(Slight Yuri Warning! Just kissing, but still I had to warn you)

Chapter 6 – New Friends

It wasn't until Wednesday that Nicky was finally able to get back to school. By then Nicky knew, without a doubt that she had fallen for Kaname and hard. She still didn't know how he felt and she didn't want to ask. She was just happy being able to spend time with him. They had set up an arrangement: if Nicky was able to go with him back to Japan for winter break she would call him and let him know. They would then meet up in town. If not she would still call him and they would spend the day together in town before he has to go back without her.

Nicky was really hoping she'd be able to go with him, but as she walks in through the door Chrissie and her friends had locked her out of, she puts the thoughts out of her mind. Nicky stops when she sees Heather running over to her, "Niccole, thank goodness you're okay!"

Nicky stops and gives a small smile, "Uh, yeah. My friend was nice enough to let me stay with him."

Heather stops, "Him?... Uh, well you need to come with me. Headmistress Richards was worried sick." Nicky nods and follows Heather to the headmistress's office.

Miss Richards stands up as they walk in, "Niccole, it's such a relief to see you're okay. Would you mind telling us what happened?" she asks, motioning to a chair.

Nicky nods and sits down. She goes over what happened, confirming what Natalie had told them. She finishes with hearing a twig snap, seeing a flash of white then blacking out. The women notice the bandage around Nicky's neck and look at one another.

"Niccole… Your neck…" Miss Richards pauses, "What happened to it?"

Nicky stays quiet for a bit, "You already who don't you? There are rumors going around about girls getting attacked. That's why there is such a strict curfew."

The older women look at one another. Heather walks over to Nicky, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Would you show us?" Nicky nods and shows them her mostly healed bite marks before rewrapping her neck. Heather kneels down next to Nicky, "Niccole, you can't tell anyone what happened."

Nicky looks at the older woman, "Who would believe me?"

"You'd be surprised," Miss Richards says, pinching the bridge of her nose. "It would make the school look very bad if people knew about this. Do you understand?" Nicky nods, realizing they just wanted her to keep quiet to save the school's reputation. They didn't honestly care about her. "Good, thank you," Miss Richards gives Nicky a smile.

"What about Chrissie and the others? What are you going to do to them?" Nicky asks, looking between the two women.

"They have been put under house arrest until further notice," Miss Richards answers.

"That's it?" Nicky asks, "They tried to kill me and that's all you're doing?"

"Oh, no, no! Natalie told us they were just trying to scare you. She went out 15 minutes later to get you but you were gone," Heather explains.

"And you believed them?" Nicky demands, looking at her.

"Well, the security cameras showed that she did," Heather says, looking at Miss Richards

"That's because she's the only one with a conscience. They were trying to kill me. Leslie even stole my robe!" Nicky was really starting to get upset now.

"They were just trying to make it seem like that," Heather says, trying to calm her down.

"No they weren't!" Nicky stops hearing a knock on the door. She looks over to see Chrissie and her friends walk in. "You bitch!" Nicky runs over to Chrissie, slapping her as hard as she could in the face, causing her to fall over. "You tried to kill me! I thought you were my friend and you tried to kill me!" Heather runs over standing between the two girls. "All Because I didn't want to do your damn 'initiation' you tried to kill me!"

"That is enough!" Miss Richards shouts over Nicky, "Miss Kinsley, sit down!" Nicky sits down as Chrissie and the others also take their seats. "Now, I feel it would be appropriate for you girls to apologize to Niccole and you Miss Kinsley need to apologize to Chrissie. After that, I would like to try and put this whole thing behind us."

Chrissie glares at Nicky, "Fine, her first."

Nicky stands up again, "HELL no! After what they did they should get expelled, or at least suspended."

"Miss Kinsley, they have already explained what they were doing," Miss Richards starts.

"Either they get suspended or I call home and tell my parents about this. If my parents find out what they did to me, even if they weren't trying to actually kill me and I got attacked as a result and that you didn't do anything to punish them they will sue this school for everything it's worth! I could have easily been killed by whoever it was that attacked me!"

They hear Eli's voice outside the door shout, "Yeah!" Eli pokes her head in the door, "I agree with Nicky, they should get expelled!" All faces in the room turn to Eli.

Nicky stares at the strange girl with orange streaks in her hair, "Uh…"

"Sorry," Eli pulls her head out of the door, closing the door, but not latching it.

"Okay…" Nicky has completely lost her steam after the strange girl's outburst. Nicky looks back over at Miss Richards. She tries her best to explain things from her point of view, "You weren't there when they locked me out. They didn't have to leave me out there, I was already terrified. And before Leslie went back inside she said I 'should never have come here' before she went back inside. And Chrissie said 'you should have just done the initiation.' They were intending to leave me out there."

Miss Richards looks at Natalie, "Natalie is this true? Were you just covering up for the others?"

Nicky looks at Natalie, she was the one who went out to get her. Natalie looks at the others, glancing at Nicky before looking down, not answering. "There you go, that's as good as a confession," Nicky says, looking at Miss Richards.

"No it's not," Chrissie says, looking at Nicky.

"And I want to change rooms. I don't feel safe staying in the same room as Chrissie," Nicky says, crossing her arms.

"She can room with me!" Eli offers, popping her head back into the room. Nicky looks over at Eli again, wondering why she was offering this.

Nicky looks back at Miss Richards, "Suspend them or I'm going to my parents and the school board, I will tell everyone who will listen what happened to me and that you did nothing to the girls responsible!"

"Are you trying to black mail this school Miss Kinsley?" Miss Richards demands.

"I'm just trying to get justice for what happened to me," Nicky says, removing her bandage and showing Chrissie and her friends the bite marks, causing all of them to gasp. "This is what you caused. I could have been killed and none of you even care."

"That's not true!" Natalie says standing up and walking over to Nicky, "When I realized what they were planning I went out immediately to get you!"

Nicky looks over at Miss Richards who looked shocked, "What else do you need? They tried to kill me, who knows what else they've done?" Natalie grows quiet when she realizes what she's just done.

Miss Richards slowly stands, "In light of this new information, I have no choice but to suspend you two." Miss Richards says, looking at Chrissie and Leslie, who both stand at the same time.

"What?" Leslie shouts, "Why does it matter, she's not even from this country!"

"What the hell does my nationality have to do with?" Nicky demands.

Leslie stays quiet and Nicky looks away, "Do you see? This is the kind of person you have going to this school."

Chrissie looks at Leslie, "Is that why? Because she's American is that you wanted to…"

"No…" Leslie says quietly, "It's because you started to like her better than me."

"What are you talking about?" Nicky asks, looking over.

"It's because she's so pretty, with long hair and everything… And that damn nightgown, I saw the way you looked at her!" Leslie accuses, turning to Chrissie, "You were falling for her, admit it!"

A loud "What?" came from Nicky, Eli and Sarah. Nicky sounded mildly disturbed, Eli sounded shocked, and Sarah sounded horrified.

"What? Of course not, you're the only person I like," Chrissie says, looking over at Leslie and giving her a smile.

Leslie shakes her head, "Then why were you ignoring me her whole first week? You were paying way more attention to her then you were to me!"

"She was new, I was trying to make her feel welcome," Chrissie explains.

"Liar! You were never that friendly with anyone else!" Leslie accuses.

"It's because she's my roommate," Chrissie says.

"Was, I was your roommate," Nicky says, just wanting to straighten that part out. She was vastly enjoying this little 'lovers quarrel.'

"Leslie, you know you are the only girl for me," Chrissie says, taking her hand but she pulls away.

"Stop it, just stop it!" Leslie says, tears starting.

Nicky leans in close to Natalie, whispering, "Should we just slowly try to walk out?"

"No," Natalie replies, whispering as well, "It'll be over soon."

Chrissie grabs Leslie by the shoulders and kisses her, "You know I love you. No one will ever be able to take me away from you." Leslie hugs Chrissie, kissing her back.

Eli shutters and Nicky mumbles, "And so ends this episode of, 'Our Lesbian School Days.' Please tune in next week for our exciting conclusion." This earns giggles from Eli and Natalie. Luckily the two girls don't notice.

Miss Richards clears her throat and the two girls pull away. "Niccole, what do you think the appropriate punishment would be for these two?" It was obvious that Miss Richards was trying her hardest to hold back her discomfort.

"Suspension for a week and a call home to their parents. I suggest you start their suspension when we come back from break," Nicky suggests. She decided to go easy on the two of them. She knew she shouldn't, but she actually felt sorry for the girls. Miss Richards nods and excuses the other girls, keeping Chrissie and Leslie behind to call their parents.

Nicky sighs as she walks out of the room. Heather walks over and puts a hand on Nicky's shoulder, "Come on, let's go get your things. We can move them into Elizabeth's room."

"Yes!" Eli cheers as they head for Nicky's room. Nicky looks over at Eli as they walk to her room. Heather removes the name tags from the bedroom door as well as the bathroom door as Nicky packs up her things, glad to see her robe was there in the room and undamaged. It takes about half an hour to pack everything up and move Nicky's things into Eli's room. Nicky looks over at Eli as Heather leaves the room. "Uh, so how exactly are you involved in this whole thing?"

Eli grins, "Well, I noticed the first day you were gone that the Chris-Crew was acting weird and that you were gone. I kept an eye on them and noticed Natalie look over at the door near the gate. I went over and saw there was blood, but it started raining and washed the blood away. I was the one who told the Headmistress about it and told her they were acting weird. After that Richards found out the truth. If I hadn't told her, they would have never been caught!" Eli says, sounding proud.

Nicky chuckles, "Well, I guess I owe you a thank you. You really helped me out."

"No problem," Eli says, scratching the back of her head, "So uh, what happened to your neck?"

Nicky shows Eli the bite marks, "I think I was attacked by a vampire." Eli stares at Nicky's neck, mouth open.

"A….? Uh, do you want to go down and get dinner?" Eli says, changing the subject.

"Um, okay?" Nicky says, rewrapping her neck and the two head down to eat. Nicky sits with Eli and her punk looking friends. They were actually pretty cool and accepted Nicky with open arms once Eli tells them Nicky slapped Chrissie and they all cracked up when she told them what Nicky said during the kiss.

Eli's black haired friend laughs, "I always knew there was something weird between those two!"

"Yeah," Eli says, giggling.

Nicky laughs too, "Yeah, and Leslie actually thought Chrissie was falling for me." Nicky shutters, "I am straight, thank you. Not that there's anything wrong with same sex relationships or anything." They continue talking for a while until they all head back to their rooms and getting ready for bed.

"You know, I always knew you were different from the rest of them," Eli says, plopping down on her bed.

"Um, thanks," Nicky says, laying down on her own. Eli grins over at Nicky, shutting off the light and the both of them falling asleep.