Signal Middle School, a school that catered to everyone; it didn't matter if your parents were millionaires, or if you were lower class living in the shanty towns on Vale's eastern outskirts, this school was one of the best in the county of Sanus. It was nothing compared to Citadel High School over in the west side of the city, and both paled in comparison to Beacon University – one of the country's most prestigious schools famed for its science and cultural studies departments.

The students at Signal Middle School were like any other, dividing themselves into the normal social cliques. Jocks, Mathletes, Preps, Goths, Drama Groupies, Cheerleaders, etc. were present. But, there was one clique that Cypress prided himself in being part of, the Multi-facets – students who fit into more than one category. Cypress was a member of the Cross-country and Track and Field teams as a distance runner, a member of the Chess Club, and a Mathlete. The latter two were mostly because of his Dungeons and Dragons scenarios and dungeon setups. He was also a Drama Club member, but only signed up to be the understudy for lesser roles. He was notorious for freezing in front of large crowds, something his friends were trying to cure him of.

His best friends at Signal included a Goth/Cheerleader named Luna L'Amour who was two years Cy's senior, the Scholastic Decathlon Team Co-captain/Chess Club Captain Winter Schnee II one year older than Cy, and a Jock/Drama Club member name Azure Aquio who had been one of Cy's closest friends since they were kids in the sandbox. The four were very close, and formed a tight knit group amongst most of the student cliques.

To say Cypress was without opposition in the school would be going a bridge too far. He was one of the more liked unifying students at Signal Middle, but there were students who were despicable toward him no matter how many times he defended himself. Two of the worst were a pair of self-entitled queens of the school, Melanie and Miltiades Malachite. They were eighth graders who saw the pleasure of stomping all over the lower grade students. But the one thing that agitated them to no end, was that Cy and his friends were nigh unbreakable. Cy and company took great enjoyment at this factor and would enjoy it for as long as they were together.

Miss Nikos' Math class was where the young boy felt the most at home. It was his last period of the day, and by far his favorite. The bell just rang for class to begin, and all looked to the front of the room to see the redhead genius and affectionately entitled math goddess, Miss Pyrrha Nikos. "Hello everyone~," She greeted her students.

"Hello, Miss Nikos," The class stated in unison.

"I hope we all have our assignments ready to hand in," Pyrrha said, "Cypress, would you do the honors?"

"Yes ma'am," Cy said. His exceptional grades had elevated him to the star pupil of the class and made him the main source of annoyance for Melanie Malachite, who was undergoing her third round of the class. He stood up from his desk and began collecting the assignments from his classmates who all had finished their papers. That's when he came upon Melanie's desk, blank as the Kansas flatlands, "You didn't do it, did you Melanie?" he asked flatly.

"Psh," Melanie scoffed, "As if I would waste my time with a bunch of dumb numbers. Math will never come in handy for what I have planned for my future."

"And what that be," Azure asked from over next to Cy's seat.

"None of your business dork." Melanie replied spitefully.

Azure made a move to stand up, but Cy raised his hand to stop him, "She's not worth it, Azure," He said.

"What. Ever." Melanie scoffed.

Cy walked up to Pyrrha's desk and placed the papers in front of her. "Alright class," The redhead said as she addressed her students, "please open your books to page seventy three and take out your notebooks. It's time for today's lesson."

The class period went by without a hitch. They started out with 15 minutes of notes dappled with question and answer sessions here and there. Then Miss Nikos gave them a bit of class work. As was the usual, Cypress and Azure teamed up. Pyrrha looked at the boys and then to Melanie, "Miss Malachite," She said evoking a silent blink from the girl in white and faded mint, "I would like you to work with Cypress and Azure."

"Oh," Cy started in a whispered tone.

"Crap," Azure finished in the same tone.

"Boys," Pyrrha said turning back to them, "if it weren't for the fact that you two have the two highest grade point averages in the class…"

"Actually, ma'am," A girl student in the back named Rosette interjected, "Azure has the highest GPA in the class, and Cy has the highest GPA in the school."

Pyrrha blinked and remembered looking at the charts earlier in the school day. As it turned out, Rosette was correct. Out of all the students in the school, Azure held the highest average out of the last period class and Cy held the highest average in all of the sixth grade math classes overall. "That's correct," The redhead said, "thank you for pointing that out, Rosette." She cleared her throat, "But my point is, I'd like you to attempt to get Melanie to finish at least one assignment in class."

"And yet, I never thought I'd see that I'd be cursing myself for my arithmetical prowess." Cy slumped in his seat.

"Don't sweat it, Cy," Azure whispered, "at least we don't have to deal with the other sister at the same time." Cy took some relief in that fact. Melanie and Miltia were identical twins, yes. But, they differed in intellectual prowess. Melanie had a strong front as a member of the Girls' Soccer team, and Martial Arts team while Miltia was Captain of the Cheerleading Squad and Vice-Captain of the Girls' Volleyball team. Melanie was also a member of the recently started Improv Club and excelled in creating stories on the fly, but her calculative brain faltered as a consequence. Miltiades on the other hand had the strength of sharp mental arithmetic skills which she flaunted every time the Cheer Squad took the field during a football game or a cheer competition with perfect forms and angles of body position.

Melanie swapped seats with the student who sat behind Cy and the two boys angled their desks so they could flank Melanie. They got out scratch paper and got to work. As they were writing, Azure noticed Cy's bandaged finger, "What happened to your finger," He asked.

Cy didn't even look up from his work, "Paper cut."

Melanie rolled her eyes, "Not surprised."

"Happens all the time with me," Cy said as he started on his third equation. He and Azure took glances to Melanie's paper. The brunette was still stuck on the first problem. "You know, asking math geeks for help isn't gonna kill you." He said as he started his fifth problem.

Melanie looked to see that both boys had a second sheet of paper out with their math strategies hard at work. "How are you dorks so good at this stuff?" She asked irately in a hushed tone.

"Dungeons and Dragons," Azure said as his pencil tacked away at his fifth problem, "but I help my family with their financial business. We mostly sell produce and things like that, but we also run the restaurant next door."

"I'm more into using chess strategies, time management, and distances," Cy said as he began his eighth problem and stopped, "Need any help?"

Melanie looked at the boy's paper. The numbers all looked like a disgruntled mass to her, "Uh, sure," she said cautiously.

"Alright then," Cy said as he began talking her through the equation in front of her. It didn't make sense to him how the girl could have made it through to the sixth grade and got stuck in the same math class for three years. He'd only heard about this kind of situation from Winter. It involved a patient with a mental disorder that made math nearly impossible, although he had a perfect sense of rhythm. The boy was taught how to think of himself at his drums at home and tap out a rhythm to keep him focused and practice thinking of the numbers in terms of drum measures on sheet music. Using this and his knowledge of Melanie's reputation in extracurricular activities to commence a trial run of getting Melanie help with her math skills. "Okay, think of yourself in a martial arts tournament," The boy began, "your team has this as its overall score," he pointed to the top score, "but the score of the other team is one third higher than your score. This problem is one where you need to find the score of your opponent's team."

"Like, how the heck am I supposed to find that out?" Melanie asked.

"Take your team's score and divide it by three," Azure said giving Melanie an extra sheet of paper. Melanie took the paper and rewrote the equation on the paper. He even lent her his calculator, "Give it back before the end of class." He said as she entered the equation into the calculator, "Don't press the equal sign until you've found the answer." He watched as Melanie worked the problem out and when she finished it, she hit the solve button on the calculator. Much to her delight, it matched perfectly. "That's step one out of the way." Azure said.

"Now take that number and add it to your team's score." Cy said.

Melanie added the number's to the best of her ability on her second sheet of paper and typed it into the calculator. She was also happy to see that two of her least favorite people in the city of Vale were, dare she admit it, useful for something. "By no means does this change things between me, my sister, and you dorks and the other two." She said coldly.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Cy said quietly.

"What was that," Melanie shot the boy a sideways glare.

"Loud and clear," Cy said with a smirk.

"I thought so," Melanie said as she moved onto the next problem.

The rest of the class went by with the boys helping Melanie with her work. Cy finished first and helped Melanie with the rest of the questions in the section they were assigned, twenty equations in all. The three of them turned in their classwork at the same time. "Well done you two," Pyrrha smiled, "And well done, Miss Malachite. Take what these two taught you and you may be seeing yourself in the remedial math class at Citadel High next year."

Melanie looked to the two sixth graders, "Since you two helped me, I'll, like, tone myself down if you'll help me pass this class. Do we have a deal?"

Cy and Azure shot each other a glance of uncertainty, "And there's no catch?" Azure asked.

"My dad's, like, been on my case since I failed this class two years ago," Melanie groaned, "if you help me pass this class, it'll be one less pain I have to deal with. So I'll give you two, like, a pass, or whatever, as long as we're here for the rest of the year."

"Sounds like you're really out of options," Cy said with a raised eyebrow, "especially if you're willing to come to us for help with your school work."

"I really have, like, no other options." Melanie said, "If I don't pass this class, my dad said he's, like totally, gonna send me to some lame-o girls school in another state."

Cy and Azure were shocked. On one hand they'd be dealing with only one Malachite twin in high school. On the other hand, they knew if Miltiades found out they'd turned down a plea for help that she'd hold it over their heads until well into their adult years. "Looks like you've got a deal, Malachite." Azure said.

"I'm glad you two are willing to put some petty squabbles aside to help another student," Pyrrha said as the final bell rang, "Class, I want you to finish up the rest of those problems for homework tonight, have a good weekend."

Cy looked at Melanie, "Truce is over until Tuesday, I guess," He said.

"Whatever, loser," The girl turned her nose, sauntered off to her desk, picked up her bag and headed out the door and headed to her locker.

"Fun while it lasted, yeah?" Cy said.

"It was," Azure said, "Well I gotta get home. I'll see you tomorrow night, Cy."

"See ya later, Azure," Cy said.

One bus ride to his sister's apartment later, Cy looked up what the next few days were going to be like. "Hmm, cold and rainy the next few days, huh," He looked out toward the inner-city jungle, "I think she'll need something to help keep her warm in if it's going to be like that."

He set to work gathering a couple of his old blankets that his sister had wanted to donate to someone who needed them more. Because of her schedule, however, that hadn't been done. "Let's see, she'll need something else," He said rummaging through his closet picking up old things that he hadn't worn in a while, "Ah, these will do nicely." He'd put together at least a week's worth of clothes. They were certainly warm enough to last through the cold days approaching Vale. He looked back out the window and saw the sun was slowly approaching the horizon, "I need to go now if I'm gonna have a chance of finding her again, before she finds me."

He put all the things in an old luggage bag and tied an old length of rope around it like a backpack harness. He then walked outside and jogged off in the direction of the park and inner-city jungle. "I gotta get there and make it back before it gets dark." He said to himself. He jogged down the path he'd taken the night before, he looked to the sky. It was still blue, but it was starting to go orange, "Less than an hour and a half, okay here goes everything."

He ran down the path heading toward the inner-city jungle and got to the creek that divided the dense forest from the rest of the park. He stopped and looked at the water flowing beneath the old bridge, "She must have gotten out East of here," Cy whispered, "vampires can't cross running water." He walked across the old bridge and continued walking down the path. He looked around as he passed the old north gate that hadn't been used since the closing down of the inner-city. Since then, the inner city had been surrounded by the park as the Vale City council approved to expand the park to encircle the area around the jungle as a whole.

Cy looked the trees that had grown through the old buildings. The inner-city had been encouraged and tended to every other month for the first ten years until the Mayor and other members of the City Council deemed it necessary to let nature to do the rest. Cy read up on this part of the city many times and was enthralled by the amount of work that had been put into such a monumental project. The trees lining the city streets had grown tall and lush over the years. Cy remembered reading that the paved roads and sidewalks had been torn out in the first year and seeded with grass seed and flowers. Apiaries from bee farmers in surrounding towns were placed in what was once the central park to keep the flowers pollenated. The deer in the inner-city were controlled and relocated every two years, along with rabbits and smaller fauna. Feral cats from the outer city eventually made their way to the inner-city jungle and began feeding on rats and squirrels.

Cypress looked to the old parking structures and heard the chittering of a huge family of bats, "No wonder the bug population around the city has decreased so much over the past few years." He looked up into the older office buildings and heard a large number of birds chirping, as well as the hooting of owls beginning to ready themselves for the night. "This place really is a jungle." He said in awe.

Cy turned down a street and saw what he'd come seeking, an old house with wear and tear matching what Cy was looking for. It couldn't have been more than fifty years old, and yet it at first glance, it looked like it was brand new. "Wonder if it looks this nice on the inside." He quickly walked up to it, the paint on the outside of the building looked like it had been applied within the last month or so. He looked to see old cans of paint sitting under the porch, Midnight, Snowfall White, Golden Sun, and Ruby Red. Cy took a look at the cans and then to the two-story house in front of him. Midnight paint covered the underside of the awning over the Snowfall White porch. The same shade of white was used on the outer walls while the shudders were Golden Sun. All that tied the house together was the Ruby Rose colored door. "Interesting color choice," Cy said as he walked onto the porch and approached the door. He slowly turned the knob, Vampires have acute senses of smell and hearing, better be quick and quiet about this.

He slowly opened the door and lightly stepped in and made his way up the surprisingly well maintained stairs. He took note that the windows were shaded, Looks like the Twilight books got that wrong, high photosensitivity and aversion to sunlight means Bram Stoker knew his stuff about the lore. When he got to the top of the stairs, he noticed one of the doors at the end of the hall was opened. He crept to the end of the hallway and slipped through the door. There, in a rather immaculate bed with an old blanket covering her, was the vampire. She was sleeping peacefully clutching the blanket she'd draped over her, Chalk one up for Mr. Lindqvist. Cy thought to himself. He carefully removed the bag from his back and set it on the floor. He removed the rope from the bag and set it on the floor. Now came the zipper on the bag. The noise of the unzipping of the bad would be problematic. He listened to the vampire's relaxed breathing. That would be his indicator as to how he'd proceed.

Cy carefully grasped the zipper, and gently tugged it across the length of the bag. Before he could continue, he felt a slender pair of arms snake under around his torso. He gave a hard swallow, "I'm dead, aren't I?" He asked.

"That depends," The vampire said resting her head on his shoulder, "Why are you here?"

Cy opened the bag, "I read that it was going to get really cold over the next few days," He said, "and from what I saw, you could use something better, and maybe a few mote sets of clothes."

The vampire looked at the clothes and the blankets in the bag, "Why are you giving me these things?" She asked moving her hand to Cy's cheek.

"I-I-I'm just trying t-t-to be n-nice." Cy stammered. The pale girl turned Cy's head to face her.

"Why?" The vampire asked.

"L-like I s-said l-l-last night," Cy said, "I d-don't like seeing people s-suffer."

The vampire looked at the boy and then back to the bag. She had wanted to look for new blankets to keep herself warm for the winter, but she'd never been able to find anything that hadn't been worn out and lending anything more than a few short hours of comfort. Then she took note of the clothes in the bag, they looked gently used and warmer than the worn out old clothing she had when she'd come into the house in the first place. These gifts weren't something she'd often been presented with. "What do you want in return for these?" She inquired.