BLOOD! IT'S BLOOD!

1 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, LUNCH BREAK

I led Keanu and River out to the back of the school. Now that I knew that they were Lycan-ish, I didn't feel the need to hold back.

"Smell that?" I asked them, "Blood! It's blood!"

"See that?" I pointed to rust colored patches on the brick wall, "Blood! It's blood!"

I brought them over where the snow didn't cover the ground, "The blood is frozen in the ground."

And then I brought them back into the school, "And that's how vampires play with humans."

"How?" Asked River.

I paused, actually, I had no idea.

"Why?" Asked River.

Now this, I knew the answer to, "Because they are vampires. And that is why vampires can never live with humans and werewolves."

"No." River said, "That's not the right answer."

"Then what's the right answer?" I challenged.

"I don't know, but that's not it." River said, "I'm sure there are also kind and good vampires in this world."

"The kindness of the evil is fraught with cruelty." Keanu cautioned.

I nodded, I definitely had to go with Keanu on this one, "River, no matter how you see a vampire, a vampire will always look at you as food."

"That's not always true!" River insisted.

"There are men more evil and depraved than you would ever know." I quoted Mate darkly.

Like vampires who messed up my sacred lunch spot! Grrr... I'm so mad.

"Why do you hate vampires so much?" River asked.

Eh? What kind of question was that? No one ever asked why do you hate cockroaches or rats or mosquitoes right? It's pretty obvious.

"Cos they are pests." I replied.

River sighed, "I thought you were different, Sam."

WTH, this was the second time today with the "I thought you were different" line.

"You were the first wolf who became my friend even though I was just a human." River said, "I thought you would understand."

"You are my friend." I said, "That's why I'm telling you. Vamps are nothing but oversized mosquitoes."

"Even that girl vampire you always hang out with?" River challenged.

"Maria is different." I said. Then I stopped.

River smiled at me, "See, they are not all bad."

"They are not all bad to me. But they are all bad for you." I tried to explain.

River put his hands in his pockets and looked out into the treeline, "When I accidentally signed up for the wrong school, I was pretty frustrated about having to travel out of packlands everyday. I was angry at myself for causing everyone so much trouble. But because of this I found a school that believed humans, wolves, and vampires could coexist, I think it's fate."

I didn't answer him, I simply looked around the back of the school again, the familiar sight of trees in snow and the smell of blood, it's blood.

I turned and tried to reason with River again, "Blood! It's blood! That's the blood of humans who trusted a vamp enough to follow him here."

My hair was flaring and I was growling, "River you are a human, that could be your blood. And if it were, you wouldn't even know it. Your memories of this place would have been wiped, you would have woken up with slight anemia and a headache. If anyone asked all you remembered would be going out to play football - even if you never played football."

River simply sighed at me, "You're the same as Keanu."

I looked at Keanu who was calmly smiling next to us. I felt my hair drop back down a little. In what was was in the same as Keanu?

"I've given up talking him out of it." Keanu explained.

Well, I was just getting started, "I used to come here for lunch. It was a nice picnic place, but now there is blood stains on the ground. They drink human blood and encroach on wolf territory.... I hate them, and you should too."

"I'm going to build a world where humans, wolves and vampires can live together!" River told me.

"I like your optimism, but seriously! This world is large enough for all of us, as long as everyone stays in their own boundaries." I told him.

"Now you are sounding like my dad, but Sam there is no lasting peace this way, someone will always trespass and start another war. Every generation a new war to fight. I'm going to end it." River said.

"And how are you going to end it?" I asked.

"I'm going to cover the evil with good." River declared.

I folded my arms and stood next to Keanu, "You and what army of girl scouts?"

River frowned then, "I will show you."

"No, River!" Keanu suddenly sounded alarmed.

And then a light started to glow just under River's shirt.

"Aiy... He wore it to school today..." Keanu muttered, "Sam, we better step back a bit."

Magic, deep and strong and very ancient. I could feel it down to my bones. River was using magic... Magic as old and sparkling as the one that guarded the warlock forest. It even smelled the same as it wrapped around the abandoned backyard of the school, just to the treeline....

And the snow started to melt, River kicked the snow and pushed the snow over the exposed ground. As it melted, it washed the bad blood deeper into the earth.

I smelled spring as the grass started to grow. The wall! I grabbed the trash can lid and scooped what snow I could and threw it at the stains on the wall... It melted on the wall. Keanu had found an old broom, we tried to scrub the stains off, but it didn't all come out.

Maybe we needed soap.

And then I saw green ivy growing over the wall, crawling up to cover it where it had been stained. That worked too.

I turned to look at River, his hair was standing on ends awashed in magic, and the trees closest to him started budding bright yellow spots on the dark branches. The smell was spring was in the air!

"Ah, he totally overdid it." Keanu observed, "He never knows how to hold back."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

At that moment, River fell back unconscious onto the ground.

Keanu and I ran over.

"He does this every time." Keanu said, "Gets worked up, uses his magic, and then passes out."

Oh. I looked at River lying unconscious in Keanu's arms. But that was cool. He really did cover the evil with good.

"So...what should we do with him?" I asked.

"I'm not too sure." Keanu said, "Maybe let's just wait for him to wake up. He usually does, and I don't really want to take him to the infirmary. The nurse might ask too many questions."

I nodded. I sat down next to Keanu.

"The vampires will return next week though." Keanu said.

I frowned, "No! This place will be ours now."

I'll asked Henry and Marcus, and even Matt and Jules and Bra. We will keep the vampires out.

"If we keep the place lively, it will keep the vampires away." I said.

River stirred and got up then, "But I don't want to keep the vampires away. This place is for everyone."

"Don't decide that on your own!" Keanu scolded.

But River was the one who fixed this place. I nodded, "Okay. Let's make this place for everyone."

Keanu made a groaning sound, "What? You too Sam?"

"I thought you hated vampires?" River said.

"I do. But what's a picnic without mosquitoes?" I grinned, "Let's try your way and see what happens."

"Alright!" River jumped up on his feet, "You won't regret it!"

"Hey, hey, you just got up... Rest a bit first!" Keanu cautioned.

I got up to my feet and dusted off, "This is going to be our school's new picnic corner! Let's invite everyone here tomorrow onwards."

Keanu smiled, "That's brilliant. Vampires won't take blood in public."

Keanu took a photo and posted it up, "I've posted it on the school's online news feed."

"Eh, you can do that?" I asked.

"I'm in the school's media club." Keanu grinned, "I'm an official school reporter."

Wow.

River stretched his arms over his head, "This is going to be great! You two are amazing!"

What? But he was the one who fixed this place!

We spent the rest of lunchtime moving the picnic benches kept along the abandoned corridor out onto the grass. Nice! Keanu even found where the trash bags were kept so we emptied out the bins of rotten leaves and relined them for real trash tomorrow.

My dad always said, where there is people, there is trash. Keanu said that was the first time he had heard it put that way, but he had to agree.

Then the lunch bell rang.

We parted ways to our next class. I felt pretty excited about it. When I got to class, Henry and the other wolves were talking about the new picnic place in school, their phones in hand.

"Hey Sam, come over here for a bit." Henry said. How dare he order me! But I was already passing their table, and I did want to see what they thought of it.

"Warlock makes Spring. New picnic area opened in school." Marcus read the caption of the photo aloud.

They looked up at me. I beamed, "You saw it! Good!"

"What the hell..." Henry said, "Sam, what did you do now?"

"Nothing much." I answered honestly, "I helped picked up the trash on the ground and relined the bins."

"Yeah right." Marcus laughed.

"Let's go check it out tomorrow." Jasmine said.

"Why would there be a warlock here?" Henry asked.

Oh yeah... Why did Keanu write a warlock did it? River was a human. I guess his powers were very similar to the magic in the warlock lands. It even smelled the same. But River smelled human, then again, I had never smelled a warlock before...

Henry sigh, "Does James or any of your betas know what you're doing in school?"

Why would they? I can't even say for sure I knew what I was doing...

I went over to my bag and fished out my phone, "How do I see the school news?"

Marcus sighed in a long suffering way and extended his hand. I unlocked my phone and put it onto his outstretched palm.

"Do you have an account with this app?" He asked. I shook my head. Marcus gave another long suffering sigh, "It's okay, here I'll help you register a new account."

I looked over his shoulder.

"What would you like as your username?" Marcus asked.

"Alpha Sam!" I answered. Duh.

"Wait, Marc, ask Harv first." Henry said.

"Ah, yes... Good point." Marcus said, "I better check which email address to use too."

I flared at that. I could choose my own user name! I knew my own email address, wait, what did he mean 'which email address'?"

Marcus spoke aloud as he typed in, "alpha princess @..."

Eh? My email was Alpha Sam.

"That's not my email!" I said.

"Yes it is." Henry said.

"No it's not! My email is Alpha Sam."

"That would be your official work email, Sam." Henry said. He looked pained having to explain it.

Oh.

"You've been using Alpha Princess so far." Jasmine said, looking at her phone.

I have? Since when did I ever write anyone an email? I went over to see her screen. Our last project work was emailed to everyone in our group, including Alpha Princess, who replied with a "Received. Thanks."

Oh. I hadn't looked at my emails yet since all my stuff had been printed out for me.

"It's a good thing I checked with Harv." Marcus said, "Anyway, I've installed the app and sign you an account. Here is the school feed. You can follow different individual channels too. Liam has a channel I think..."

"Okay." I said.

"Abigail has a channel too. She has quite a large following." Jasmine said, "Do you think I should start a channel too?"

"If you want, I guess." I shrugged.

"I have a channel too!" Pearl turned around to inform me. She gave me her usual wide smile, "Follow me, okay?"

"Okay. Sure." I said.

"Ahhh... Hang on. Let me set up your privacy first." Marcus said.

"Leave it for her betas to deal with." Henry suggested.

"Yeah, I'm just going to set everything to private first." Marcus said, "Your betas can help you adjust it later."

I can adjust my own privacy settings, thank you very much.

"You can't post if your privacy is completely maxed out." Jasmine explained helpfully.

Well, I don't think I had anything to post.

"Okay, here. You're following Liam, and Pearl, and Abigail, and both the school grapevine and official channel for now." Marcus said.

"Okay, cool." I got the phone back from Marcus. The latest post was right on top of the one Keanu had posted on our school grapevine. There was a we-fie of Abigail with some of the random girls in our class. They were already at the new picnic area. The caption read, "First ones here!"

I smiled. Something good was happening, and I got to be a part of it.