Chapter Three

Chapter 3:

I woke up the next morning, my head aching and feeling weak. I had used all my energy to heal my wounds last night (I cant just heal them with a snap.) and I couldn’t stand up from bed. I fumbled to get the clock and saw that it was already 9 am. I was late!

I fell off my bed, with a thud, and rushed to get ready for school. I ran downstairs and quickly waved goodbye to my Nan and the Professor.
“Eliz- Violet! Wait, where are you going?” Nan said, running after me.

“To school!” I said, taking my bike out of the garage and putting my helmet on.
“But you look pale!” she said rushing to me and feeling my forehead.
“Nan, I’m fine.” I said. “I need to go. See you later”
She nodded and waved goodbye as I pedalled as fast as I could to school. The workers were cleaning the front lawn of the school as I put my bike in the bike rack along with the other bikes. I rushed into the hallway, where the French teacher (who had a free period) was walking along, to check the other class.

“Ah, Mademoiselle Terrison.” She said, in her heavy French accent, looking at me and smiling. I smiled uneasily.
“I’m sorry, Madame Bateaux” I said. She took out her clipboard and wrote something down.
“Here is your late pass. You give it to your subject teacher when you arrive. Go to your class now.” She said.

“Ah, Mademoiselle” she called out after me as I walked away from her. “S’il vous plait, try to visit the nurse. You look very pale.”

I nodded and hurried to my locker and took my books. Fighting the urge to faint due to feeling so weak, I knocked on the classroom door.
The current teacher, Mr. Pascal who taught us Literature was writing on the board, as I came in.
“Miss Terrison! What a pleasure of you to join us.” He said. I walked up to him and gave him the late pass. He read it and nodded to me and I took my seat.

Throughout the whole lesson I tried to concentrate, trying not to look very sick. At break, I lay on my desk, trying to take a rest.
“Violet.”
I looked up to find a pair of worried blue eyes and I saw myself looking at William’s face. Just great, I said to myself. How am I to get an excuse now?
“Oh, William” I said weakly, smiling. “What brings you here?”

He smiled back and took a seat next to me.

“Well, I take Literature, too.” He said. “I’ve been watching you all lesson and you really look sick, you shouldn’t have gone to school. What’s wrong anyway?”
I felt guilty because he just looked so worried. It’s obvious he’s not faking it. I know he wanted to be friends and I’m always avoiding him. I looked away, trying not to meet his blue eyes.

“I must’ve ate something bad last night.” I said, looking back at him straight in the eyes.
“Well, you should be careful then.” He said, grinning at me.
“Yes, I will.” I said.
“So, It’s been a day since I met you and I still don’t know a single thing about you. I’m sure you know a lot about me.” He said.

“Believe me, although word spreads fast but I don’t.” I told him, laughing weakly.
He laughed as well. Then he stopped, looked at me and said,“ Say, do you want to have coffee after school?”
“Are you asking me out on a date?” I said, raising my eyebrow at him.
“If that’s what you want.” He said, amusement in his eyes as he stood up and went back to his seat because the teacher had arrived. I watched him, speechless then turned back to my work.

At lunch, things would’ve revealed that not everything was going great. Not that William asking me out on a date was great. It was like half of me was telling me not to get close to him and the other half was telling me to avoid him. It was tearing me apart. I saw James looking grim outside the girl’s bathroom. He looked up and became relieved as he saw me.
“Violet!” he exclaimed as he saw me. I walked up at him and asked what was wrong.
“It’s Lila.” He said. “She had a huge fight with Rave because of another girl and she broke up with him.”
“Uh…what’s wrong with that?” I said as this were on of the normal things teens go through.
“She wants me to pretend to be her boyfriend so her ex will be jealous.” He said.
“Then why not go along with it?” I asked.
“Because there’s a girl I want to date!” he said running his hands through his hair. “But if I don’t go with it, Lila will get more angry at me. What should I do?”
“I’m sorry James but the only thing you can do is go along with Lila’s plan.” I told him with sympathy, patting his shoulder.

“Hey Violet.” I heard someone call and I turned to see William walking towards me. “The café la mer after school. See you then! ” Then he left without letting me do anything but stare after him again.

James raised his eyebrows at me.
“You didn’t tell me you knew him,” he said.
“I-I didn’t. I just met him yesterday when we bumped into each other” I said.
“Well that was a one kind of a bump.” James said. “He asked you on a date on the second day”

I shrugged trying not to blush.

“Who asked you on a date?” Lila asked, suddenly reappearing from the girl’s bathroom. James and I looked at each other. We knew Lila…she would set William and me up.
“Nobody!” we said in unison. She raised her eyebrows in suspicion then shrugged.
She hooked her arm around James and James shot me a pleading glance.
“Come on James, we have a fish to fry.” She said and dragged him away. “Bye Violet.”
I waved after them and sighed.

After school, when my last lesson had finished I thought of everyway to avoid going to the café. There was a part of me saying not to go and another part saying I should. I slammed my locker shut. I guess just this once on a date…nothing much can happen…right?

So I went to Café la mer and saw William already seated and waiting. He stood up when he saw me.
“Hey.” He said, smiling broadly. He pulled back a chair for me and I was taken aback by his gentlemanly manner. I mean, guys in my school are not like that. James is a gentleman, yes, but not always.

I sat down in the opposite of him and ordered a mocha side dished with a cheesecake.

“You know, I was thinking of where I’ve seen you before. I really don’t know why but I can’t recall you although I am sure I’ve seen you before.” He told me.
“Well,” I said. He was smarter than I thought. “I sure haven’t seen you before.”
“Oh well” he said dismissing the subject. “Let’s just talk about something else. Tell me, what do you like doing?”

“I like studying.” I said and William bursed out laughing. I tilted my head and raised my eyebrows.
”Ah, I see. So you are an intelligent girl I assume?” he asked, leaning over on the table and making his face close to mine. I moved back.

“Of course.” I said taking my coffee and sipping it. “Everyone is intelligent in their own ways”
I looked up and nearly choked as William was still looking at me, his bright blue eyes looking deep within me. To avoid blushing, I looked somewhere else and noticed the waiters who were walking around serving everyone.
“How about you?” I asked.
“I’m a slayer,” He said and I looked at him with raised eyebrows. Of how he can speak so freely about it is what I wondered yet, I envied that he can do so since telling people that you are a vampire isn’t really common.

“And I’m Sabrina, the teenage witch” I said in sarcasm.
“No, really,” he said. “I’m a slayer.”
”T-that’s an interesting occupation,” I said. I looked deep into my coffee. “You must really hate vampires…”

We were silent for some time.
“To tell you the truth that’s what I felt at first,” he told me, breaking the silence between us.
I didn’t speak, looking away. He had activated an emotion in me…I felt guilty that I was here being so pathetically fake when he was truthful. Why was he even telling me all this? Did he know? Was he testing me?
I was just about to make an excuse when my cell rang. I looked at the screen. James. I have to thank him for getting me out of a sticky situation.

“Excuse me,” I said and I stood up.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Vi! Get me outta here! I don’t like Barbie!”
I sighed.
“James I-” but the phone cut before I could say I’ll be on the way. I guess that wasn’t much help after all. I returned to my seat and William was looking at me in a peculiar way.
“Is he,” he said moving closer “your boyfriend?”
I was going to answer ‘what if he was?’ but I held my tongue. I didn’t want James to be in another hard situation like as he is now.
“No.” I said, and then I looked at him, as his expression seemed to relax. He kept his face close to mine, which had my heart racing furiously.
“William,” I said
“Yes?” he answered, his face getting closer. No way…he was going to kiss me!

I stood up quickly and left money on the table.
“Thanks for the coffee,” I said and I ran straight out the door. I ran until I reached the house and I locked myself in my room.
“Why?” I said to myself, hugging the pillow as tight as I could. “Why does life have to be so damn complicated?”

I held the pillow to my face and screamed my fury into it.

Sometime before dinner when I had cooled down, I heard banging on my door. I opened it to fined Professor Terrison, his face red.
“Elizabeth, you have to see this,” he said and I followed him down to the living room.
I saw the telly on with the evening news being shown. I gasped as the first headlines were being made.

“5 children dead, bodies dried of blood with two visible vampire marks”

“Vampires can be such hotties sometimes!”

- Cornelia Redwood