Laila Warner screamed. 'OH MY GOD!!! WHAT IS THAT!?!'
She was stood in front of the mirror in the girls' bathroom, staring at her reflection in absolute horror. There on her forehead was a huge red, angry looking blister.
'You mean that thing on your head?' her friend Charlene asked, trying not to smirk as she applied a coat of lip gloss.
'Yes! Why didn't you tell me about it?'
Charlene shrugged her shoulders, 'I thought you knew it was there.'
'Are you crazy!?' Laila screeched. 'Do you really think I would be walking around, talking to people, laughing and joking, if I knew I had this… this repulsive thing on my face? Ewww!'
'Wasn't it there when you woke up this morning?' Charlene asked
'No!'
'Actually,' chimed in a timid voice from the other end of the bathroom. 'I think it just kind of appeared during French class.'
Laila and Charlene spun around to look at the girl. The voice belonged to a girl named Laura who sat a few seats away from Laila in French.
'It wasn't there when the class started,' Laura mumbled. 'But when you got up to leave, it was.'
Laila turned back to Charlene. 'This is so gross! Do you have any concealer?'
Charlene let out a short laugh. 'No amount of concealer is going to cover that baby up!'
'What am I going to do?!' Laila cried dramatically, as if someone had just told her she had three minutes left to live. 'I can't walk around looking like this!'
'Hey, hold on a sec,' Charlene said screwing up her face in disgust.
'What?!' Laila asked with annoyance.
'Turn your head towards the light,' Charlene told her. 'It looks like you have two more coming up on your cheek.'
'And one on your jaw,' Laura added.
'Gross,' Charlene said taking a step away from her friend. 'I hope you're not contagious.'
'You'd better go see the nurse,' Laura told her.
OOO
'Caleb, you have to stop this.'
'Stop what?' he asked.
Jess sighed and slid her arm through his as they walked into the science lab. 'I saw the way you were looking at Tyler a moment ago, the way he was looking at you. Don't pick a fight with him, please.'
'Me? Pick a fight with him? I think you've got it the wrong way around. He's the one looking for trouble.'
'Just don't give it to him, okay?' Jess said pleadingly. Caleb didn't answer. Students were filing through the door and taking their seats. The class filled rapidly. The last one through the door was Luke.
'Hey Luke,' Caleb said as he walked passed him and Jess.
'Hey,' he replied before quickly taking a seat at the back of the class.
'What are you doing?' Jess asked in a whisper.
'It's called being friendly,' Caleb replied. 'You should try it sometime. I don't know what you've got against the guy. Do you have a problem with him?'
'There's no problem,' Jess snapped defensively. 'I just don't trust him.'
'Why not?' Caleb asked. 'He told you the truth about himself didn't he?'
'We hardly know him Caleb,' Jess whispered. 'I don't want to get involved with his kind.'
Luke could hear every word they were saying. He sighed sadly. From the sounds of things Jess didn't even want him as a friend. He could see her point though. 'Nice' vampires were few and far between. Most of them were selfish, arrogant and extremely cold hearted. In all his years Luke had only met two, maybe three vampires who broke the stereotype.
Luke tried to lose himself in his work for the rest of the lesson. He was, however, aware of Tyler and his friends tossing derivative remarks in Jess and Caleb's direction. The two witches maintained a dignified silence.
It wasn't until the lesson was drawing to a close and everyone started to tidy away the materials they had been using to conduct their experiments, that things got nasty. Tyler was carrying a rack of test tubes filled with a cocktail of chemicals over to the basin. As he passed Jess and Caleb's bench Jess stepped out and banged straight into him.
'Watch it!' Tyler yelled nastily as the test tubes tipped over and the contents spilled all over Jess's arm.
'Ow!' Jess gasped, instinctively clutching her arm.
'You bastard!' Caleb yelled lunging for Tyler. 'You did that on purpose!'
'Hey! Break it up!' Mr Logan bellowed from the front of the class. But the boys didn't listen, taking it in turns to throw punches at each other. Tears were streaming down Jess's face. She was obviously in a lot of pain. Luke hurried over to her.
'Let me take a look,' he said gently. Jess shook her head and wiped away her tears.
'If you want to help try stopping Tyler and Caleb before they kill each other,' Jess told him in a pained voice.
'I'm more concerned about you,' he replied. Mr Logan approached them.
'Jess,' he said hurriedly. 'Go to the nurse. Luke you go with her.' He then turned to Caleb and Tyler. 'Stop this! Stop this at once! Do you boys hear me?!'
Luke rested his hand on Jess's back and steered her towards the door.
'I don't need an escort,' Jess told him as they left the room. 'I can go by myself.'
'I just want to make sure you're okay,' Luke replied. 'I don't like to see people in pain. Not all of my kind are heartless you know.'
Jess blushed, looking a little ashamed of herself. 'You heard what I said before?'
'Don't worry about it,' he said, his intense blue eyes gazing sincerely into hers. 'You're not alone in your opinions.'
'Or unjustified,' Jess replied looking away and breaking eye contact. She noticed that he still had his hand resting on her back. Part of her wanted to push it away but she decided not to. She didn't want to overreact. There was nothing sleazy or pushy about the way he was touching her, if anything it was comforting.
Finally Jess spoke up. 'When you first came here I didn't pick you out as part of the Night World. I never would have guessed you were a vampire.'
'Not even when you saw me at The Onyx?' Luke asked.
'Not even then.' Jess replied.
'So should I take that as a compliment?'
Jess shrugged her shoulders. 'If you want to. Just as long as you realise it wasn't meant as one.'
Luke found himself smiling in spite of himself.
'What?' Jess asked.
'Aren't witches meant to be all sweetness and light? I mean no offence, but you're kind of a bitch.' Luke hadn't meant to call her that, it had just slipped out.
Jess stopped dead in her tracks. 'I am not!' she said indignantly. Luke couldn't help but laugh.
'Are you laughing at me?' Jess asked in disbelief. 'I can't believe you're actually laughing at me! Here I am covered in chemical burns and all you can do is laugh!'
'I'm sorry,' Luke said, still grinning. 'I didn't mean to laugh. And I didn't mean to call you a bitch. You just make me nervous, that's all.'
'I make you nervous?' Jess replied. 'A lowly little witch like me makes a vampire nervous?'
Luke began to usher her down the hall again. 'Would you stop going on about the fact that I'm a vampire?' he asked, sounding a little exasperated. 'There is more to me than that you know.'
'Like what?' Jess asked letting her curiosity get the better of her. Before he had a chance to answer they had reached the sick bay. Just as they were about to step in, Laila stepped out. Jess and Luke visibly recoiled. Laila's entire face was completely covered in huge red blisters.
'Not one word!' Laila yelled at them before racing off down the hallway.
'Tally…How could you?' Jess whispered to herself.
'What's wrong?' Luke asked.
Jess looked up at him and sighed. 'So you think witches are all sweetness and light, huh? Welcome to the real world.'
'What? You mean that girl? A witch did that to her?'
'Not just any witch,' Jess replied. 'That was the work of my darling sister.'
'Maybe my laughing at you wasn't such a good idea,' Luke said with a smirk. 'If that's what you girls do when someone pisses you off then I'm definitely staying on your good side!'
'This isn't funny!' Jess snapped. 'I went to a lot of trouble to protect Laila – but what good did it do?'
'Hey at least you tried,' Luke told her. 'But these things happen. Your sister isn't the first witch to play a trick on a human she doesn't like, and she certainly won't be the last. It's not like she'll get hauled up in front of the elders for it.'
'And how would you know?' Jess asked dismissively.
'I've been around long enough to know how the Night World works,' Luke replied.
'There speaks the voice of experience,' Jess said sarcastically. 'You're the same age as me Luke, I have just as much experience of the Night World as you do.'
'Actually…' Luke began.
'Actually what?' Jess asked.
'Actually I am older than you,' he admitted.
'By what? A few months maybe? Big deal.'
'A little more than that.' Luke replied quietly.
Jess looked at him for a few seconds. 'Hold on. So you're saying you're not seventeen?'
'Technically…..no.'
'So exactly how old are you?' Jess asked feeling extremely curious.
'Three hundred and fifty eight.'
'What?!' Jess cried, almost bursting Luke's ear drums. Just then the nurse shuffled out of the sick bay.
'What's going on out here?' she asked with a degree of agitation.
'Accident in the science lab,' Luke replied.
'Someone spilled chemicals on my arm,' Jess added.
'Okay, well I'm busy with someone at the moment,' the nurse said motioning for them to enter the waiting room. 'You just rinse your arm off then take a seat. I'll be with you as soon as I can.'
With that the nurse shuffled back into the examination room leaving Jess and Luke alone. Luke walked over to the washbasin in the corner and let the water run.
'Come on,' Luke said. 'Put your arm under here.' Jess walked over and put her arm under the water.
'I don't get it,' Jess said finally. 'If you're that old what are you doing in high school?'
'The education I got when I was younger wasn't worth much,' Luke began. 'And it's nothing compared to today's standards. Last year I decided I finally wanted to do something with my life. I want to go to college. I want a career.'
'And it took you three hundred years to realise that?' Jess asked sceptically.
'Well I always knew I had eternity to do it, so I was in no rush.'
'What do your family think about your decision?' Jess asked.
'My family died a long time ago,' Luke replied quietly.
'You're not lamia?' Jess asked just as quietly. Suddenly images from Jess's dream were flashing before her. 'You were made?'
Luke nodded. 'It wasn't my choice. I got involved with some people from the Night World. Vampires. I was in over my head.'
Jess didn't notice the way he was looking at her. All she could see was how Luke had been in her dream, lying in the dirt, his throat torn to shreds, blood everywhere. Suddenly a barrage of information hit Jess and she found herself speaking involuntarily, in no more than a whisper.
'You were an unskilled labourer…the little money you earned came from your job as a brick make....You borrowed money from some men… you didn't know they were vampires until it was too late…'
Luke nodded. 'That's what happened. They killed me when I couldn't repay them.'
Jess shivered, suddenly feeling sick and light headed. 'H-how did I know that?' she stuttered. Luke was filled with a surge of hope, but he didn't let it show. Is she remembering? he asked himself. She must be! She is! She's remembering! Before Luke had a chance to say anything the bell rang and the nurse came out of the examination room.
'Okay young lady, follow me.' Jess stepped away from Luke and towards the nurse.
'Jess?' Luke said quietly, his voice tinged with hope.
'Yeah?' she replied turning back to face him.
'We… we… we still need to work on that essay.'
Jess nodded. 'Come over to my place after school.'
Luke nodded back before making a move to leave.
'Luke!' Jess called out. He stopped in the doorway and looked back at her.
'Yeah?'
'Thanks….. for coming with me, for making sure I'm okay.'
Luke smiled slightly. 'I'll see you later.'
