All of her life, Maria Alvarez has been sure of three things.
1.) The Lord God will protect and guide her thought all of the trials of life.
2.) Vampires are soulless husks of their former selves, little more than animated bodies feedi...
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"Do you have everything?"
"Yep."
"Are you sure? I don't want you to be missing something when you get there."
"Carmen, I'm sure!" Maria said, zipping up her bag, and looking up at her. "I've checked three times since I packed up everything last night."
"Okay, I'm just nervous for you!" Carmen said.
"First day of college picture!" Switchblade said, walking into the room with his phone.
"Uhg. Daaaaaad." She said groaning dramatically and rolling her head back.
"Technically, it's her first day of school, ever." Carmen added.
"Then we'll need even more pictures!" Switchblade said, walking closer with his phone.
"Stop it!" She said. She lept off of the couch and made a mad dash for his phone, but he snatched away in time. He held it up above his head, and she tried to jump up and get it, but it was no use. He was too tall.
"I'm going to print it out, and put it on the wall." He teased.
Carmen snorted.
"What an old person thing to say. Printing out a picture you took with your phone."
"Shut up!"
Edwin rushing suddenly into the room broke them out of their argument.
"Hey you guys, look what came in the mail!" He said, waving something in his hand.
He slammed it down on the coffee table for all of them to see.
"Maria and Carmen made the cover of the August issue of Bite!"
Maria's eyes widened. Sure enough, there they were. It was a scene from the protest, Carmen crouched tearfully beside where she lay on the pavement, blood streaking the side of her face.
Rising Tension: a Nation Divided: was the title of the issue.
Maria reached up, and ran her hand across her forehead. All that remained was a faint pink scar.
Spencer Blake had been sentenced to fourty days in jail for assault, though he could potentially get out in thirty. The church was no longer allowed to contact them, and so far had stuck to that ruling.
Maria would have liked to say that the past few months had been peaceful because of that, but it wasn't the truth. In all actuality, this picture had died down until today.
In the weeks following the protest, the internet had been flooded with pictures and videos of the event. So many people had tried to contact them, most of them showing up at the house since Maria had no online presence.
She had gotten job offers, interview requests, threats, admiration, and apathy. It was overwhelming. She had even been called a new insult by some people: Fang Chaser.
Both her and Carmen had declined every offer they had gotten, really only making a brief statement to the local news in an effort thwart some of the swarm. They wanted some time to themselves, they had said, to recover from the entire situation.
Thankfully, things had calmed down a bit as of late, and Maria was hoping to be able to start the semester without much fanfare.
"I hope this doesn't start the news cycle all over again." Carmen said, picking up the magazine.
"At least this article isn't specifically focused on the two of you." Edwin offered.
"Maybe we should just give in and do some interviews." Maria suggested.
"Even if we do, it'll just get everyone riled up again. I think we should lay low for a while longer, especially since you're just starting college today." Carmen said.
"What are you going for again?" Edwin asked.
"Just general studies at the moment, at least until I can figure out what I want to do." She said.
He nodded.
Carmen spoke up.
"Speaking of college again, let's get this show on the road! Don't want to be late on your first day."
Maria nodded, and grabbed her bag, offering everyone a quick goodbye as she walked out the door. She got into the car, and took a deep breath, glancing over at Carmen.
She didn't know where this road was going. She didn't know what she would do with her life. She didn't know where she would live. She didn't know what her and Carmen would do in ten years, whether it would even work out between them. She didn't know if she'd ever speak to her mother again.
But somehow, none of that mattered.
She knew now that there wasn't a set book of rules on how to live your life. All you could do was take each day at a time, and look at every situation as it came. No matter what her choices were, the sun would always rise the next day.
Tomorrow could be worse than today, but it could also be better.
Wherever life was taking her and Carmen, she was excited to find out. They would get through it together.
"Are you ready?" Carmen asked her.
She smiled to herself, and reached over to squeez her hand.
