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The lights were off. There was no sign of activity. Sneaking in was going to be easier than Bonnie thought.

"I think I'm gonna get away with it…" she murmured, still seated on the back of Marko's bike. She kept her eyes on the house, warily observing it for the slightest movement but the entire house was dark and still.

"Get away with what?" Marko asked. She felt him shift on his back, turning so he could look at her. She caught his gaze and smiled defiantly.

"I may have to sneak around a bit now. I'm banned from a social life at the moment."

He raised an eyebrow at her, responding to her grin with his own. "How come you're grounded?"

"Well, technically I'm not grounded but my mom has given me a prison sentence. Remember our first date when I got back home at midnight? I got busted because I almost slept in when I needed to be at school for an exam. It's so freaking stupid but that's the kinda thing mom freaks out over. So until exams are over, I can't go and spend time with friends."

"You forgot boyfriend," he added.

Her grin widened. "Boyfriend, huh? You want to make it official?"

It was too tempting to ask if he had been possessed. Or maybe he had a twin brother who knew how to act with girls. No, that might be a little rude of her. She should be glad to see that he was not being too distant. There was no way she expected to be told everything about him but she would not deny that she liked to see him showing some interest. It was nice to see this change in Marko, seeing him act like he really was into her and giving her more indication on how he might be feeling. If he was asking to be her boyfriend then maybe he did like her.

Took him a while though, she added, unable to help that thought but she hated boys messing around, deciding whether or not they were going to lose the macho act and admit their feelings. It wasn't a hard thing to do in the first place. What were they worrying about anyway? Did they believe that their balls would drop off the minute they uttered the words: 'I love you' or 'will you be my girlfriend?'

It was so tempting to ask Marko that. But again, her mouth remained close and she mentally reminded herself that she really shouldn't be tempted into being rude back. Right now a relationship could be starting here and she was not going to give him second thoughts because she opened her mouth and started questioning the weirdness that was the Male Mind. Another lesson she had learnt. Boys really took offense to the question: 'do you always think with your dick?'

And all this thinking had completely made her miss what Marko had said. When she faintly heard her name being called, she was back in reality. Blinking, she stared at Marko and sat there with her mouth open.

"Did you say something?" she asked. Boy, did she feel stupid. Here she was going on about guys and their ridiculous behaviour in relationships and she was in her own world, ignoring what Marko was saying and probably looking uninterested. Talk about hypocrisy.

Marko raised an eyebrow at her.

"I spend a lot of time in my head," she explained.

As if that made things better. She snorted at herself mentally. How pathetic.

The left side of his mouth tugged up in amusement. "Right…"

"I'm not crazy or anything," she told him, feeling her cheeks warm up.

At least he's smiling, she thought and beamed. Hey, he's smiling!

"You're odd," he commented.

"Uh… thank you?" She chuckled but there was a little nervousness in her laugh.

"I was saying if you want to make it official and be my girlfriend then why not? Let's do it."

"Definitely," she said, smiling and kissed his cheek. She hopped off his motorcycle. "Do you want to go to the movie theatre sometime?"

"You mean, see a movie?"

It was all too strange. He had been so detached from humanity. All he ever did now was hang out and torment people at the boardwalk. He partied amongst the humans, picking out victims and causing trouble with those stupid surfers that plagued his turf because he knew they couldn't really hurt him. He and Paul drank their weight in alcohol, not once feeling its affect. They all hung off bridges or dived off cliffs simply for the kick of being able to sudden stop and fly away to avoid plunging to what would be death if they were plain, old mortals. Now he felt he had been sucked straight back into humanity where he really had to pretend to be human, doing ordinary, human things. It wasn't like going to the boardwalk with the boys. There he would stand around and people assumed he was one of them.

"Um, yeah, you usually see a movie at the movie theatre," Bonnie said. "You don't have to. We can do something else –."

"Yeah," he said, trying not to make his voice give away his hesitancy. "That would be cool. Let's go tomorrow?"

"Okay, I work tomorrow…" Bonnie narrowed her eyes as she thought. Her mother was going to be on watch. She would definitely be waiting for Bonnie to return home as soon as work was over.

"I have an early shift tomorrow. I'm going straight to work after my exam and I finish around seven," she explained. "Right, this is the plan. I'm going straight home after work. I'll make sure my mom is convinced I'm in for the night. I'll tell her I'm studying and then having an early night. You come over here about… nine? Wait near Edgar and Alan's house and I'll sneak out."

Marko snorted, tugging on her wrist to pull her closer to him. "Again with the sneaking out."

"I'm seventeen and I need to be out having fun!"

She smiled, wrapping her arms around his waist and underneath his jacket. She gave him a goodbye kiss but pulled back slightly with a frown, hovering over his mouth. "How come you're always so cold?"

"I'm fine," he said, pulling away.

She put a hand to his cheek. Like his lips, his skin was icy to touch. "No, really, you always feel like you're freezing. You're staying someplace warm, right?"

"Oh yeah. It's warm," he lied, kicking his engine awake.

"Don't get a cold," she ordered.

He smiled and leaned forward to kiss her again. "I don't get colds," he told her. "Bye."

He sped off down the street, heading straight for the cave. Bonnie was left to complete her mission: sneak back in without getting caught and landing herself in a lot of shit.

Thank God for a ground-floor bedroom, she thought, creeping to the side of her house. Her bedroom window was open. Good. Earlier in the night she had a horrible, sinking feeling that she had closed it and had a mini panic attack about getting back in. What on earth would she have done? Maybe ring the doorbell and try to convince her parents she had been sleepwalking? Get in through the cat flap? As if! The latter would have been impossible. The last time she tried that she ended up getting stuck and crying for her mum and dad to come help her.

Moving as slowly as possible, she heaved one leg over her windowsill, staggering as she balanced on her leg and tip toes. Throwing her arms forward and grabbing the windowsill she attempted to push herself up, her right foot scraping at the brick to climb up and get through the window. She held her breath, closing her eyes as she ended up hanging there and trying to throw herself forward and into her bedroom.

"Fuck!" she groaned out and dropped back down. She tried a different way. Grabbing the windowsill again she heaved herself up, bringing all her weight into her arms. She tilted forward, feet kicking like mad as she scrambled in.

Her palms reached the carpet, pressing them against the floor and shuffling forward on her hands. At least she was finally inside when she felt her hands give way and fell straight to the floor, collapsing in a heap. Before getting up she laid there with her arms folded across her stomach, panting. God, that killed! Why did a social life have to involve difficult obstacles? Going out with a guy should be so simple and not some secret mission.

Maybe I should just speak up. I'm eighteen next year; I'm getting older and I should be allowed to make my own decisions.

But it was easier said than done. She could speak up all she liked and take matters into her hands but she couldn't make her parents listen.

Especially mom.

Well, there was only one more year of high school. That's all she had left and she had to keep reminding herself. One more year and then she really would be independent. She would be studying performing arts and taking care of herself. Her parents would be all the way here in Santa Carla. She would hopefully be on the other side of the country, maybe New York, and getting one step closer to that Broadway stage.

If mom doesn't take control of the situation.

Marko had it easy. Actually, Marko had it pretty, freaking amazing being a runaway. He could do whatever he wanted. He was in charge of what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go. Not even school – that was the best bit! He had complete control over his life.

I'd love to have that freedom, she thought, sighing dreamily.

"Great! Pizza!" Marko grinned as he snatched the slice of Paul. "Thanks, man."

"Bud, that's my pepperoni!"

"Yeah." Marko took a large bite of the slice. "It's delicious."

"Uncalled for. Really uncalled for." But Paul quickly shrugged it away and grabbed another two slices from the box.

Marko moved near David, hopping onto the arm of the sofa. David had been sitting quietly, calmly watching the youngest vampire. He was waiting patiently for Marko to speak first.

"I'm turning her," Marko finally said, ignoring the disappointed sigh from Star in the corner. He did not resort to saying something nasty or defensive but he did cast a glare in her direction.

Keep out of this, he thought and knew that his glare was sending that message. At the sight of his stare, Star quickly turned her head away and lay down on her bed. She did, however, peek over her shoulder a little to hear more of the conversation. Why were vampires so intent on ruining a human's life? That girl Marko was involved with was just a teenager. A kid. Younger than she was and Marko was trying to turn her into a vicious killer. Making a monster out of an oblivious girl.

"Evil," she whispered and sighed into her pillow.

"When?" David asked.

"Whenever I bring her over here to tell her and turn her. I need a plan. Make people think she's dead so we can all get away easily. It's not long until we're moving, is it?"

"Yeah, like to the next town. Think Ma – I mean… you-know-who… would let us go all the way to, let's say, Pennsylvania by ourselves?" Paul cringed, glancing at Star who had lifted her head curiously.

"Thinks we can't be trusted," Dwayne added with a roll of his eyes.

David shook his head, looking uninterested with the plan. "Marko, just bring her over here and we'll give her the bottle. I'm not planning deaths. Paul's turning was a complete mess."

Dwayne snickered at the memory and nudged Paul with his elbow. "Can't believe you almost went through an autopsy."

Paul shuddered as he glared at Dwayne and David. "Can't believe you two messed up and got me in that position in the first place!"

"Then we make it out like she's dead rather than getting her to lie there and pretend," Marko suggested. "Get something that belongs to her and then get some of her blood on it. Keep her hidden for a while until people assume that she's dead. It's Santa Carla. The police would rather go straight to claiming people dead than start up a missing person's case."

David shrugged. "I'd still prefer to get it over with." Then he smirked. "It's always fun watching humans figure it out."

Marko rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, I had a lot of fun wondering what the fuck was wrong with me. Your way won't work with Bonnie. She doesn't like being messed about. She doesn't respond well to it. Turning her unknowingly won't get me her trust. Look, I'll sort this whole thing out myself. You don't have to do anything."

"Works for me," David said. "But when she is turned, she's drinking out of the bottle."

Both boys ignored Star's sighing from her corner of the cave.