Disclaimer: I do not own Night World but I do own Luke and Karla. :)

The bunch of girls swarming around Luke blatantly ignored Karla as though she was nonexistent. She was pushed out of the way roughly, but Luke's hand grabbed hers and she was pulled to his side again.

"Hey, Luke! You are here!" Abby exclaimed loudly. "Let me through, girls."

They shuffled to the side to let the queen through. Either they were awed by her presence, or they were afraid of being the victim of bullying.

"I was waiting for you." She stood close to him, obviously hoping that he would do a double take of her. She was wearing a V-neck blouse and denim shorts that showed her cleavage and toned thighs. The guys sitting on the sofa were eyeing her.

Karla resisted the impulse to roll her eyes.

But instead of doing what Abby thought he would, Luke just scanned the house and said, "nice house, Abby. I have a feeling that this party will be great. Right, Karla?" He looked at her and winked.

Oh crap.

The girls scowled instantly as they were forced to acknowledge her existence. Abby, who acted like she finally noticed her, turned and plastered a fake smile on her face.

"Hi, Karla. I didn't see you there. Who invited you?" she asked, trying to sound nonchalantly.

Luke spoke up first before Karla did. "Me. The more, the merrier, yes?"

The girls around them nodded their heads as though they were under his irresistible charming spell. Karla was pretty sure that they would agree to whatever he said.

"Haha! Come on, let's get you a drink." Abby went back to speaking to Luke only, deliberately ignoring Karla.

She hooked her arm around his and tried to pull him towards the kitchen. Karla didn't even need to guess that Abby wanted him for herself. But Luke was stubbornly holding on to her hand! So, it ended up all three of them headed to the kitchen together, earning livid looks from the rest of the girls.

Abby smiled and handed a cocktail to Luke. And when he wasn't looking, she threw a dirty don't-mess-with-me look at Karla.

Karla remained calm and gestured towards Luke with a you-can-have-him-if-he-is-interested-in-you look. This made Abby even angrier, looking as though she was slapped in the face. Probably no one has ever defy her before, and Karla was the first one.

"You are making an ugly expression on your pretty face, Abby. Coke, Karla?" Luke asked as he passed her a Diet-coke. Cheeks turning beet red, Abby tried to hide her embarrassment by dragging Luke off to find Tiffany and Brittany.

"Wait here, let me get rid of her," he whispered into Karla's ear. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna do anything else." She shot him a warning look before nodding her head.

Left alone, Karla sipped her Diet-coke. Most of the people were in the living room were dancing along to the music. She surveyed the crowd carefully. Thankfully, it seemed that the only Night World people in the house were her and Luke.

"Karla!"

She turned around and smiled at the person who called her. "Hey, Jordan!"

Jordan was her classmate in history class. A cute boy with blue eyes and dimples, he was pretty popular among the girls too. The first time he spoke to her was when she had just enrolled into the school as a new student. Ever since then, he was always so cheerful and kind towards her.

"I can't believe you're here! You don't always come to parties before."

She shrugged. "I figured that I needed a change. Partying isn't that bad after all."

He grinned at her and jerked a finger at the back door. "Do you want to head outside? There's a lot of food on the table."

"Sure, I'm a little hungry."

He led her out of the house to the backyard where there was a long table cramped with food-pizza, fries, chicken wings, salad, chips and many more. Abby had even hired people to cook food at a barbecue pit and serve them.

Did she own a company that prints money? Maybe, judging by how overwhelming the welcome party was and how much she wanted to impress Luke.

Jordan took a bowl and filled it with chips and fries. They sat on an empty bench and watched someone, whom she thought was called Mike, play a guitar. Some people joined in and started singing along.

A couple of guys waved at Jordan. He waved back and held out the bowl towards her. Muttering back a "thank you", she took some fries.

"So, what do you usually do after school?" he asked.

"Nothing much. I'll just be lazing around the house or completing assignments," she answered. And killing vampires at night. "How about you? You're on the school's basketball team, right?"

He nodded excitedly. "Yeah, there's a match two weeks later. Everyone's hyped up about it. Are you coming to cheer for us?"

"Hmm...maybe. I hope I'll be free on that day."

"Great! I would love to see you there." He beamed at her and rested his elbow on the bench behind her. "Hey, listen."

"Yep?"

He hesitated a little before speaking. "Are you going out with anyone?"

"Nope." She shook her head and he looked relieved.

She was confused. Why did he ask her such a weird question? But she has a feeling that she knew where this conversation was heading towards...

"I was wondering if you wanna, you know, hang out or something? We can have dinner together on Friday evening, just the two of us." He looked a little embarrassed. His ears turned pink slightly.

"Hmm...like a date?"

"Yeah."

She froze up. Jordan likes me?

Thank you for the reviews! I'm so happy that you guys love it! *hugs* I think you'll probably guess what's gonna happen next, though. No spoilers from me. XP

Don't forget to review, okay? :D