Chapter Three: Are They Real?

"Bonjour mon amour! So, how much trouble are you in this time?" Joy's boyfriend, Henri, met her at her lockers the next morning. His charming French accent made her smile. She loved hearing his voice.

"The usual," After so many years, punishment had stopped fazing Joy. She got in trouble, her father punished her, the issue was dropped, she dealt, and they were all over it. It was a reliable system.

Henri smirked, "Why do you put yourself through it, sweetie?" He took her books from her as she closed and locked the locker.

"It's not a big deal, Henri." She took her books back and welcomed the arm he draped around her shoulders.

"But it is," Their opinions always differed. "Why don't you try not to piss them off? Just for a while, see how it goes. You never know, maybe you'll like being a good daughter."

"Henri, please, it's not like I try to upset them, it's just me. It's impossible for me to please my parents." She sighed knowing well that wasn't completely true. If she wanted to, Joy could be the ideal daughter her parents deserved, or at least wanted. She could dress herself in pink ruffles and be her mom's little doll or she could ace all her classes and be her dad's scholar, but instead she lived her life as she pleased, not caring about what anyone thought of her and that included her parents. And why should I care? It's my life. And that was basically the motto she lived by. It was her life to live however she wanted and no amount of 'bribing' punishment could alter her stubborn independence. "I'm never going to measure up to my parents, Henri. You know that." Throughout her sixteen years, people had often tried to compare Joy to her beautiful, retired-model mom, or her intelligent, honorable, judge dad, but all the comparisons fell short on Joy. She was nowhere close to their standards of perfection. "And you also know that I could care less." Her parents' personas were purely outward. At home, no one would understand the differences that went on.

"I still think you could try," Henri wasn't going to let things go that easily. "For me, avoid all conflicts with students that you know would inevitably lead to you breaking their bones and receiving detention...again."

Joy rebelled, "Come on, Kelly deserved what she got! You know that! I mean hell, she can say what she wants about me because I really don't give a shit, but no one disses my boyfriend and gets away with it!"

"Ah, you're too good to me sweetie," Henri squeezed her shoulders and she flinched from the contact. He noticed her wince and he instantly pulled the wide-neck shirt off her shoulder. "Joy!" He raised his voice to her when he saw fresh bruises in the shape of fingerprints.

"Nothing happened," Joy tried to shrug off his touch. "I must've bumped into a wall or something."

"Joy, je t'aime," Henri lowered his hand to her waist and kissed her cheek. "But, I worry for you."

"I know, and I love you too," Joy smiled and kissed him back. "I'm fine though, really!"

"Perhaps if you tried to behave for once, maybe your life would be...easier. Perhaps you're father would not, well, punish you so often," Henri noticed her eye roll and sighed. "I know, you think it's pointless. But still, just try alright?"

"I make no promises!" Joy grinned at him as they hurried into their first period, almost ten minutes late. As soon as she had taken her seat, Joy's face twisted in confusion.

"Is something wrong?" Henri leaned forward from his desk directly behind hers and spoke into her ear.

"No, not really," She was actually wondering why the teacher was so late. Mrs. Kentucky was the type of person who was always precise and on time for everything. Tardiness was greatly frowned upon by this teacher, and in her six years of teaching she had never missed a day of school.

"Where's the teacher?" Henri asked suddenly.

"I don't know, she's never late," As rebellious of a student as Joy was, Mrs. Kentucky happened to be one of the few teachers who was able to keep her interested during a class as boring as history. The teacher's strict composure amused Joy.

"Maybe she's sick." Henri suggested.

"Yea maybe so," Joy shrugged and tried to ignore the anxious feeling in her stomach. She smiled at her boyfriend and then turned around as the substitute teacher entered the classroom.

The next morning Joy was one of the first students in the classroom, very unusual for her, but she was hoping to see Mrs. Kentucky at the teacher's desk as normal. A substitute was still filling in for the absent teacher. Joy had woken that morning with a foreboding tingle pressing on her mind and now she worried that her recent fears were very real.

"Joy, have you seen the paper today?" Henri dropped into his desk behind his girlfriend and leaned forward questioningly.

"The paper?" Joy frowned. "No I haven't. Why?"

He shoved a single sheet from the morning's newspaper at her and she scanned it quickly. Then her eyes stopped on an article at the bottom corner of the page. Her eyes widened and her hands began to shake, rattling the thin paper.

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!" Her voice was frantic. "Henri, what…" she couldn't finish the sentence. All she could do was stare at the terrible picture that had been attached to the article. It was an announcement of Mrs. Kentucky's death and the picture that accompanied it illustrated her supposed cause of death. She suddenly stood from her desk. "I've got to go!" She gathered up her binders.

"¿Qué?" Henri was puzzled at her unexpected announcement of departure. "I know you're upset about Mrs. Kentucky, but what are you going to do about it?

"I don't have time to explain," She slipped her red, mesh bag over one shoulder. "I'll talk to you later."

Joy ran from the classroom, ignoring the substitute's calls to stop, and didn't stop running until she had reached her destination: the library.

As strange as it may seem for a slacker-student, fight-picking, rebellious, young girl to enjoy good books, Joy did. In fact, Joy had always found the most comfort from books, in contrast to the socialite crowd-followers that made up the majority of her Beverly Hills high school. On long, hard days Joy found comfort in the library, browsing through the millions of books. Strangely, the ones that had interested her the most were the leather-bound and ancient-looking books that told of types of monsters and villains that Joy had only heard of in the worst of childhood stories. Something about these evil creatures hypnotized her in a peculiar way. Although they were stored in the library to be perceived as nothing more than mythology-based literature for students, she felt that these creepy stories stemmed from something serious, and in an unexplained way she felt somehow connected to their realism.

Now, she turned to a familiar book about a creature that killed by biting the victim's neck. They were called Vampires. Creatures of the night, they were often labeled the living dead. Flipping through the first three sections, Joy came to the part that mentioned the Vampire's killing pattern. It told of their razor-sharp fangs that they used to puncture the flesh on their victim's neck. There was an image on that page that showed an example of such a wound. Joy gasped as she stared at the two tiny holes, almost identical to the ones that the picture in the newspaper showed of Mrs. Kentucky's neck. An ominous shiver ran down Joy's spine as she turned the yellowed page and stared at an impeccable drawing of a vampire. She quickly flipped to the next page.

The remainder of the thick book was filled with facts about the creation of Vampires, habitual living conditions of the beasts, and multiple ways to protect oneself against a Vampire or to kill one.

Vampires aren't real though. Joy thought to herself as she continued reading through the book. They couldn't be real! Could they? The thought confused her. Sure, she had heard stories of the famous Vampire Dracula, but they were just stories, right? What if there really are such things as Vampires? Are they what killed Mrs. Kentucky? She shook her head in disbelief. Joy was a rather sensible girl, not one to jump to conclusions or to believe in ridiculous tales, but she couldn't make herself completely deny the possibility of the existence of demonic creatures roaming the earth.

Brrrring...the shrill bell alerted Joy to the ending of second period. After the trouble of yesterday she didn't want to miss anymore of her classes that day, Joy hurriedly put back the frightening book and rushed to her locker to collect her books for Biology.