Chapter 11: Starting Anew

"Why is this place so beautiful?" Pip asks dreamily, causing three other teens to chuckle, mainly at the expression he's making. The tallest of the four is a male with neck-length light brown hair and blue eyes, the second tallest has unkempt brown hair and lemon yellow eyes, appearing similar to a demonic cat thanks to his pupils, and the last standing at Pip's height has silver hair and golden brown eyes. Their names are Allen Johnson, Adam Evergreen, and Carl Cloud, they are all sophomores Pip met in his second period class.

The four teens are standing in the cafeteria near the upper center where there are four stainless steel buffet counters lined horizontally down the cafeteria, the last one ending next a soda dispenser machine that is positioned by the entrance. There is also a drink machine next to the soda dispenser's left for those that want other beverages instead of just soda.

This is Pip's third time in here, and he can never get enough of it's eye-capturing appearance ever since this morning when he stepped in with Kyle, Gregory, and Ike for breakfast. Pip then learned that the cafeteria changes colors during the time of day, witnessing the switch himself this afternoon which left him in great shock and wonder. Although he wished Kyle could've told him about it, but he assumed the redhead wanted to leave it as a secret.

Like for example: this morning's colors were red, black, and white. During lunch, it was orange, grey, and black. And now it's purple, black, and white. So that just leaves tonight's colors, and Pip can't wait to see them. He also can't help but think that black is the school's favorite color. But even though it's a dark, depressing sort of shade, it actually went pretty well here he concludes.

The lunchroom expands farther down along with six rows of single long purple clothed tables lining from left and right, stopping a couple of feet away from a stage with black curtains. On top of the tables sit flowers of different kinds in clear vases with half-filled water, separate black and white dining chairs lining each side in neat fashion. The creamy white ceramic tile floors are spotless of any leftover crumbs from meals, spills from drinks, dirt from shoes, pretty much from anything. There are two Gothic Victorian chandelier's hanging on the left and right, brightening every aspect of the cafeteria. The front of the spacious room ends with the buffet counter area, the three navy blue double doors behind them closed but you can hear the chefs working away in there in preparation for dinner, drowning out the heavy rain occurring outside. The cooks had already laid out enough snacks to feed three families, but not many people are inside, only about twenty or twenty-five at this moment. The cooks prepare four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, evening snacks, and dinner.

The group heads to the counter closest to them. "Are you all positive no one changes the colors themselves?" Pip asks his friends, wondering greatly how it's possible to change the colors in a room so big in such a unimaginative amount of time.

Allen shrugs, turning around halfway with a playful grin on his lips. They stop behind a line with four people, the other side has six. "Who knows, maybe the school changes them itself," he jokes. Pip gasps at the thought, imagining the building mysteriously redecorating itself when people weren't inside the cafeteria. It honestly doesn't sound crazy to him, and he would like to blame the existence of vampires for that.

Adam shakes his head, they move up some after one person leaves, Carl pulling Pip since he's still daydreaming. "It's the janitors who change the colors. If the school did do that, then it wouldn't just change the cafeteria. The janitors change the colors everyday except weekends so you can expect to see nearly every color here." Allen turns back around to playfully flip him off, Pip snapping out of his fantasizing.

"Oh, but why?" He asks, covering up his disappointment with curiosity.

Allen opens his mouth to answer, but Adam beats him to it, knowing the other was going to joke again. "Because Ms. Biggle wanted it that way, saying she's tired of seeing red, black, and white all the time."

Allen rolls his eyes and faces forward, moving up again as the student before them and one more person picks out the snack of their choice then leaves. They wait for the last person in front of them. "Adam dude, you're no fun," Allen complains. "You're supposed to joke about it, then tell him the truth."

Adam snorts. "Yeah, whatever you say."

They wait only a few more seconds until the other person in front of them leaves. The four teens move up and look at the snacks laid out on the stainless steel bar, Pip's eyes sparkling at he scans the variety. The food ranges from sandwiches, salads, wings of different flavors, pizza, and side dishes such as sweet potatoe fries, regular french fries, and tortilla chips with different dips, and etc.

"Oh my...they all look so good!" Pip practically has heart-shaped pupils, finding it difficult to choose which mouthwatering snack he wants. He's never seen such delicious diversity before, the food back at South Park High is nothing compared to this, far from it even. "I love it here already!"

"Pip hurry up, you're holding up the line," he hears Carl say, snapping him out of his daze.

Pip looks behind him to see five grumpy people grumbling impatiently for him to grab his food and go. The British teen sweatdrops and chuckles nervously, facing forward and grabbing a bowl of salad. "S-sorry," he says sheepishly, grabbing a fork and some dressing before joining his friends.

Allen laughs at his embarrassed face and pats his back with his free hand, his other hand balancing a plate with two slices of buffalo chicken pizza and some wings. "Are you that obsessed with food?" He teases as they walk to the drink machine, Adam with a wrapped up sandwich and Carl empty-handed.

Pip could feel his cheeks burning up in further embarrassment as he shakes his head no. He reacted the same way during breakfast and lunch, not only was the cafeteria beautiful, but the food added additional points and he couldn't help himself. He usually sees appetizing food on television, and last recalls eating some back in England, but that was years ago. It actually feels refreshing to have such fine dining food back into his life.

But that leaves him with a question...

"Can I ask you all something?" Pip says, the group stopping by the machine. Carl is the first to go, scanning the juices, sodas, and water that are inside before settling on a bottle of water. Getting a beverage from the machine is free, which Pip is really glad for since he didn't bring any money with him here. When he asked Kyle this morning about it, all the redhead informed him was that the school had enough money and didn't need anymore from the students and teachers. Pip of course found it odd, but didn't say anything more, leaving it at that.

"Sure what is it?" Adam says, going next. He presses a button on the pad, then his bottle of soda is roughly dispensed into the hole appropriately shaped like a bottle that's on the lower right hand side. He grabs it with a sigh. "I hate when it does that," he mumbles, standing beside Pip.

"Yeah cuz last time it exploded in your face when you opened it," Allen chuckles with Pip and Carl joining him.

"Shut up," Adam says, giving them a lighthearted glare. "Anyway Pip what's your question?"

Allen goes next to get his drink. "Oh right, well actually it's more of a theory, but I thought that vampires only survived off of blood?"

Adam and Carl stare at him silently, Allen doing the same after he grabs his soda. Pip eyes them back with a feeling that he'd just asked a forbidden question, taking their uneasy silent staring as such. He can feel a nervous drop of sweat forming at the edge of his hairline. "U-umm forget I-" He tries to say, but the three teens suddenly start laughing. Pip appears taken aback, not sure what part of his earlier sentence was comical enough to make them laugh. "What's so funny?"

The three laugh for a few more seconds, reducing to light chuckles before stopping altogether, Allen pretending to wipe a tear away with his finger from the hand holding his drink. "Dude, where did you even get that idea from?" Carl asks, a small goofy smile on his lips though his face is impassive looking.

"Hold on, I know," Allen interjects. "From t.v shows and movies right?" He assumes, stifling a laugh.

Once again, Pip blushes in embarrassment, causing Allen to burst into laughter again while Adam and Carl shake their heads. "Humans are so gullible when it comes to the supernatural, they'll believe anything on t.v," Adam comments amusingly.

Pip gives them a hurtful glare. "Well excuse me for believing my own kind then," he retorts, slightly angry.

"Calm down, no need to get mad," Carl says coolly. "But to answer your question, we don't just live off of blood. As you can see we eat and drink what you humans consume."

Adam nods in agreement. "Right, and we have been for the past...I don't know, hundreds of years?"

"Probably," Carl shrugs. "So was that all you wanted to know?" He asks Pip.

The blonde nods his head, losing his glare while doing so. In truth, he actually has more questions, but to save himself from anymore humiliation, he opts not to ask. Well not to these guys anyway.

"C'mon let's eat, I'm starving," Allen declares, heading to a table with Carl and Adam following.

"Hold on, I'll be right there," Pip tells them, taking his turn at the drink machine.

He stares into the plastic glass, trying to appear like he's deciding on what drink to get when in actuality, he's recalling of the time he's having here thus far. He excludes the part about what happened with Craig and his two boyfriends and Tweek, whom he might check on later, but so far he likes this school. Truly likes it. Unlike his time in South Park where he didn't have any friends, let alone had anyone who liked him, he's already made friends here in his first week at a new school. He was right to accept to this change, even though in the beginning when he and the others found out this school's true nature he had his doubts, but it later turned out to be for nothing.

The vampires he's met so far were friendly, excluding Craig and his boyfriends. His first week is going smoothly, and he hopes it lasts that way.

"I really do love it here." He pushes a random button on the pad.

But sadly for Pip, he should know good things never last long.

(A/n: Yeah, I'm not proud of this chapter, and not because it's short, my food choices were so poor ugh. But am I the only one who pictures Pip being OOC over food? Yeaah, I blame my anime mindset lol I hope you enjoyed and the next chapter will be up soon)