Rory slid down the wall until he ended up sitting on the floor, his knees close to his chest. The bell had rung, warning students to be in class, but Rory didn't hear it. Instead, Benny's words echoed in his ears, the words repeating over and over again.

But he's annoying. Annoying, annoying, annoying…

Did they only put up with him, not truly enjoying his company? Did Ethan and Benny only pretend to be his friends? Did they really not like him at all?

Rory tried to think back, tried to discover clues of Ethan and Benny's attitude towards him, to see if it was true. The more he thought, the more he realized how stupid he was. It was all too evident.

They never did invite him over to hang out. He always let himself, never actually welcomed. They made excuses for why they couldn't hang out a lot of the times. Their reaction when he comes walking towards them was always the same. Annoyed. How could he have not seen it before?

"How could I have missed it?" Rory whispered to himself. "Do I have any real friends? Does anyone like me? Do I even belong?"

Tears threatened to fall down his cheeks, making Rory scoff at himself.

"No wonder nobody likes me. I'm a nuisance and a baby. Some vampire I am."

He sniffed and wiped at his eyes, trying to compose himself. He took deep breaths and after a while, relaxed his body. Outwardly, he looked fine. But on the inside, he was still hurting. He combed his hand through his hair and touched his ears, feeling the tip of his pointy ears. He took off the fake ears and threw them in the trash angrily.

"Hey you! Where are you supposed to be? Get to class now or you will get detention young man!"a teacher exclaimed when he spotted Rory on the ground.

Rory scrambled to his feet before the angry man could reach him and headed toward his class. He arrived fifteen minutes late and the teacher lectured him in front of the entire class when he failed to give a good excuse for his tardiness. The teacher's rant went unheard and Rory silently walked to his desk and sat down. He was in a room full of people, but never had he felt so alone.

Benny strolled into his chemistry class confidently, ready for the quiz. He spotted a pretty red head in the front row and winked at her charmingly. She gave him a funny look and raised an eyebrow. Benny just shrugged off the girl's negative reaction.

'She'll come around soon' Benny thought. 'No one can resist this!'

He sat down at his desk as soon as the bell rang and started to prepare for class.

"Today we will be having a quiz" the teacher explained.

Students groaned at the announcement and the teacher gave them her meanest glare, which shut them up immediately.

"I assume all of you have studied, so you should do well on the quiz. I will give you five minutes to look over your notes, and then we will begin." The teacher took her seat while students hurriedly looked over their notes, most of them not prepared.

Benny meanwhile was rummaging his bag for a pencil, the quiz requiring one.

"Why do I always lose my pencils? I buy like fifty and lose every single one!" Benny grumbled underneath his breath. After searching in his messy backpack, he gave up.

"Crap. I wonder who I can borrow a pencil from…" Benny searched the room for a possible person who would loan him a writing utensil. His eyes landed on Rory, whose head was on his desk.

"Pst. Psssssssst. Rory."

Rory glimpsed at Benny, a blank look on his face. It struck Benny odd the way Rory was acting. He brushed it off though. Maybe Rory was tired.

"Can I borrow a pencil?"

Rory grabbed a pencil form his bag and gave it to Benny wordlessly.

"Thanks Buddy! I owe you one."

Benny expected Rory to say something back. He got the exact opposite; the vampire only laid his head down back down, his eyes closing shut.

'Huh. That's weird. Maybe he's sick or something. Do vampires even get sick?'

Benny glanced towards Rory again, trying to find any hints that would indicate what was wrong with the blonde. He didn't spot anything out of the ordinary, except for one thing.

Rory no longer was wearing his Vulcan ears.

"Hey Ethan, I think something is wrong with Rory."

Ethan stopped prodding the mystery meat on his plate when he heard Benny's voice. His tone sounded serious, puzzling Ethan.

"Why do you say that? He was fine this morning."

"Yeah, but look at him now" Ethan followed where Benny's finger was pointing and spotted Rory across the cafeteria. His normal smile was strangely absent. It was pizza day, and Rory was typically the first in line. Though today, that wasn't the case.

"Huh. That is weird. He usually uses his vampire speed to beat everyone else to the pizza line." Ethan mused.

"Exactly! And look, he's not even wearing his new Vulcan ears either!"

"He's not? But he was so excited about them this morning! I wonder why he took them off."

"We'll ask him when he gets to the table' Ethan and Benny nodded to each other and waited patiently for Rory to come over.

After a few minutes, the subject of their conversation arrived. Rory quietly sat down and set his lunch on the table. He picked and touched his food, but he did not dig in. Vampires didn't need to eat normal food to survive. Nonetheless, Rory did anyways, not willing to give up the deliciously unnecessary food. To see Rory not scarf down his lunch was quite anomalous.

Benny nudged Ethan on the arm, and Ethan acknowledged that as his cue to start questioning.

"Hey Rory."

"Hey," was the hushed mumble they got

"Are you feeling ok there? Are you sick?" Ethan asked.

"No," Rory muttered.

"Did something go on in one of your classes? Di you get a bad grade in something?"

"No."

Both Ethan and Benny were baffled. What was going on? He wasn't sick, so was it another issue? Was it about a girl? Family? What?

"What's wrong Rory? We really want to know."

"What's wrong?" Rory repeated softly. His eyebrows furrowed and he frowned."What's wrong?" he said again, his voice stronger and louder. How could Ethan and Benny not know how much they had hurt him? How could they just sit there innocently, as if they did nothing? Rory hardly got mad; at this moment however, he had never been so angry in his life.

"I can't believe it. How do you guys not know? How could you be so clueless? I know you think I'm the dumb one. But maybe you guys are actually stupid. Maybe you should try to conceal your lies a bit better. I have super hearing. I know what you said behind my back."

Benny and Ethan faces illustrated the perfect picture of confusion and surprise. They had never seen Rory so upset, and they couldn't figure out why.

"What are you talking about?" Ethan asked, bewildered.

"But he's annoying. Don't you agree that he gets on your nerves," Rory mimicked Benny, referring to the conversation Ethan and Benny had earlier in the morning.

Realization dawned upon Benny and Ethan and their faces paled a bit. Rory watched with distaste as their faces expressions changed from confusion to guiltiness, confirming what he had overheard.

"You lied to me. You made up some excuse to get out of hanging out with me! And it isn't the first time too. You talk about me behind my back. You only pretended to by my friend. You were never my friends. Friends wouldn't do that to each other, like how you did to me."

He couldn't even bear to look at them anymore. Rory stood up, about to take his leave. He was through with this. He was through with them.

"Rory wait!" Before Rory could retort back, Ethan had grabbed his arm in an attempt to stop him .The contact between the two sent a shiver up Ethan's spine. His eye color changed from brown to completely white, blinding him for a split second.

Darkness. Night. The moon. An alley. Bodies. The silhouette of a snake. Rory. His fangs dripping with blood.

Ethan gasped desperately for breath as the vision ended. He was still holding on to Rory, his grip tight; the images so fresh in his mind. Only when he heard a hiss did he snap back into the present.

"Let go of me," Rory snarled. His fangs glinted in the light menacingly and his eyes glowed green. Dumbfounded, Ethan released his arm and Rory disappeared from their view .Ethan had seen Erica and Sarah's eyes change to that color; but Rory's eyes had always remained sky blue.

Ethan knew that Rory was no longer human, having seen him get bitten in person. Rory often showed off his fangs and superhuman abilities. After looking into his eyes only seconds ago did Ethan discover the truth he had always known but ignored: Rory was a true vampire. Not a fledgling like Sarah. He has drunk human blood. He can kill and has done it before.

If he wanted to, Rory could be very dangerous.