"How was your first day of school, Sybil?" Mom asked me once I was brought outside by one of the 'helpers.' The helpers were fifth graders who volunteered to walk the kindergarteners out to the bus or to the place where parents picked up their kids so they didn't need to ride the bus. My helper's name was Adam, and as soon as my parents came up to collect me, he rushed off to catch his bus.
I, of course, didn't answer my mom's question. She was used to this, though, and grabbed my hand to lead me to the car, where Dad waited in the driver's seat.
"Hey, sweetie! I hope your day was great, I got a surprise for you at home!" Dad said. I could hear the smile shining through his words.
Dad barely ever asked me any questions, unlike Mom. He knew I wouldn't answer, so he usually rephrased his sentences to avoid words that required a response from me that I wouldn't give. I liked that about him.
Wait, no, I didn't. I couldn't like anything about him, because he was a vampire. A vampire would end up killing me, that was a guarantee. He might as well have already killed me. I couldn't like my murderer.
"I wanted to talk to her teacher after class today," Mom said as she buckled me into my seat, not saying anything about whatever surprise was waiting for me. "But apparently parents have to wait outside for the kids to be escorted out by older kids. We'll have to ask how she was tomorrow morning when we drop her off."
"I'm sure everything went fine, or else Mrs. Kim would have made sure she could come out to talk to us, or she'd have called."
"You're probably right," Mom sighed. She buckled in her own seat now and Dad started driving off.
It was silent for not more than a minute before Dad got all excited about whatever surprise he got me. He didn't tell me what it was - but was gushing about how I was going to love it for practically the entire drive. I felt bad before I even knew what the surprise was because I couldn't give him the reaction he wanted.
Trying not to get attached to this vampire family was especially hard when my dad was so wholesome and kind and happy all the time. Why couldn't I be living with a normal vampire family? It'd be so much easier to hate them then. I had to push down these feelings around them because I couldn't let myself care. I couldn't let my guard down, because that's what they wanted. I couldn't risk my safety like that, even if they've shown no signs they want to cause me any harm.
Once we were back home, Dad unbuckled me from my seat belt and carried me over to where I assumed the surprise was. It was outside, so it must have been too big to easily be inside, or it was just an outside toy.
"Look, Sybil, this is your surprise, it's just like my Jeep! We're like twins now," he giggled like this was the most amazing thing ever. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it must have been a toy jeep of some kind. Probably not a Hot Wheels car, but I wasn't sure what else it could be.
"Seriously, Em, this is what you got her?" Mom asked. She must not have seen the surprise before now, either.
"Isn't it great, Rose? Now both of us have Jeeps, and she can get some driving experience!"
So, it was a Jeep I could drive. Was it a kid-sized Jeep or something? In times like this, I really wished I could see, at least a little bit more.
"You think this is giving her driving experience?" Mom said, before sighing. "Did you at least get her a helmet?"
"What do you take me for? Of course I did," Dad said. "Wouldn't want to risk the safety of my little princess," he said, once again his smile dripping through each word he said.
"Okay, so, where is it?" she asked.
"Alice didn't like the one I picked out, even though it was amazing, so she went to get a different one. She's been texting me for a while about how there are no good helmet designs anywhere nearby," he laughed. "She should be back soon, though. She said she'd be back no later than four, and to have Sybil eat her snack before that."
"So, we better get on that snack then, shouldn't we?" she said.
I could feel Dad bouncing in excitement as we rushed inside to get me something to eat. I wasn't even that hungry, but a snack I would have anyway.
"Let's see, what are you in the mood for today? Apples? Oranges? Blueberries?" Mom asked. "Let's go with…oranges," she answered her own question without waiting for a reply.
Dad sat me down in a chair and Mom placed a bowl of orange slices in front of me. I ate them pretty quickly, not knowing how close it was to four, but not wanting to make Dad wait for me to finish eating for me to use the jeep. I figured it would be better to finish sooner rather than later. It was a good thing I did, too, because barely a minute after I finished, I heard Alice's voice.
"Here, Emmett, this is the best one I could find."
"Great, let's see how it looks," he said as the helmet was placed on my head. Of course, it was a perfect fit, Alice wouldn't have settled for anything less. From the quick glimpse I was able to get before it was put on my head, it looked black. It probably had some other colors on there, too, but I couldn't see them that easily.
"Okay, okay, time to try out the Jeep!" Dad picked me up again and ran—not vampire ran, just normal ran—back outside. He helped me sit down in the seat before he gave me instructions on how to drive it.
"See on the ground there? There's a little peddle that makes you go forward. And in front of you here is a steering wheel, which makes the car go the way you turn it, got it? Give it a go," he said, the excitement so thick I could almost feel it engulfing me.
I felt for the pedal with my feet and found it pretty quickly. This wouldn't go well, I knew, but I had to try, at least. Couldn't go too bad, right? It wasn't like a real car, I probably couldn't get seriously hurt. Probably.
I grabbed hold of the steering wheel and pressed down the pedal. There was only one, so to stop I just had to pick my foot up.
I started out going straight, with dad cheering me on from behind. His voice followed me, so he must have been keeping up. I doubted I was going very fast at all, though.
I had a vague idea of where I was and figured if I turned right I'd end up in the woods at some point kind of soon, so I turned left. I ran over the driveway and continued straight that way before I decided to turn back around and go that way for a while. I forgot to account for the car being parked there, and I crashed into it. Dad had stopped running behind me at some point, or he would have stopped that from happening. Not that the crash was bad or anything, but he would have stopped it anyway.
"Are you okay?" Mom asked, rushing over, worrying so much over such a small thing. It was just a little bump into the car. Probably didn't even scratch the Jeep. She just worried over nothing.
I wasn't sure if the car could go in reverse, so instead of trying to fix the predicament I got myself into, I just got out. I took my helmet off and put it inside the car, before walking over to where I could hear Dad talking to someone else.
Dad was still gushing about this toy car like it was the single greatest invention anyone had ever made. I'm sure a normal kid would have enjoyed it a lot more than I did.
"Best purchase I've ever made, no competition," he said. "Don't you think so, pumpkin?" He sighed contentedly before answering his own question. "Obviously, no doubt."
How the hell was I supposed to hate these guys when Dad was like this? I swear they were doing it intentionally or something. I had to be careful or the next thing I knew I'd care too much to leave them.
