edited and rewritten

Well, this is a sight to see. Via's talking to her crush. I lean on my locker as I watch the two of them talk. Her crush, Landon, looks rather into their conversation. He's moving his hands around and there's a smile on his round face. She always swooned over his deep dimples. I remember countless times when she'd squeal and tell me how much she loves them.

It's adorable.

Even though Via's talking to him like a regular person would, you can't miss the redness on her cheeks. She always said that I was lucky for having brown skin. That if I blushed it wouldn't be that easy to detect. I've never seen her smile that wide before. Not even with me. I'm pretty sure she's in love with him.

She laughs and her head turns to the side. Her green eyes land on me and they grow wide. Her laughter stops and Landon turns to see what she's looking at. To save my best friend the embarrassment, I turn around at lightning speed and walk around the corner.

I hope he didn't spot me. If he did spot me, that would've been so weird. I've only spoken to him a few times and all the time it was kind of awkward. From our short conversations, he seems like a great guy. Though, a few short conversations don't give the truth of someone's character.

A minute or so passes and Via steps in front of me. Her cheeks still have a red tint to them and there's the shadow of a smile on her lips. A yelp escapes my lips and I place my hand on my chest. "My gosh, Via, you scared me."

She smiles, cocking her head to the side. "We talked. Oh my gosh, Ara, it was heavenly. It was everything I dreamed of if not more."

The edge of my lips turns up into a sweet smile. I'm so happy that she's experiencing this. Crushes are nice. "That's adorable. What'd you guys talk about?" I ask as we start walking to our first class. My first class is Vampire History but hers is Piano III. We only have Art II together but that's our last class. We do get to see each other at lunch though.

"Art. You know how he's in Art II with us." I nod then she continues talking, "He offered to teach me to draw."

My eyes widen and we both squeal. "Oh my gosh! Why would he offer to teach you if he didn't like you?" I ask.

"I know! I mean, it could've been a nice gesture and nothing more, but it doesn't hurt to dream." She says as she blushes hard. She smiles so hard I can see most of her teeth. I'm so happy that she's happy.

"True," I say.

We arrive at my class and we stop walking. "Alright, this is my stop," I say and we hug each other.

"I know," she pouts, "See you at lunch."

As I turn around to leave she grabs my arm pulling me back. "Wait, why weren't you at school yesterday and why did you ask for me to cover for you?"

It was only a matter of time until she'd want answers. I can't exactly give it to her right now since the bell's about to ring soon. "Meet me in the breezeway at lunch. Collect your food first, we're going to talk." I say.

She nods, "Alright. I will."

I walk into my class and she leaves for hers. My teacher, Mr. Rick, stands from his chair as the bell rings. "You're right on time, De Clare. We missed you yesterday. The class was deathly silent." He laughs.

I crack a smile, "Well, I'm back now." I take my seat in the middle row of the class. He closes the door then class begins.

"Good morning students. This is the third day of school so I hope that this week has been going well for you. Remember there's a football game this Friday so prepare to come out and support your school. Anyway, for today we're going to pick up where we left off yesterday and the day before." Mr. Rick walks to his computer and the TV board.

Our boards are an entire TV screen instead of a regular whiteboard. The whiteboards went out of style many years ago when these TV boards came about.

He turns on the board and then brings up the presentation we were looking at two days ago and yesterday. Since this is my second time taking this class I already know everything. I'm stuck in here. All because I failed this class last year. I wish I paid more attention to what my life was like. I wish I realized what was happening sooner. Instead, I faced the consequences. There's nothing I regret more.

"Okay, kids, we left off on vampires in the A.Ds. Please get out your notebooks and take notes as you see fit." He instructs and many of us get out our notebooks or iPads.

"So vampires first came out of hiding in 423 A.D. They posed as regular hard-working humans and then got positions tending to royals. They shared some of their past with their royal friends. Telling how they were once royalty but something happened and they lost it. The king and queen felt pity for their new friends so they granted them their royal positions." He pauses as he changes the slide.

"Once they were in those positions of power, they stayed there for a while. Until seven hundred years ago when they decided to take back what was theirs. Showing themselves to the world. Of course, it shocked everyone, it took a while to grasp that vampires were living among us. Many hated them, hence the Great Battle. The war between humans and vampires resulted in many casualties. Humans and vampires alike."

Mr. Rick continues telling us all about the original history of vampires for the next two hours. I've learned all this before so half of my brain clocks out.

→⁜←

I stand under the breezeway with my food, waiting for Via. A few minutes pass by when I see her walking toward me with her food. Like I did, she got the pizza instead of the chicken sandwich. Her short black hair flows with the wind and she spits out hair that got in her mouth. She sits on the ground criss-cross in her jeans so the blowing wind isn't affecting her too much. Unlike me, who decided to wear a dress.

"Man it is windy out here." She says. I nod and I sit on the pavement with her.

"It is. How was AP Psychology?" She smiles and rests her head back on the red brick wall.

"Man it's amazing. I love AP Psych. You should take it next semester." Her eyes sparkle as she talks about that class. AP Psych is her favorite class. The only reason why she loves Art so much is that she gets to see me.

"I want to, you make it sound so amazing," I say, and we both take a bite out of our pizza.

"How was Spanish?" She asks me, then she takes another gigantic bite of her pizza.

I nod as I drink some of my water, "It's okay."

We finish eating our pizzas in simple, comfortable silence. After we finish eating we check the time, seeing that we have fifteen minutes left.

"Okay, time for you to explain. What's going on? Why didn't you come to school yesterday? Why did you ask me to cover for you?" She asks me all the questions she's been dying to ask.

I take a deep breath, "Alright, just promise me that you won't tell anyone else. This is seriously confidential."

I'm not even sure why I have to tell her this. She knows that anything

She nods and gives me a look that says 'really?'. "Come on, when have I ever broken our code of secrets?"

"I know, I'm so nervous. I've been nervous this entire day. It's a shock to me that this even happened." I say, wiping my sauce-filled hands with the napkins.

She gives me a solemn smile, "How about you start from the beginning?"

I take another deep breath. This is so wild. Everything that happened to me within the past few days shocks me. One day my life was fine then the next it became. . .different. It wouldn't be out of bounds for me to say that this all started when I was fourteen. Many. . .concerning things happened. I don't think my life has been entirely normal since then.

"Alright. Well, it all started two nights ago. I was sleeping when I felt someone watching me. I don't know how long this person was watching me but it had to have been a while." I start.

She gives me the signal to continue, "I ended up waking up when I couldn't take it anymore. I thought I was being paranoid for no reason. I wasn't paranoid. Something was at my window watching me. It was a vampire."

She rolls her eyes, "I'm telling you these vampires have no respect for human life. It's a miracle they're still alive."

"Yeah, well, it um. . .it kind of bit me." I lower my voice, and her eyes grow wide.

"What?!" She whisper-shouts. "I'm telling you about these vampires. They don't care about anything or anyone. They disregard all the rules and because they have special abilities they can evade the law. Some king the king is."

I've never heard Via speak about vampires like this until now. All along she used to find them fascinating, but now it's as if she hates them.

"Are you okay now?" She asks me.

I nod, "Basically, yeah. The bite marks are still on the far side of my neck though. My hair shields it, though," I turn my head to the side and I brush my hair away, showing her my wounds. She looks closer at them then she pulls away with a scowl on her face.

"You need to get that checked out, Adara. It could get infected." She warns me, crossing her arms.

I nod, "I know that. But um, I haven't told anyone. Only you, my parents don't know either." Via takes a few seconds to process all that I've been through. This is the most serious conversation we've ever had. All our other conversations have been surface-level. This is the next level.

"Okay, I understand you not coming to school yesterday, but I still don't get why you asked me to cover for you." She says.

I lick my lips as I prepare to tell her everything. "Alright, um, well, after I got attacked the vampire wanted more but another vampire came and saved me."

Her eyebrows crease as questions fill her mind. "Who was that other vampire?"

"It was the pr―" As I'm about to get it out, the fire alarm sounds cutting me off. We both look around to see students as shocked as we are.

"What's happening? Is there an actual fire? We don't have any drills scheduled." Via asks.

I shake my head, "I have no idea, but we need to get up." We get up from the pavement then we hug and part ways.

For a fire alarm, we must go to the area where our teacher will be. In this case, it'll be my Biology I teacher, Ms. Grayson. For Via, it'll be her ArchDale History class with Mr. Rick.

She goes down to the parking lot where Mr. Rick will be but I go up to the bus loop out by the trees. My teacher appears and I find my classmates. I don't talk to anyone in my class but I still recognize them.

Where is this fire? From the looks on everyone's faces, I can tell they're as confused as I am. I hope everyone's alright if there's an actual fire. It could be a couple of kids pulling the alarm as a prank. It wouldn't be the first time.

Walk to your left.

I take a sharp breath when I hear a voice in my head. My head darts from side to side trying to see if anyone else heard that. You don't start hearing voices in your head for no reason. Am I going insane? With the contents of what happened this past year―these past two years―it wouldn't surprise me.

I catch a glimpse of a hooded figure by the corner of the back building, peeking out. Once the figure notices that I see them, they move away so that the brick walls conceal them. I know that this could be bad for me but I'll be alright. I hope.

I make sure that no one's looking at me then I slink away, walking to the back building of the school. Once I get there, I look around again, and still, no one notices me. Thank goodness. I turn the corner to see the figure standing there with its back to the wall and one foot kicked up on it. With his head lifted to the sky and eyes closed, I recognize him right away.

"Your highness?"

His eyes open and he turns his head toward me. "Hello, Adara."

"Um, what are you doing here? Did you pull the fire alarm?" I ask.

He removes his foot from the wall and turns his entire body toward me. He places his hands inside his pockets. "Yes, I did."

"Why?"

He takes a step closer to me, "To stop you from doing something stupid."

Questions linger upon my lips as the harsh wind slashes around us. I use my hands to hold down my dress. What a day for me to wear a dress. If this wind continues any longer I'm going to show some very private body parts.

"What do you mean?"

He sighs, "You were about to tell your friend about the past two days. You cannot do that. Especially not the part involving me. Everything we say, everything we do," he steps closer to me, "Is very confidential."

I take a step back but I trip on the rocks. My hands reach out to grab something―anything―but I end up grabbing the wall instead. Good going, Adara. You have a human being in front of you and you grab the wall. I'm disappointed to be you.

The prince grabs my arm and steadies me. My other arm holds on to his shoulder. "Thank you," I say.

He nods, "Point being, you cannot tell her about royal affairs. It's already out of bounds for your parents to be telling you. She cannot know." His voice becomes serious and I swallow as I start feeling intimidated.

This is only one of the many reasons why people are hesitant to approach him. He is terrifying. "I―I don't want to lie to my best friend," I say, looking away from him.

"I'm not telling you to lie to her. Just redirect her. This isn't keeping a little high school secret, this is royalty affairs. Do you understand the weight of that?" He says.

"Um. . ." I hesitate to answer him. I know that this is confidential, but I've been lying to everyone in my life for way too long. I don't want to do that again. I told myself I want to stop it, but here I am, having to do it again.

"Alright, how about this: we're going to dinner tonight, and we can talk about all this. Hold off on telling her at least for now." He compromises.

My brows raise. I've never heard of the Prince of ArchDale compromising ever. He would tell and receive. The difference this time is that he needs my help. Whether he becomes King or not hangs upon the outcome of this scandal.

"Okay. May I go back to my class now?" I ask and he nods.

I turn around to walk away but he stops me. "Oh and Adara?" He says and I turn around, "Thank you."