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!"

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

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.

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

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