Vampire the Masquerade: Genesis

12. Don't Look Now

The first two periods of the day passed without too much emotional trauma; her first period- women's athletics- was spent mostly getting her workout clothes and figuring out her field house locker combo. Second period went similarly slow and she was pleasantly amused to discover that Jaime's twin brother was in her English class. Haven loved the classics, but if Danny was as hilarious as Preston made him out to be, reading Othello, Beowulf, and Pygmalion in class would be that much more bearable.

Eventually, the bell rang and dismissed those students with science and math courses third period to A lunch and the rest of the student body to their next classes. 

As the two sisters passed in the hall on the way to lunch, Miranda offered her a sheepish smile and even mouthed her a 'good luck' in passing. Haven just smiled and gave the younger girl a thumbs-up in return; whether the sisters were best of friends or fighting tooth and nail, the first day in a new place was hard on both of them.

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The moment he walked through the front doors of the school, Elijah was hit with a wave of emotions and smells he hadn't been prepared for; cheap perfume, way too much Axe, and teenage hormones; high school.

He wasn't very akin in the art of auspex, the reading of auras, thoughts and the like- hated it really- but the discipline was useful in staying 'alive'. 

He played it cool, walking nonchalantly and drawing little attention to himself, but it was hard not to be noticed when he'd enrolled so late in the school year. At least he hadn't wound up the all-encompassing subject of conversation like that Haven girl had.

It was in recalling the new neighbor, Elijah was again reminded of his purpose for being there; one miss Haven Lafferty. Because of the nature of his task, he'd had his schedule arranged so that he had at least four of his eight classes with the mortal kine- so as not to arouse too much suspicion- it would've been pretty damning if he had every class with her.

Internally, the Ventrue cursed his existence under his breath, walking towards his afternoon class; he managed to get to class before Haven, but only just.

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"And you must be Haven." The educator surmised, seeing as she was the only female student that he hadn't seen in his classroom before. The teen nodded, trying to keep from standing too awkwardly under the gazes of new classmates.

"Yes, sir." She answered.

"And from the South as well." He sounded impressed. "It isn't often we get students from Texas."

Haven nodded sheepishly, a nervous blush surfacing on her cheeks; most people weren't able to pick up on her accent, faint as it was. Dallas had been a melting pot of culture and had kept her from adopting too harsh of a sound.

"Take the empty seat next to Mr. Wentworth, and we'll get started for the day."

Haven smiled and waved nervously at Elijah, instantly relieved that she wasn't the only new student.

"You know miss Lafferty?" The teacher queried looking to the young man in question. Elijah nodded.

"We're neighbors, sir." He answered simply.

"Well, very good. We'll see what we can do about getting the two of you up to speed with the curriculum after class. Speaking of class," the man turned his attention to the rest of the room.

"We have a terms quiz on Wednesday that will include the people and events of last chapter and this upcoming chapter in the textbook. If you don't study, I guarantee you won't do well. On the matter of last weeks quiz-"