The cause

~Beep Beep Beep Beep~

Tulip stirred in bed before her hand shot out to the alarm clock on the table. After a few unsuccessful attempts, she finally managed to hit the snooze button on the alarm clock.

Just ten more minutes

~Beep Beep Beep Beep~

Tulip groaned in frustration, surely ten minutes hadn't passed yet. She glanced at her the digital clock,

6:10

She let out a yawn before she stretched her arms. Her ruffled brown hair stood like a nest.

Tulip walked into the washroom. She removed the covering of her new brush, inserted some batteries before she applied some toothpaste.

Her hands moved mechanically as she brushed her teeth. Tulip hadn't had enough sleep. She had tossed and tossed in her unfamiliar bed for hours before finally succumbing to sleep.

She had her first lesson at 8:00, but Tulip wanted to familiarize herself with her surrounding, so she decided to leave early.

•••

"Good morning Miss Gemma."

"How are you doing today, dear."Miss Gemma smiled at the girl in the turtleneck shirt.

"I'm great, and thanks for yesterday, Miss Gemma."

"No worries, dear. Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you." Miss Gemma said before she walked away.

She intended to see how the new girl was fairing.

Room 100

Miss Gemma knocked on the door gently. It took a few minutes before Tulip opened the door.

"How are you doing?" Miss Gemma observed how Tulip was already dressed despite having some time before lessons.

"You seem to be in a rush. Is there anything you're planning to do?"

"I wanted to take a look around. You know? Familiarize myself with my surroundings."

Miss Gemma nodded in understanding,"You will need someone to show you around then. I wonder if any of them are done. Let me see...." Miss Gemma looked around.

"Good morning Miss Lindsayyyy~" Olive yelped as Miss Gemma suddenly pulled her closer.

"Good! You seem to have nothing doing. Would you mind showing Tulip here, around?"

Olive looked at the unfamiliar face before nodded.

"I don't mind."

Once Miss Gemma left Tulip thanked Olive for agreeing to show her around.

"Not that I have any better thing to do." Olive's lips broke into a smile.

"Where would you like to go first?" Olive asked, looking around. People were staring and she wasn't liking it. The curious gazes weren't meant for Olive and she knew it. The culprit stood there with a thoughtful look on her face oblivious to the stares she was receiving.

"Nothing really come to mind. I know," her eyes brightened up as she stared at Olive.

"Let's start with your favorite spots." Tulip proposed.

"Of to the library then!"

"Just kidding." Olive chuckled when she saw the disappointed look on Tulip's face.

Olive led Tulip outside Rivera, talking along the way.

Alexander had left Leonard's side with the excuse that he had some unfinished business to attend to. Having nothing better to do, Leonard headed to Rivera.

"First we should go to the..." He could hear Olives voice.

What is she doing so early in the morning? And who is she going out with?

Leo's pace increased with every step he took. In no time he caught sigh of her. She wore a denim dress that looked gorgeous.

He let out an inaudible sigh of relief when he noticed the new girl with her.

"You're up early." Leo grinned.

"What do you mean by that?!" Olive glared at the intruder. Her hazel eyes glared at him.

Leo came closer, leaning in to whisper into her ear,

"You shouldn't yell so loudly, or else everyone's gonna think their favorite couple are having a fight." He pulled back, a satisfied smile on his face.

Olive looked around, people truly were staring and this time it wasn't because of Tulip.

He was going to make them think they were in a relationship with the way he was so close to her.

She took a step back, creating some distance between them.

"Aren't you gonna introduce me?" Leo said almost looking disappointed.

Tulip had never felt so ignored. Olive was talking to her just a second ago but now she stood there like a background character.

"This is Leonard." Olive said to Tulip. She wanted to add an additional warning to beware of how overbearing Leo was but she decided against it.

She will get to see for herself.

"That isn't how things are done. First you tell her my name and then you tell me hers, or am I wrong, Tulip?" Leonard looked at the new girl. The girls surprised faces made Leo remember he wasn't supposed to know her name.

Alexander had told him everything he heard from his butler and warned him to act cautiously from then on.

"How do you know my name." Tulip ask.

Leo scratched his hair, his other hand entering his pockets,

"I was sent to give you your students ID. You seem to have left it at the office yesterday." He handed her student ID to her.

Thank goodness he had brought it with him. When he was searching the office this morning, he came across her student ID card. Everything he said was true except for being sent to give the ID to her.

"Thank you." Was all Tulip could say. She didn't know she was supposed to be given an ID. CMU certainly were very serious about security.

"No problem." Leonard smiled.

Phew, that was close.

"Now that we are done with introduction, would you mind leaving us. We have something to do." Olive said before she tried to shovedLeo out of the way. He didn't budge.

"Isn't it a little too early for this, Leo?" Olive wined.

"Don't you have something to do? I mean you are a prince, surely you don't have enough time on your hands to bother me."

Leonard's lips curled into a smile when he heard what Olive said.

"When it comes to you, I have all the time in the world." Olive scowled.

"She's right Leo, it's too early to be bothering people." All heads turned to the direction of the voice.The owner of the voice stood there, a ton of books in her hands.

"Terra," Leonard said looking at the Vampiress. Her blonde hair was tied in a high pony and she had a frown on her face.

"Of to the library, hmm?" Leo questioned.

She looked at him with a ' duh ' expression on her face. Was it not obvious? She was holding a ton of books in her hand.

"Why don't you help me returned these books to the library. They are quite heavy." She grimace as the books weighed her down.

It was Leonard's turn to scowl. Terra had been carrying the books like they weighed nothing but now she was complaining about how they were too heavy for her.

"You look like you can manage." Leo nodded to himself

"That's very ungentlemanly of you." Terra said and all three girls nodded.

"Fine!" Leo said, taking all the books from Terra.

Before they left, Olive mouthed a silent ' Thank you .' to the Vampiress who just smiled in return.

"She's nice." Tulip noted when the Vampiress and Leo where gone.

"Yeah she is. She's Terra Orion, her uncle is the King of Orion."

Orion, the their vampire kingdom and the third largest.

"What about Leonard? You mentioned that he was a prince. "

"He is the prince of Wood. The last prince. As you can see he was pampered quite a bit." Olive chuckled.

"But he had blue eyes. Isn't the Wood Kingdom a vampire kingdom. The king is a vampire. " Olive noticed how Tulip's brows creased in confusion as she asked the question.

"His father is a vampire but he is a half-vampire. His mother was human." Tulip slowly nodded, the information sinking in. She had found one of the two people who were looking for her yesterday.

One more remaining, she thought to herself.

"Olive."

Olive back suddenly straighten. That voice, there was only one person who made her body react this way.

"Alexander, how can I help you?"

Cold black eyes that seemed to swallow the surrounding light stared back at her.

Alexander stared at the girl before him. Completely ignoring her mechanic voice, he asked.

"Have you seen Leo today?"

"I did, he left with Terra to the library. If you hurry you might catch up with them."

Alexander nodded, "understood."

He walked away without spending as much as a glance at Tulip.

Tulip felt the side of her neck itch before it began to pain her. It felt as though someone had sunk two hot nails into the crook of her neck. The pain was unbearable.

She didn't know why, but she looked behind her, in the direction the strange boy hand gone.

To both of their surprise, their eyes met.

Tulip shivered as two bright red eyes caught her in their gaze.

•••

Just ten steps after passing by Olive and the unfamiliar girl, Alexander felt his fangs throb. The intense urge to sink his teeth into someone overwhelmed him. He looked behind him, his eyes catching hold of the new girl's eyes. Her brown eyes widened in both pain and surprise.

Was he the cause?