Chapter 11

The alarm blared, practically in her eardrum, and Jayde was jarred out of the dream she was in the middle of enjoying. She groggily slapped it into silence and sat up, squinting as she took in her surroundings. It took her a moment to remember where she was, and when it did hit her, she groaned and fell back into bed.

It wasn’t a dream. She was a vampire and today was the first day of monster school for her. It was going to be both terrifying and interesting.

Forcing herself to get up, she walked to the desk and picked up the schedule Mr. Crea had given her. They were right when they said it looked exactly like her other school schedule, just with a couple of differences.

The school day was shorter than her other high school days, at least it was for her, and it was funny that she literally had a class called “vampire lore”. Jayde knew she had never been offered a class like that before. Other than that, her schedule was actually pretty normal. She didn’t have any issues with it at least.

She set the schedule down next to the laptop and thought about the letter she had typed up for her mom. Sighing, she pulled the desk chair out and stared at the laptop, thinking that she might as well open it up and get the letter emailed. Jayde had already spent a full afternoon and night not speaking with her mother. She had been on her phone and her mom hadn’t texted or called, but that could be because she wouldn’t have received anything back from Jayde.

Knowing she needed to and wanting to talk to her mom were two separate things, though.

Jayde stood up and walked into her bathroom, feeling irritated with the sadness creeping into her chest, making her want to cry. She took a quick shower, angrily scrubbing the shampoo into her hair and scalp. Once out, she did a quick hair rub with the towel then got dressed. Nothing fancy on the first day, she didn’t want to stand out like a sore freaking thumb. She pulled on an old pair of jeans that were fraying in the knees, a white tank top with a green hoodie over it, and finished the look with a pair of black Converse slip-ons. Looking in the full length mirror on the closet door, Jayde pulled her hair up into a messy bun, nodding once she had it up. Messy, stylish teenager.

Glancing at the clock, Jayde hurriedly grabbed her backpack and the schedule off of her desk. First class was at eight thirty and it was already eight fifteen. She still needed to figure out where the heck the class was! She quickly left her room, locking the door, and ran down the hallway. She was going to run down the main hallway as well, but there were a couple of girls standing or walking down it. Jayde hated not knowing anyone else besides Ophelia, and she already knew that Pheli was starting her day out with a free period and was able to sleep in. So, Jayde walked quickly down the hall, ignoring the glances, curious stares, and a couple of disgusted scowls that were thrown her way. Soon she was walking down the huge staircase, back at the main entrance.

“Ah, Miss. Vaninee. Good morning.”

Jayde turned towards her right, where Mr. Crea was standing near the library, and blinked at him in surprise. “Good morning, Mr. Crea.”

He smiled and walked to her. He had his hands linked behind his back, a red plaid sweater vest over a white button down shirt. “I’ll take you down to your first class. Mr. King figured you may need help getting around. Since you’re in my room for your second and third period, I was given the small task of helping you get around.”

Well, having it put that way made Jayde feel like she was a bit hopeless in being able to find her own way around. Even if it was true, it sucked. She was really glad for the help, though. “I really appreciate that, Mr. Crea. I need to go to geometry first. Are the classes separated by hallways and floors? Or how is it done?”

She started walking with him down the hallway next to the library. Mr. Crea explained that the classes were separated first by school year - senior, junior, sophomore, freshman - and then separated out by hallway and floor. Most of the freshmen and sophomores were on the first floor, with juniors and seniors up on the second or third floors. That was mostly the case, anyways. Mr. Crea explained that some classes could be taken at any time during the four years at the school, so his classroom was actually on the first floor. They walked in silence the rest of the way down the hallway, listening to the ruckus of students as they hurried past or stood outside of their classrooms chatting with friends.

“Your other classes are upstairs, but they aren’t hard to find. One is close to the stairs while the other is just at the end of the hallway on the right,” Mr. Crea stopped at the stairs leading upstairs. “Your English class is the one at the end of the hallway, so your geometry class should be easy to find.”

Jayde nodded and headed up the stairs to the landing that turned the stairs to go up in the other direction. She paused to look back down at Mr. Crea, who gave her a thumbs up before he turned and walked down the hallway. She puffed out some air then continued up the stairs, feeling awkward as the new girl. But her new mentor had been right about easily finding the geometry class. It helped that there was a huge dodecagon on the door though.

Upon entering the room, Jayde was a bit surprised that the size of the classroom was only a fourth to a third of the size of the huge common areas. Guess that made sense when you thought about how the classes were only about twenty kids at most whereas the common areas could hold a hundred or so.

She glanced at the clock, noting it was five minutes until class started and the seats were slowly filling. It was hard to choose a seat, especially not knowing anyone in the room and only so many seats were open. The back couple of rows were already filled, so Jayde took a chance and sat towards the front in the second row. Peers glanced at her as they sat down, curiosity plain on their faces, and Jayde was tempted to pull her hood up to hide. Instead, she sat in the chair, arms crossed, and stared at the chalkboard.

Let them stare, she decided. It wasn’t like they’d stare for too long anyways. The new people at the school she’d been in had never lasted in the spotlight of attention for more than two days. Teenagers tended to look for the next drama as quickly as the other one ended.