The young Saturnyn, now twelve, was to have a life that was as normal as possible. And to allow her to learn about humanity, she was to be enrolled in education. It wasn't an easy task to convince her to go, but with a little work - and bribery - she agreed to go.

It wasn't as difficult as she thought it would be; the place catered to both humans and any other species that wished to attend. The reason being that it was in the middle of an area where both mixed, and talked to each other on a daily basis, so everyone that worked there had a good idea of what each student needed.

Now half a year on, Lorenza was sitting inside the library of the school she had to go to every day, carefully placing flower shaped pins into her hair, and fidgeting with them. She was bored, looking at people going past, waiting for the staff member that was supposed to stay with her during the day, to help her understand her classes.

"Morning!" Sam, the staff member in question, greeted her as they walked in. Sam was a human, and if you'd asked Lorenza to describe them, she would have said that they had yellow...no, blond, she thought, hair tied into a bun on their head, and their eyes were a very light grey, almost white. She didn't know a word for the exact colour though. They looked more like an older student than one of the teachers, the only thing distinguishing them being a staff badge. They sat on the chair opposite her, and set to work on a laptop.

Sam themself was told in advance about everything to do with Lorenza. They were very friendly with her, and patient too. She was happy to have a new friend, even if it was just assisting her with reading and writing. Mostly writing. To their surprise, she had a relatively stable grasp of the spoken language. It wasn't being translated, either. They knew that Lorenza had some kind of technology, but it was made expressly clear that a translator wasn't part of it.

Lorenza, in the meantime, was wistfully watching rain droplets as they became a cascade outside the window. As much as she wanted to, she wasn't allowed to stand outside in it when it was like this. Sam kept telling her that she'd catch a cold if she did that. To her, however, it would be easier than having to drink from a large water bottle that was almost too heavy to carry.

She kept watching as other students walked in, a wide spectrum of humans and non-humans. Some were also sitting down in the library chatting to each other while finishing homework that they had left to the last minute. She understood the feeling.

A student that she was partially certain was in her lessons gave her an acknowledging wave as she passed by. Lorenza waved back but didn't exactly talk. Neither were on speaking terms yet, although it wasn't that they didn't like each other, no. It was just that Lorenza didn't know where to begin with a conversation. She had tried a few times before, but didn't have the right words yet because they always seemed to elude her exactly when she needed them.

The girl said hello to Sam as well since everyone from her year group knew who they were, their help wasn't exclusive to just Lorenza after all, and had planned to walk straight past, but had another idea, stopping and turning back to look at both of them.

"Sam, can I talk to her or…"

"Sure, I don't see why not." They smiled, "Are you okay with Amelia sitting with you for a bit?" They turned to Lorenza, who quietly said yes. Sam made the excuse that they had to do something while the two talked, wanting to see how Lorenza did while they weren't there.

"So, how are you? I've seen you around but you always looked busy." Amelia asked, with a friendly face. It was enough to get the Saturnyn to say something in return.

"I'm fine. I look busy because I am." Lorenza side-eyed a short stack of books on the table, "I have a lot of work to do." She scrunched up her mouth in slight annoyance, "The teacher keeps giving me handwriting homework."

The girl laughed behind her hand, trying to pretend she wasn't. She found Lorenza's angry face hilarious. It seemed that most people couldn't take her seriously when she was frustrated. Her new friend included.

"I wondered what work they give a, uh, what species are you, again?"

"I'm a vampire." Lorenza said, holding her sleeves over her mouth, playing along with the idea that she was, in fact, a supernatural being and not a creature from another world.

"A vampire...that drinks water and not blood?"

"A vampire that drinks water and not blood!" Lorenza seemed to be getting overly-excited about it. She was giggling to herself, "I'm not actually a vampire, but I have very sharp teeth, and you can't see me in a mirror."

"So basically a vampire."

"Well, no. I'm actually more like a, um, what is it called...It has a shell, and a tail, and claws."

"A lobster?" Amelia suggested, causing Lorenza's eyes to light up.

"Yes! A lobster!"

The answer prompted her to scribble a simple picture of what she actually looked like on a bit of scrap paper. It got the point across, if not in much detail.

"Right. Wait, is that why you have so much water with you? Are you supposed to be, like, underwater or something?"

"Yeah. But as long as I have something to drink, I should be okay. I'm not allowed to be outside in the rain anymore after Sam caught me standing in it when I was supposed to be in class."

"Actually I can believe that. To be honest, I think I was watching when it happened."

Lorenza slid over a worksheet, attempting to hide a slight embarrassed look about it, and attempted to complete it. At the same time, Sam walked back over, a mug of tea in their hand and a stapled workbook under the other arm. They chatted with Amelia for a while - mostly Amelia's protests about not being able to get tea like the teachers could. Sam suggested that she could just bring her own but it apparently wasn't the answer she was looking for.

Neither of them could see her smile as she went through her papers, looking downwards, pretending that she was focusing. Lorenza supposed that she could call the human girl her friend, since she had got her to talk for longer than she'd probably held a conversation of any kind with anyone else. And that was just fine with her.