bed. The peace was long gone with the memories that occurred last night.

He repeated the daily cycle he had gone through for the past few weeks. He wasn't very hungry though, so he got to skip that step. It was not a good experience to watch rich humans eat their cheap hotel food anyway.

When he reached the school, everybody stopped what they were doing and turned to watch him walk up the courtyard. People began snickering under their breath and talk about the fight that occurred yesterday. Because of his fantastic hearing, he was able to hear each one of the comments. Mainly it all was just how nobody expected a loser like him to be able to do something like that. He did catch that he broke three of his ribs and that he was going to be in bandages for a very long time, thanks to him.

Other than the weird looks, the teachings glaring at him when they thought he wasn't looking, people talking about him, even some trying to get a picture of him (though for some weird reason he wasn't showing up very clearly), it went by pretty fast. It just proved to him that the vampire gods hated him and were punishing him for hurting a human. It was all leading up to his detention and he was not happy about it at all.

He begged the clock to slow down the last five minutes of the day. Of course, it didn't, and he winced at the bell sounding out throughout the school. With a depressed sigh, he got out of the assigned seat and tried to avoid the glare the teacher was giving him.

It was room across the school, and if he weren't there by the time it started he would receive another detention for his reward. The detention started five minutes after school so he had some time to kill before he absolutely had to be there for his sentence. They actually called it "serving detention" or you had to "serve."

School seemed more and more like jail everyday.

When he arrived, three other people were in the classroom already. They all glared at him as he walked by. Trevor was in the corner with one of them and the other was up near the front. He scowled at Darren and if looks could kill, Darren wouldn't have to worry about the Vampaneze Lord anymore. His clothes bulged and Darren guessed that he was wrapped up tight in bandages. He was surprised that Trevor was even here and didn't want to start anymore trouble. And as a result, Darren chose the middle of the side on the opposite side of the room at them. It was pretty close to the window at least, so that was a plus.

On the board was a bunch of rules for them. A teacher would be here in a few minutes to make sure that they didn't kill each other or set fire to the school while nobody was looking again. Some of them were obvious, no talking, no physical contact, be polite, stay in your seat, raise your hand if you needed something, the simple things. But as he went on, he began to be confused. You had to sit forward and with both feet on the ground. The girls weren't even allowed to cross their legs if they wanted to. They even had a list of punishments that complied to each rule.

The main one was just dictionary writes. If you did any of the things on the board you'd most likely get the define words the teacher picks out. A few were more...interesting. Some were that you got another detention, some being that you had to go help the janitor out, one even said you had to go and take inventory at the library. He supposed the last one was correct, the last time he saw the librarian was when she had some small scratches on her cheek.

The teacher walked in then and sat down. She was pretty fat and was dressed very formally with a black top with a vest over that and black slacks with some high heeled shoes. She scowled at all of them and snapped not to talk and went over all the rules. Darren really didn't care for majority of this at all. All he wanted to do was get this over with, then go home. He was starting to crave blood too. He might go with Mr. Crepsley and Harkat tonight to get some.

About halfway into it, Darren felt a wet thing hit the back of his neck. He reached up and picked it off and sighed. He knew who fired this. He turned to glare at Trevor and dropped the spit ball onto the floor. The teacher looked up at that time and snapped at him to face forward and stop distracting the others in there.

Another ten minutes passed and Darren was thinking about what all was going on. He knew for a fact that somebody had put him up to this, but who would do something as sending him to school? If they were trying to play a prank on him, then they succeeded. But other than that, he had no idea why somebody would do that. Maybe they were going to start a school shooting and he would have to fight them alone. He knew for a fact that Harkat and Mr. Crepsely would still be asleep when that happened so they wouldn't be able to g-

Another spit ball hit his neck. Darren tried to ignore it, tried to focus on not getting killed by foolish actions. Tried not to kill foolish people. But after the third one hit his neck, he turned and threw a pen that was on the ground at Trevor. The teacher looked up from her book and made the connection of what happened. "Horston!"

Darren deflated and groaned. He only had to peek at the board for the expected punishment. And of course, the winner was dictionary writing. But at least it was only fifty words. He could handle that.

The half vampire turned the knob slowly into the hotel room with his weaker hand. He usually used one for writing, one for everything else the other hand did. But his writing hand was beyond help. In fact, he was very tempted to ask Mr. Crepsley if he could chop it off. He was sure that a vampire somewhere had his hand cut off for worse reasons, but they didn't have to write the first fifty pages in the dictionary in the course of an hour.

Somebody had thought it would be a fun joke to replace 'pages' with 'words' to make the poor fool think it wouldn't be too bad. The teacher corrected him and gave him a dictionary and told him that he would have to finish at lunch for his 'unexcusable behavior.'

He opened the door and tried his best not to fall face forward onto the ground. He threw his bag at the wall and groaned when it missed it's usual spot. He took off his shoes and looked over at Mr. Crepsley and Harkat, who were eating away at the leftovers from last night.

"Hello, Darren. How was school?" Harkat asked through the meatballs from his spaghetti he got.

"Oh, Hell is fine. Thanks for asking." Darren stole the bread-stick as he passed by and sloped down on the chair that was behind them.

"What happened in detention?" The vampire asked politely finishing his food before asking him.

"Trevor, the guy from yesterday, blew spit balls at me. Then when I reacted, I got in trouble and had to copy the first fifty pages of the English dictionary." He nodded at the expressions. "Yeah, I know. Totally sucks. I didn't even finish yet."

"I take it that's a lot of work?" Mr. Crepsely watched his assistant. They'd have to get blood for him tonight or sometime soon.

"Yeah. It wasn't fun. Can we chop off my hand and just say that I was facing some vampaneze?" Darren held up the arm limply. "I don't think I can take more of this."

The orange haired vampire scowled at him and shook his head. "That is not honest, Darren."

The assistant rolled his eyes and sighed. "I will personally write down the definition of sarcasm for you tomorrow. Dry humor doesn't run in your blood, does it?"

"No, but I think that you could use a swift kick later."

Darren groaned and closed his eyes. Detention sucks and he never wanted to go back. If anything, he would've liked to face the horrible monster that put him up to this stupid school. They could bleed out for all he cared. Just no more detention.