Chapter 14

After all of the horrible elevator music, I was kind of thankful for all of the stairs; it certainly beat listening to crap like the Bee Gees.

Anton basically read my mind and smiled as we got out of the elevator,

"I’m sorry for the horrible music," he looked at me, "I hope you don’t mind, but there is somebody joining us for this little extension lesson." I nodded, feeling a little less intimidated by Anton now that I wasn’t alone in all these advanced classes. Slowly, I followed into a room I had never seen before. It was a large room with a chalkboard and two desks. It looked like a really old-fashioned classroom from back in the day. Looking around the room for a new addition, I smiled when I saw it was Jake. His eyes lit up when he saw me and then the lesson commenced. Anton told us it would only be a short lesson for now because it was actually lunch time and he also told us that we could come here instead of ‘studying’ in between our classes because we had to prepare for the masquerade, so this was really going to improve our strategy skills. Today’s lesson was a little more practical because Jake and I had to think of strategies quick while ‘the vampire’ was plunging at us. We each took turns at playing the parasite and devising strategies and then, when he was satisfied, he led us to another room. It was pitch-black and neither of us could see and we were wolves, so we could see exceptionally well, but apparently not in this room. Anton’s voice sounded haunting in the dark,

"This is the strategy room. You are trapped in a dark place and you can't see at all. A group of vampires had been lurking around here earlier. What do you do? This is a game of combat and strategy combined. You have to think fast on your feet." When Anton had explained the objective - to find a golden key and get out the other door - it was better. My eyes had adjusted and rather than seeing nothing, I saw outlines of trees and it was like we were in a forest. Jake was there and I could only just see him. Scanning the forest, I tried to find the key but then something jumped out at Jake and he quickly applied our favourite method. DESK. The good thing about DESK was that it never failed. Much to our disdain, there was a whole mob of these bloodsuckers and so I started looking around more urgently to find the key. Jake was holding the group of but I knew he couldn't do it for much longer. I couldn't see the key anywhere and Jake was growing weary fast. The bloodsuckers after a while started to anticipate our DESK method and that was bad because it was really the only strategy we'd lived off of for our whole lives. Vampires weren't that smart as to anticipate our next move - these were freaking created by Anton Trezman, for crying out loud! This meant we had to think of a new strategy. We didn't know what they were going to do next and so we just split up and followed the clishe of divide and conquer. We made a good time; Jake and I because we were always on exactly the same page. We managed to bamboozle the vampires by climbing trees and then howling in all sorts of random places - being wolves, we could do that naturally. Eventually, Jake caught sight of the key, picked it up and then tried to save me, but I was quite capable of saving myself. The vampire then spoke, its voice a low and rich but then what came out of it wasn’t quite as rich as I’d assumed. "You won’t escape me," he smiled, but then he climbed the tree murmuring that I was a stupid b***h and then much like my fight with Mr. Russia; It was ON! I punched the vampire and he was slightly fazed, but that was not enough. No-one gets away with calling me a b***h - unless it was justified, but we’ll get to that later. I broke off a branch from a tree and stabbed him in the heart with it and I actually managed to get it and this infuriated Jake’s vampire whom he seemed to have under control. Then he started to come after me and then at the same timr, Jake and I exclaimed,

"Son of a b***h!" There were no more branches to break off and I was getting cornered and the best thing to do in a situation like this was run. Although the vampires could run faster, I managed to catch up to Jake and then we searched for the other door with what remaining time we had left before the distractions we had set out were bypassed. Finally, after battling through the vines, we found it and unlocked it and that helped us to get out of the dark room. My eyes stung as I walked into a fluorescently lit room; too much light! Anton was sitting on a couch, sipping coffee. He was smiling,

"One hour and thirteen minutes; congratulations. I’ll set you a new task in the hologram room each time we have another class. Now get to dinner before you miss out." I rolled my eyes and walked out with Jake, constantly apologizing, but he said nothing until we were at least halfway down the staircase and that was only a simple, ‘that’s okay’ and that was okay because he had other things on his mind. I knew better than to bother him when he was like this. Had it been anyone else - say Tegan - I would’ve made them talk. When we got downstairs, I saw Charlie and Ashley walking towards the dinner hall. I quickly distracted Jake so he didn’t see them together.  

I didn't really do that good a job but it was enough. We all sat down and Jake left the table after a while, followed by an impatient Charlie. This time, I didn't follow them; they were grownups and they could sort this out amongst themselves. Chase wasn't with us. He looked miserable on his way into the hall and then I instantly saw why. Chelsea-B***h was hanging off his arm and talking to him and he was too kind to shake her off and so he thought to hint instead, by a) sighing impatiently, b) rolling his eyes and c) yawning. Just then, as soon as they got to our table, she kissed him on the cheek as if they were an item. Shameless b***h, I thought to myself. She tried to go in for the kill - the lips - but then I saved him.

"Excuse me?" I exclaimed loudly, not really taking any notice of what I was actually saying, "Keep your plastic hands off my boyfriend, b***h!" She stopped kissing him and frowned, but I could see a smug glint in her eye and it really made me mad. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me but that didn’t matter; I was enjoying taking out Chelsea-B***h and no-one was going to ruin it for me. "If you ever come near him again, I will destroy you; understand?" I threatened in a low voice. I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I play the role of overprotective girlfriend exceedingly well. She rolled her eyes, her smug look disappearing and then she stormed off. When she left, I allowed a smug smile to cross my face - it was well-deserved, I thought. Chase shot me a grateful look and everyone else - by everyone else, I meant Tikaye and Ashley - looked at me with the ‘what the hell’ look and I shrugged, thankful Tegan, Charlie and Jake were nowhere in sight. There was a glint in Tikaye’s eye that looked a little too suggestive for my liking. "What?" I defended, "that was actually death by suction!" Chase bit his lip and smiled, as if enjoying a joke at my expense.

"So, Chase and Tee, how’s the organizing thing going?" Ashley asked, quickly changing the subject. I wondered whether it was slightly more bearable for them, considering they had each other. Maybe I should shout out in the middle of class that someone was a b***h and join the committee for a laugh; we’d destroy it for Chelsea-B***h and all would be well. Chase and Tikaye looked at each other, grimaced and looked to Ashley,

"Hell." They said at exactly the same time. My stomach started to rumble and I was thankful at how quiet it was today. I guess you can’t ignore nature - either that or I just couldn’t live without food for very long. I went to get my dinner and then was soon joined by Tegan. She was still my little tomb-boy despite all that was going on here. Her hair had gotten darker underneath her cap and her grey t-shirt, which she wore with her army pants, had gotten baggier on her and that was a little concerning. She saw me and gave me a huge hug that I had no idea I needed,

"Avril!" She exclaimed excitedly as she hugged me, "Hi! How are you? Are you okay?" Always so concerned about us and never about herself. I remember once, she gave me her teddy bear when she was like six, while we were running. She said I could keep him for a while so that I wasn’t lonely when Jake went off with Charlie. I nodded and smiled back at Tegan,

"Yeah, fine, Tee and you?" Her face lit up at my response.

"Great! I always sit with Milly at breakfast time, lunch time and dinner time now!" I was so happy she’d found a friend here - even if that friend of hers had tried to kill me in her sleep. I had so much to tell her but not enough time. I wanted to tell her about Scarlett, Chase, Charlie and Jake and Chelsea-B***h but seniors weren’t allowed to hang out with juniors for very long.

"I think Jake might ask Charlie to the dance thing, but keep it on the down-low." Tegan rolled her eyes at that and I knew what she was thinking but then she said it,

"Finally!" I had only picked up on her thoughts because I was thinking the same thing.

"Amen!" I replied, hi-fiving her. We always said how perfect those two would be together but they were too stubborn to realize it. For a moment, Tegan and I grinned like idiots at each other and we were both thinking the same thing again. This calls for an ‘I-told-you-so’ session. Whoever said we aren’t mature? This is a big thing here! We’d been waiting for this for at least three years or something. I think, at one stage, when Tegan was younger, she asked Jake why he hadn’t married Charlie yet. He never answered that question - unless you counted ‘Don’t be stupid’ as a good enough answer. Eventually, Emilee called Tee back over, so I gave her one huge hug before walking back to the table. I looked at Tikaye, who smiled apologetically when she left the table. During the time I was catching up with Tegan, Ashley and Chase had got their dinner and were eating it, whilst discussing what horrible things happened in the organizing committee; the dance committee and the whole dance concept. Ashley told Chase his intentions of asking Charlie and Chase looked to me for guidance - apparently, I was the Charlie expert. Thinking of what Jake had told me, I made sure my eyes projected worry and a firm answer telling him not to do it.

"I don’t think Charlie…" Chase cut off mid-sentence when Jake came back in, without Charlie. I looked to him with a ‘what-the-hell-is-going-on’ look and he shrugged. That either meant a) everything’s fine or b) nothing’s fine, but it’s really none of your business and judging by the look on his face, it was probably option b. With Jake, when was anything fine these days? Charlie didn’t come back and Jake was talking to Chase. I’d hardly said anything which - believe me - wasn’t like me at all. I was over-thinking again. I do that a lot. It gets really annoying especially when I’m trying to sleep. I was thinking about Jake and Charlie; if there ever will be a Jake and Charlie which brought me to my concern about Jake and that took me to strategy class and finally, the Valeska vampire clan I had to kill. Tangents can always get you back into reality in some way or another. I had to destroy them to give every single person at this school a fair shot at life as a human-being, but hey, no pressure or anything.