A/N: Word count (Not including this A/N) is 4,122.

Chapter two: Freshman

The teenage vampire sat on his bed putting on his black, high top converses. As soon as he was done with that he got up and grabbed his old, but faithful, back pack with a new button which said careful I Bite. Vald walked door the steps to the door grabbing his blood rich lunch bag.

Before he could step out of the house he was stopped by Nelly. "Did you remember to put your sun block on?"

A smirk quickly found its way to Vladimir's face. "Why do you ask? Am I getting too tan for you?"

Nelly only laughed as Vlad walked out the door. Outside his front door stood a familiar face along with a new one. Standing next to Henry was a nicely tanned skinned fellow that was tall and had eyes that could make any girl melt just by looking at them.

"This must be Joss." Vlad said.

Henry nodded. "Joss, this is Vladimir, but you can call him Vlad."

"Nice to meet you Vlad." Joss stuck out his hand.

Vlad took his hand with no hesitation and shock it. "I've heard many things about you from henry, Vlad."

The vampire looked to his friend which was hiding behind cousin. "Oh did he?"

"Yeah," Joss piped up.

"Like what?" Vald said as he let go of his hand.

"Like you suck at video games."

The boys chuckled a little before heading to school.

This day was their first day as freshman at Bathory High and they all knew that this year was going to be different. The three of them stopped in front of the steps to the front of the building. It was huge, the school being. The high used to be a church that was converted in to a private academy, then later on a public school.

Henry tapped Vlad on the shoulder. "Let's get going, we're going to be late." He started up the steps of the school followed by Joss then Vald.

As they walk in they see a large cross standing in front of them. Henry nudged Vald in the arm. "Do you think the whole vampire's hating crosses thing is a myth?" he whispered in his ear.

Henry and Vlad laughed quietly together.

Vlad's eyes began to wonder around the room. First to the high ceiling which had regiments of paint; at one point there must have been a glorious painting of angels and religious figures, but now they are reduced to nothing but paint chips that even now continue to fall. From the ceiling his went down the walls then to the crowd of people. He scanned the new students to the school and tried to find some that he may know, well one person he knows. Dear Meredith. He searched for her, but it seemed to already gone in to designated area for the freshman class. He gave up and look beside him to see neither of his friends there; they had left him and gone on into the gym. Vlad went ahead to the Gym.

The gym was as big as the other room high ceiling and all. In the gym sat three tables; there he got a map of the school, a locker and the school guide book. From there he went to his locker, where he found his old friend Henry.

"Hi there neighbor." He said is his best Mr. Roger voice.

Vlad laughed at his friend's humorous statement.

"This is so cool that we have our lockers next to each other this year," said Henry with a toothy grin.

Vlad smiled as he put his shiny, new red combination lock upon his locker door.

"So where's Joss's locker?" asked Vlad.

Henry pointed down the hall. "I think just right over there, by Mrs. Bell's room."

Vlad leaned against his a locker, "Dude I feel kinda sorry for the guy."

"I know, being so close to Mrs. Bell," Henry stated. "Speaking of Mrs. Bell," Henry closed the door to his locker, "We should get to class."

"You go on ahead. I still need to put everything up in here." With that Henry patted his friend on the back and left for class.

Vlad continued to put school supplies neatly into his locker from his bag. Suddenly he was stopped by someone pushing him up against the locker next to his. With no surprise it was Tom holding him up on the locker door with Bill next to him.

"Hello Goth boy," said Bill. Vlad really couldn't believe that is all that they could call him. It was getting a little and boring to their victim. Why was it that they couldn't come up with anything original for once?

Bill pulled back him fist and prepared to punch. "Get ready Goth boy, I've been waiting all summer to do this."

Vlad closed his eyes and awaited the blow to the face, but it never came. Instead of hearing the noise of Bill's fist to his jaw, he heard only a slight coughing. Vladimir opened his eyes, what he saw was two small girls (compared to the jocks in front of them); one with long blond hair and the other with long dark hair.

The blond spoke up, "Excuse me, but do you mine moving, I kinda need to get to my locker."

The two boys only ignored her. Bill pulled back his fist once again. The girl seemed not to happy about Bill and Tom ignoring her. She tapped Bill on the shoulder.

Bill rolled his eyes. "What do you want I'm a little busy here?"

Vlad could tell her patience was wearing thin with the block head.

"I asked you nicely, now move before I make you." The girl started to get an evil look in her eyes.

"I would do as she says dude," the other girl stated.

The two dumb little boys merrily laughed at the warning.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." The dark haired one stepped back from the blond.

"YO! PISS FOR BRAINS!" she yelled.

The jocks suddenly stopped their laughter to look at the girl. Bill gave her an angered stare at her before speaking. "What did you call me?"

"You heard me, piss for brains."

Bill chuckled and looked at Tom then back at her. "Okay little lady, if you say sorry now I'll let you off with a warning."

"Ha. Why would I say sorry to a dumb ass like you?"

Bill leaned up leaned up against the locker with his arm and got close to her face and smirked. "If you don't want to say sorry then maybe you could do something to clear it this all up, like maybe a little sugar for me baby doll."

The girl was done with this. She took her hand and pushed the pushy jock away by the face. "Your breath smells like year old tuna fish casserole."

Bill's face became enraged. "Who do you think you're talking to little girl?"

"And who do you think you're callin little girl; and baby doll? Really couldn't you think of anything better to pick up chicks?"

"Why you little!" Tom dropped Vladimir to the floor to hold back Bill. "Why I oughta-"

"Oughta what? Hit me? Like you could." She continued to mock him.

"Do you wanna go little girl?" nothing but anger was in his face.

"Come at me bro!"

Right then the bell rang.

"Dude we need get to class. If we're too late we'll get a detention and you know as well as I do your mom will be pissed." Tom said trying to convince his stupid block head friend.

Bill straightened his back and cooled down. "Let's go." He started to walk away. "I'll deal with you later."

"When, where, and how hard?" she yelled back at him.

Bill simply turned around and stomped away.

The antagonizing girl looked to her locker to see Vlad with his jaw dropped. "What are you still doing here? You're free to go."

The surprised vampire shook his head and got himself back together. He quickly got up and stuck out his hand. "Thanks for the help."

The girl had a questioning look. "You're welcome, I guess. I didn't mean to help you."

"Well you did and I would like to thank you. No one has ever done that for me before, I appreciate it."

"Well you're welcome and all, but could you move, you're in front of my locker or do I need to yell at you too."

"Oh I'm sorry." Vlad put his hand down and moved aside.

The still irritated girl opened her locker and set her things in quickly and neatly.

"So what is your name?" Vlad asked hoping to get a response.

The girl turned to him. "Why are you still here?"

Vlad had his head down. "I'm sorry for my friend," the other girl said, "as you can see from what just happened, she not in the most greatest of moods." She extended her arm. "My name is Sami, Sami Mas, and that grumpy puss over there is Jade Jones."

Vlad took her hand and shook it. "My name is Vladimir, Vladimir Tod, but you can call me Vlad if you like."

"Well it's nice to meet you Vlad. And by the way…."

"Yes?"

"You may want to get to class."

"Oh, yeah. Thanks again by the way." Vlad closed his locker door and ran to class.

Sami leaned against the lockers. "So that's Vladimir Tod, the half human half vampire boy."

"Yep." Her friend responded.

"You know we should get to class as well. We don't want to miss English now do we?" Sami smirked.

Jade closed the locker door and swung her bag on her shoulder. "Let's go then." They both headed to the class room of ninth grade English Mrs. Bell.

Vlad ran into the class room trying not to be detected by Mrs. Bell, but sadly for him she had a watchful eye in the back of her head. "Nice of you to finally join us Mr. Tod." Her voice was scratchy. "Well you might as well take a seat now Mr. Tod."

Vlad walked quickly to Henry in the back, passing by Meredith and giving her a small smile. As he sits next to his friend he whispers to him, "Dude you won't believe what just happened to me when you left."

Henry raised his brow. "Did Meredith show up randomly in a bikini in your locker?" He smirked a little at his our joke.

"Dude really?" Vlad shook his head. "No. I was about to get pumbled by the two Neanderthals of the school when these two girls came out of nowhere and one of them got bill all mad and he ran off."

Henry was staring at the front of the room. "Was one a blond and the other had really dark hair?"

Vlad had a surprised look on his face. "Yeah, how did you kno-"

He was cut off by Henry. "And was the blond a Goth?"

"What are you talking about?" Vlad looked to where his friend was staring. To his surprise both girls were at the front of the class room talking to Mrs. Bell. He hadn't noticed before but the blond was a little Goth; with her dark eye liner, chains, and little color to her clothing.

"That's them," Vlad whispered.

"Really? The Goth's friend over there is kind of cute." Henry turned to his friend and gave him a smirk. But Vlad didn't pay any attention to him. He was too busy staring at girl that just saved him not only five minutes ago.

Suddenly there was a burst of laughter from Mrs. Bell and the girls. "Oh Mrs. Bell you are a hoot," said Sami.

Just about everyone's jaw dropped. No one knew that Mrs. Bell could laugh. They just assumed that she was a heartless witch incapable of laughter.

"Oh why thank you Miss Mas. Why don't you two take a seat?" Mrs. Bell's face glowed with happiness.

The girls passed by the jaw dropped friends and sat a table away from them. The two friends looked to each other. Vlad closed his mouth and shook his head. Once back to his senses he looked to Jade. See had feet propped up on the table showing off her loosely tied black converse, similar to Vlad's. She seemed so calm and cool. On her lap she held a leather bound book with an open spiral note book which she wrote the notes Mrs. Bell wrote on the board.

Vlad pulled out a piece of paper from his note book. He scribbled on it and gave it to Henry.

Henry read. 'Can you believe what just happened?'

Henry looked at his friend and scribbled on the paper himself. 'No I can't. I wonder what they said to her.'

'I don't know but whatever it was it seemed to make them Mrs. Bell's favorites.'

'Who are they anyway?'

'The blond is Jade Jones. And the dark brunette is Sami Mas.'

'How did you meet them again?'

'Well like I said before I was about to get my face bashed in by Bill and Tom when they scared them away.'

'So they saved your ass.'

'Yeah. Pretty much.'

'Those two skinny little girls?'

'Yep.'

Henry looked to his friend with a questioning look. 'How?'

'I have no idea how to explain it but they did.'

Vlad looked over to Jade. Her mouth was hidden by the bandana around her neck. She seemed focused in her notes unlike Vlad and Henry.

Vlad went back to the scribbling on the paper. 'I think I'm going to talk to Jade after class.'

'Ok. While you have fun with that I'm going to fun with her friend.'

'Be careful she looks like she could bite.'

Henry laughed quietly. 'Don't worry I will.'

After that the rest of the hour went by quickly; allowing Vlad and Henry to have more fun in their first period of the day.

As the bell rings Vlad and Henry quickly rush out the room looking for Jade and Sami, but had no luck finding them.

"Do you see them?" Henry asked looking up and down the hallways.

Vladimir tried to look but he couldn't see them over the massive hoard of people flooding in and out of the class rooms and hallways.

"Come on." Vlad tapped Henry in the arm. "Let's go check by their lockers they might be there."

Both boys raced to their lockers hoping to find them. With luck they did. Jade was in her locker gathering her things for the second period.

"Hey Jade!" Vlad yelled across the hall hoping that she could hear over the noise of the busy hallway.

She either did not hear him or was ignoring him because she didn't respond. Vlad ran to her and before she could shut her locker door he and Henry were there in her face. She jumps to see the two boys.

"What do you want?" she questioned with a snarled.

Vlad looked to Henry then back to Jade. "We were wondering," he started, "how did you make an evil teacher like Mrs. Bell laugh?"

"I really didn't do anything." She closed her locker and started to away.

"Oh come on we know you did something." Henry piped up.

Jade gave a wicked smile. "Do you really want to know how?"

Vlad and Henry both nodded.

She crept up to the two boys' ears and whispers quietly, "Magic." Jade snaps her fingers in their faces spooking them both.

Jade walks to Sami laughing at the two boys. Henry quickly notices Sami and runs in front of her leaning up against the lockers trying to be smooth. Henry puts on one of his flirting faces, which surprisingly works on most girls. But sadly for Henry this trick didn't work on Sami. Sami acted as if he was never there. She just crouched and went under his arm he was leaning on.

Both girls went on to their classes and left the boys hanging.

Vlad looked to his friend. Henry looked so defeated. Vlad patted him on the back. "Come on. Let's go to class before we're late."

So the boys went their own ways down the hallways.

The hours have past and it becomes lunch time. Vlad has is brown bag lunch and Henry with his tray lunch. They both sit next to Joss. "How was your day so far Vlad?" he asks.

"It was really weird." He answered.

Henry quickly removed his face from his food and looked at Vlad. "You too?"

"What was weird about yours?" asked Vald.

"Besides what happened in first period?" Henry questioned.

"Oh, you mean those two girls that made Mrs. Bell laugh. That was weird." Joss inputted

Both boys nodded in agreement.

Vlad looked to Henry. "So what happened to you?"

Henry swallowed what little food was in his mouth. "Well in second period that chick Sami was there."

"The one that ignored you," Vladimir added.

Henry gave his vampire friend a look of don't remind me. "Yeah, so anyway she was in there and of course I tried to talk to her. You know all smooth and stuff." Both Vlad and Joss chuckled a little. Henry ignored them and went on. "Well I was trying to get her to talk back to me, but for some reason she just sat there and kept writing down notes. Anyway after a while of talking she suddenly out of nowhere stabbed at me with a pen. A pen! And she use so much force that it got stuck in the table." The two boys' jaws dropped. How is someone strong enough to put a pen in the table, let alone get it stuck?

"And that wasn't the worst."

Joss and Vlad's eyes were wide. What could be worse?

"I got a detention for it."

They both face palmed.

Joss looked to Vlad. "So, what about you Vlad?"

"Well that girl Jade," he looks to Henry, "the one that saved my ass, she was in Algebra with me."

Joss looked at him. "Really?"

Vlad nodded. "And the weird thing is I caught her staring at me a couple of times."

Henry smirked and raised his eye brow. "I think someone has a crush one"

Vlad rolled his eyes at the idea. He really could never believe that someone actually have a loser like him.

"It can be possible." Henry looked around the lunch room to see if he could spot the two stalker girls. With time Henry found what he was looking for. Henry pointed two them. "Hey there they are right over there."

They were sat at, or rather on, a table at the other side of the cafeteria alone. Henry grabbed Vlad and ran to the girls. They bumped into everyone and almost tripped several different times before reaching them.

"Hey girls," Henry said trying to make it noticeable that he was out of breath, sadly for him everyone noticed.

Sami tried very hard not to laugh. "Oh hi Henry, where are you running off to in such a hurry?"

Henry ignored her question and slid his way next to her. But as fast as he ran he backed way from the sight of Sami pulling a pin from her shirt pocket.

Vlad chuckled under his breath. "Well nowhere really," Vlad answered the question knowing that Henry won't.

"You sure seemed to be in a hurry somewhere." Jade was sitting on the table with her elbows on her knees and her hands clasped together. She had many colorful bracelets running up and down her arms. Vlad looked at all interesting thing on her wrists. One thing stood out the most to Vlad; it was a black sweat band with the letter 'E' on her left arm. In smaller letters he can read out 'Eminem'. He never thought a Goth like girl like Jade would like Eminem the Rapper.

"So I see you like Eminem." Vlad slightly pointed to her wrist.

Jade looked at her wrist band. "Yeah, what has that have anything to with you running over here?"

Vlad shrugged. "Nothing, it's just that I didn't think of you as the type of person who liked rap music."

"Well I do."

Vlad's heart was racing and it wasn't from the running. He didn't know what to do. Even with all the commotion going on around them it was silent. Vlad wanted to runaway but Henry was too busy with hitting Sami, which seemed it will never work on her. Suddenly the silence was broken by joss carrying both Vlad's and Henry's lunches.

"Why did you guys run off so quickly?" He sat the lunches.

"Well hello there. I believe we have never met." Jade stuck out her ring covered hand. "My name is Jade Jones."

Joss gladly took her hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you Jade, I'm Joss McMillan." He lets go of her hand. "Aren't you the girl that saved Vlad's butt earlier today?"

"I really don't remember what happened today." She looked to Vlad which is off in his little lala land. "Well did I Mr. Vlad?"

Vlad shook his head and came down to earth. "Do what now? I wasn't paying attention."

Jade looked to her friend who was keeping a good grip on a pen. "Obviously." She looked back to Joss. "Yes I'm the one who helped your friend here."

Time went on and they all talked until the bell rang. All the young students left their tables and went to their classes. Jade jumped off the table and started to walk quickly to her next class. Vlad caught up with her.

"Hey." He spoke.

Jade raised her brow. "What do you want?"

Vlad shrugged. "Nothing really, just want to talk."

"Well I just want to go to class." Jade started to pick up the pace.

It took Vlad a second to realize that she had and caught up with her. "Hey!"

"What?"

"Why are you so grumpy? Did I do something wrong?"

Jade signed. "Look I just don't want to talk."

Vlad stepped in front of her blocking her path.

"Would you move?" she takes a step to the side but Vlad slides over again blocking. Jade looked him right in the eyes. "Move." She demanded. But Vlad stood his ground. For a moment she looked confused, but she quickly turned into irritation. She pushed Vlad to the side and walked away.

'What is her problem?' Vlad thought. 'Why can't she just talk to me?' Vlad thought about it for rest of the day.

When walking home he noticed Jade playing around on her cell phone. He patted Joss on the shoulder. "I'll be right back." He ran up to Jade and gave her a little scare from coming up so quickly. She opened her mouth to speak but was stopped by Vlad speaking. "I know what you are about to say and before you say it I want to say thank you once again and I would like to further thank you but you have to listen to me."

Jade crossed her arms and looked at the clock on her phone. "You have until Sami comes out here to speak."

Joy came upon Vlad's face. "Thank you. So to thank you for earlier today I was wondering if you want hang out go to the movies or whatever."

Jade gained a smirk upon her lips. "Are you asking me out?"

Vlad's face became red. "N-n-no. I was just saying hanging out, not dating. Not that I wouldn't like that it's just that I don't like you. Wait I don't mean I don't like, because I like you just not in that kind of way." With every word Vladimir spoke his face became even redder.

Jade couldn't but laugh at the rambling fool before her. Vlad stopped his rambling. "What's wrong? Did I saying something funny?"

Jade wiped a tear from her eye. "No, it's just your being silly." Vlad gave a questioning look. "But that a good thing." Joy came back to Vlad's face.

Sami came through the front doors to the school and walked to her still laughing friend. "Sorry I took so long. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, let's go." Both the girls started to walk off but were stop by the sound of Vlad's voice. "Hey!"

Jade and Sami turned around. "What silly boy?"

Vlad blushed a little. "You never answered my question."

She laughed. "Yeah, we can hang out sometime."

"How's Friday sound?"

Jade and Sami turn and start walking off. She waves to him. "Whatevs works for you bro."