Arson and Claire - Vamp-peers

Chapter Two

The bell rings and I stand, stretching. My back hurts from sitting on the floor, hunched over the posterboard, but I take a step back and admire it. It's a poster for anti-bullying, which for some reason the school has been adamant about recently, though I've never seen anything happen. Social studies, my last class, is pretty small, the only other students being a few freshmen, and Sophie Hill.

Sophie is the only openly trans kid in our school, which singles her out enough. But she's also the only other vampire in my graduating class. She's not a big fan of me, mostly because her family thinks I'm being too risky with how much I do in school. Too many chances to get discovered. But Victoria thinks it's good for me to be active in the community, and nothing has gone wrong yet... knock on wood. She walks over to me and gestures to my thermos.

"Sorry. Do you mind? I'm feeling ill."

"Of course not," I hand her the thermos, her rings clattering against the metal. "You okay? you look pale."

She chuckles, "I was in a rush this morning after my doctor's appointment, I didn't get breakfast in." She sips from my thermos, and I can see just a subtle glint of her fangs.

"Doctor's appointment?" She hands the thermos back.

"It was a consultation for top surgery, so I can stop stuffing my bra with socks."

"Oh, that's cool." admittedly, I don't know a lot about transgender issues, other than she was made fun of when she came out. I feel kinda bad for her, but I'm also proud of her for sticking up for herself. I can tell her voice has gotten higher than before she came out, and I know that's all her, not the hormones. "When do you think you'll be able to get it?"

"It could take anywhere between six weeks and-"

"Girls!" a hushed voice comes from the doorway, and we jump. Mr. Teller stands there, hunched slightly with wide eyes, "Be careful with that. I could smell it from my room."

"Sorry," I put the thermos in my bag. Mr. Teller was the geometry teacher, and a turned vampire. He was the only turned vampire I've met, but he seemed pretty normal to me. "Say hi to your husband for me," I said as he disappeared down the hall. I said goodbye to Sophie and grabbed my backpack, wrangling my markers and such into my pencil-bag. I stepped out into the silent hall, about to text my moms so they'd know I'd be a few minutes late.

I patted my back pocket - not there. My front pocket - nope. Sighing, I wrestled with my purse and started looking through that as I walked. I had to find the stupid thing, Victoria would be livid if I lost it, but if I was late for dinner, I'd be in more trouble. I thought I was the only one in the hall until I ran face-first into someone's back, startling myself and falling backwards.

On the way down, I bit my lip with my fangs that had extended with the shock, and the spill of live, humanoid blood on my tongue made me dizzy.

"Oh, shit," someone said. I was still reeling and hadn't noticed who it was until he knelt down to help grab my things. "Sorry, um..."

"Jackson," I said, finally collecting my thoughts. As if the shock of biting myself and the taste of blood wasn't enough, of course I ran straight into my ex boyfriend. My face burned with embarrassment, "Sorry. I was looking for my phone."

"Here," he handed it to me, as well as my pencil bag, and helped me up off of the floor. "It fell."

"Thanks." I brushed my skirt out and tapped my foot against the tile; Jackson ran a hand over his black braids. We were both silent, unsure of what to say, until apparently we decided silence was more awkward, and tried to speak overtop of each other.

"How's cheer?" He blurted at the same time that I said,

"Basketball practice is about to start,"

You could almost hear us mentally kicking ourselves. He gave me an awkward smile, one that made his freckles jump,