Vlad. Vlad Masters, billionaire and secret ghost halfa known as Plasmius, couldn't believe he was doing this. The only reason why he was doing what he was about to do was because his company wanted him to do it. Plus he was getting paid a lot of money. He stood outside the classroom door with his hand on the doorknob. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He slowly let it out, opened his eyes, and turned the doorknob. He walked into the now quiet classroom and shut the door behind him. He heard a few whispers among the high schoolers, mostly from girls. He went over to the teacher's desk that was neatly cleared off and set his brief case on it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a neat stack of papers lying on the desk. He picked them up and saw that there was a Post-It note on them that said 'This month's assignments'. He grimaced behind the large stack of papers. He had almost forgotten that he was going to be teaching all the classes for a group of sixteen-year-old tenth-graders for a whole month…not. He really did not want any more reminders of what he was going to be doing. And somehow he had to do it without exposing his other half, his ghost half.
He started to hear more whispering and decided that he should probably start the class. He went to the front of the class and loudly cleared his throat. That caught the attention of the class and they stared at him as he put his hands behind his back.
"My name is Mr. Masters. Some of you may know me as Vlad Masters. I honestly don't care if you call me Mr. Vlad or Mr. Masters." He said.
He went over to the desk and picked up the large stack of papers.
"As you know, I will be your teacher for all of your classes for the whole month of December. So, I guess I will tell you how your classes are going to be."
He suddenly heard the loudest pop of a bubble-gum bubble he had ever heard in his life. He looked up from his papers and straight at a girl who was chewing gum and was one of the only people in the room that had gum. He raised an eyebrow and gave her a look that said 'let's see what happens if you do that again'. The girl sank down in her seat and chewed her gum more lightly and quietly. Vlad smiled and looked back down at his papers.
"You will be with this same group of people you are with now for every class." He continued. "Your schedules have been changed so that this can happen with no problems. And I assure you that I have had experience in every class you students are having this month. So no trying to make things your own class. There will be times for talking, but otherwise, when I am talking, you listen."
He looked up from his papers to see how many people were paying attention. Surprisingly, all of them were paying attention.
"I'm going to take roll and learn your names. Make sure you speak up." Vlad said as he leaned against a table in the front of the room.
He flipped through the papers until he found a paper that had names written on it. He started from the left.
"Darien?"
"Here!"
Vlad looked up to see a boy with shaggy black hair and a pierced ear waving his hand in the first row to his left.
"Cole?"
"Here!"
"Rebecca?"
"Here!"
This repeated for another minute. He looked over the paper again and said the names in his head.
'Darien, Cole, Rebecca, Troy, Bella, Maria, Jack, Oliver, Rosalie, Serena, Arabella, Arella, Robyn, Garrett, Mat, and Brian.'
There were eight girls and eight boys, ironically.
"Alright," Vlad sighed. "It says we will be going to the library today. So quietly head to the library."
He liked books and reading, so he didn't think this would be a problem. The annoying kids would just pick out a book, check it out, and they would be done. Seemed easy enough.
He was wrong. Most of the kids weren't even looking at books, just standing around talking to each other. And it seemed like every time he would get close to a group of students, they would all of a sudden get quiet. Then once he walked away, they would start giggling and talking again. But he ignored it and looked for a few books. After he saw that his new class was talking and not doing anything, he decided it was time to go back to the classroom. He rounded up the class and headed back to the room.
When he was walking he noticed a girl walking next to him. She didn't say anything or even look at him. She had her nose in a book. Out of the corner of his eyes he looked at the cover of her book. It was a vampire book that he knew was very popular. It was the book Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. Of course he couldn't remember the girl's name. He noticed though, that she had long blonde hair that was black underneath, had small black streaks in it, and was a mixture of tight curls and straightness with her mixture of long and short bangs hanging over her face, and she was somewhat tall. She wore a pair of long, but tight jeans that had rips and small holes in various places, black high-heel boots, a black halter top with red lace trimming that showed her stomach area, which showed the red rose bellybutton ring she had, and a black leather jacket that looked like a biker chick jacket. And from the looks of it, she even looked like she would own a motorcycle. He could even smell her beautiful perfume. It smelled like roses, lavender, lilacs, and other good smelling things. The girl seemed to notice that someone was looking at her and without moving her head; she moved her eyes to Vlad. Vlad immediately moved his head away from her and looked straight ahead. They walked in silence until they got inside the classroom.
Once they were inside the room, a few other girls came up to the one and started talking to her. Vlad knew it had something to do with him. He looked at the schedule that had been made for him and saw that science was first. He let out a quiet but heavy sigh and looked for a teacher's science book. He soon found it and went to the front of the class. For some odd reason he felt like it had gotten hotter in the room and decided to take his suit jacket off. Once he took it off he rolled the sleeves of his white button up shirt up to his elbows, which exposed some of the well-toned muscles he had on his fore arms. He put the jacket over a chair at his new desk.
"It's time for science I guess. So what do you usually do to read the pages you're supposed to read?" Vlad said in a flat voice.
His expression said that he was bored.
"Sometimes we read as a class." A boy who Vlad had to look at the role sheet to remember his name, said.
Vlad saw that his name was Oliver.
"Alright, I guess we will do that, then. I will start."
He flipped to the page they were supposed to be on and started to read the first paragraph, which was about weather.
After he was done reading, looked at the role sheet and randomly picked out someone to read next. He picked a girl named Rosalie Val.
"Rosalie?" he said looking around the room for a girl to look up and say 'what'.
"That's me." A raspy yet smooth voice said.
Vlad looked over to his right to see the same girl he had been walking next to waving her fingers at him. He ever so slightly smiled.
"Read the next paragraph, please." He said.
Rosalie stared at him for a second then started reading. Vlad took the chance to look her over again. This time he could see her face better. She had black eyeliner around her blue eyes, her skin was slightly pale and perfect with no blemishes or pimples, and her lips were as red as a rose. He also noticed the red-ribbon chocker that had a red rose charm on it and another necklace that had a crescent moon and a small star connected to it. He then noticed that it was quiet and that Rosalie was looking at him with a raised eyebrow. He cleared his throat and looked back down at the book.
"Yes, well, let's have Troy read the next one." He said as he tried not to blush.
Troy started to read. But Vlad couldn't help but look back over at Rosalie. There was something about her that caught his attention. Whether it was her clothes, her looks, or just something else, he didn't know. Suddenly Rosalie was looking back at him too and their eyes met and neither of them looked away.
Rosalie didn't know what was up with this guy. Was he checking her out? Was there something on her face? She didn't know. But it was bothering her, but at the same time it wasn't. The reason being is that there was something about this Vlad Masters. Something that she liked but at the same time she didn't like. It was confusing her. Did she like him or not? She did think he was rather attractive. Actually she thought he was extremely attractive. From the looks of it, he had good muscles, too. He didn't seem like the teaching type, though. She didn't know what he seemed like. Just something besides a teacher. His expression looked like he was bored and slightly annoyed. She couldn't take her eyes away from his. His piercing blue eyes were hypnotizing and beautiful. Suddenly she felt someone nudge her in her side, which broke her concentration on her teacher's eyes. She looked at the culprit of the nudge, which was one of her best friends, Robyn.
Robyn gave her a strange look and mouthed the words 'they're staring at you and him'.
Rosalie looked around and saw that people were staring at her, including Mr. Masters. Then he looked back down at his papers and loudly cleared his throat. Rosalie blushed and sank into her seat. This continued for the remainder of science, except without the long pauses and everyone staring at her.
Vlad felt embarrassed for staring at that poor girl and causing a scene. He didn't know what was wrong with him. Although, he did notice that it wasn't as hard as he thought it would be to teach a class of sixteen-year-old tenth grade high schoolers. He really wasn't having any problems. Except for the occasional staring contests with Rosalie. He noticed something in her eyes, though. He could have sworn he saw a hint or a flash of red in her blue eyes. He also saw longing, sadness, and something else he couldn't identify. He figured it out that this girl was a lot different than the other kids in her class, possibly the whole school.
He had told the students that it was time for history, so he let them go to their lockers and get whatever they needed. When all of them were gone, he turned around and gripped the edges of the table he had been leaning against. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He needed to get a grip on himself. He needed to calm down and relax. This girl was not going to be a distraction. For one; she was a high school girl, and two; he needed to teach this class with no distractions. He hadn't noticed that he had closed his eyes and suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Um…are you ok, Mr. Vlad?" a familiar voice said.
He opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder to see Rosalie Val standing there with a worried look on her face. Vlad pried his fingers off of the table and turned around, smoothing his shirt out. He noticed that she was the only one in the room besides him.
"Uh, yes. I'm fine. D-do you have your book already?" he said.
"Yes, I do. I'm kind of faster than everyone else."
Vlad saw a small but noticeable smile appear on her face and it disappeared as fast as it had come.
"Look, I'm sorry about—" she cut him off.
"It's ok. A lot of guys do that."
"Well, it sort of embarrassed me."
Vlad blushed a little and Rosalie tried to hold back a chuckle.
"Look, can I stay after school tomorrow? I can't stay today because I'm busy." She asked.
"Sure. Why?"
"Um…I uh…because I need help on science."
Vlad noticed that she stuttered and had broke eye contact with him.
"Yes, that's fine." Vlad said.
Rosalie smiled and went to her seat.
Rosalie could have sworn she saw a hint or a flash of red in Vlad's eyes when he was gripping the table. And why did she ask if she could stay after school tomorrow? She really didn't need any help in science or any subject for that matter. For some reason though, she wanted to be around this guy. No, this man. She wanted to be around this man. She grinned and glanced over at Vlad. She decided that in her mind she would call him Vlad. She didn't want to call him Mr. Vlad or Mr. Masters, because it would sound weird to her. Then before she knew it, class was starting. And this time, Vlad decided to let the class read on their own.
He went over to his desk, grabbed one of his books, and propped his feet up on the desk. But he couldn't help looking over his book and glancing at Rosalie every now and then. In his head, was yelling at himself right now. He should not be this interested in a sixteen-year-old high school girl. He had the urge to ask her if she had powers or something. He knew there was some kind of secret this girl was keeping from everyone, including her family and friends. He started to make a list of clues in his head.
'Hints or flashes of red in her eyes, faster than everyone.'
That was all he could think of right at the moment. He knew he would figure some other clues out later. His big opportunity would be tomorrow after school. Since they would be in private he would ask her some questions. But at the same time, how was he going to ask her his questions. She would probably think he was some kind of crazy nut-case freak. But, even he thought that at times. She would probably ask him some questions too. What was he getting himself into? He knew that tomorrow, Rosalie Val would know his secret. She would know that he was Vlad Plasmius, a half ghost. Suddenly Rosalie looked up from her book and straight at him, as if on cue. And the look she had on her face was a horrified shocked look. As if she had been reading his mind and just heard him say who he was. She looked at him for a while then slowly went back to reading her history book.
'What is she?' Vlad thought to himself.
There was no question; she was not a normal human.