Lira felt a cramp in her shoulder, causing her to slightly wince. Something heavy was atop her shoulder, so she tried to shift to a comfortable position but a vice-like grip stopped her from moving. She blinked her eyes opened her as stray of sunlight glared at her face. She saw Mari's head propped on her shoulder. Mari was still sound asleep, tightly embracing Lira's left arm. "How could your head weigh like a ton?" she mused to herself.

Slowly, as to not wake Mari, Lira turned slightly forward to see where they were. The bus was approaching what Lira thought from a far a hill. They moved further, and towering trees lined the winding road. Several branches and leaves above intertwined with the rest of the trees, almost obscuring her view of the sun.

Compared to the Great Metro that looked almost like a complete industrial wasteland with its gloomy shades of gray and black, the city of Baguio was flourishing with all the bursting colors nature could offer. Lira feasted her eyes with flowers growing along the road. Leaves of tall trees rustled in greetings. The air smelled sweet and citrusy only pine trees could offer.

A cold, chilly air swept inside, causing goose bumps on Lira's arms.

Mari stirred beside her. "Ma, who turned on the AC?"

"Mari, wake up. We're almost there," Lira whispered, slightly taping her companion's arm.

Mari untangled herself from Lira and straightened up, eyes squinting. She made a big yawn but stopped midway. "OHMYGEE, I slept on your shoulders. Did I drool while asleep?"

Lira chuckled and inspected her shoulders. "Nope."

"I guess we're almost there," Mari mused as she fumbled with her purse. "I should, you know, freshen up a bit. Might bump later with a cute boy, or two."

Lira smiled and turned her attention in front of her. The bus stopped in front a colossal golden gate bearing the seal of the academy. Shortly, it opened to let the bus pass through. The bus moved further forward, up towards the hill. From a distance, Lira could see an enormous castle-like structure fronting a wide expanse of field. As they drove nearer, she noticed a cemented lane beside the field leading towards the building. After a five-minute drive, they stopped in front of another gargantuan modern-like building. As the students made their way out of the vehicle, a tall and willowy looking lady called for their attention. She was beautiful, who looked to be on her late twenties, but seemed rather stern with her penetrating gaze behind those horrible glasses.

"Good morning. My name is Amara. I am the head of the faculty teachers and part of the welcoming committee. You may address me as Head Mistress but that would sound so archaic so please, do call me Miss Amara instead," the lady said. Miss Amara surveyed the students as she tucked a stray of brown hair behind her ear, her fingers moving further behind her tight chignon. She looked past Lira, but returned her gaze back at her, as if she somehow resembled someone she knew. Miss Amara decided she was probably mistaken as she moved forward. "The students from the Northernland are all settled in inside their dorms. Now all boys please follow Mr. Rojas, and the girls follow Miss Layla and Miss Tara for the room allocations. Your list of schedule for today's activity and your class schedules are already inside your rooms, as well as your uniforms ("Uniforms?" most students groaned). You will be given ample time to rest. School assembly will be at seven in the evening."

It took Lira four flights of stairs, and one narrow steps leading to the attic-like floor, before she was directed where her room was. She thought it was the attic; she could almost touch the ceiling if she extended her arm upward. This was already the last floor and as she stood in the middle of a small square space, she noticed the four doors on each side. The three doors lead to the rooms and the remaining door to her left was the common bathroom as explained to her by Miss Layla. Earlier when Ms. Layla was directing the other girls for their rooms, Lira felt excited thinking what her room was going to be like. She saw the rooms of the other girls; it was highly decorated with rich colors and fully furnished with necessary furniture. And now that Lira was escorted to hers, she had a very strange feeling that somehow the room assignment was also based on a student's status.

She went to her assigned room and was vaguely surprised to find another girl was already inside. The girl whirled around to face her, slanted her head to the side before a big knowing grin spread across her pixieish face. To Lira's utter amazement, the girl started to half-dance, half-run towards her while in a sing-song voice she said, "Hello!" Half a second later, she was already beside Lira, gripping her hand for an over enthusiastic handshake. "I've been expecting for you! My name is Mayumi Guinto; Yumi, for short. I'm going to be your new friend, probably your new BFF aside from Clai—whoah! Would you look at the time! Got to do some unpacking." Yumi rushed to her bed and made herself busy all of a sudden.

Lira had the bizarre feeling Yumi was about to mention Claire's name. She also had an uncanny feeling that Yumi already knew she was going to be her roommate. Lira went to her bed opposite Yumi's and observed her roommate. Yumi was shorter than her by a couple of inches; her pink pixie cut hair suited her small round and friendly face. Wait, pink hair? What the...

"Ah Yumi, if you don't mind me asking, is that your... uhm your..."

"Oh you mean my hair?" she asked nonchalantly. She extracted a tin spray can from her bag and showed it to her. "I use these hair spray colors. Coolest thing ever invented, right? I mixed some of the colors myself. Do you want to try one? Purple is a nice color."

"No, I'm fine with my hair as it is." Lira started unpacking her bags as Yumi sprayed her hair a bright orange tint.

***

"Yumi, this is Mari. Mari, Yumi, my roommate," Lira made the introductions earlier when the three met at the hall. "I wanna be your roommate, too! Hey, can I sleep in your room sometime? We can have a slumber party," Mari said, which made Yumi replied, "cool!" Lira later learned that despite Yumi's small frame, her mouth was lethal. She was the personification of the saying 'small but terrible'. She may look cute and her behaviors were child-like, but when she opened her mouth and began cussing, it almost gave Lira a heart attack.

The three of them sat down as swarm of students made their way inside the great hall. Rich cream colors plastered the wall of the great hall, with wide windows on both sides and massive pillars lining the hall giving the entire area an intimidating feeling. A large chandelier was high above, hanging on a circular multicolored glass ceiling casting a soft yellow glow below. Rows of chairs were placed fronting an elevated platform where Miss Amara informed everyone to settle down.

"I welcome you all to Imperial Academy. It is the school's aim to bridge the gap between vampires and us humans. We strive to understand each other and acknowledge each other's existence without fear and animosity. The vampire community announced their existence throughout the world during the Plague, and had been living with us openly ever since. As of now, our vampire students are also having their own assembly with their own head of the faculty.

"I will now disseminate the rules and regulations of this school..."

Miss Amara went on and on about the regulations, causing an occasional yawn here and there from the students. Lira summed up the regulations to what she calls the Three Golden Rules: 1. Always wear your uniform during classes and your badge if wearing regular clothing inside the school premises (probably to distinguish the vamps from humans, not that it wasn't that obvious as to know which was which and who was who since it was pretty evident who the vamps were—pale-looking predator with fangs who stalked at night would be an accurate description of the vamps); 2. Never wander alone at night or else end up as the vampire's snack, which was unlikely to happen since humans were protected by the Treaty or else the perpetrator would answer to the Vampire Council Law Enforcers, or the Elite Guards who patrols day and night; 3. Curfew was at 10:00 p.m.; no one was allowed on the school grounds after that—Lira was already asleep by nine so no problem. As long as the Three Golden Rules were upheld by the students, they would remain unscathed until graduation day.

The assembly ended at nine in the evening and everybody were just too tired and sleepy to stay up till curfew time. Lira ascended the narrow steps, with Yumi behind her, ("Can I have a sleep over tomorrow?" Mari asked pleadingly) and went to their room.

"I'm going to bed now, Lira. Goodnight," Yumi said and a second later, she was fast asleep.

A chill crept inside the room, sending shivers to Lira's arms. She went to close the window when a shadowy figure caught her attention. She tried to crane her neck further to get a better look. It was Matt and his gang of slayer wannabes, patrolling the grounds as their nightly duties. He was again dressed all in black, holding what looked like two wooden sticks that he swung and twirled around his hands, probably to occupy him and make him busy in the quiet and calm night. He suddenly stopped and directed his gaze towards Lira's opened window, which was three stories high. Lira forcefully closed the window and yanked the curtains, embarrassed that she was caught snooping. He would without a doubt torment her later about this, but what are the odds that they would knock each other's elbows sometime in the future? Probably zero, she convinced herself.

In the morning, the girls attended several classes together. It was a stroke of luck that they were in the same group when all thirty students were divided into two.

"It was fated for us to be together!" Yumi declared, bobbing her head up and down, her eyes brighter than her yellow hair.

Lira pulled the hem of her gray skirt down. It was a good inch and a half above her knees, and although they were required to wear black stockings entirely covering her thighs and legs, she felt uneasy with her attire. Her only accessory was a thin black satin lace choker with a tiny gold-plated cross dangling from the lace.

"Lira, stop tugging your skirt or you'll end up pulling your entire skirt down for all the people to see," Mari reprimanded.

Lira grappled for patience. "Easy for you to say, when you in your uniform looked like... like..."

"Like what? Fashionably enchanting? Ethereally dazzling?" Mari asked jokingly as she swept a hand across her body.

"Like you stepped right out of a fashion magazine, complete with hairdo, ensembles and all," Lira simply said. Mari's light brown hair was tied up in a loose bun with little tendrils framing her face. Her standard uniform was transformed into a fashionably and alluring set of clothes with her gray skirt hiking at least three (Lira suspected four, five even) inches upward, charcoal gray cardigan over a white button-down blouse, black stockings and black high heeled shoes. The loose cardigan could not even hide the two visible humps across her chest. How Lira wished she was that gifted. No wonder the boys were ogling at Mari. "How'd you do that? You made our uniform looked different?"

"Girl, we're just wearing the same uniform. It's the attitude, how you carry yourself in it," Mari explained as they made their way to the mess hall.

"Besides, Lira, you're not used to wearing short skirt coz you've been an old maid all your life," Yumi added.

"Ha! Says the girl who wears jogging pants under her skirt," Lira said assessing Yumi's uniform. "I happened to like long skirts, thank you very much," Lira retorted, and Yumi replied with her signature "Hehehe" laugh.

"Well, no matter. This is the first time I had beautiful clothes such as these. Most of my clothes were from the thrift-stores or hand-me-downs. I'm just glad I had new ones, even if they are regulation uniforms," Lira admitted bashfully.

The three girls made their way to the mess hall, sat down and placed their tray of food down when Lira said to Mari, "Are you sure you want to eat here with us? The food's not great here."

Mari waved her hand dismissively. "I'm on a tight budget. Besides, food here is free."

Both Lira and Yumi knew that she was not on a tight budget, and that Mari wanted to be with her friends rather than stay at the posh dining hall on the south wing where most of the elite students dine.

Lira and Yumi were already attacking every morsel of food on their plate—Lira never had this much food on her plate before, and from the looks of it, so does Yumi—when Mari said, "Oh look, Matt's over there. Let me call him." Mari waved her hand to catch his attention. "Hey Matt, over here. Wanna join us?"

Matt's companion nudged him on the side and pointed towards Lira's table. Matt and three of his fellow Elite Guard trainees (a.k.a slayer boys as dubbed by Yumi) sauntered towards the table and joined the trio. "Thanks. Mess hall's kinda full this time," said the brown haired boy who introduced himself as Dan.

Lira decided to ignore them as she wolfed down her food. She was in the middle of shoving a piece of broccoli in her mouth when she heard someone saying, "Hungry, much?" It was Matt, giving her another of his signature smirk as he eyed the poor and helpless veggies on her plate that were attacked by her fork. Lira hid her reddened cheeks by letting her hair fall to side to cover her face.

"Lira woke up late you see. So she skipped breakfast and went straight to class," Yumi defended her.

Matt leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "That's because someone's been having a late night rendezvous with the stars, making wishes and thinking happy little thoughts."

Lira stabbed her fork on a piece of broccoli. If only it was Matt's head instead.

"Or she must've been ogling at someone out her window," Matt ventured further crossing the red line.

That did it! "I wasn't ogling you last night!" she retorted, jabbing the fork at Matt's chest.

"I didn't mention it was me you're staring at, did I?" Matt asked innocently.

Lira made a loud "hmph!" before she forced herself to place her attention elsewhere, her food for that matter. She will not let Matt ruin her appetite. Ha!

Matt, however, couldn't take a hint. "Back to ignoring me, are we?"

Right. Because the carrots and broccoli are much more interesting than you.

"Come now, is that how you treat a friend?" Matt dared to ask.

Lira swallowed her food before replying, "As far as I recall, we were never friends, Matt. And yes, since it's not so obvious to you, I am and will ignore you. I figured that if I ignore you, I might convince myself that you never existed."

"And deprive this world of an awesome me? Not likely to happen," he arrogantly replied, which was followed by several guffaws from his friend.

"You da man!" his friends were saying.

"Well," Mari finally intervened. "That was an interesting exchange of barbs, but wow look at the time! We really need to go guys. Don't wanna be late for class."

They finished their remaining classes in the afternoon, and only then Lira noticed something was odd with her classmate's behavior. An aura of excitement grew among them, with their constant giggles and occasional "I can't wait. I sooo can't wait!" from the giggly girls.

Lira could no longer stand it and decided to ask Yumi and Mari. "Is there something I should know? Because I have a weird feeling something's up."

A small "Hehe" from Yumi before she divulged the news. "That's because tonight we'll finally have the vamps to join us in class. That's what the buzz is all about."

"Huh," was all what Lira said.

"You're not excited?" Mari asked.

"Nope," Lira replied.

"Not a teeny tiny bit?" Yumi probed.

"Nuh-uh," Lira answere, shaking her head. "I really don't know what the hype is all about. We only have a sporadic number of vamps in Isla del Sur so I don't know much about them. Never met one. All I know was that they were a great help during the Plague and that's it."

Mari made an exaggerated gasp and dramatically planted her hand over her chest. "Oh you poor thing! Never knowing anything about the vamps, and all. Let me further explain. Tonight we will be having our class with the vampires..."

"And among them are vampires that are not just any vampires," said Yumi.

"Nope, not just any vampires," Mari agreed.

"They're the vampires of all vampires," Yumi added.

"My dream boy—uh, pardon—I meant vampires," Mari said dreamily.

"They are the vampire Imperials!" Yumi and Mari said in unison, their eyes beaming as bright as the stars.

Lira could only stare at them with a bewildered expression.

Mari eyed her almost accusingly. "You don't have any idea who they are, do you?"

Lira shrugged. "I told you I don't know much about them. We never seem to give a thought about vamps in the island." She tapped her chin and realization hit her. "Hey, so they owned this school right? That's why they are so revered?"

Mari could only shake her head in disbelief. "This is serious than I thought, Yumi."

Lira might have seen them once in the television. But she was too busy with school and work to pay attention to gossip or news.

"The vampire coven Imperial," Mari started, "is the ruling vampire here in our country and parts of Asia. They are royalties among the vampires."

"Oh that, I heard about that, but it was never really brought to our attention back home," Lira said.

"Probably because Isla del Sur never accepted the vampires in their community since the beginning," Yumi said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"But you must have heard about the three princes!" Mari insisted.

"No," Lira said. "Sorry."

Mari couldn't seem to contain her excitement as she announced, "For your information, they're the most gorgeous being to ever grace the night. So gorgeous in fact that you would even volunteer to give your neck for them to sink their fangs!"

Lira suddenly clutched her neck as if to protect it. "Eeew! Mari. That's just plain gross, and morbid."

"You got overboard there, friend," Yumi informed Mari.

Mari smiled sheepishly. "Well, I did get carried away with that." Then she added rather defensively, "And I would never let any vamp bite my neck! It's disgusting and creepy. Not to mention it's not allowed as per the Treaty. A taboo."

"Well I guess I'll find about them later," Lira stated, not really caring about the Imperials.