The Sharpest Lives Are The Deadliest To Lead: Chapter 10

'So I guess you've lived round here your whole life?' I questioned, although I already knew the answer. Of course she had, seeing as she was so interested in the history of the city she grew up in. But I needed anything to change the topic.

'Yeah,' she giggled at my lack of conversation skills. 'I live near you actually, I've seen you walking over the same field I do on the way to school.'

'Cool, maybe you should show me around sometime,' I replied in a cocky tone, in attempt of a chat up line. There was a moment of silence, until we both burst out laughing. Yeah, I was never good at that kind of thing, but at least it had broken the ice.

'Smooth.' She cocked an eyebrow in jest, before continuing. 'Well I'm free tomorrow after school if you wanna come by my house? I can 'show you around' on the way there.'

A large smile spread across her face, as I beamed in delight. Somehow, that disaster of a chat up line had actually worked, and I actually had a d.. d.. date. The bewilderment of it all even made my thoughts stutter.

'Great,' I replied in an excited burst, as the bell rang. I picked up my backpack as Linsdey returned the book to the bookcase, and we walked side by side out of the corridor and up the stairs, to the main hallway. The whole way, we were silent, with the smiles on our faces speaking a thousand words. Reluctantly, we parted ways, as I headed to my next lesson. German.

I hadn't learnt german in my last school, so this lesson would almost be as bad as Math, but at least Ray would be with me.

'Guten Morgen!' A tall, thin man spoke proudly as I walked in to the classroom. I gave half a smile, oblivious to what had just been said to me, and took a seat near the back of the class, next to Ray.

'Hey Gerard,' Ray spoke nonchalantly, as he wrote down the notes scribbled on the chalkboard at the front of the classroom.

'Hey Ray,' I replied, as I removed my work book from my backpack.

As a cloud shifted in the sky, the sun's rays beamed into the classroom through the window by our table, and stung my eyes. But this stung like never before, almost as if it was burning through me. I leant back in my chair to avoid the sunlight behind the shade of the wall, with my face still screwed up slightly in the pain.

Ray looked up at me. I could tell from his expression that he was concerned, but not at all shocked. After all, he knew all about vampires. He knew I was a vampire.

'Don't worry about it,' he spoke calmly, 'Frank went through the same thing a few weeks before he turned eighteen.'

I came to realise, that eventhough Ray wasn't a vampire himself, he had been through all of this before with Frank. Maybe he could help me through this too.

'You've seen all of this before,' I spoke my thoughts aloud. 'So what happens next?'

'Well, if I remember rightly, there's one more change for you before you become a vampire. You get drawn to blood.'

His last sentence startled me a little; the shock on my face pressing Ray to continue.

'Frank told me about your chemistry lesson yesterday. He said he created a solution that simulated the structure of human blood, and he could tell you were drawn to it, eventhough you didn't know what it was. You can't help it, but you're instinctively drawn to it. He said that this happens when your fangs begin to grow.'

As he spoke those final words, I ran my tongue along my teeth, with the sharpness of my fangs piercing the skin a little, causing me to wince. Ray took this as confirmation that this change was taking effect, and continued in attempt to comfort me.

'Don't worry about it. Frank has been through all of this before, I'm sure he can help you through what needs to be done,' he pointed to the splatters of blood on the table that had fallen from my tongue. As I looked, I could feel myself being drawn to it. I tried to resist, but my vampire nature took over me, and my eyes began to grow hot.

'Oh, you should know, that when you're drawn to blood, your eyes turn red. Just a heads up,' Ray smirked as I glanced up at him, almost embarrased by my actions. I removed a tissue from my pocket and wiped up the blood before I caused a scene in front of the whole class, and placed the blood stained cloth in the trash behind my desk, so that I couldn't lay my eyes on it any longer.

Luckily, my eyes soon returned to hazel, and I had come to realise the lesson was over, as I saw everyone around me was packing up their belonging. It turns out I had been staring at the blood for a lot longer I had thought before Ray had snapped me out of it. I put my empty work book back into my backpack, and we headed towards the door.

As we left German, I began to walk away from the classroom, in the opposite direction to the dinner hall.

'Aren't you coming for lunch?' Ray called; I could sense he was puzzled.

'No, I have a free period next, so I'm just gonna head off home.' I did have a lesson after my free period, but I wasn't planning on coming in. It was art. I liked art, but I had found out just yesterday that my art project was a lie. And the truth was much more important than some art lesson. I needed to clear my head; I had so many questions to ask Frank, that I needed to prepare.

'Ok, see you round.' Ray's voice interupted my thoughts as he grew farther away from me, and I stood motionless, deep in my thoughts.

I continued on with the journey home, alone. I pulled up the hood of my jumper over my head before going outdoors, to prevent the sun from searing my face once again. The crunch of the leaves beneath my feet broke the silence of the still air, as I trudged across the baron field. I could see Frank's house grewing closer as I neared my house. I needed to go over there tonight, I needed to know if I could share my secret. Deep in thought, I had barely noticed I had already arrived at my front door, but as I opened it, I was greeted by an array of balloons and banners, and I knew my plans had been changed.