Chapter 1: Background
I am not allowed to say my name, or then They would find out. And that would be a mistake. My story starts as many stories do. With "Once upon a time" if you wish, but that's beyond the point. My name used to be Marianna Smith. I was the prettiest girl that was a sophomore, probably the whole school, and half of the schoolboys were falling head-over-heels for me. But now I know that they were all boring, bland, and half of the time didn't even know their names. Some followed me around like sick puppies, and others just looked over a distance. I had every teenage girl's dream. I was blissfully happy.
Until the new boy came to town. He claimed his name was James Brown and his eyes sparkled like the stars on a clear night. He had a strong jaw that straightened out his thin face. His tan skin was stretched over high cheekbones that opened to clear blue eyes that were as depthless as space. Above his eyes were thin light-brown eyebrows that were nearly covered by wavy dirty-blonde hair that he carelessly flipped to the side. When he spoke, his voice was like velvet that stretched on forever and you could see shining white teeth when he briefly smiled after he entered the room and took a seat near the back door. He was breathtakingly beautiful.
The whole time he never even glanced in my direction, and that made me mad. Nobody ignored Marianna Smith! In that moment I decided that I would do everything I could to make him love me, no matter how long it took. I know how foolish that is now.
That night I brushed my curly white-blonde hair and applied extra lipstick. Soon I was on the phone that my mom just let me get in my room with Betsy, my best friend.
"Hey Bets. Come with me to welcome the new kid" I sounded excited, as I was.
"Ummm. . ." she replied "I don't know if that's a great idea. . ." Why did she always have to be so sensible?
"B. Listen to me," I snapped "just come on, it will be fun" I added in a sweeter tone. "Please?"
"Fine" she sighed "Meet you at the tree in five".
She sounded unwilling, but a yes was a yes, so I went with it. "See you in five!" The line clicked, telling me it was dead.
I continued fussing over my already-perfect hair and checking in the mirror for smudges in my smudge-free make up before I deftly stepped out of the window and ran to the old oak tree that was our meeting spot. It was a gnarled, ugly tree that had knobs and dead leaves all over it. But some things never changed, and so neither did our meeting spot.
Once she arrived, we walked quietly over to the Old Miller House that we knew must be James', rung the doorbell and waited.
After about a minute the door opened and James looked at us. "Hello, ladies" he said smoothly as if expecting us. This surprised me because I couldn't see a peek hole in the door that would have told him who it was.
I pulled my hair behind my ear and spoke confidently, "We just came to welcome you to the neighborhood" my tone was cheery, "Welcome to Ellis Falls!"
"Thank you. Would you girls like to come in?" he asked.
"Y-your parents. What about your parents?" Betsy stammered, sending me a look that clearly said NO!
"They. . . They have been taken care of" James looked uncomfortable for a moment, then his face cleared, "I was just making hot chocolate. I would be honored to have you come in".
Betsy sent me another alarmed look that I promptly ignored. "Sure. We wouldn't want to turn down a guest, right, Betsy?" She looked at me with her piercing brown-gold eyes then looked at James and agreed that we should enter.
I then stepped into the Old Miller House for the first time to see that it was huge. I mean HUGE, huge. It had two long winding stairways with marble steps and gold banisters. At the end of the stairs there was a small table covered in a white tablecloth that was under a vase that held bright red daisies. A long, dark corridor split the stairways and led down the hall to what looked like millions of rooms. A large, expensive-looking chandelier hung from the high ceiling. This kind of place was what you saw in the movies, and then there was always a butler offering up caviar or champagne.
Betsy loudly shut the wooden door. She looked as startled as I felt. Who knew that there was a giant mansion looking like this just down the street? And why was it never occupied before? We both stood there, dumbstruck.
"Marianna, Betsy?" he said in his sweet, sweet voice.
I was pleased that he knew my name and we followed him into the house. The rest of what we saw of the building was just as spectacularly and unexpectedly grand. We reached the kitchen after what seemed like hours of walking. He made us delicious hot cocoa as we talked. Well, really, I talked with Betsy chirping in here and there. I told all of the stories that made me sound loveable, like how I took ballet when I was younger, how I used to ride horses. . .
The whole time James sat there watching with the untouched beverage in his hand.
I don't remember ever leaving his house, but the next thing I knew, I was in my room listening to my obnoxious alarm sound and see the dark clouds outside give off an eerie, ominous gray light. Quickly I dressed in rain boots and jeans before I ran out the door.
The day couldn't pass by fast enough. I impatiently daydreamed through all my classes until English, my only class with James. I was nervous about how he would respond when he saw me in this room full of people. Would he be friendly like last night? Or just ignore me? It seemed like forever until the bell rang and he still hadn't walked in the classroom. So I took out a sheet of blank paper and started to doodle, worried where James could be.
Five minutes later the door opened and I looked hopefully. It was him! He took the empty seat next to me and shrugged, saying that he couldn't find anything in this new school.
Then he turned his head to me and smiled brilliantly. My mind was lost in his beauty and I forgot about basic functions like breathing. I had a sudden and silly urge to stroke his soft hair. He raised one eyebrow in question to my change of face. I looked away, my face changing color from purple (from not breathing) to bright red.
The rest of the class passed by much too quickly for my liking. I forbid myself from staring at him in fear of looking like a fool, but I caught myself gazing at him in wonder a few times subconsciously. When the bell rang, he said goodbye and walked out of the room.
The next few days followed similarly with waiting three dreadfully long periods before English, which always passed by way too quickly, then floating through the rest of the day with new memories of what he said.
On Friday I had a stroke of luck. Mr. Albertson, my English teacher, assigned a partner project. Usually at projects I would groan and try to get out of doing any work, but I was trying to be sophisticated for James, so I didn't. Plus, we were told to work with our desk partners, and that would leave me with James (YES!). I was thrilled to work him, and so, it seemed, was he. As we were walking out to lunch, he linked his arm with mine and smiled brightly.
"Howdy, partner!" he said uncharacteristically and in a very false-sounding Texas accent.
For a moment I didn't know how to respond, so I just stood here, astounded with his sudden change of attitude, but he jut dragged me along to my lunch table and sat down next to me, smiling goofily all the while. I sat there, shocked, until he reached down to grab my lunch out of my pink backpack.
I was about to thank him when Betsy came walking up with April, Patti, and Erica on her shoulders. They all looked at me with equally staggered and impressed glances that flick quickly from me to the strange and beautiful new boy who was seated next to me. James pretended not to notice and started to introduce himself "Hello, I'm Ja-".
"James. Trust me, we know. I must say, you do live up to your grand descriptions from Marianna. She is always talking about. . ."
"Ha-ha!" I nearly screamed I spoke so loudly, "Patti, you're so funny!" in my head I was trying to say 'SHUT UP, SHUT UP, and SHUT UP!' "Always going on about ridiculous things! Ha!" I flashed my eyes at her so that she would get the message and tried to breathe normally so that my face wouldn't become any redder than I already was.
For a moment I watched Patti's face change with her emotions. First anger, then confusion, then last understanding. "Oh. . ." I heard her say under her breath. She winked at me when she thought James wasn't looking.
Erica didn't even skip a beat, jumping into a long story about her day as soon as she sensed the awkwardness that could potentially occur if there was no talking going on. She was smooth, engaging conversation as if there were no secret girl signals going on next to her. ". . . and then, you won't believe it, but she actually" slowly she chewed her sandwich in between pauses and silently checked that every girl was on good terms, "I mean, like, legitimately, swallowed the note! In front of the whole class! Crazy, right?" Gosh, I loved her. She was always looking out for me. I silently mouthed 'thank you' when everyone was laughing. She made no sign of reply, but I knew that she had seen me.
"So," said April, chewing her bubble gum,"James. You gotta girlfriend? Handsome guy like you can really have a pick of anyone you desire". She flipped her long red hair and batted her large emerald eyes.
James didn't even blink. "The only thing I will say is that I've got my eyes on someone. . ." at this he turned his head, towards me! Was he talking about me? I felt the blood rush to my face so I let my hair fall in front of my eyes.
Flabbergasted and mesmerized by his gaze that was still trained on me, I tried to reply. "Err . . . um . . . me? . . . I . . . well. . ." I sounded like an idiot! Why couldn't I form words when I needed them most?
RRRRIIIINNNNNNGGGGG!
The phrase 'Saved by the bell' echoed in my head. I tried not to look grateful for the excellent timing that saved me from extreme embarrassment of me saying that I liked him back.
As he was leaving, he walked passed me and I thought I heard him say "I'm talking about you. You know that, right?" Then he turned away and never looked back. His words bounced around in my head. I'm talking about you. I'm talking about you. I'm talking about you.
"Hello? Hello? Earth to Marianna! Hey!" Betsy snapped in front of my face and broke my trance. I turned my eyes to her face as I swung my back pack over my shoulder and nodded. "You like him, don't you" she continued in a hushed tone, "I mean, you really like him, right?"
My face blushed a bright beetroot red and I nodded almost incomprehensively.
"Hmmm. . ." She said, then sighed and walked off to class.
The weekend passed uneventfully with no sightings of James (not like I was looking . . . okay, yea I was). I thought a lot about him and how he said that he liked me. I was thrilled, but also not knowing what that would mean for me. So I just tried to think about my immense joy.
On Monday it seemed to take forever to get to fourth period, and I found myself counting down the minutes before I would see him. When the bell rang I all but ran to get to English class. He was there when I arrived and greeted me with a warm smile. We talked softly throughout the whole period, hardly working at all on the project. When we left for lunch he asked me if I would come over to his house after school. I was ecstatic.
I really liked James, and during History, I found myself doodling pictures of his pale eyes and perfectly curved lips. For all I learned that day, I could have been at the bottom of the ocean. James was mesmerizing, sweet, beautiful, and he liked me. I couldn't find anything better. Also, he was inhumanly beautiful.
After school I told my mom I would be over at Betsy's studying. She let me go. "Have fun!" Those were the last words I ever heard from my mother. Then I walked over to the Old Miller House.
I rang the doorbell and he opened the doorbell almost immediately. He led me over to the couch and we both sat down. The television showed a football game turned down very quietly. James and I talked, studied, and watched the TV for about a half an hour. Suddenly he looked deep into my eyes, as if searching for something. He sat there, frozen, like that for only a millisecond before he leaned down and kissed me.
It was short but passionate. I leaned closer to him when he was pulling away so that it would last longer. Then he pulled back. The sweet boy who I was now sure that I loved had transformed. His clear blue eyes were now a murky, muddy green color and his face was longer.
Then he opened his mouth to reveal fangs. I didn't have a chance to scream. The last moment of my life, I suppose, was unexpectedly seeing him so close to me, then I passed out.
Hey, y'all! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it. I'm not quite sure where to go from here, so I probably won't post a new chapter unless I get a few reviews. Suggestions are much needed, but all reviews are appreciated, positive and negative. Just please don't be too mean. Thanks!