Ethan dreamt about a strange looking place. There was a Greek looking temple in a field of flowers and a bunch of girls Greek dresses with flowers in their hair roaming around, smiling and laughing, playing with each other. The vision panned up to a girl with dirty blonde hair, brown eyes and fair skin. The same girl from his vision that he had today. She wore a white dress and had a gold circlet on her head. She seemed to be looking around for something, and seemed worried. The dream ended there.
The next day Nicole was a bit less scared to be in school. She still didn't know anybody but at least she knew Rory now. She was actually really tired because she had stayed up practically all night texting him. She wondered if he ever fell asleep? He was super dorky and it was adorable! She didn't know much about what he was talking about because it seemed like all he liked talking about were comic books, Star Wars, and other geeky things. She didn't have much experience with that. But hearing him talking about it got her curious to learn more. She also noticed today that a lot of guys seemed to be interested in her. People always told her she was beautiful but she didn't expect guys to take notice so quickly. Some jocks came over to her. She had been through this before. They all think she's cute but then once they find out how smart she is they tell her she's ugly.
"Hey there hot stuff." One jock says, with two others. A leader and his possie. He had dark hair and perfectly chiseled features, along with perfectly tanned skin and he comes over to her (It's not Jesse btw). "I don't think I've ever seen you around here before. You new?"
"Yeah." She answers shyly and all the guys exchange looks and grin.
"Welcome to Whitechapel." The leader says and Nicole looks surprised. They didn't say a cheesy pick up line or anything. Who were these people!
"Thanks." She says and smiles a bit. Happy that they were being nice to her.
"Do you need any help finding your way around?" The lead in the trio offers.
"No thanks. Someone already showed me around yesterday." Nicole says.
"Who?" He asks.
"Rory." She says and the guy's eyes go wide.
"Whoa you were hanging around that weirdo?" He asks and Nicole furrows her eyebrows.
"Yeah. He's a nice guy." She says and blushes slightly. The guys laugh.
"He's also a weak little geek!" The leader says and comes over and wraps an arm around her. "Let me fill you in on something. There's a social hierarchy in this school, like others. Those at the top, like us are good looking, athletic and the teacher's favorite students. Judging by your appearance I'd say you'd most likely fit in that group. Rory on the other hand is wwaaayyy down at the bottom, with the geeks who can't catch or throw for their life and have no concept of what's socially acceptable. I mean look he's right down the hall over there talking to a weird monster doll." The guy gestures to Rory with two other guys down the hallway and Rory was showing them a doll and talking to it like a five year old. "Trust me, you don't want to get in with that crowd. It's dangerous." And in a way he was right. "You don't have many friends do you?" He asks and Nicole shakes her head. He smiles. "I know a way to hook you up with some. The cheerleaders are holding try outs. You should try out, it'd be a great way to hang out with some girls that are like you."
"I don't know." Nicole says. "A lot of the cheerleaders at my school were bullies to me."
"Wait you were bullied?" The guy asks in disbelief. "But you're super hot!"
"I'm also super smart!" She adds, expecting him to call her ugly and ditch her on the spot but he didn't.
"Well that's rude. Bullying someone because they're smart." The guy says and Nicole's heart was racing. So much was happening so fast. Everything she thought she knew about popular people was wrong! "If anything we could probably use some smarter people in our group. I don't mean to be rude but some of the girls on the squad could definitely use some tutoring."
"That sounds great!" She says, genuinely smiling. "When are try outs?"
"After school in the gym." The guy says.
"Thanks. What's your name?" She asks.
"Troy. Yours?" He asks.
"Nicolette." She says, deciding to try using her full name. She started calling herself Nicole because people kept teasing her about her name in her old school. But here seemed different so maybe she could start going back to being herself and not having to hide so much.
"Nicolette..." He says and nods his head, a smirk on his face. "Pretty name. I'll catch you later." He says and walks off with his possie. Nicole looked over and smiles, happy that Rory was still there. She runs up to him and taps his shoulder.
"Hey Ror-ster." She says and he turns around and smiles, leaning up against his locker, trying to look cool.
"'Sup Nicky?" He asks. Last night Rory had shared his nicknames with her, and since she didn't have one he gave her one. Other suggestions were Ni-cool, Hot Nicky, Babelicious and a few others but Nicole got annoyed so Rory actually tried instead of joking around and decided he'd call her Nicky.
"Hello there, Gorgeous." One of the boys says and gets in front of Rory, winking at her and making seductive faces. Rory frowned and grabbed the boy's back pack and yanked him backwards, so he could face Nicole instead. Nicole laughed and Rory smiled at her. The other of the two boys that Rory was with was staring at her kind of funny, although she was too focused on Rory to notice.
"What's that?" She asks, pointing to the strange plushy in Rory's hand. He blushes and quickly hides it behind his back.
"Nothing." He says quickly and the boy that was flirting with her smirks and pulls it out and holds it above Rory's head so he can't get it, showing it to her.
"It's Rory's doll. A Vampire Sasquatch." Benny jokes and Rory looks down and blushes in embarrassment. Nicole snatched it out of his hand and gave it back to Rory, giving Benny a glare. Rory looked surprised by her kindness.
"I never thought those two could mix but I guess you learn something new every day." Nicole says. The three boys stared at her in shock.
"Weren't you talking to Troy and his friends over there?" Rory asks.
"Yeah. Troy suggested I try out for cheerleading." Nicole says and Rory's eyes widen.
"Oh. Are you going to?" He asks.
"Yeah." Nicole says. "It sounds like fun." Rory looked sad.
"Yeah. It seems like it sure would be fun to be part of that crowd." He says and looks down. Nicole immediately caught onto what he was suggesting. He probably thought that since she was trying out to be a cheerleader that she wouldn't want to hang out with him or talk to him anymore. She was about to say something but the bell rang.
"I'll see you later." She assures him and runs off to class.
"Well so much for that..." Rory says in a defeated tone and looks at his doll. "Another rejection to add to the list."
"I'm sorry man." Ethan says and puts his hand on his friend's shoulder. "We should have reeled her in to our side more before the jocks got to her. Don't worry there'll be others."
"Yeah I know but..." Rory looks down and played with the door of his locker a bit. "It felt like this girl was a bit more special than the others I've met. I've never connected so well with a girl before. I thought I might've had a shot with her. But, apparently not. Oh well. I'll see you guys later." He says and walks away.
"Thank goodness." Ethan says and lets out a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness for what?" Benny asks.
"That she's going to be a cheerleader! That means that Rory can't get close to her!" He says happily.
"And that's good because..." Benny asks for an explanation.
"Because in my vision that's the girl that Rory..." He lowers his voice. "Drinks..." Benny's eyes went wide.
"Seriously?" He asks. Ethan nods. "But I thought your visions always come true."
"Maybe this one won't." Ethan says. "There's something more though... I didn't have to touch either Rory or Nicky to have that vision."
"That's weird." Benny says. "We should tell my grandma about it." Ethan nods in agreement.
Later that day at cheerleader practice all the girls were standing around, fixing their hair or gossiping while Nicole was reading a book. Two girls seemed to take a particular interest in her though. And not in a good way. "She smells amazing Sarah..." Erica says and looks at her. They both decided to try out because they needed something to do and Sarah wanted to do something fun that could take her mind off of the fact that she was a full vampire now, and just make her feel normal.
"I know. I thought I could only get hungry if someone had a cut or something. Maybe she does?" Sarah asks.
"I don't know. But I think I want a taste." Erica says and flashes her fangs briefly.
"We can't do that!" Sarah scolds her. "She's just a kid, she probably has a loving family and a lot of friends. We can't take that away from her by turning her or killing her."
"Ugh fine." Erica groans. "I'll hold off. But I'm definitely going to need to go hunting after this practice. Sarah stared at Nicole and in her head wondered why she smelled differently than other humans. Was she supernatural?
When the try-outs were over all of the girls lined up. The head cheerleader held a clip board and smiled. Her name was Jane, she became the head after Stephanie left. "Well these were some pretty intense try-outs but as you know we can only take three girls to fill the spots left by our graduated seniors. And so I'd like to congratulate Sarah, Erica and Nicole to the squad!" The three of them smile and thank her and she hands out their uniforms. "Practices are after school every Wednesday, Monday and Friday." She tells them cheerfully.
"Finally we'll have some time to just hang out with girls for a change." Erica says in a relieved tone.
"Yeah." Sarah agrees. "I mean I love hanging out with Ethan, Benny and Rory but I'd like to hang out with some girls for once." Nicole noticed they said Rory's name and turned to them.
"You know Rory?" She asks and Sarah and Erica look at her curiously.
"Yeah, unfortunately." Erica says and looks at her nails. "Do you?"
"Yeah. He walked me home yesterday." She says and both Erica and Sarah snap their heads towards her.
"WHAT?!" They exclaim.
"I'm so sorry." Erica says. "He must have been super annoying and probably flirted with you the whole time."
"Actually he wasn't. Sure he flirted with me a little bit but he was actually pretty sweet. Kind of charming actually." She says and Erica and Sarah stare at her like she's an alien.
"Rory is charming?" Sarah asks and Nicole nods.
"I'm so glad I've gotten to meet more of his friends!" Nicole says and smiles at the girls. Then impulsively she hugs them. But by being so close to her her scent overflows their nostrils and the girls start to feel their bloodlust overwhelm them. Luckily it doesn't last long. Nicole pulls away and smiles at them. "I'll see you at practice!" She says and runs off.
While walking into town she spotted Rory heading into a store. She smiled and followed him inside. It was a comic book store. As soon as she walked in everyone turned to look at her and their jaws dropped. A lot of them were geeks from school. They looked like they were looking at a ghost. Rory hadn't noticed her and was busy looking through some comics when a familiar scent had him sniffing the air and someone next to him tapped his shoulder. "Rory...A miracle is happening right now..." He says and Rory turns and his green eyes nearly bulge when he sees Nicole and she smiles and bounces over to him.
"Hey Rory!" She says happily.
"H-Hey Nicky." He answers a bit in shock. "What are you doing here?"
"I saw you walk in here and thought I'd come in to talk to you." She says and all the boys push up their glasses or blink, trying to process what's happening.
"You still want to talk to me?" He asks and smiles a bit.
"Of course I do!" She says and he lights up. "Just because I'm a cheerleader now doesn't mean I'm forbidden from talking to you." All the boys drop their things.
"She's a cheerleader!" They all whisper shout to each other.
"You made the squad! That's great!" Rory congratulates her and she hugs him and all the boys gasp. Rory hugs her back and mouths "Oh my God!" To all the boys and some cover their mouths in shock while some just gape at him. He pulls back blushing.
"You know I was wondering...I've never seen Star Wars before and it sounds really interesting the way you described it. Can I come over sometime to watch it?" She asks and Rory freezes and stares at her in shock. The boy next to him smacks him in the back to unfreeze him.
"Y-Yeah u-uh t-totally." Rory stammers and smiles. She smiles too.
"Great! What time works for you?" She asks.
"I'm free tonight." He says and Nicole smiles.
"Me too..." She blushes. "So can I come over tonight?"
"Yeah you can." He says and all the boys start murmuring in shock to each other, surprised and smiling. "I'll text you the address."
"Great!" She says and gives him another hug. "I'll see you tonight." She says and pulls away from Rory, holding his hand until she walks too far away and lets go, leaving the store. As soon as the door closes all the geeks in the store erupt in a chorus of cheers and surround Rory. Even the owner seemed excited.
"This is incredible! An unprecedented event for our kind!" A nerd says.
"Dude! You just got a cheerleader to come over to your house to watch Star Wars! That's the Holy Grail!" He exclaims. "You really are awesome."
"I am?" He asks and smiles. They all nod.
"Yeah. This whole time we thought you were all talk but now we see just what awesomeness you're really capable of!" He says. Rory couldn't believe it. His lifelong dream was finally coming true and it was all because of Nicole. Nicky. His Princess. Wait Princess? He never came up with that nickname for her. Why did he just think of calling her Princess in his head?
"Wait which movie are you going to show her?" A nerd in the back exclaims.
"Does it matter?" Another one asks.
"DOES IT MATTER?" He repeats. "Of course it does! Each movie is very different from the others. Her opinion of you could depend on which movie you show her."
"Okay well I'm definitely not showing her the prequels then." Rory says.
"Actually you might want to." A nerd says.
"What?" They all ask.
"The prequels suck!" One says.
"To us yes, but to a girl it might not. I mean we all know girls like cheesy romance right?" They all nod. "Well there's plenty of that with Anakin and Padme in the prequels, so she might connect with them a bit more than the originals."
"You're right. That makes sense." Rory says. "I can't believe I'm going to watch Star Wars with a cheerleader!" He exclaims and everyone cheers and starts chanting his name. It was a dream come true.
"I've got to get home and start getting ready!" He says and speeds out of the store and over to Benny's house.
"That is strange." Grandma Weir says as Ethan describes the abnormality of his vision and Erica and Sarah share their side of the story where they talked with Nicole. "I'm not sure what to make of this. I'll need to do some research on people who have this kind of intoxicating scent to vampires. As for your vision Ethan, seers are rarely ever wrong. And if this girl is as hard to resist as Erica and Sarah says she is then this girl could be in grave danger. We must keep them separated until I can find out more." Suddenly Rory bursts into the house.
"I'VE GOT A DATE WITH A CHEERLEADER!" He shouts and everyone looks shocked.
"WHAT?!" They all exclaim, even Benny's Grandmother seems shocked.
"You asked Nicole out?" Benny asks, shocked.
"No! She asked me!" He says and everyone looks even more surprised.
"Seriously!" Ethan says and Rory nods.
"She's coming over to my house to watch Star Wars!" He says and Benny and Ethan run over and hug him.
"Dude that's the Holy Grail! You've done it! You've broken through to the other side!" Benny exclaims and punches him in the arm a bunch of times. Erica and Sarah are in shock.
"I can't believe that geek is having better luck than I am in the romance department." Erica says in utter shock.
"I've got to get home and get ready!" Rory says and is about to speed away but Ethan stops him, remembering something.
"Rory wait!" He says and Rory stops. "I don't think you should do this...I think you might want to stay away from her actually."
"What?!" He says in shock. "A hot girl finally realizes how awesome I am and you want me to stay away from her?! No way!"
"It's for your own good." Ethan pleads and Rory notices everyone staring at him funny.
"What's going on?" He asks. Ethan sighs and tells him about his vision. "I can't believe it...I'm totally gonna score tonight! Yes!" He exclaims.
"You're going to drink her blood!" Ethan tells him.
"No I'm not!" Rory protests. "I'd never do that to someone! Especially not Nicky..." He gets a dreamy look in his eyes. "She's precious...So sweet and innocent. I'd never want to do anything to hurt her." He says honestly.
"Rory she's irresistible to us for some reason." Sarah explains. "You might say that you're fine now but when you smell her again..."
"Wait did her scent affect you guys too?" He asks, sounding worried.
"Yeah me and Sarah were this close to drinking her." Erica explains and shows him a small space in between her thumb and index finger. Rory didn't move. He just stared at them, his breathing becoming heavy.
"Rory?" Ethan asks and touches his shoulder. Suddenly he has a vision. It was the girl that looked like Nicole in his dream, but she was screaming and having her blood sucked by two vampires at once, one on her arm and the other on her neck. Someone was screaming "No!" In the background. When Ethan came out of his vision he noticed Benny using a spell to hold back Rory, who had his fangs out and golden eyes, thrashing against the bonds of Benny's spell. "What happened?!"
"Rory just went nuts and attacked Sarah and Erica!" Benny exclaims. "Snap out of it!" Benny scolds him and Rory slowly stops struggling and calms down.
"What the hell was that?!" Erica exclaims. Both she and Sarah had had their fangs out and their eyes were changing back to their normal color.
"I-I don't know..." Rory says and Benny releases him since it's safe now. "I just got so mad hearing that you guys nearly drank her I...It's like some sort of instinct came over me...You guys need to control yourselves around her." He says.
"We need to control ourselves!?" Erica gasps. "You just tried to kill us out of anger!"
"Since when did you get so strong?" Sarah asks, noticing the bruises on her arms and on Erica's from where Rory had grabbed them, and thrown them. "You were able to take us both down like it was nothing. If it hadn't been for Benny you could've..." Rory turns pale when he realizes he could have seriously hurt Erica and Sarah. Grandma Weir was looking very concerned.
"I think I should go cool off..." He says and speeds out of the house after Grandma Weir nods at him.
"What's gotten into him?" Benny asks.
"These bruises aren't healing very quickly." Erica notices as she looks at her arms. "Most bruises I get heal a lot faster."
"Vampires with strength like that have not existed for thousands of years." Grandma Weir says. "I need to do some research immediately." She says urgently and leaves.
A/N: Sorry this chapter was so long but I got on a roll and couldn't stop writing! I hope you're all enjoying. Please leave comments so I know that people like it and that I should continue to write this story!