Chapter IX: Lessons

Cassi's POV

Giant, metal bird. That was how I would describe an airplane. They were huge! And they were all different sizes, and colors (mostly mainly white), and they were all unique. Not a single one seemed to be exactly the same, even if they were meant to be that way. I stared at them through the windows until Aunya grabbed my hand and pulled me to a bathroom.

"We need to change your contacts. They'll start to dissolve soon." I nodded and let her do that. I hated the contacts. They were full of scratches and tiny faults that annoyed my eyes. They also turned the red of my eyes to a murky brown. "When's the last time you've fed?" Aunya asked, interrupting my whining thoughts.

"About a week ago. I little over. Why?"

"Your eyes are getting dark. We'll feed when we get to America."

"Oh, I don't need to. I can make it at least a week longer." She looked down at me disapprovingly.

"You're going to be surrounded by humans everywhere we go. Let's not risk it, alright, sweetheart?" I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. I didn't want to have my decisions made for me, but I didn't argue. At least she wasn't like Garret who had made me feed every week, simply so I'd get used to killing people. Of course, I was over that, wasn't I? Sure, I was picky about my victims, but that was only proper, wasn't it? I wondered if Aunya chose her victims carefully, or if she, like most vampires, just pounced upon whomever she came across first. I didn't bother to ask for fear that I wouldn't like the answer.

"Why are we going to be surrounded all the time?" I asked instead.

"I have some important business in some very important places. It won't be like this, with a thousand strangers, we'll know everybody there after a day or two."

"How long are we going to be there?"

"A couple of months, maybe. It depends, really."

"On what?" I heard her sigh softly.

"At least you know how to ask questions." She looked down at me. "How about I tell you all about it once we get on the plane. And then you can spend the rest of the time thinking about whether or not you want to learn everything else." I nodded and she took me into a line full of mostly irritable humans. They didn't seem to be pleased with how long it was taking. Of course, I couldn't see why. It was merely a minor inconvenience, at least, to me it was. I had spent more time trying to read a map. Which I failed at, of course.

We finally got to a couple of men in uniforms and some weird doorway without a door. "Are you wearing any jewelry, Cassi?" Aunya asked. I nodded. "Take it off and put it in that plastic bin, along with your shows. I did and she did too. Then we walked through the doorway and got our stuff back. After they put it through some weird machine on a moving counter. Aunya watched me put my shoes on and then asked, "Who taught you to tie your shoes?"

"The people who showed me shoes, of course. They bought me my first pair but I wore those out and got new ones. Why?"

"You tie them weird, but whatever works, I guess." And then we walked down a hallway to a weird enclosure that went downhill, and into the body of the beast. Chairs filled the inside of the airplane; they were small but seemed as good as any other chair. Aunya led me to our seats and we sat down, she even gave me the one closest the window.

"Why didn't we get your black suitcase back too?" I wondered, remembering how she had dropped it off somewhere else.

"Oh, we'll get that back when we get to America. The airline is keeping it safe for us." I bobbed my head up and down, although I still didn't understand why or what the "airline" had to do with anything. I just kept my mouth shut and peered out the window. We weren't up in the air yet, just sitting on the ground as other people filed in. I couldn't wait till we were flying!

A voice came out in the air a while later, saying we were about to take off. I buckled my seatbelt, just like everybody else, and then sat in silent excitement. Flying was amazing! I could barely tear my eyes away from the window, looking at the sky and freedom, long enough to find out why we were even going to America.

"I'm an actress," Aunya started. "I play in movies and television shows and plays to earn money and help blend in as a human. I haven't been doing it long, and I'm constantly doing it in different countries, trying to hide the fact that I'm not aging. No one has noticed so far." She then explained how she was going to go film a movie, and then explained to me what a movie was, aghast that I had never seen one. She had so much to tell me about just one subject, I couldn't imagine all the other things she wanted me to know. All the other things I craved to know. Could she teach me how to read and write? Could I finally read a map and talk different languages? Could she help me to understand big words and figure out what "You need to enhance your vocabulary" means? Would she? Even if I didn't want to know everything else?

I kept asking her questions, like what the faceless voice was, and why we had to take off our shoes and jewelry. She told me about 9/11 and how, in order to enter the United States (a country in the New World) by airplane, you had to do things like that. I couldn't believe that so many people had died. I asked why it happened and then she told me about wars and then I asked more about wars. It went on and on, so much information I had never known and it was all slipping in as easily as blood poured down my throat. I wanted to know so much, and yet the ride in the air didn't last nearly long enough.

"Welcome to Los Angeles, Cassi," Aunya said as we stepped out of the airport with her suitcase. I looked at around at all the cars and people everywhere. It looked a lot like the airport we had left hours ago. I didn't bother to mention that as she started trying to get a "taxi", whatever that was. Finally, a yellow car pulled up in front of us. Aunya put her bag in the rectangle on the back of the car, and we got into the back seat. Aunya told the man driving where to go.

I had only been in a car once before, and that one had more seats then this once. It had seat in between the ones me and Aunya were sitting in and where the driver was sitting. The family had called it a minivan. Although, I didn't see it as being very "mini" at all. I stayed silent through out the trip, which was super long, and got out when Aunya directed me to. She gave the man green paper, money, I think and then he left. She took my hand and pulled me into an ugly, reddish-brown, brick building. She went up to a woman standing behind a desk.

"I need the key for room 203, please," Aunya said. The woman nodded and dug through a drawer to pull out a small, silver key. She handed it to Aunya. "Come on, Cassi," she said, drawing my attention from the window I had been looking through. Los Angeles was ugly compared to where Aunya lived. It hardly had any trees that I had seen and there were lots of ugly buildings just like ours. Gray roads were everywhere with tons of those small, yellow cars running around. There were other buildings, too; tall ones with lots and lots of windows. They looked like a single gust of wind could send them crashing to the ground.

"I don't like it here," I told Aunya as she unlocked the door to out room. She turned to me and gave me a half smile.

"I didn't think you would much. Nothing really to do for someone who's used to being in forests all the time. But you'll enjoy being on set, I'm sure. And they do have a couple of parks you can walk in. Not too far from here is a great place to hike but we'll be in the city most of the time. It's a very busy and safe place." I nodded although I couldn't really see myself enjoying anything but being able to learn from Aunya. I knew she had tons to tell me and I was actually excited to learn. I didn't want to be stupid anymore.

We strolled into a small living room compared to the one at Aunya's house. It was about average compared to some other homes I had been in. It had wooden flooring, a couch, two chairs, a short table, and a T.V. stand with a T.V. on it. I helped Aunya pull her bag into a bedroom down the hall. She put it on the bed and started unpacking clothes and jewelry. She shoved them into the dresser next to the bed.

"You have a lot of clothes. And shoes," I added as she got the bottom of the suitcase. She laughed softly.

"No, Cassi. You just never had enough. Humans change clothes everyday, Cassi. And lots of people have several different pairs of shoes too. Women are known for having jewelry to go with every outfit, but I think you're set with that little cross of yours." I stared up at her in disbelief.

"Really? But I never had lots of clothes when I was human!" Aunya glanced at me.

"You remember that?"

"Well, I wore the same dress for a century afterwards too, so, yeah, I remember that."

"Weren't you an orphan or something like that? That's why you didn't have lots of clothes. I'm sure other children in your village changed clothes everyday. Though, in that time, I don't think anybody but kings and nobles had lots of clothing to wear." I shrugged my shoulders. I had stayed in the woods after I was changed and I never left my village when I was human, not that I would remember much even if I had.

"Why don't we remember our human lives as well as we remember our vampire lives?" I asked as we walked to the bathroom to put her make-up kit away, she had told me what everything was back at her house.

"Because we had lower senses and a less complex brain as humans. Our synapses weren't nearly as well maintained and so the majority of our human memories were lost while we were humans." I stared at her as if she was speaking Greek, which was highly possible.

"What are synapses?" Aunya sighed and strolled to the living room. She sat down on the catch and beckoned me to join her.

"Synapses are little links and your brain that let you reach your memories, or let you remember things, for lack of a better explanation. Technically, you have all your memories from the moment you were conceived, you just don't have any synapses to get to them."

"I'm hopeless, aren't I?" I muttered, putting my head in my hands.

"No. Why would you say that?"

"What does 'conceived' mean?"

"The moment you were conceived is the moment in which your mother became pregnant."

"Pregnant?"

"When a woman has a little baby in her womb, our stomach, to keep things simple."

"Do you mean that babies come from inside of women?"

"Yes, Cassi. That's exactly where babies come from. Have you ever heard of sex?" I shook my head. She just laughed. "Alright. Well, I'll explain that some other time. Have you ever seen woman that are really fat, and then one day they're caring around a baby?"

"Yeah."

"When they woman is fat, she's pregnant. Then, after she gives birth to the baby, or gets it out of her, she's not anymore. Now, that doesn't mean all fat people are pregnant. With enough experience you'll see the difference easily."

"Can boys be pregnant?"

"No. I'll explain why later. And vampires can't get pregnant either because we can change our bodies to let the baby grow." I nodded, starting to understand this concept of pregnancy better. I wondered if that was a word. "Yes. Good thinking, Cassi," Aunya answered when I asked. "Here, I have an idea. Just wait one moment." She left the living room and came back with a piece of paper and a pen. She wrote a neat, little list all the way down one side of the paper and handed it to me.

"Circle the three subjects you want to know the most about, and I'll start there. Then I can teach you other things, maybe even put you into school one day." I looked down at the list, for some reason expecting all the jumbles of lines and curves to suddenly make sense. I waited, staring at everything, only to find that it still was just gibberish.

"Aunya, I think we should start with teaching me how to read." She peered at me in utter disbelief.

"You don't know how to read?" I shook my head, becoming upset with my own stupidity. She gave me a half smile. "That's okay. It's not your fault." She scooped up the list and left again. This time she came back with a huge book of blank paper and sat down next to me. "I think you're right, Cassi. We should start with reading." She scribbled down a single shape. "Now, this letter is 'a'. It makes the 'ah' sound…"

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