5: Her hatred

HAYDON

Katerina stood in front of me, her face still one of confusion. Being told that I was Haydon must have really confused and upset her because within a few seconds, she turned around and wordlessly began to walk away. But I couldn’t let her leave, at least, not so soon.

“Katerina!” I yelled out by accident.

She froze but did not turn back. Panic began to rise in me as I realised that I had no clue what to say. Soon, however, I realised that it would have been better to just keep quiet because the next words out of my mouth were:

“I hope you had fun beating up my cousin.”

It was not so much the words that were the problem, but rather they way I said them. They had unintentionally come out hostile and venomous.

Katerina never turned back, not even an inch. She did, however clench and unclench her fists and began stomping out, mumbling a very colourful assortment of profanities.

It was then that I realised that Katerina Drackon might not have been as graceful and peaceful as I had initially thought. In fact, I sensed a secret fire burning within her.

Eventually, I sighed, mentally slapping myself for firstly, even speaking to her as it was clearly not helping my unhealthy obsession, and secondly… for not getting her number. Was my game weak or was this obsession really messing me up?

Soon the bell rang, and I began making my way to my first lesson. The day went by quite smoothly and I had begun to make many friends- most, were girls of course. I considered them a temporary distraction from my little incident with Katerina. 

Eventually, the day began to draw to a close with only one lesson left- business management. I had not run into Katerina throughout the day and was hoping two contradicting things: One, that she would not be in my last lesson, and two, that she would be there. I walked past the masses of girls who were drooling and swooning over me. Poor things. I smirked and entered the classroom on my left. It was filled with groups of teenagers my age who were sitting on tables and chatting loudly. As soon as I stood in front of the classroom all eyes were fixed on me and the chatter ceased. I began a quick analysis of the people in the room and concluded the following: five non-lethal vampires (commonly known as vampire vegetarians), fifteen humans, and two hunters of which one of them was the teacher.

" You must be the new student?" The teacher said peaking up from his thickly brimmed glasses. He had silver eyes, an unkempt beard and a belly which spilled the secrets of every beer bottle he touched.

" Yes," I said, bored.

He smirked at me and gave a nod. He knew who I was. In fact, we had met occasionally during his hunter days, when he actually participated in the Huntership. Now, however, he was a retired old fart, miserable with his life, and clearly not at all impressed with my appearance.

" Okay, sit at that empty desk close to the back of the classroom," he said, pointing chubby finger in the direction of the seat and then proceeded to immerse himself into the book.

I nodded and walked to the empty desk. I noticed that the walls were covered in posters and pictures of everything to do with beer. Clearly this man hated his job and loved beer.

I unpacked my bag but froze when familiar sweet scent wafted into my nose, and immediately I looked up and saw Katerina entering the classroom. She froze when she saw me and gave the teacher a questioning look. Well, it started off with apprehension, then turned to frustration, and finally, rage.

" Yes Miss Drackon, Mr Haydon Veneziano is your new partner," the man said nonchalantly as he pointed at me while still reading his book.

Katerina glared at him, then she turned to me and glared even harder. I stared at her wide eyed and did not even notice the eyes of every vampire and hunter on me until she sat down. The air was thick with fear, not hers though, theirs as they heard my name. Who would have thought that this class would be full of supernaturals?

Katerina turned to face me. Her gaze was still harsh.

"Stick to your side of the table and keep your dirty fangs to yourself." She said.

I stared at her again. She was now a totally different person from the flustered girl that I had met earlier on in the day.

“Is it just me or are you way crankier than before?” I mumbled under my breath.

She glared at me, clearly having heard what I had said. I had forgotten her hearing was so good, her being a hunter and all.

"Just shut up. No talking in class, it’s against the rules." she said folding her arms. By now the teacher had surprisingly begun teaching and our voices were beginning to combine with his.

I tried to move in closer to Katerina though, really wanting to bug her because it was becoming more and more apparent that she was one of those people who could be very easily ticked off. And I liked ticking people off.

She, however, noticed my movements and grabbed her scissors so quickly I could barely see it. One moment her hand has empty, and the next it was right up in my face, holding the scissors dangerously close to my nose. I took this as an opportunity to get her closer.

" Well I'm not one for rules," I said grabbing the scissors and pulling her close to me. We were just inches apart and I could hear the blood rushing through her veins. I was not sure whether it was anxiety or fear that she was feeling, but soon it was replaced by something else.

" I noticed," she said growling, as hatred flashed in her eyes.

She then yanked the scissors back, got out her books and started writing down notes frantically as if nothing had happened before. Everything about her was organised and precise. Her stationary, her notes, her folders in her bag. My deduction was the following: control freak.

She stared back and forth at her notes and the board. Her every move was intriguing, mesmerising. I was just so enraptured by her. Slowly she turned to me and shook her head.

"Stop staring at me," she whispered through gritted teeth.

I hadn’t even noticed that I was staring at her. She was just so mesmerising that I couldn’t even will myself to take my eyes off of her.

“Sorry.” I then dared to tuck a strand of her stray hair behind her ear. “You’re just so beautiful.”

I was not sure if I meant to let that slip or not, but there was no harm in telling her the truth.

She shook her head and turned back to her notes. Her reaction to my compliment left me even more curious. She was not what I was expecting at all.

Earlier on she was flustered around me, but not because she was attracted to me, but because she was confused. Now, with all of the confusion out of the way, all that seemed to be left was a deep-rooted dislike.

" Um you don't seem attracted to me, like, at all." I meant to say it inside my mind, but it accidentally slipped from my mouth.

She immediately dropped her pen and glared at me, holding me in an intense and quite admitably nerve-racking stare off. Seconds passed before she said anything.

" I just really, really don't like you..." she said. She turned back to her notes and I knew that our conversation was over. I paged through my book and also started taking down notes, deciding that I could at least try to distract myself away from her. How could she not like me when she knew nothing about me. I then remembered that I did not have the best reputation and began to understand.

“I guess my reputation isn’t all that great.” I said.

Again, she looked up at me, and, to my surprise, said, “I could honestly not care less about your stupid reputation. All vampires are monsters, you’re just a vampire who doesn’t hide the fact that you’re a sick, psychopathic murderer.”

Psychopathic murderer? The more I learned about Katerina, the more I began to distance her from the perfect young lady I had observed from her balcony the previous night. It had me wondering whether I was obsessed with Katerina, or the idea of her I had concocted in my mind. Maybe I was mistaken when I thought I actually felt something for her.