Diary of a Vampeen (4 page)

“Ok,” she smiled smugly. The final
bell rang and we settled into our seats.

“Buenos dias class,” Mrs. Watson
greeted us.

“Senor Bancroft, how nice of you to
join us. Sientate, por favor,” she stated to Kellan as he rushed
through the door. He was rushing but didn’t appear
winded.

Mrs. Watson immediately began babbling
on in Spanish about the proper use of verbs and adverbs in advanced
sentence structuring. This lesson was nothing new for me since I
lived in Spain for two years as a child.

My parents weren’t expecting me so
soon after marriage. They had planned to travel for the first few
years. My mother decided that my arrival shouldn’t stop them. So
the first three years of my life were spent traveling.

We went everywhere from England to
Chile to Russia. Australia was my dad’s favorite but my mother fell
in love with the quaint seaside area of Basque, Spain, and that’s
where I spent the next two years of my life.

I was three when we settled in and
beginning to speak so my mother drowned me in the language and
culture. Every two years my parents went back to the little village
for two weeks. They had visited just that past summer and I stayed
with Mel for those weeks. We’d never had so much fun together; of
course, Kyle never wanted to see me again after the fifth day
straight of pranking him.

“Senorita Jackson, de donde eres?”
Mrs. Watson inquired amidst her lesson.

“De aqui, en Carolina del Sur,” I
responded promptly. I was born here in Charleston and therefore was
a ‘low country native’ as they called us.

“Muy bien, gracias,” she noted before
continuing on to another student in the back.

I settled back in my seat but
instantly sat up when I caught sight of Mel. “What’s wrong?” I
whispered. I couldn’t tell if she was mad, sad or
frightened.

She lifted her finger and pointed
towards Sasha beside me. My gaze drifted towards the girl but found
nothing out of the ordinary. She was doodling in her binder, but
most of us did that at some point in class.

I turned back to Mel, her
brows now furrowed deep as if she were concentrating on a strong
thought. I didn’t bother asking but rather followed her eyes beyond
Sasha to…
Oh my!
Kellan was staring at me with a smirk on his face. It was a
taunting yet inquisitive glare that didn’t settle right with me.
Now I knew why Mel was so uneasy. I squirmed in my seat the rest of
the period and was grateful for the reprieve of the
bell.

“What was
that
all about?” Mel
demanded the second we entered the hall.

“You ask me like I should
know.”

“I couldn’t even figure out
if he likes you or not. One minute I thought he was mocking you,
the next crushing on you and then
poof!
he was studying you like a
math problem he didn’t understand,” she blurted. I shrugged it off
though she was pretty accurate in her description.

I felt the buzz in my pocket from my
cell phone. I checked the halls for any teachers before slipping it
out to check. “It’s my mom,” I announced. She would never call
during the day unless something was wrong.

Mel yanked me into the bathroom right
as I answered. “Is everything ok? What’s wrong?” I
panicked.

“Calm down sweetie. Everything is
fine,” her voiced soothed me instantly.

“Oh. Ok. Did you need
something?”

“Well, yes. You see we know Kellan and
his family so I was hoping I could rely on you to take him
out.”

“Out as in…” I was cringing on pins
and needles.

“Perhaps you could invite him to the
mall or show him the highlights of downtown,” she
offered.

“Let me get this straight. You called
me in the middle of the day, sent me on red alert for a favor. And
that favor happens to be to ask a really cute guy that I barely
know out. Did I get it right?” I laid the sarcasm on thick with a
bit of dread stitched in.

“Oh sweetie. You make it sound
horrible. Kellan is a very nice young man.”

“Mom, he’s going to think I’m asking
him out on a date. Do you know how embarrassing that would be? Not
to mention I already have a boyfriend.” Ok, maybe I was whining
just a bit but her favor was social suicide. What if he said no?
What if he didn’t… No. I couldn’t do it.

“Alexa,” she scolded slightly. I
sighed. I knew it was coming. “I wouldn’t ask unless it was
important. We’ve known Kellan’s family since you were an infant.
This request is coming from his mother, not me. And you have a
wonderful heart; you’ve always been welcoming to everyone. I know
you will do a great job with Kellan. It doesn’t matter where you go
with him, just that he gets out of the house for a little while.”
Well, there you have it. She went in for the kill and won. How do
parents do it? How are they able to perfectly twist the words to
guilt you into doing what they want?

“Alright,” I officially
surrendered.

“Thank you sweetie. I’ll talk to you
later. Love you,” she perked up before hanging up the
phone.

“Tell me you did not just agree to
what I think you did,” Mel immediately cut in.

“That depends. What do you think I
agreed to?”

“To ask some strange guy out on a date
as a favor to your parents.”

“Oh, well then you would be
right.”

“O.M.G. Wow. I totally feel your pain.
That is the worst kind of punishment out there and you didn’t even
do anything wrong,” she stated wincing in unison with
me.

“Let’s just get this over with.
Hopefully Kellan is at lunch,” I said as I turned on my heels to
leave the bathroom.

“Wait! It’s him?!” she nearly
screamed. I simply nodded my head. “I think we need to skip lunch
and pray. Please tell me you carry pepper spray, kung fu moves I
don’t know about, anything…”

“Shut up,” I laughed
pushing open the door and nearly running straight into
him.
My eyes popped open
in shock as I froze in place. I felt Mel trying to force me forward
as she slid around me to see why I’d suddenly become a
statue.

“Oh,” was all she said.

I began fiddling with my
hands and rocking back and forth from side to side as if I didn’t
just use the restroom before coming out. I was already embarrassing
myself yet hadn’t spoken a single word to him. His green eyes just
stared back at me expectantly.
What
happened to being comfortable around him?!

“Uh, sorry about that. We really… Um.
Let’s get to lunch, Lex,” Mel grabbed my arm and pulled me towards
the lunchroom.

“Ugh,” I groaned. “You saved my ass,”
I acknowledged with relief.

“You owe me.”

“Yea, yea. I know.” I turned back
towards the bathrooms, but he was gone. The hall was empty though
we’d walked less length than what remained on his end to leave and
I certainly would have heard the bathroom door from where I was. We
were the only ones in this part of the building. He couldn’t have
gotten to the exit that fast. Could he have?

By the time we got to the cafeteria
our table was already filled. Only two seats remained for us. I
took my spot next to Mike and Mel sat across from me next to
Sara.

“What took you so long?” Mike asked
once I settled in.

“Um. I’m sorry. Are you my new dad?” I
responded sarcastically, on edge and upset at how I’d handled the
situation with Kellan minutes before.

“No, I was just wondering.” He backed
off like a scolded child.

“Well, to kill your thirst, my mom
called and then me and Mel were chatting. That’s all.” I was always
a sucker with my guilt and I instantly felt remorseful given his
expression after my sarcastic chide.

“You mean Mel was talking and you were
listening like a good friend, right?” he edited with a smirk in
Mel’s direction.

“No, I mean we were both talking back
and forth. Isn’t that how chatting works?”

“It does online. Not so much with you
and Mel though.”

“I hold my own just fine, thank
you.”

“Ok. Whatever you say babe,” he
chuckled. Luckily he changed the subject. “So what are your plans
for the weekend?” he asked.

“Um, well I don’t know. I have to do a
favor for my mom,” I replied feeling awkward. I suddenly felt like
I was on trial for murder; perhaps my conscience already felt
guilty over agreeing to betray Mike in a way as a favor to my
mom.

“Her mom is making her commit social
suicide by asking Kellan out,” Mel chuckled. I shot her a dirty
look. I couldn’t believe she blabbed to Mike of all people. It
sounded wrong. It made it sound like I blatantly planned to cheat
on him as a favor to my mom.

“Who’s Kellan?” he
insisted.

“Just a new guy in a couple of our
classes,” I answered. “Apparently our families go way
back.”

“Well is this a group thing
or are you two
exclusive
?” Mike’s voice held a bit
of anxiety, yet he lifted his eyebrows suggestively.

“Mike, you know it would just be a
friend thing. Please don’t make this any worse than it already
is.”

“So it’s not a date then, right? I
don’t need to go grab my boxing gloves.” He sounded off; add yet
another person to the list of odd balls as my birthday
approached.

“Not technically,” Mel
clarified.

“It’s not a date at all and you both
know it,” I corrected.

“Gosh Mel, why do you always have to
gossip lies?” Mike jabbed towards her with a quick slap on the
table.

“Oh give it a rest Mike,” she shot
with clear, unstated frustration in her voice.

Mike turned back to me, “So you
wouldn’t mind if me and a few others join you then?”

“Of course not. It’s just a friend
thing like I said. I don’t even know if he’ll agree to go but I
have to at least ask as a favor for my mom.” I was ready to change
the subject immediately. This conversation was only making it seem
a million times worse than it already felt.

“So where are you going to ask him to
go?” Mike pressed. I glared at both him and Mel.

“You started this,” I scolded
her.

“Yea. I’m sort of regretting that now.
Mike, be nice,” she ordered.

He rolled his eyes at her. “I’m always
nice,” he smirked. To make up for being difficult, he pulled me
into his arms and kissed my cheek. I can’t explain why, but it
didn’t feel right.

Mike stood a tall six feet and was
built something similar to Kellan but not as chiseled. He had a
farmer’s tan thanks to many hours in the sun skateboarding,
clothing style to match his past time. He had brown eyes, medium
brown hair that was grown out long enough for him to do a faux-hawk
at times, and uneven lips; his top lip was smaller than his bottom,
but still soft and defined.

The rest of lunch was rather
uneventful. Sara and Sasha made plans to go to the mall Saturday,
Mike talked aimlessly with Jared about something sports related,
and Mel chatted with Justin over the fall play coming up at the end
of the month. He was playing the lead in ‘Antony and Cleopatra.’
It’s a modernized version without all the nays and shalls
though.

History flew by despite my lack of
focus. My concentration was torn between Kellan and Mike. Kellan
was ahead for the obvious reasons; I was extremely nervous about
agreeing to ask him out. I was already wishing I’d never agreed to
it, and I hadn’t even suffered through the rejection
yet.

Though we sat next to each other in
history, Mike didn’t say anything. Each time I snuck a peek his way
he was staring at me. It wasn’t offensive, but made me uneasy. In
all the time we’d known Mike, he always seemed like a loose cannon.
His spontaneity was one of the things I loved about him
though.

The bell rang and I rose to gather my
blank papers. I was mentally occupied with my life and therefore
had neglected the lecture entirely today. I slid my arms into my
backpack and turned towards the door. I suddenly jumped back
startled to have almost run into Mike.

“What’s up?” I asked, looking up at
him.

“Um. Well…” he paused looking to be
gathering his thoughts.

“Well?” I prompted cocking my head to
the side a bit as I peered up at his seemingly dazed
face.

“Well, I guess I’ll talk to you after
school. I mean I’ll call you,” he fumbled to piece
together.

“Ok. I take it you’re not walking me
to my last class?” I chuckled softly. Why was everyone acting so
weird?

“Um, did you want me to?” He seemed so
unsure of himself. He usually walked me to every class with the
exception of second period and that was only because his class was
on the other side of the school.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to
you later,” I offered as I made my way out the door to catch up
with Mel.

“What was that all about?” Mel
inquired once I was within range.