A sudden shrill screech woke me from my sleep and I struggled with the blankets that were piled on me until I emerged from the sea of them. I slammed my hand down on the clock and instantly regretted it.
"Ow! Ow, ow, ow!" I hissed, pulling back my hand and cradled it to my chest.
The sun poured into the room through open curtains and I squinted for a few seconds until my eyes adjusted. White bandages were wrapped around both my hands, and it took me a few seconds to remember everything that happened the night before.
I pulled my hands closed to chest. But than pulled my left hand, the one I had smacked the alarm clock with, away to look at it. It had a patch of red in the middle of the palm, and it was spreading.
"Oops."
I slid my legs over the edge of the bed and padded my way to my bathroom. I gently unwrapped my hands and threw the bandages into the waste bin. Then I hopped into the shower and did my daily morning routine before going downstairs.
"Morning!" Will greeted me cheerily. "Did you sleep well?"
"'Lo," I responded. "And I slept fine. What about yourself?"
"Well," Will hesitated. "You see..."
Loud footsteps were coming from the stairs and I turned towards the entrance, confused. Who would be here so early in the morning, and why would they be upstairs? Blonde hair was the first thing that entered my view, and then a tall body.
"Dustin?" I questioned in surprise. "What? Why in the world are you here?"
Dustin grinned. "My mom said because I was so late home last night, she wouldn't let me in the house. Even though I told her I had been a car accident! She didn't believe me! Boy will she get a shock when she reads the morning paper." He laughed before coming to sit down.
"Yeah. So I let him crash here," Will told me with a shrug. "Though I bet it would have been amusing to leave him out in the cold."
"But it was much warmer with you," Dustin teased with a smirk.
"Oh," I said with realization and a smirk slipped onto my face. "I didn't know you two were that close. Sleeping together! I didn't think you were like that either!"
"We are not like that!" Will denied with an amused look. "What? Do I look like a homosexual pedophile?"
Dustin traced a circle on the table with his finger and said innocently, "you can tell her the truth, you know. I'm sure Maddie will accept us."
Will smacked the back of Dustin's head. "Are you ready for school? You'd better get going, or you'll be late."
I threw a glance at the clock. It was exactly seven. I shoved the piece of toast that was in front of me into my mouth and quickly stood up, slinging my bag over my shoulder.
"Ready?" I asked with my mouth still filled with bread.
"Eh? Isn't Will giving us a ride?" Dustin asked confusedly.
I stared at Dustin in awe and then felt an overwhelming feeling of adoration for him. Dustin had said that without any hesitance, nor fear. Even after the crash, where Will was the driver. I frowned as I finished swallowing the rest of the toast in my mouth. But I was the one who pulled on the steering wheel...
"Unless Maddie would like to roll us there," Dustin continued, a smirk on his face. "I could always use the rush of adrenaline."
"Is that something to be joking about?" I asked him in astonishment. He acted like it had happened a few years ago, not just a few hours!
Dustin shrugged. "What's the use of thinking of it as a scary situation? I like to think of something like that as a rather exciting roller coaster ride! The kind that gives you whiplash if you're not careful."
"Dustin, you're and idiot," I announced while rolling my eyes. "Only you can take the disaster out of a thing like that."
Dustin grinned then shrugged. "I do dangerous things a lot."
At an unrevealed time, I could of happily thought of this as one of his jokes, or I could have thought he meant his driving skills. But now, after they let the cat out of the box, I couldn't help but imagine what dangerous things he was doing. I frowned.
"Well I would give you two a ride," Will said suddenly, breaking me from my thoughts. "But unfortunately my car... is completely totaled."
"I'm sorry Will!" I apologized immediately. "I feel so bad! I promise to get it fixed."
Will snorted before placing a hand on my head. "Honey, even if you did get the money to pay for repairs, it would be cheaper just to buy it new."
I frowned again for a second. Hadn't I thought of something like that before? I sighed. "So true."
"Now you guys should seriously get going."
Without looking at the clock, I grabbed Dustin and ran out of the house, nearly dragging him behind me until he broke out of my grasp. He straightened out and shoved his hands into his pocket.
"Are you okay?" he asked with a sort of amused expression.
"What do you mean?" I replied with a confused look. Why would I not be okay?
"Your bandages..."
I looked down at my hands and my jaw dropped. Both hands were an angry red, and had cuts and scratches all over them. I flipped them over so I could see my palm. In my left palm was a large gash, which was swollen and bleeding slightly. I winced. That must have been one big piece of glass.
"Oh boy." I gently stuffed them into my pockets as I took a deep breath and let it out. I blinked, shocked. "I can see my breath!"
Dustin laughed, and his breath came out like someone breathing out smoke like a cigarette. "Yeah. It's getting cold."
I nodded my head. It was getting cold. And I forgot my scarf. I grumbled for a few moments before sighing again.
"Sighing so much in the morning isn't healthy for you," a smooth voice commented from behind me.
"Ah?" I froze before slowly turning around to come face to face with Damian and Ayden. "H-h-hi!" I stuttered out finally, than cursed myself for acting like an idiot.
"Morning," he greeted me with his usually mysterious smile. "How are you feeling?"
"Great!" I replied enthusiastically, pumping my fist into the air.
I stopped with my hand in mid-air when I realized I was being just a little too enthusiastic.
But, I thought to myself frantically, how do I act around vampires? Didn't they drink human's blood and kill them? I shook my head, throwing away those thoughts. I would be brave, because I didn't want to hurt Damian, or Ayden, or Callie.
Suddenly my wrist was captured in Damian's strong and, now I noticed with extreme conscious, cold grasp. I looked at him in surprise as he frowned at my hand. Then he flipped it over, and frowned more deeply at my palm.
"What?" I asked nervously. Was there something only vampires could see on my hand?
"This... looks terrible," Damian finally responded. Then he looked up. "Callie?"
"What?" A voice next to me responded.
I must have jumped about a hundred feet in the air. This was definitely not good for my health, I thought as my heart thudded to its' original pulse.
"Could you..."
Callie nodded, as if she already understood what Damian was going to say. I watched curiously as she took my hand and put it in-between both her hands. Suddenly I felt a tingling feeling all over my hand and quickly yanked my hand away in surprise.
Callie looked at me, she was also in surprise, but she also looked slightly hurt at my sudden movements. I felt guilty for pulling my hand away.
"Ah... sorry," I finally apologized. "It's just... what would my brother say if my hand was healed in only one days time?"
"How did you know she was going to heal your hand?" Dustin asked and I nearly jumped in shock again. I had forgotten he was there as well.
"Just the feeling. I'm sorry Callie," I added as I took in her still slightly hurt look. "It's just going to take me a little time to get, um... used to all this. I hope you can understand... You guys too," I added turning to Ayden and Damian. "I feel awful about it, but I can't quite grasp the fact that you are vampires."
Ayden thumped my head with his fist.
"Ow!" I cried, rubbing my head.
"You're so silly," he commented with a chuckle. "If you really couldn't grasp the fact that we were vampires, then you wouldn't have been able to say vampire."
Oh. Was that right? Would I not be able to say the word if I didn't grasp it? I couldn't help but to smile at him as he walked ahead of me. He was right. I held my hand out to Callie. "I bet if I wrap it in bandages Will won't notice."
But then again, there must have been people they thought they could trust, and said people couldn't deal with it.
Callie looked at me brightly and took my hand between hers' again and the tingly sensation came back. The feeling was weird, but after only a few seconds she pulled back and I looked down to see my hand perfectly healed.
"Wow," I breathed, turning my hands over and examining them. "Wow. Thanks, Callie!"
"No problem!" she chirped and waved her hand in dismissal.
"Ah, the school," Damian commented from next to me.
I looked over at it in surprise. I hadn't realized we had started walking. I pulled out my cell phone to see the time. It was seven thirty. It was a good thing that we had been walking; otherwise we would have been late.
Ayden turned back at me and smiled a beautiful smile. I paused in mid-step, mesmerized at his handsome face for a few seconds. He's really handsome, I thought as a smile spread onto my face.
"Thank you," Ayden replied with a smirk and I felt my face turn red from embarrassment.
"Vampires," Dustin muttered from beside me as we entered the school building. I laughed slightly as I bid Dustin goodbye and hurried to my homeroom with Damian to start the day.
I stayed in the homeroom as the buses started to arrive, afraid of everyone's comments because I was sure the crash had made it into the mornings paper. I hoped Dustin had decided to do the same. Luckily, no one had a chance to as questions though, because the first half of the day went by fast, and I had a lot of work to do in all my classes, so nobody bothered me. But I knew what was coming at lunchtime.
I entered the lunchroom with Dustin when it was lunchtime and got into the a la carte line. As usual I grabbed a chefs salad with the spicy chicken. It was the best, and most appetizing, of anything you could have for school lunch. After we paid, we went to sit at our usual table. It had grown in size since the beginning of the year. Now Kim, Emmett, Sarah, Callie, Dustin, Damian, Mel and my friend Anthony all sat together at the small, and cramped, table.
"Maddie!" Emmett stood up and came over and stood in front of me, scrutinizing me up and down.
I stood there awkwardly, as the other four, who hadn't got a chance to examine me after the crash, came over to do the same. At one point Anthony even prodded my cheek. I snatched his hand and moved it away from my face.
"I'm not a spectacle, guys," I finally said and they all broke out into unabashed grins.
"I read about the terrible accident!" Kim gushed, pulling me to the table to sit down next to her. "I was so worried this morning! I couldn't even eat breakfast, because it didn't say anything about the condition of the victims, just that they were sent to the hospital!"
I held up my bandaged hands, which had been bandaged by Ayden during homeroom and shrugged. "We're all fine. Well, I can't say the same about my brother's car..."
I looked around and noticed that a few people were lingering around the trashcan, which was placed about five feet away from the table. When they saw I was looking at them they flashed me a quick smile, which I returned, and then walked away. I sighed and ripped open the packet of ranch dressing and poured it on my dressing, with the chicken already removed.
"I feel bad for your brother," Emmett and Anthony said as they also took their seats again, Anthony occupying the space on my right.
I frowned at him slightly; I'd wanted to sit next to Damian today. I bit into my salad as the attention was drawn from me to my brother's car. It was vaguely amusing how they, the boys in particular, were much more concerned about the car then the people in it.
"Poor guy," Mel sighed as she plucked the only cucumber slice from my salad and popped it into her mouth.
"Hey!" I protested jabbing my plastic fork at her. "That was the only cucumber!"
Mel shrugged. "You snooze you lose."
"But I paid for it!"
Dustin snickered and Callie laughed out loud. I scowled at the pair of them and angrily stabbed my fork into a chunk of lettuce and jammed it into my mouth.
"Was that car expensive?" Emmett asked with a slight frown. "It sure did look expensive. Definitely the envy of any man around here."
Dustin grunted his agreement while Anthony nodded his head furiously. I shook my head at the two of them. Even though truthfully I was envious that he owned the, now bent up and dented, car.
"It was... rather expensive," I told them soberly. "I wish I could pay him back for it... If I hadn't-"
"Don't blame yourself," Damian ordered, speaking up for the first time. "How many times have you been told that?"
"Not enough," I muttered to myself.
"Then I'll tell you again."
I stared at him in shock, while the others stared at him slightly muddled. Damian offered a quick and handsome smile with a small shrug.
I pursed my lips and began to eat my spicy chicken. I didn't blame myself. I blamed that bear that vacuously jumped in front of the car, albeit I did blame myself for smashing up my brother's car. I should have just hit the damn bear.
I felt someone pull my cheeks out, then up. I looked up in surprise as my mouth was spread open.
"What?" I tried to say, but it ended up being garbled and sounding like, "Vhah?"
"You were making a weird face," Damian said with a shrug, than he let go off my face and it formed a frown.
"It's called a pensive look," I mumbled, staring down at the table now as embarrassment washed over my face.
Damian laughed. "Eat your lunch."
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