Episode 4. As ever, reviews keenly sought.

Eight Legged Geeks

A thin premeditated rig

Another day at school, thought Sarah as she passed through the school gates once more. It was strange, knowing that she was a potentially immortal vampire, who was aware of and protected Whitechapel from the supernatural on a weekly basis, that she still had to go to school, do homework, and, on occasion, even get detention. In many ways, it was a welcome relief. For just a few hours a day, she could be like a normal girl, and forget all about her messed up life. In fact, as she looked around at her classmates, she was probably one of the few people who enjoyed school, with its regularity and routine. That's not to say that she wasn't looking forward to the long summer holiday starting the next week, she mused, surprised at catching herself in such a school-loving mood. She could do without it for a little while. She doubted that she'd get a holiday from the supernatural, though. And she would always be a vampire.

Sighing, she walked into the main corridor and over to her locker. Slightly further down, she could she Ethan's legs, the top half of him being obscured by the door of his locker.

"Hi Ethan," she said.

No reply. She put her bag into her locker and rapped on his open door. "Ethan?"

Startled, he jumped back, and peered round the metal door at her. "Oh, hi, Sarah," he said. "I didn't hear you there." After he'd said it, he stifled a yawn.

She looked at him. There were dark rings under his eyes. "You look tired, Ethan."

He went a little sheepish, though it was hard to tell as it was mostly covered up by another yawn. He blushed. "Well, Benny's been coming over a lot this last week. We, er, rarely get to bed early."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Making up for a lost week, eh?" He smiled guiltily in reply.

"Well, don't make a habit of it. People will start to talk…" With that, she drifted away, laughing to herself, while Ethan just stared back into his locker dully, and yawning yet again. She passed Benny, who looked just as tired, and shook her head, all the while smiling to herself.

"Morning, Benny!" she said, brightly.

He blinked sleepily at her. "Is it…?" He rubbed his drooping eyes, and continued drowsily past her.

Sarah bounced on through the hallway, but came to a disgusted stop when she felt something stick to her face and hair. She rubbed a hand across her head. It came back with trails of cobwebs clinging to it. "Eurgh…" she groaned to herself, flicking as much of the web as she could off her. They really should clean the school more thoroughly, she thought. Maybe there was a little too much winding down before the end of term. Pushing the thought away with a flash of irritation, Sarah walked on to her next class.

Coming in and sitting next to Erica, she was surprised to get on odd look from her friend.

"Where have you been – sleeping in a coffin?" asked Erica. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "There's no need to take being a vampire that seriously."

Sarah frowned. "What's wrong with me?"

Moving her hand over Sarah's hair and clothes, Erica removed a large number of strands of web. She showed them to her. "Where did you get this messy?"

Sarah frowned. "I must have walked through a cobweb…"

"A pretty large one," commented Erica.

"Yeah…" said Sarah, thoughtfully. "I assumed that I'd got most of it out, but, you know, not being able to use a mirror and all…" She trailed off, looking slightly sad.

She was surprised to see Erica with a sympathetic expression on her face. "I know. It's one of the downsides of being a vampire. I'll never know just how fabulous I am." She sighed, and then grinned wickedly. "I suppose, for you, that might be some comfort."

"Hey!" cried Sarah, aggrieved, and punching her friend on the arm. Erica was about to retaliate, but their teacher chose that moment to enter the room.

"Girls!" he said, sternly. "I didn't expect that from you, Sarah." She looked embarrassed.

"Sorry, Mr Hilt." She twisted towards Erica, somewhat theatrically. "Sorry, Erica."

"Good," said their teacher, briskly. His eyes flicked up to Erica's hair. "Erica, why do you have a spider's web in your hair?" At that he headed to the front of the room and began talking about history.

Mortified, Erica picked out the web trying to hide her anger and embarrassment. She was fairly unsuccessful. Under her breath, she hissed:

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't see it, OK?" replied Sarah, shrugging. "Now, shush, as I want to pass this class!"

Erica just glared at her, but kept silent.

At lunch, Sarah headed back to her locker, meeting up with Ethan, Benny, and Rory.

"Hey guys."

"Hi, Sarah," they chorused, Ethan and Benny still somewhat drowsy. Rory, as ever, was bright and enthusiastic. It looked like Ethan was mildly annoyed at that, or would be, had he had the energy.

Rory glanced around. "Is it me, or has the school started decorating for Hallowe'en really early this year?"

"What?" said Benny, a little irritably.

"All those spider webs. Spooky." Rory gestured to the cobwebs hanging down from the ceiling all around the hall.

"Yeah, Rory. Spooky. As if vampires, zombies and ghosts weren't enough, now we have spider webs just to make Whitechapel that little bit creepier," sighed Ethan.

Sarah frowned. "So you've noticed them too, Rory? Erica and I have been picking them off one another all day." She looked at him enquiringly. His eyes seemed to have glazed over.

"Rory!"

He blinked, and looked at her. "What was that you were saying? I lost you after 'Erica'…"

Sarah smiled thinly. "Yeah, I guessed you had. Cobwebs, Rory. There seem to be a lot of them around." She put special emphasis on her next words, looking pointedly at the three boys. "An unusual number. Something that might make you suspicious."

"You don't think…" Ethan grimaced. "Oh, no, not again! I'm sure it's just normal, Sarah!"

"Nothing's ever normal here, Ethan." At that, he shrugged. It was true. He made a face.

"Yeah, but this could be an exception. But not tonight. Please?" He looked imploringly at her with big eyes.

Against her better judgement, Sarah caved in, though even as she did so she couldn't understand why she was doing it. "Fine. I'll leave it alone for now. But if it gets any worse…"

Ethan nodded. "Good."

"Why are you guys so reluctant to investigate, anyway?" she asked.

"Well, Rory's got a new game that he was going to bring over tonight..." Benny trailed off under Sarah's withering look. Both he and Ethan blushed.

"That's all? I'm ignoring something weird so that you three can play video games?"

"You can play, too, if you like…" blurted out Ethan, going crimson as he said it. Benny stared at him in disbelief.

Sarah opened her mouth to refuse, but then caught Ethan's pleading look, and, again, the same feeling came over her. "OK," she said slowly. "Maybe I will. See what all the fuss is about. Say… half past six-ish?"

Ethan nodded, his tongue feeling swollen in his mouth. "Yeah!" he eventually managed to say.

Rory beamed. "It's a date!"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, all four of them suddenly became very awkward, but none more so than Ethan and Sarah. "Er…Um…" spluttered Ethan.

Benny recovered the fastest. Putting a hand on Ethan's shoulder, he steered him away from the lockers. "See you two later, then! Now, we've got to get to class." Walking quickly, they were soon out of sight.

Relieved, Sarah turned to go, leaving a bemused Rory looking at his watch.

"But there's fifteen minutes until the end of lunch break!"

None of them noticed the steady creep of webbing down the walls of the corridor from the ceiling.