The Garden of What Once Was

CHAPTER TWELVE

A fast-moving vampire ran across the grass, heading straight toward the West wing dormitories. Their feet came to a stop at a window that was left open. With one hand on the windowsill, they swung their body upward and into the dorm. The walls inside were bare with no posters, no pictures, just plain baby blue paint. It was very bland compared to Reed's dorm. His heart almost jumped out of his chest when he saw a lump in the bed. Immediately, he started backing up, only stopping when he realized there was no other heartbeat besides his.

"Alright, now...where should I put these?"

Reed was referring to the vase filled with yellow colored roses that he was holding tightly against his chest. Although he tried to trash the flowers multiple times on his way to Ember's dorm, he couldn't bring himself to do it. That was exactly why Reed was in her dorm, looking for a place to set the vase down. His eyes settled on a desk on the other side of the room, quickly he appeared before the desk and placed the vase down on it. He went to leave but hurried back to fix the vase. Once it was positioned to his liking, he headed for the window. Right as Reed was about to hop out of Ember's window, her door opened. In a frantic attempt to not be seen, Reed flung himself out her window, landing face-first on the ground. Ignoring the fading pain in the areas where he was shot with bullets, he took off in a hurry.

Ember mosied her way into her dorm, taking no notice of Reed. She yawned, still a tad bit sleepy even after taking a hot shower. As she was pulling on her skirt, she finally saw the flowers. Her sleepy eyes opened wide with surprise. She attempted to run over to her desk but fell. The skirt around her ankles was the reason for her tripping.

"Ow, ow, ow." She struggled to get up, using one hand to grab the desk and the other to pull up her skirt to her hips.

Although she was in pain, there was still a smile filled to the brim with happiness on her face. As a flower nerd, she was delighted to be gifted with her favorite kind of perennial. She rubbed one of the soft, yellow petals between her thumb and pointer finger, wondering who could have left these for her. Whoever it was must be a great person. Suddenly, her thoughts about the mysterious gift giver were put to a stop. Laying on the floor was a Lunette High student ID. The picture was of the last person she expected. Reed Kararyan. He managed to look handsome even in his ID picture. She scowled, partially despising the vampire for constantly looking like a model, even in the seemingly cursed school photos. Her attention flickered away from the ID and back to the flowers on her desk. The same type of feeling that had surfaced inside of her heart when she was with Cohen yesterday began to stir. Except, this feeling was suppressed. Unlike Cohen, Reed was a vampire. She could never let herself feel such a way about him. Being a true blood set limits for her and this was one of them. Reed's ID was picked off the floor and thrown into her bag. She was going to have a blast teasing him. Quickly, Ember got dressed, eager to catch up to Reed and hand him his ID.

... ... ... ...

Casper covered the sun with his book, resting his head on the trunk of a tree. He tried to block out the sound of Jared's motor mouth, but it was to no avail. All of Jared's insignificant words continued to torment Casper, making it nearly impossible for Casper to concentrate. Angrily, Casper took his focus off his book, glaring up at Jared, who was grinning at him.

"Reading is boring," Jared groaned, poking Casper's leg with his foot. "Why don't you toss that thing and come get some breakfast with me?"

"Not happening," Casper gave him a cold reply, returning his attention back to the book.

Under normal circumstances, Jared would be annoying Landon, not Casper, but the blonde refused to leave his dorm today. And so, Casper was left to bear the brunt end of things.