Welcome.

I shook my head in disbelief and watched him go to the opposite side of where we were all supposed to go.

“Hey, Hailey?” I hear Eve calling out to me and trying to get to me through the crowd.

“I lost you for a second. Wait, what’s wrong?” She asks, and I look back at the weirdo who bumped into me and almost bullied me. But he was gone.

“Hey, are you okay?” Eve asks again. I look at her once again, smiled and acted as if nothing was wrong.

“I’m fine. The interior is so amazing I feel like I’m living in a palace.”

“I know right, the auditorium is much more huge. Come on, I wanna sit at the front.” Eve takes my hand and guides me inside.

The “Welcoming’ us all was amazing. Our Principal was a fairy, and she sure looked like she deserved to be a fairy. Her name was Laura Atkinson. She has been running this school for 8 years after her mother, Myra Atkinson, passed away.

She didn’t obviously fill us in with her personal life, but she sure made us feel safe. Her aura was amazing, exciting, not to mention loving. She was all that we needed, a principal and a guardian.

While the small gathering went on, I automatically started searching for the guy across the hall. I could see a lot of attractive people and possibly mean girls who were simply bullies, but not him.

Why was I even looking for him? He’s literally no one.

“Ouch,” I murmured to myself as I held my arm close. The marks, injury marks were again burning like hell. Is there something in the air of this school? Why is it that I stepped one foot here and all my old injuries are bursting like hell?

“Hey, are you okay?” Eve asks me.

“Y-yeah. I think..uh..I’m just tired. That’s all.”

“Well, don’t be. There’s a party at 11 tonight. Everyone’s going to be there. We have to go too!”

“I..Uh..I’m not sure, Eve. I’ve never been to a party before.”

“Oh, come on. It’s fun!”

I smile at her childishness. I’ve never met someone like her before. She’s always so enthusiastic and excited about stuff. No matter how valuable or small.

“We’ll talk about this later, okay?” I turned her down for now, as we both concentrated on the ceremony.

The evening went by fast. And the meeting in the auditorium ended after half an hour. Now, I was walking around the grounds of our school and I’ve already gotten 20 messages from my mother. While I was replying to them, I see figures behind a big tree.

Filled with curiosity, and out of etiquette, I decided to check what was going on and find him. That vampire Dracula guy with a woman. She didn’t look like a student here. She looked our age.

“What’s happening here?” I whispered to myself as I saw them...fighting. They were clearly arguing about something. But I don’t know why. It felt as if the vampire guy was terrified of the woman. Was she his girlfriend? What the hell is she doing here?

I quickly realised what I was doing. I have no business staying here and watching what relationship they have with each other.

“Ouucchhh, Oh, screw you, scar!” I cursed my arm and before I could ignore and go back to minding my own business, another girl emerged from the other side of the view.

She was blonde, and fair. But she was short. Almost like a 15-year-old. Her eyes were different, though. They were big and green. And there was something about her that made me feel I was way much closer to her than I think.

But again, I had no point in staying here, watching them argue. So I took a few steps back without breaking my eye contact with them, which eventually caused me trouble.

I stepped on some branches and closed my eyes in embarrassment. As soon as I turned and decided to make a run for it, I bump into him..again.

Ughh. Damn Vampires and their speed.

“Ugh, watch...it,” I massage my bumped head as I look up at him. The short girl who came afterwards was standing right beside him, almost as if she was supporting him by reading me.

“What are you doing here?” The guys growled. “Were you eavesdropping on us?” He takes a step forward and I, back. “ Do you have any idea what trouble you can get in if-“

“Jace, stop it. She wasn’t eavesdropping.” The girl cut in between him. This ‘Jace’ guy scoffed and walked away instantly. Leaving just the two of us.

“I’m sorry, he can be a little irritating to get by sometimes. We mean no harm.” The girl changes her whole personality. She was a bit shy, I could see that because she struggled to maintain eye contact. I shook my head and smiled briefly.

“I’m sorry. I really wasn’t eavesdropping. I was just passing by and lost my way back to my dorm room.”

“Oh, it’s okay. It’s our first day, after all.” She takes a short pause and finally speaks again to make our conversation less awkward. “I’m June. June Liester.” She extends her hand for a brief shake.

“I’m Hailey Lockwood.”

“Lockwood?” She pauses and widens her eyes a bit. It was a little uneasy to watch everyone going on like this. I really didn’t know the reason behind their shocking views on my name. And honestly, I don’t know if I wanted to hear the stories myself.

“Yeah,” I say.

Instead of acting all aloof, her face brightens up with a big smile. “No wonder why my brother’s going all fond of you,” she says.

“Wait, he’s your brother?”

“You find it hard to believe?”

“Well, yeah. You’re all shy and funny. And he’s all bold and...”

‘Grumpy?’

We both say at the same time and as soon as we do, we burst out laughing together. Well, I guess my first day here wasn’t so bad after all.

Me and June went back to my dorm and I introduced her to Eve. We girls talked a lot about stuff from back home and stuff from here. But our concentration got stuck fully in June because she just told us she was a hybrid.

She was half a vampire and half werewolf. And her brother..Jace?

He was the soon-to-be vampire king.