At eight exactly, we were on our way to the first class. Masses of students in the Ultara uniforms stood in front of the entrance hall. They clustered around the foyer and up the main staircase. All of them seemed to float in and out. I almost got dizzy with these crowds.
"Have you seen her?" Cammie asked me.
"No."
"Me neither."
"She must be around somewhere," I said.
"Oh, you can smell her?" Cammie asked, raising an eyebrow at me with a mocking smile. I shot her a look. But then just out of thin air, we got a glimpse of a familiar figure emerged from the crowd.
"Alyssa!" Cammie shouted. "Over here!"
Alyssa was reading her schedule on a piece of paper when she turned abruptly, and we both waved like mad in sudden joy.
Here came my other best friend- another gifted girl in this school. Alyssa Schell, her baby face broke into a pearly white smile. Her dark hair swayed in a neat ponytail as she bounced up to us. And as always, Alyssa's uniform was perfectly pressed and not even a single wrinkle was in sight. She was the kind of nerd that when she put on her black-framed glasses, she could make the world burn with her geeky hotness, and which is exactly how she looked right now. Some of the freshman girls were already drooling after her.
Sometimes we call Alyssa the next Einstein. She's always obsessed with the E=mc2, Black Holes, and the Law of Gravity- anything that related to physics, just leave it to her. Like one semester, she conducted a low level of static electricity from a nylon stick and aluminum foil. I didn't know how she did that, but after she told everyone to hold hands in a circle as a human transmitter, she released a burst of electric spark through us. Thank goodness, Cammie and I broke the link before we got a new set of nasty hairdos, but the rest of us weren't that lucky.
"Oh! Vivienne! Cammie!" Alyssa yelled back excitedly and dashed through the crowd toward us.
"We were looking for you everywhere!" Cammie said when Alyssa finally came to make a trio.
"Me too!" Alyssa replied breathlessly, pushing her glasses up her straight nose, looking as if she'd just finished a marathon. "Did you guys miss me? Because I've missed you so much!" Then she wrapped her arms around the two of us.
"Oi, can't breathe!" yelled Cammie, then we all melted into laughter. I noticed how strange their perfumes smelled - I guess I would ask them whether it was a new Coco Channel or something - but I would save that for later; now I had to hug my best friends!
After we pulled away, Alyssa started bubbling about the trip to Da Vinci's hometown. I could pretend to be interested even though half of the things she said was only about physics. When she proceeded to open her notebook of what she found, a girl came up to us with a shy smile. She had brunette hair with red highlights and nice curves. Then I realized she was only looking at Cammie.
"Hey, Camilla," she said, her hazel eyes dancing flirtatiously as she spoke. Alyssa and I secretly rolled our eyes.
"Yeah, can I help you?" Cammie said with a smirk.
"I just wonder if you have a moment," she bit her bottom lip seductively. Her beautiful brown skin glowed even more.
"Sure," Cammie said, then mumbled something in Spanish before putting a hand on the girl's small back. They were about to walk off when I quickly gripped my best friend's elbow and yanked her back.
"Cammie! The class will start soon," I hissed into her ear.
"Relax, Viv," she whispered back. "The girl just needs a moment."
And with that Cammie and the hot Latina girl walked away, leaving us staring after them. But before they turned the corner, Cammie held her fingers in a V-sign and put it between her tongue. I just wanted to throw up.
"Did you see that?" I said to Alyssa.
"Vivienne, I have four eyes, what do you think?" Alyssa said without looking up from her notes. "Let her be. I think she misses that."
Still, the fact that girls hooking up with my best friend in the middle of our reunion is just pure annoyance sometimes.
Alyssa and I approached the front entrance of our Ancient Hall. It got that name because our school looks like the place where dragons and faeries would live. There are huge halls and passageways with plenty of Renaissance pictures and portraits on the walls. The Ultara Academy is constructed from blocks of grey sandstone and huge wood columns with Gothic sculptures all over the place. In contrast, every classroom is well-equipped with the latest hi-tech stuff. All the sensory glass doors, space elevators and sterilized steel labs, just to name a few, make the Ultara interior feel like a NASA station.
Later we got to our very first class. We settled in our seats for World History and waited for the teacher to call the roll. Cammie came back and took a seat with me and Alyssa. The smirk on her face grew even more smirky as I stared at her and shook my head. Then the girl she went with earlier appeared with a flushed face. Her hazel eyes almost looked glassy as if she was high on crack.
"Seriously?" I said. "Already on the first day of school?"
"There is no rule that says you can't come on the first day of school." Cammie shrugged. I had to think for a minute to get it, and then I almost fell off my chair.
"Well, that was quick," Alyssa commented.
"You know me," Cammie quirked her perfect eyebrows.
Then Mr. McKowit, our World History teacher appeared through the door.
"Welcome back for another interesting year," he announced. "I hope you enjoy this year lessons as much as I enjoy teaching them. But first, let us take a moment to welcome your new classmate..."
Then the whole class turned into a beehive with murmuring girls. It's because we hardly have any new enrollments in the Ultara Academy. We only accept two types of geniuses- geniuses who are born and geniuses who are made.
Besides, every subject in the school is designed especially for the gifted ones, a.k.a. freaks. So if you enjoy doing the oral math, learning Ph.D. chemistry, memorizing world historical dates, building robots, or searching for old fossils- then welcome to freak-hood.
Suddenly an unfamiliar girl with long black hair, wearing the same school uniform as us, entered the room. She had a slender body with pale flawless skin and a graceful walk. And the girl had the most gorgeous eyes I'd ever seen. She came to stand in front of the class with an air of confidence and smiled brightly. Well, for this new girl, there was no telling which one of the seven bits of intelligence she might possess, and in that case, she might have to be an attention-magnet for a while.
"My name is Jacqueline Deveraux, but you can call me Jacques. Nice to meet you," she spoke in a charming French accent and waved femininely to the class. Her raven black hair brushed against her shoulders like fine Chinese silk as she turned.
"Do you know anything about her?" I heard Alyssa whispered to Cammie. It's a customary question when we've got someone new because we simply want to know what kind of a freak she is.
"Nothing," Cammie whispered back, which was pretty unusual for her, not being in a loop. And if a daughter of the school headmistress doesn't know, no one else does. The new girl flashed her enchanting smile again before walking to the back. But when she walked past our desks, Jacques brushed her gaze across the three of us. Suddenly I got a brief feeling of adrenaline going inside me. And as if on cue, her face also changed into a curious frown. I didn't have a tendency to detest newcomers, but my intuition told me that there was something hidden in her dark gorgeous eyes, something darker.
We drifted out to the Lunch Hall after a few of our new classes, but when we opened the grand double doors, the entire place was in a state of organized chaos.The sound of porcelain plates colliding with spoons and forks could be heard all over the place. All the Ultara geniuses were moving around, laughing and talking amongst themselves. I could recognize a few faces of my former classmates, Serena from Science, Yasuko, and Rajani from Arts, also Vida and Rosa from Chemistry. And I was sure a few of them had a mega crush on either Cammie or Alyssa or even both. I was just glad that I stayed out of their gaydar.Throughout seventh and eighth grade, all the Ultara students have to bundle together, learning from general curricula until they discover their passion and go off to blossom in the different fields.
My school day rolled to an end. I got a fancy ride in a private limo of our school (because we have no school buses) and then headed homeward. On workdays, Mom usually works late, and because I was raised in a single-parent family, the one who arrives first will make dinner. But now I felt completely washed-out and hungry. My shoulders slumped as I dragged myself through the hall. My hands and legs almost dropped off onto the floor limb by limb.As I reached the kitchen, my whole body started trembling. I walked straight to the fridge and opened it. My eyes quickly scanned for a blank carton on the shelf. The delicious smell rushed to my nose. Grabbing the container out of the fridge, I couldn't even wait to find a glass and just gulped it down impulsively.Then the trembling subsided. Mom has always reminded me about drinking milk when
Then it was showtime.We walked through the Ancient Hall, and once again, more students and even the upperclassmen stared at us. I think on this particular occasion, Octavia was a full target of these excessive gawks. I walked behind while Cammie and Alyssa were explaining something about the Ancient Hall. Since they both were practically residents in this school, they knew all the detail better than I did. Our newbie went along without saying anything much, she just listened and nodded quietly."The Ultara Academy is quite different from other private schools. Languages, mathematics, histories, sciences, and cultures are in the basic curriculum, but we all are encouraged to pursue anything we want," Cammie said professionally."The school has amazing foods, but you can bring your own
When I got home that evening, Mom told me that Alyssa had called, saying her parents wanted to invite me to dinner at her house. And she would come to pick me up tomorrow night. I asked if it was okay, and Mom simply said, "Yes" without suspecting anything else. What a simple plan my best friend had! But it worked perfectly.On the next day before we went to the carnival, we actually had dinner at Alyssa's house. I guess it would make us feel less guilty about lying to our parents. After dinner, we hopped into Alyssa's black Benz and drove downtown instead of going back home or school. I sat at the back of the car whereas Cammie and Alyssa occupied the front."I thought you had a better light bulb to convince my mom," I complained."A better idea!" Cammie corrected me.
Iwoke up from the nightmare at last.I was sure it was another crazy dream. But my mind was filled with hazy thoughts. My head throbbed, my body ached. But at least, I was relieved knowing that it wasn't true. I craned my head to see my mom standing by my bed. Strangely, the room was too blinding bright that it made even a healthy person look sick. And the white fluorescent light stung my eyes, causing me to flinch away.Mom quickly switched the lamp off, leaving just a dim of the yellowy one above the headboard. She was wearing her long white coat with a stethoscope hanging around her neck. If I still remembered it clearly, that was how she looked in her doctor uniform. It took me a while to collect my thoughts and realized where I was.Of course, this place was
I wish there was someone who would lie to me about it or make up a story about it. I had lived all my life thinking of myself as nothing other than an average human being, but before I knew it, I became a creature that has to sink its teeth into people's flesh like a freaking leech. Then it hit me like a strike of lightning. I turned to my mom who was watching me digest the truth in my head."Mom, how did I get here? Where are Alyssa and Cammie?" My voice cracked with emotions."We found you lying unconscious in Alyssa's car," She told me and took a deep breath, "You have no idea how much that frightened me.""What was that, mom?" I asked."There was blood all over you," Mom spoke in a quiet tone. I could almost see the dreadful momen
Octavia walked gracefully forward, looking as sizzling as ever.She came to stand at the foot of my bed."Octavia? What are you doing here?" I asked cluelessly, but then I remember the fight and how she had helped us escape. "Oh my, don't tell me you get hurt, are you okay?""I'm good, thank you," she responded quickly. Octavia did look composedly unharmed. I let out a sigh of relief."Then why are you here in the hospital?" I asked again, feeling even more confused. Suddenly things began to make sense. I turned to look at Mom again."Mom...""She knows," she answered the question in my eyes.
How strange it was just to wake up in the morning. There was something creeping beneath the layer of my skin, in my pulse, racing through my body. I felt so much stronger, and that scared me.As I sat watching the dust motes dancing their way through the cracks of the window, the sound of light footsteps approached the door."Good morning, sunshine," my mom said pleasantly as she entered the room. A huge smile stitched across my face, but then there was something I seemed to come to."What's wrong, honey?" she asked, reading my face."Well, it's just that, 'sunshine' sounds too ironic for a vampire," I told her with a weak shrug."Oh, Vivienne," Mom brea