Chapter Six

The class was in utter chaos. Most of the students were absorbedly conversing with each other, barely aware that they were in a classroom at all. The teacher begged and slammed a metre ruler against the blackboard for silence, to no avail. As she was about to give up, she looked pleadingly at the quieter pupils at the front. Jade decided that enough was enough and stood up. She trilled a note so high that later, everyone swore could have shattered glass.

The effect was immediate. The formerly noisy class fell into a hush that seemed to have been there right from the start.

"Thank you Jade. As I was just trying to say," said the teacher, "You have a test…next Monday."

Now not only were they silenced, but some of them came close to fainting. 

"…but Mrs Bunsen," began half the shocked students.

"Those of you who have been consistent with your work will I'm sure, have no problems. However those of you who haven't probably would."

Shiromy rubbed at her aching temples, wondering why the school would be so cruel as to put them through exam torture in the sixth week of term. She stared hard at her open book, wishing the electrochemical cell would just reduce her…because not only has Jesse taken a seat behind her where he could comfortably drill his eyes on her back, but was most irritatingly stroking her ankle like it was something he would do everyday.

Losing her patience, she whirled around to face him.

"Will you stop it!" she hissed furiously, staring daggers into his bemused green eyes.

"…Shiromy, could you tell us the answer to question twenty- two please?" asked the teacher, narrowing her eyes.

"I, I'm not…up to that yet, Mrs Bunsen," she stammered, turning around quickly with a sheepish smile on her face.

"Don't worry Mrs Bunsen, she was helping me with question twenty- one," explained Jesse calmly.

"Alright Mr Ingram. Shiromy, you may assist your peers, but I fully expect you to keep up with your own work."

Shiromy briefly gave her 'peer' a hidden finger, but she pulled her chair in sharply when his only reaction was to give her ankle some final taps.

As she was relaxing at the mall after school with Jade and Philomena, her mobile phone unexpectedly started chiming 'Clocks' cheerfully. Passer-bys hummed the tune as they walked past.

"Romy, your mobile," indicated Jade, before its owner could realise that it was her own phone that was ringing.

"A message," she announced. That was strange. No- one except her three best friends and guardian Merryl knew her number, and why would Sanjo message her at this time? "It must be from Merryl," she decided.

"Who from?" inquired her friends.

"Dunno…"

"Question 21: Anyone seen Garson's fangs lying around? We have checked lost property…" they read.

"Oh it's that…that," she spluttered over her friends' badly smothered giggles. "It's not even funny; what're you laughing for? How did he get my number anyway?"

"Sanjo," said Philomena before she could stop herself.

"Oh him, he'll pay for this," she growled menacingly, waving her mobile around like a sword. She was about to return it to her bag when she thought of something.

"A comeback," she muttered, as her friends groaned.

'Answer to Q 21: Check her mouth. You are sure to get an instant reward for finding them.'

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Jesse smiled as he read the message. He understood that she would be enraged to find out that he had her number. He just hoped that she wouldn't strangle poor Sanjo for it.

"It's so ironic," he contemplated, "how she could be one of Sanjo's best buddies and have his best friend for her worst enemy at the same time."

After all she had hated him from the very beginning…

It was the first day of primary school and six- year old Jesse did not feel the slightest apprehension. He marched into the classroom proudly, feeling quite old. He sat next to a quiet, tall Asian boy who grinned at him.

"I'm going to have lots of friends," he decided, smiling back and surveying the room and its contents. He did not even bat an eyelid when the boy in front of him flashed his fangs at him.

So you're a Nightworlder. *Wowie* he replied, making a face at a now pale vampire.

"I don't wanna go! I don't wanna go, Phillie! It's too scary! Where's Merr?" wailed a voice that was coming from the door. He stared at what seemed like a humanoid golliwog was being half carried into the room by a blonde girl half her height.

"It's okay Romy, it's okay," soothed the girl called 'Phillie'. She smiled wearily at Jesse, seating her visibly shaking friend next to him.

"Ohhh! What a *baby*!" he sniggered at Romy, laughing. The rest of the class stared at the trembling girl whose face crumpled at once.

"I don't wanna sit next to this nasty boy," she whimpered before her hands covered her face. She bawled loudly and was immediately led to the opposite side of the classroom by her friend.

Jesse glanced at the boy who had smiled at him. He was gazing solemnly at the crying girl.

"That wasn't very nice," he said, frowning.

"It was just a joke…really," protested Jesse.

As the teacher arrived, Jesse hoped that the boy would still want to be friends…

"Then things got worse," he thought desolately, reclining on his bed and swigging a Coke. "Thanks to myself…"

"Was it plain bad luck or did she deliberately go and make the choice?" he speculated, looking intently at twelve- year old Shiromy who hesitantly stepped into the cafeteria. She was wearing a humungous pair of spectacles that nearly covered her whole face, giving her the appearance of an old lady. Sanjo looked away embarrassedly as Jesse and his other friends guffawed at his friend.

Seeing this, Shiromy hastily snatched off her new glasses and hid behind Jade and Philomena. Why did things have to be like this? As soon as Jesse and his gang made fun of her, so did the rest of the grade, save her friends. Her enemy nodded back, still laughing, when she gave him a steady death- stare.

For most part of that year, he went on taunting her more than ever. He did not intend to give her such a hard time; only he loved to see her fume. It was all just a harmless game,

Until one day…

She hurried away from class, scolding herself. It was her own fault anyway- she had been reading the entire works of Tolkien when she was supposed to be doing her homework. Consequently, Ingram the Evil still topped the class while she dwindled in the middle.

The real reason why she was almost running was because she *truly* wasn't in the mood for his antics today. She wanted to avoid him mock, scoff and snicker, so she had to go the long way to the bus- stop, where she could meet Jade and Phil.

She sprinted past the corridors and sneaked into the quadrangle, her heavy bag making her back ache a little.

Too late.

There he was, with than maddening smirk on his face and gleam in his eyes like he was about to be given extra pocket money.

"Feisty Garsy, think you're too good to be my *friend*?" he drawled, glancing at Blayde Dashward, one of his irksome sidekicks. "Giving us the slip eh?" he said, hands in pockets, slowly circling her like a predator.

"Get lost, get lost," was all she could manage since her head was simmering with dislike of her rival.

Meanwhile a small crowd of students had gathered around them, eager to see how it would go on.

"Don't you think you should pull up your socks a little higher? I've noticed how they don't *quite* reach your knees as usual," crooned Jesse, inspecting her legs carefully. This was about the fiftieth time he'd said that. "Anyway, you're going to study hard tonight with those nice huge glasses, aren't you?" Another one.

"You've said those things over and over. Don't you think you should get some new ones?" she spat, burning with fury and humiliation.

His eyes twinkled excitedly and he leaned closer to her. "Well how about this one Garsy?"

…And he whispered something in her ear fit enough to boil her blood.

Shiromy's eyes widened in initial surprise then hate, and she growled instinctively, feeling her nails dig into her palms. With a sudden lurch, she grabbed him roughly by the collar with both hands, lifting him some inches off the ground. As the now large crowd chanted 'fight, fight' infectiously, she slammed his back against the wall.

"Thanks for letting me know about that, you creep. From now onwards, if you say another thing, if…if you don't leave me alone, I'll kill you. I *swear* I will." She breathed heavily on him, sweat trickling down her dark face. He gaped at her dazedly, wishing he hadn't taken things this far. Now she would *really* hate him.

Suddenly the tension between them seemed to manifest itself physically, for Jesse felt something stinging at his throat. He looked down at her hands, which were gradually decreasing in their hold on him. He stared at her uneasily as a fuzzy haze started to grow between them; within them. Shiromy let go of him at once, looking stunned. He tumbled onto the floor and gasped in pain.

"What did you just do?" he asked shakily, trying to look apologetic through it all. He realised that it was nothing that had come from her, because she seemed as dumbfounded as him.

"Don't know and don't care," gulped Shiromy, turning away. She looked at the equally confused crowd for a second and walked away, leaving Jesse to guess at whatever just occurred…

Afterwards, he had continued to tease her, if not in the same way as before, in others. She in turn, would steer the game in her own direction, avenging him as best as she could. She had put a pin on his chair once, and constantly reminded him of what she was capable of. There had been numerous other tricks besides, but he had always won in the end.

"At least that's what she thinks," he thought grimly, crushing the empty can.

Unfortunately, he had grown to love her as much as she despised him. Every little bit of the game that he had won merely made him feel more crushed, not victorious. And no- one knew. Not his friends and not even her. He remembered her once more, as she had appeared at breaking point. Those eyes- flaming and dilated, with the primal but ethereal beauty of a lamia.

"No, I don't stand a chance now, and I don't deserve to," he thought angrily. "Not after I put her through and told her the horrible truth she should never have known. I've made an eternal enemy out of someone I'm meant to be with."

Because deep down, he knew what had happened that day…

A/N: Thanks to C.M (you know who you are!) for letting me borrow your life for a particular part of this chapter!

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