Bloody Rhapsody (Damon Salvatore Love)

16. Vampires and School Spirit

  "Dude" Zeke hisses as his elbow digs into my side, rudely bringing me back into reality.

  "What?" I grumble, rubbing at my side that is now surly bruised.

  "Mr. Emmett totally just called you out!"

  "No!"

  I suddenly take notice of the rest of class giggling and staring in my direction. Even Damon has turned around and is smirking at me, that mischievous twinkle in his eye.

  "You would think after missing half the week you would want to pay attention Miss Morelli!" Mr. Emmett scolds me from the front of the class.

  "Two days doesn't exactly count as half a week" I mumble, earning me another jab from Zeke's elbow.

  Damon chuckles softly before turning back around in his seat. Not that he was paying any attention either I am sure, but he isn't the one who got caught.

  "What was that?" he raises his voice and takes a step in my direction.

  I am sure he heard me just fine, but rather than risk getting detention I decide to change my tune.

  "I am sorry sir" I say louder so there is no mistaking.

  I slouch in my seat defeated, thankful when everyone's eyes slowly return to the white board rather than me.

"Quite so!" Mr. Emmett nods triumphantly, as if some little battle had just been one.

  I must say, I am not the toughest advisory in the room so I don't know why he is so proud of himself.

 "Jill, how about you? Wanna give it a go?" He turns his attention to Jill who perks up at the notice.

  "Of course!" she proceeds to give the answer to the next problem on the sheet we are reviewing.

  I bet she didn't even figure it out herself! Probably copied it off of some poor sap who turned to goo at a flash of her smile.

  I try to follow along, ready in case I get called on again, but my will isn't strong enough. Within minutes my eyes stray from my paper and find their way to none other than Damon. I know he says they are trying to blend in, but I think I would go crazy if I was forced to go though all this again.

  I wonder if he already knows all this stuff? Then again has he actually gone to school since he died? I can't imagine the educational system was all that great back then. Would it be rude to ask? Probably.

  I idly play with the locket that now hangs around my neck, running my thumb over the designs in the cool metal. Again, for the millionth time, I think about everything that has happened. It's strange to me how quickly I have been able to accept everything. How in just days I've gone from being the clueless friend of vampires, to terrified of them, only to return being friends. Minus the clueless part this time at least!

  I have always hated in those stupid teen movies where a girl accepts the truth about these things without a second thought, and things jut move on like normal. Zeke is right though I guess, what else is there to do? We either accept things or we decide they are too dangerous and kill them. Even just the thought of hurting them makes my heart painfully twist, so turns out that's not really an option. So we accept things, we move on. I guess I can't judge some of Zeke's movies so harshly anymore.

  Thankfully today turned out to be pretty uneventful, a welcome change of pace. Then again I have been keeping myself pretty busy with catching up on all my missed school work. Wouldn't exactly say I do best in school, but I can't stomach the thought of falling behind.