I slammed down the button on my alarm clock to drown out the incessant beeping of the infernal machine.
"Vivica? You up?" I heard my mother's voice float from the downstairs landing. I heard her shuffling feet stir in the direction of my room.
Of course, I'm always up, I thought. One of the many perks of being a vampire. But that didn't change how I had to pretend to sleep, then my mother would definitely assume something was wrong. She still thought I was human.
My mother never was the most observant person on the planet. Even when I was attacked, three years ago, she never noticed the difference. The pale, silky, hard-as-granite skin, the dark red eyes, the heightened hearing and scent, even the change in voice. Over the years, though, I'd grown thankful for the unobservant characteristics of my parent.
"Yes!" I called back, my voice like the tinkling of the tiniest bells.
I could hear her heartbeat fade away, so I knew her to be walking back, most likely to the couch. Her heart was drowned out by the sound of a TV, the morning news. A newscaster was explaining the case of the traffic, the many crashes in various places of the road. Like that would hinder my performance, I could run to school.
I lifted myself up off the floor where I was sitting, still as a statue, all night. Another perk of being a vampire: no stiffness if you sit in one place for nine hours. I approached my dresser, picking out a subtle black skirt with white lace around the edges and a long-sleeved white silk shirt. I was dressed and downstairs in an instant.
"The dead has arisen," my mother commented as I came into her vision. It was all I could do not to laugh, as she most likely would notice my inside joke.
"Good morning, Mother." I gazed around our plain living room, trying to place…and there it was, my pale blue shoulder bag. I walked at an agonizingly slow human pace, raising my bag to my shoulder. With my bag, I ran (another too-slow movement of human running) to the door and had my hand on the doorknob, ready to go, when my mother abruptly stopped me with her voice.
"Vivica, wait just a moment!" I flinched at my own name. I didn't turn, but I could hear her get up and shuffle over around the back of the couch. I despise my name. Why did she have to give me such a different name when I most wanted to be inconspicuous? "Could you please not stay out so late like usual tonight? We have a welcoming party coming over today, and I don't need any absences. I want them to welcome the whole family."
"Sure thing, Mom. I'll come home around four or so, all right?"
She sighed. "Sure, I guess that would be better than eight." She emphasized on the word eight. "I just don't get you sometimes. You got out at two in Seattle, but you always came home at least three hours late."
"Sorry, Mother, I'm wrapped up with my thoughts a lot, that's all." I turned to face her, releasing my grip on the doorknob. I attempted the saddest face I could manage without revealing how un-sad I was. It always worked. Bring Dad into it somehow and she'd stop asking probing questions. As I knew they would, my mother's eyes softened and her eyebrows knit together. I could tell she was frustrated whenever I did this to her.
"You should learn how to cope, Vivica. The crash happened years ago." Not to mention how my being a vampire and that crash were both acts from the same person. My mother sighed and glanced at the ground, then back at my face. "Just get home earlier, all right?" She shuffled back to the couch. My mother does a lot of shuffling, so it's not hard to hear her.
"'Bye, Mom." I once again clenched the tarnished gold doorknob, twisting it and leaping out the barely opened door, slamming it behind me, yet making no sound. I stood out in the November air, the chill not even reacting with my senses. I could barely feel cold on my already ice-cold skin. I hitched my bag up over my head with ease, crossing the strap over my torso. Much easier for running at my speed.
I took a sniff of the air around me. So many scents strewn into one reached my nostrils. I smelled fresh dew on the trees miles away and the sap oozing from a tree nearby, a sharp, sweet smell. I could also will my nose to go farther, to the deep, deep woods where the deer were. I could hear the blood pulsing underneath the warm-scented fur. There were four of them, a buck, doe, and two fawns. The fawns smelled much, much sweeter, very nice. If I was hungry, I might have hunted right then, but I did not need to.
When I reached even farther out, my nose caught a startlingly familiar smell. Vampires?! I was surprised. It was a permanent residence. I hadn't even gotten to my first day of school and already I found more like me. This was going to be an interesting life in Forks.