I DO NOT OWN VLADIMIR TOD...ONLY SHIZUKA...

****Shizuka's POV****

It's the vampire from earlier. But he also smells like a human. Why does he smell so familiar? I can't remember if this scent was that of an enemy or friend... I'll just stay away from him until I figure it out...

"Miss Kurenaiyuki, you will be sitting next to Vladimir Tod. Mr. Tod raise your hand please."

Oh great! He raised his hand...

As I walked toward my seat, I took a chance to actually see him. He had a black hoodie on which brought out his extremely pale complexion. His raven black hair hung in front of his eyes. His eyes, the most captivating I've ever seen, were an endless abyss of black depth. Everything about him screamed mystery.

As I sat down in my seat, a fairly attractive guy with blondish hair whispered something to the half-vampire. After a while of listening to the teacher stutter when he mentioned intimate body parts, he turned to me.

"Hi, I'm Vlad." He held his hand out to me.

"Hello." I hesitantly took his hand.

His hands are so soft...

"Welcome to Bathory."

"Thank you," I said him as our hands parted.

"Would you like a uh...tour around? You can hang with us."

"Us?"

"Yeah, me and my buddy Henry." He gestured to the blonde next to him.

Henry looked at me and winked. "'Sup."

"Hello henry."

"So how 'bout it?" Vlad looked at back at me with a slight smile.

"Sure..." I say, turning my head to hide my blush. From the corner of my eye, I saw his smile grow and a slight pink feather his cheeks.

Vlad's POV

I couldn't hold back a smile and I definitely couldn't stop myself from blushing. I can't wait to tell uncle Otis and aunt Nelly about her.

Shizuka's POV

RRRRIIIIINNNNGGGGG

Time for lunch. I'm supposed to meet Vlad and Henry at our lockers, since our lockers are next to each other. As I waited I noticed the two guys that were messing with Vlad earlier. They were walking my way with their eyes locked on me. I looked away and began looking for Vlad and Henry. After what seemed like an eternity, I saw their faces and it seemed they see me as well. Vlad's gaze locked with mine for a second and smiled. Then he looked past me in horror. Just ad I was about to start walking towards them, a large hand slammed against the locker in front of me. Vlad and Henry were frozen in their tracks and the only thing stopping me from walking to them was an arm...

"Hey cutie, what's your name?" the owner of the arm asked.

"..."

" Don't be shy babe. I'm Tom by the way," the guy behind me said as he placed a hand on my arm.

The guy in front of me began to talk. "And I'm Bill," he leaned down so that his face was only an inch or two from mine.

I looked past Bill's face to see Henry put a hand on Vlad's shoulder and slightly pull him back. I caught Vlad looking at me, his eyes held an unreadable emotion. Turning my attention back to Bill, I noticed he was getting closer.

"Sorry, but I hold no interest." I ducked under his arm and headed towards Vlad and Henry.

"Are you ok?" Vlad asked as his arm slightly reached out toward me.

"I'm fine."

"C'mon guys I'm starving!" Henry said and with that, we went to lunch.

We sat at the table in the back of the cafeteria. Vlad and I were waiting for Henry to return with his lunch. I emptied my water bottled water into my tray. I put my finger in the water and began stirring it around, dropping the temperature. Vlad pulled out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of a paper bag. A certain scent caught my attention.

There's blood in that sandwich...

I looked at Vlad to see him looking at me with frantic eyes. I leaned in towards him and whispered so no one else but he and I could her.

"Don't worry Vlad. You're secret is safe with me..." I gave him an assuring smile. I noticed slight pink feathering Vlad's cheeks, as he began to relax gradually.

"Thanks," Vlad whispered to me. I couldn't help but smile as my face reddened. "Shizuka, can I ask you something?"

"Anything..."

"You know what I am... I wanna know... what are you? I mean I'm not trying to be rude, but you're not human...but I don't know what you are..."

My finger froze in the water and pure panic rocked through my whole body. I didn't know what to do.

What should I say?

"Woah how did you do that?" Vlad and I looked up and saw Henry staring at my tray with wide eyes. I looked down and realized that I had froze the water.

I quickly took my finger out of the now large chunk of ice, causing it to rapidly melt back into luke warm water.

"Do what?" I said trying to be nonchalant.

"That!" he pointed at my tray of water.

"I don't know what you're talking about..."

"Uh-huh..." he said, slowly sitting down. The remainder of lunch was spent in silence.

the rest of the day flew by fairly well. I was introduced to my classes. It turns out I have Math with Tom. Other than that everything went well.

Vlad, Henry, I were walking down the halls to leave school. Vlad and Henry were whispering to each other, then turned to me with a big smile on their faces.

"Hey Shizuka, wanna come over to my house? We got this new video game," Vlad asked with a unusual gleam in his eyes.

"Um...sure..." I was happy to be able to make friends on my first day.

****Vlad's POV****

Aunt Nelly was ecstatic to meet Shizuka. They talked about some girlish stuff and exchanged recipes. After that, we started teaching Shizuka how to play Race to Armageddon2. After ten minutes of that, she managed to defeat me, but was powerless against Henry. Nelly came in later.

"Well I have to take off to work. Shizuka dear, will your parents be coming to get you later?" Nelly asked Shizuka a she pulled on her work coat.

I looked over to Shizuka and saw her cheerful face suddenly drop. I decided to push myself into her mind...

...How can I tell them I don't have a family...I won't...

"They're no-"

"Can she spend the night Aunt Nelly?" I asked cutting Shizuka off. I looked at her to see her eyes widen.

Nelly looked suspicious, but she must have figured I had a reason so she let it go. "Okay..."

"Aunt Nelly, we'll go with her to her house to get her clothes to change into," Henry and I offered.

"Very well. Be careful you guys," Nelly said as she walked out the door.

We spent the rest of the day playing Race to Armageddon2 and ate junk food, and blood for me. I looked out the window and saw the sun starting to set.

"We should go and get your stuff before it gets dark," I said, getting up. Henry and Shizuka nodded as they got up. We put our coats on and headed out the door, following Shizuka to her house.

Shizuka visually tensed more and more as we approached the edge of the woods...

"Did we take a wrong turn?" Henry
asked when we stopped right in front of the woods.

"Nope," Shizuka said, stepping into the wall of greens and browns. We continued to walk until we came across a tent...

"We're here..." she whispered as she entered the tent.

"Pffft! You...haha live in a...Pffft..tent?" Henry asked between laughs. I smacked him on the back of the head..

"Shut up," I whispered to him, "I'm gonna go help her pack." I said as I went in the tent, leaving a laughing Henry behind.

I entered the tent to see Shizuka folding some clothes. I looked around ad saw a rolled up sleeping bag in the corner. Next to it was a pile of folded clothes and some bags. In the far corner were a pile of old books.

Like REALLY old...

I grabbed a bag from next to the clothes and began packing EVERYTHING I could put my hands on it. Shizuka look at me confused.

"What ar-"

"I'm not gonna let you live in a tent. You're gonna live with us. I'll talk to Nelly tomorrow, but you're gonna stay with us."

"...Okay..."

After we finished packing up, we headed back home toward Nelly's house, dropping Henry off on the way.