1| A Chance Encounter

"Wait uhm, I'm sorry, who are you again?" I say seriously with my hands on my hips.

"I've told you already, my name is Princess Evangeline Marie Anne Levasseur of Amaranthire. Must I repeat myself again??" the girl in front of me said with sass and frustration.

I'm Natalie, Natalie Johnson, and right now life is not following the script I had for it. It's the first day of my second year at boarding school, and I expected to get a nice, normal roommate to become friends with and hopefully confess to my crush sometime this year. But now in my dorm is this strange, entitled girl who is apparently my roommate?

Anyway, we're both just staring at each other as if it's a staring competition. To be honest, I'm really shy and socially awkward, but I'm trying to hold my ground. Being a pushover is something I don't want to be again this ye-

"Are you going to introduce yourself now?" Evangeline said, interrupting my train of thought.

"I-I'm Natalie." Shit, I stuttered.

"Natalie," she repeated, "You have a cute name." She giggled to herself.

I couldn't tell if she was mocking me, complimenting me, or flirting with me. My hands remained firm on my hips and my brows furrowed. "What's so funny?"

"You look like you're barely keeping it together. How long can you hold this 'intimidating' demeanor?" she said with a small smirk, lifting her hand to her mouth to partially hide it.

This girl saw right through me. My breath hitched, "S-Stop playing games with me. Not only do you claim you're a princess, you say a 'vampire princess.' This isn't some roleplay game. We're in one of the top schools in the country, and this year determines our future. If we're going to be roommates, we need to at least get along." I lectured her, feeling somewhat confident seeing her offended expression.

"What do you know, you human peasant! How dare you lecture me about my status and kind. Scold me again and I'll bite off that pretty neck of yours," she snapped. When her green eyes turned red, I swear I felt my heart stop.

My father taught me about vampires, but I never encountered or seen one before. In my mind, they may as well never existed. But now, I felt like some animal's prey about to be devoured.

Suddenly Evangeline gasped and covered her mouth, her eyes soon turning back to their normal green. She cleared her throat, "Ahem... Forgive me, that wasn't very ladylike..."

I could see her face turn red as she hid behind her hands. At this point I was convinced this girl really was a vampire.

"Wait so, you're really a vampire?" I asked.

She nodded, still a little embarrassed. For a moment I thought to myself, what if this is better than a normal roommate? "Please be my friend!" I blurted out.

Evangeline stared at me, "Friend? We can be friends, I have no one else here. Do you have any friends?"

A little ashamed, I shook my head left and right. "Used to..."

She sat on her bed and urged me to sit on mine since our beds were across from each other. "Well I may be the best friend you'll ever have. I'm happy to help with whatever you need as long as you do the same for me!" Evangeline said excitedly.

I thought for a moment, "Anything...?"

"Anything," she repeated.

"Ok well... there's this guy I like and–"

"A CRUSH?!" she shouted before hurrying over to me, clasping her hands over mine. "I'm loving this already, what's his name?"

My cheeks turned red in embarrassment, "Uh well... his name is Draven, I've had a crush on him since middle school, but I never made any attempts..."

Draven Lloyd, the hottest guy in school. So many girls have a crush on him and I'm a little ashamed to admit I'm one of them. Draven was the typical bad boy, he's hot and starts trouble all the time, but he's actually a really good guy. I knew I never had a chance against all the prettier and popular girls, but maybe with Evangeline, something could be different this year.

"Well let's make your first impression on him today."

"Ok– wait what?!" I yelled. This was already moving too fast for me.

"You heard me! Classes start tomorrow, so he must be somewhere with his friend group. I'll talk to him first, befriend him a little, then I'll introduce you as my friend, so you'll have an instant good first impression on him!" She smiled and laughed.

Things really were going to be different this year. I looked at her wide eyed as if she were a saint. "Why are you doing this for me?"

"Why? Look, I'm a princess who is being forced to live the mundane life of a human high school student. I need a little fun don't you think?"

When I thought about her situation, I couldn't help but laugh. A vampire princess who only lived in the vampire realm is now forced to live in a human boarding school for the year, and now she's helping a shy loser like me get with my crush.

When Evangeline saw me dying of laughter, she couldn't help but join in. We laughed together for a while, maybe this is better than the "script" I imagined for the year.