It was two weeks after Nelly's funeral. Vlad had barely any contact with the outside world since college had still not started, so he was some what relieved when he received a phone call from Henry.

"Dude!" Henry said. "I know your upset and all, but I need some major help. Can I come over please?" Vlad agreed willingly because not only was Henry his best friend (he needed company other than Otis), but he owed Henry big time. About ten minutes later Henry showed up at Vlad's house.

"So umm, tomorrow is October's birthday," Henry began, "and um I don't know what to do for her…"

"Whoa!" Vlad said snickering. "You, Henry McMillan, are asking me, Vladimir Tod for girl advice?!"

"It's different!" Henry screamed throwing his arms in the air. "We're not talking about any ordinary girl, we're talking about a girl like, like you!"

Vlad crossed his arms over his chest then teased, "You mean like a vampire?"

"No" Henry said defiantly than slowed his voice, "I mean like an outcast."

Vlad went silent. "Well then." He finally said then sat up on the counter he then thought that Nelly would've killed him if she saw him do that so he quickly jumped down. "You don't have any problem doing anything for me."

"Yeah, but you're my best friend."

"Well," Vlad said, "if I was you, I would start with…" he made quotation marks with his fingers, "happy birthday."

Henry widened his eyes with sarcasm. "Great idea! Marvelous, perfect, splendid!" he screamed walking around the room. When he stopped in front of Vlad, he threw his hands on Vlad's shoulders and started to somewhat shake him. "Then what?"

"Um," Vlad said. "Take her somewhere… Ooo I got it! Throw her a surprise birthday party at the Crypt!"

"I can do that! Thanks man you're a life savor." Henry said enthusiastically. At this comment Vlad started to laugh. "What?" Henry said confused.

"I already know I'm a life savor, Henry."

Henry also started to laugh remembering how it was Vlad that had stopped the whole battle. Honestly if Henry didn't have any control over himself, he would break down and give Vlad a bear hug, partly because Vlad had given him a great idea for October's birthday, and partly because he didn't remember the last time he had seem Vlad laugh. "Are you ready for school to start?" Henry asked Vlad.

"Truthfully, no." Vlad responded. Vlad sighed; he was definitely not looking forward for school. Otis had told him that it's a chance to move on and get his mind off of things, but in the past five years Vlad had been through so much that he knew that that was not the case. It felt like every moment he was looking behind his back, making sure no one was coming after him.

Vlad glanced at Henry. Even though he was standing right in front of him, laughing with him, he felt distant. Vlad guessed this was because he let Vikas and his father get close to him then they ended up backstabbing him. Vlad shook the thought of Henry ever doing that out of his head. After all, Henry was his drudge and he could always order him not to.

Henry detected the sorrow in Vlad's eyes. "I'm sorry." He said in his serious tone.

"For what, asking about school?" Vlad asking snapping back to reality, but he knew Henry to well. Sometimes he thought that Henry would still to this day act like Vlad's drudge even if Vlad had never bit Henry when he was eight.

"MaybeCollege will be different for you, Vlad."

Vlad snickered. "How?"

Henry rubbed his chin. "lets see, your parents died in a fire, you were bullied, stupid Eddy Poe tried to rat out your biggest secret, D'Ablo tortured you and kidnapped your aunt, you were staked in the heart, your grandfather tried to kill you, half of vampire kind were after you because they either wanted you dead and wanted to steal your powers, you fought Joss every night, you learned your dad was still alive, Otis left frequently, you had to get punished for all your dad did, the whole Slayer Society was after you, you had to stop a battle between humans, slayers, and vampires, Joss had to kill you, your girlfriend almost died, you learned your dad killed your mom, your dad almost killed you, and you were failing math. Not to jinx anything, but I'm pretty sure there's nothing left to go wrong."

Vlad grinned and hoped Henry was right. For the first time he looked at his past as somewhat of a joke, maybe he could get through this, after all there was no easy way out because he was the pravus and the pravus is supposed to live forever. "Actually," he told Henry, "a lot can happen in forever." The two grinned than traveled to the living room, sat down, and started to play Race to Armageddon 4.