Hey guys! Thanks for reading! It's time for chapter 4. Hope you like it... for me, it's kinda short. Lol.

Chapter 4:

Explanation

-Mansion-

Once my dreamless slumber was over, I saw Mineko staring at me from my side. How long has she been awake? No. How long have I been asleep? I asked myself. Oh… yeah. I drifted to sleep again.

"Ohayou, Riko-chi" Mineko said smiling at me.

"Ohayou…" I smiled back.

"Riko you're finally awake again. You've been sleeping for an hour already!" Rei yelled but smiled anyway. Well that answers my question.

"An hour… I've been asleep that long? That seemed like a short nap to me, Rei." I winked.

"Mou Anyway…" Rei said sitting on the bed.

"Hmm… something wrong, Rei?" I asked.

"Uhmm… I've talked to Spook already. And uhmm… I kinda…"

"Spit it out Rei…" I was getting annoyed that she couldn't finish her sentence and Mineko was rubbing my back to calm me down.

"Gomen! He wanted to talk to you so badly that I had to let him up here…" Rei was looking down feeling guilty that I totally had no knowledge about this at all.

"You. Did. What?!" I glared at her. I wanted to take a stupid day off just because I wanted to think straight before talking to him in the first place!

"Gomen, gomen! I'll take any punishment you give me." She was going overboard this time.

"Okay… I'm letting this go just this once. Don't do it again." I said smiling and patting her head.

"Thank you!" Rei purred while hugging. It was cute listening to her purr because she was really acting like a little kitty.

"So… where is he then?" I sighed at the thought of seeing him skipping school himself just to see and talk to me.

"Hold on. He's still down at the living room. I'll go get him." Rei said getting up from my lap.

"Okay. I'll go get dressed. You too, Mineko." I got up from her chest since I was leaning on her for a moment.

"Okay." She replied and went to her own bedroom.

I took my quick shower and I was still thinking of how I would explain everything to him face to face. I shook off the thoughts, got out of the shower and got dressed. Then I dried my long raven hair. I let my bangs down in front of my forehead. I brushed my teeth and brushed my hair for the final time then I stepped out of the bathroom and I saw Spook sitting on the bed. How long has he been in here? I didn't here the door open. I thought.

"Morning…" He said staring at me with worried eyes again.

"Morning." I replied back quite coldly since I was controlling my emotions again. I wouldn't want to break down in front of him.

"How are you feeling… after last night, I mean." He asked.

"I'm still pretty confused but I feel okay. I let all my crying out last night… so I'm fine." I put a weak smile and he smiled back.

"That's good. I'm glad. Why didn't you come down when you saw me through your window a while ago?" He then asked again.

"Uhmm… I guess I wanted to be alone for a while at first. That's why I took a day off from school today. I wanted to relax and forget what happened last night." I said looking down on my lap.

"Actually… that's why I'm here. I want to talk to you about everything. I want to know everything about the three of you… if you don't mind that is." He said and I sighed.

"Well… it all started when we were still little kids. That was about 300 years ago. I know, shocking, isn't it? Anyway, our families are of Noble Purebloods. My family is the first of the noble families all together, second is Reira's family and the third is Mineko's. They have been obligated to protect me and only me since there are a lot of our enemies who are after my blood. They couldn't go after my parents anymore because they know that they're aware of their actions. And since I was a kid back then, they thought I was very vulnerable. They didn't attack me then and there though. I was hidden here for my personal safety along with Rei and Mineko. Our dear Headmaster Ryu, although human, knows our parents and had been our family friend. I don't know for how long though, I can't really remember. Oh no… am I boring you?" I felt embarrassed because I was the only one talking.

"No. Your life interests me. I'm just absorbing everything you tell me. As I said, I want to know everything about you three. Don't worry." He smiled and so I continued.

"Okay… so the three of us have been the best of friends ever since they've been protecting me." I said.

"But I don't treat them as my protectors at all. I treat them like normal people; like best friends." I added.

"Ah… I see. Anything else about you I need to know?" He asked.

"Well… the whole school knows about us three being vampires. I wanted to tell you when you're ready to listen and won't panic" I explained.

"Oh well then, I've absorb everything there is to know about you guys. I'm glad you were open to me." He said holding my hands that were lying on my lap.

"Thanks for understanding. Since you know everything about us, want to eat lunch together tomorrow at the park?"

"Sure." He said grinning and pinching my nose.

"Ouch Hey that hurt" I pouted and he patted my head.

"I'm not a kitty cat either, Spook" I started to glare at him but then I laughed when I saw his scared reaction.

"Where are Rei and Mineko?" I asked.

"Oh… I think they went downstairs to prepare breakfast. We all woke up pretty early today and I skipped school too." He said.

"You skipped school just to talk to me?" I stared at him.

"Yes. I knew you wouldn't attend today since stressful things happened last night." He explained.

"I'm hungry now… want to join them down in the kitchen? I feel like baking some morning cookies right now." I grinned at him when I opened the door.

"Okay…" He followed.

I suddenly vanished from the door instead of walking with him. I wonder what his reaction was when I did that out of the blue. I waited for him at the bottom of the staircase, putting on my evil grin on him as he walked down and he was grinning back at me.

"That was cheating, Odoriko."

"Oh please… you couldn't race me even if you try." I poked my tongue out at him.

"Don't poke your tongue when you don't plan to use it." He poked my nose then I blushed out of embarrassment.

"Aaaw our pretty little Ojousama is blushing… I wonder what I did wrong…" He smirked.

"Tch let's get into the kitchen before I strangle you." I glared and walked to the kitchen and he followed from behind.

-Kitchen-

I walked through the dinning room then reached the kitchen where the two crazy gals were. From the scent of their cooking, I could almost taste lasagna from the oven and fettuccini to go with it. I motioned Spook to get inside the kitchen by pushing him. Mineko spotted us and smiled since her hands were full.

"Mmm… I smell something very delicious around here who cooked up the lasagna and who did my favorite, fettuccini?" I asked with exciting eyes.

"I did your favorite and Rei did the lasagna. I know you want to bake something. I can see it in your eyes." She said which made me even more excited that I was earlier.

"I'm going to bake our usual morning cookies. Who wants chocolate chip and who wants raisins?" I asked everyone not wanting to leave out a person.

"I want chocolate chip please!" Rei blurted out and I smiled.

"Me too…" Mineko whispered into my ear while hugging me from behind.

"Me three…" Spook voted as well.

"So that's chocolate chip cookies for everyone then. Anyone want crunchy or chewy?" I asked again.

"Crunchy." Mineko suggested.

"I want crunchy as well." Spook said.

"I want chewy." Rei said.

"Okay then. I'll be baking crunchy and chewy cookies this morning. Sounds fun" I almost jumped up cheerfully but I remembered that Mineko was still hugging me so I wouldn't want to hurt her so suddenly.

While I was baking the cookies for everyone, I told Spook to help Rei and Mineko set up the table. We told the maids not to do anything for the rest of the day besides the cleaning. And we told the butlers not to interfere with anything either. We needed the drivers there though… we might plan to go out later today to buy more groceries for dinner which we will be cooking… again. So for short, we're letting the staff of the whole mansion a day off… well, nearly a day off. They will be doing a little bit of work if needed. After everything was ready, I got two batches of cookies from the oven and let them cool on the counter for a little while then I washed the utensils we used for the day. After about 5 minutes of cooling down the cookies, I got the two batches and placed them in two separate baskets reading, "Crunchy" in one basket and, "Chewy" on the other.

Rei got the hot lasagna out of the oven and set on the center of the table. She made three of them so the other two are still hot in the oven. Mineko had finished up with my favorite and put a mass of it in each plate and she had also put a little bit of decorations. Spook got our drinks and poured on every glass that was set on the table. We all contributed for our pleasant breakfast and it was still early.

"Okay time to eat!" Rei said as she pulled out her chair.

"Itadakimasu…" We have said in chorus then we ate peacefully while chatting.

"How do you like your fettuccini, Riko-chi?" Mineko asked me as I chewed on my fettuccini.

"Mmm… oishi arigatou gozaimasu, Min-chan!" I told her smiling.

"The lasagna is delicious too." Spook said.

"So are the cookies Riko-chi made" Rei said with her neko-like face which made us laugh at little.

"How are the Festival preparations going by the way?" Spook asked and the three of us stared at each other.

"Oh my goodness, we forgot about the preparations!" I yelled with my hands on both sides of my head.

"Calm down, Riko-chi. We're almost done with it anyway. You should rest more; you've been stressed out all day." Mineko told me as she rubbed my back to comfort me.

"I agree with Min. We could handle the work. Two heads are better than one after all." Rei said.

"Hey, is there an opening for the Student Council?" Spook suddenly asked and we all looked at him as if we're all in shock.

"Well… kaichou? Is still there an opening in the council?" Mineko asked me.

"Actually yes. I think we need an assistant secretary in the council. What do you think, Rei? Is it okay with you?" I said and turned to Rei for her answer.

"Yes. I need all the assistance I can get anyway. No offense, Mineko." She said as she shrugged and poke her tongue playfully at Mineko.

"None taken." Mineko replied.

"Okay. Then I have to get the council forms and let you answer them." I said as I got up and motioned myself out the door to go to the office.

"Where are you going?" Rei asked me.

"To the office to get the papers. Where else?" I said.

"Oh you're in no state to be going out yet, Odoriko. I'll get them instead. Plus, he will be my assistant anyways." Rei suggested and so I walked back to them.

"You should go and get some more sleep." Mineko said and led me to my bedroom.

"Spook. You better go with Rei." I said then turned back to Mineko.

"Okay. We'll be back in 15 minutes." He said. I followed Mineko up to my room as she held my arm strongly so I won't suddenly fall.

I admit that I do feel a bit dizzy after being so stressed that I couldn't even stand up properly. Mineko laid me down my bed and covered me with the silk blanket. She played the CD that was already inside the stereo and she turned the volume down a bit so it would have a relaxing environment. Listening to a couple of songs, my eyes started to close and Mineko was just sitting beside me playing with my hair. Seconds after, I've fallen asleep. I felt Mineko's arm on me so I guess she had fallen asleep as well. I was dreamless once again. All I did was think about everything that had happened and then I went blank. My eyes were closed but I was still dreamless as if I was dead.

It felt like I've slept for only seconds but when I woke up, it was the next morning already.