"All your evenings in the first two weeks of December should be free," Allie stated, plopping down into the currently empty seat beside me, "We'll be making decorations and setting up for the Winter Formal. You've also got the Car Wash, the Stellar Campground Bonfire, and the Talent Show on your calendar, right? Invite everyone you know. We need that revenue if we're going to make this dance the best this school has ever seen."
The calculus classroom had yet to populate even on such a chilly day, though the more studious students had come early to cram in a few extra studying minutes before the first exam of the semester. The room contained only stale vampire scent, but I knew Kira would be attending soon enough.
I chuckled, turning to face Allie, "You know I don't live my life without your express permission."
She took out a folio and threw it onto my desktop with a satisfying slap.
"The top sheet in there," she stated, business-like, "contains all the theme ideas that were submitted for the winter formal. Tell me which you think Kira Warde submitted."
Sliding my fingers along the edge, I lifted it open. The Edwardian Era suggestion caught my eye. Finger on the entry, I looked up at Alissa. She nodded mutely, pursing her lips.
"They were anonymous submissions - "
"You and I both know," Allie shut down that line of thought.
"Can you pick mine from the suggestions?" I asked expectantly, crossing my legs and handing her the folio.
She read through them again, brow furrowing, "Er... you're a very strange - "
"Hey!"
"-but charming person so I'm going to guess either 'Secret Crystal Cave' or 'Enchanted Supernatural Forest'.
"What is a Secret Crystal Cave?" I wondered, alarmed.
"Something about natural-growing crystals in clear-blue pools in caves," she waved impatiently, "So was I right?"
"I was the forest one," I divulged, leaning back in my chair to appraise her little victory jig, "You could do so much with it. Really pretty greens and plants that you could get from the horticulture club. Fairy lights and fountains too - it could be very cute. What were some of your favorites?"
Tim tossed an aggravated glance our way from over his textbook. Allie wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out at him. I snorted.
"Hm," she scanned the list again, "Enchanted Forest is good if you leave out the Supernatural part and change it to something like 'Enchanted Wood-Haven' to make it more romantic. My other favorites were Starry Night, Masquerade, and Big City."
"All good ones."
She snapped the folder shut, setting her fingertips on the cover of her calculus textbook before decidedly smushing it back into her backpack.
"Confident, are you?"
"Just no point cramming," she shrugged, "You have an AP US History exam tomorrow morning too, right? Trevor was talking about it."
I nodded.
"You did miss morning-classes last Wednesday; will you still be alright for it?"
"Oh, I'll be fine... more or less. US History isn't my strongest subject but I'll make do."
I waved off her concerns. She kept her eyebrows raised interrogatively. I chewed my tongue.
"Bad cramps," I fibbed shortly.
"Ah," she said with a nod, lowering her voice too, "Don't you take Midol?"
"It doesn't work," I affixed a pursed grimace on my lips, "It's just best to wait it out."
Mr. Smith walked in then with a packet of freshly-printed exams.
"It's good that it's just a day, though."
"The first day or two is the worst. Then it gets better. You know how it is."
I continued nibbling on the tip of my tongue, watching her sympathetic grimace carefully. She didn't seem to catch the lie though.
It was difficult to discuss something I'd never experienced myself, but I'd had second-hand experience caring for other women. That sufficed for now. My monthly cycle was less menstrual and more lunar.
Allie quickly plowed to the next topic and I leaned back in my chair once again.
"Has Catalina talked to you anymore about her nightmares?"
"Yes, she texts me. She's too nervous to bring it up at lunch."
"I think the girl's losing it," Allie muttered, but her eyes were narrowed with worry, "Should I ask her to sleepover? She says that as she's falling asleep she hears scratching in the walls or something - which could totally be a rat infestation, you know."
"Maybe we invite her and her little sister," I suggested.
Allie half-heartedly wrinkled her nose then sighed again.
"She's convinced that stuff is moving when she's got her back turned. It's getting creepy."
"What do her parents think?"
"Well, she said her grandma wants to call a priest, but her parents are worried that this is part of her dementia."
"It wouldn't hurt to at least humor her."
"Cat says her parents don't want to feed into paranoia."
I sighed, checking my text history with Catalina, "I keep trying to schedule a time to do the sage cleanse, but it's difficult to get everyone out of the house."
"You're really on board with all the spirit stuff, huh?"
"If nothing else, the placebo effect can be strong."
"I guess," Allie muttered skeptically, "Whatever it is. Let's hope it can get sorted soon."
"Yes..."
"Good luck," she wished.
She returned to her assigned seat as the classroom truly began to populate. I shuddered, guilt twisting my insides. I shouldn't have humored that damn ouija board.
"Cold?"
A friendly, girlish voice cut through my discomfort.
"A bit," I admitted to Kira as she fluidly perched on the seat in front of me, turning right around to rest her forearms on the back of the chair, "Hopefully my fingers don't freeze up; my brain is ready to go. How about you?"
She didn't appear to show any grudge for the spat we'd had in Kenai. In fact, she'd gone back to acting like I was entirely human. I still fought the urge to curl my upper lip.
"I think I'll do really well!"
"Hm," I huffed shortly, "A little presumptuous, are we?"
"Do you fancy a bet?"
Her glittering, brown eyes were fully upon me now and gleaming with the light of a challenge.
"I assume the higher test score wins, but what are we betting?" I wondered, knowing immediately that I took on a losing battle.
"Hm," she lifted her gaze absently to the ceiling, then smiled, "A proper date with Mason."
I blinked, "You want to go on a date with Mason?"
"Don't be silly! I mean that if I win, you agree to a real date with Mason."
"Are you paying?"
"He would be!"
"A little pushy, aren't we? And what do you get out of that?"
"I don't know that you're good for him," she shrugged, her playfulness receding as she watched Mr. Smith pass out clumps of test packets to the heads of rows, "This should settle it."
Anxiety pulsed in my chest as I narrowed my eyes, "Like you have any idea. I'm just cautious, that's all."
"Maybe you are. Maybe it's something else."
"May I still have a chaperone on this date?" I pressed.
An edge of hysteria seeped into my voice unbidden.
"Yeah~ I guess..." she begrudgingly allowed.
The anxiety across my shoulders dissipated a bit.
"You're that sure you're going to lose?"
"If this were biology or anatomy I'd have a secure victory," I grumbled as she passed the tests over her shoulder to me, "I'm always only decent at math."
"Best of luck," she taunted with a chiming giggle.
If only I'd put more passion toward mathematics in my hundred years, but alas, I'd never thought I'd be in a betting war with a vampire over a high-school calculus exam.
Would a date really be so terrible?
My heart stuttered, then lurched into an uneven yet quicker pace. Mason's unexpected tenderness in the marine center was something I'd truly like to see again, I realized. How odd it had been to see a vampire in that way. How odd that it had moved me so much.
I let myself muse on that for just a bit longer before starting...