Southern Belle

She ran, her lungs felt as though they were about to explode, her legs were numb from the cold, but the sound of the others pursuing her didn’t allow her to stop or slow down. She kept moving; the trees but a blur in her peripheral vision and didn’t stop until she came to cliff. She looked down at the hundred foot drop to the forest below and knew there was no way she could even hope to survive it. If only Carson had finished the process, if only the microchip had been implanted like she wanted, then she could jump off this rock formation and land on her feet before running again.

But that hadn’t happened. Carson had been killed along with the others at the lab and if she didn’t decide on what to do, she would be next.

“Lydia” I stopped typing and turned toward my open door where Lester stood smirking at me.

“What?” I asked annoyance thick in my voice. I had put a sign on the door that clearly read “Do not disturb” but no one ever followed the rules in this house.

“You know if you keep interrupting me, there’s a definite possibility that the others and I will be burning something tonight.” I took my writing seriously and I hated to be bothered while in my “zone”

“Oh, you know you love me” he said as he made himself comfortable on my bed. I slowly turned in my chair to face him and waited for him to tell me why he was in my room and risking bodily harm.

“What are doing in here?” I asked when he didn’t say anything.

“I just wanted to know if you realized what time it was.” His red eyes glowed in amusement and it hit me. I had been writing all night and it was now time for school. Great, just great.

“If you didn’t that’s fine. We could stay here together and you could finally admit that your heart belongs to me.” He put his hand over his heart and gave me a puppy dog look that immediately made me smile.

“Get out.” I said laughing at the hurt look on his face.

“You’ll come around eventually” he sighed and walked out of my room, closing the door as he went.

With my room now to myself I started getting ready. Everyone in the house made fun of my unnatural obsession with the color pink, I mean it’s not really the vampire’s color of choice, but I love it. It didn’t take long for me to get dressed, put my contacts in and pull my hair into a ponytail; a second and a half if I had to guess.

Once I was dressed I picked up my bag off the floor and walked out into the danger zone that we called the hallway.

“Lester! Think fast!” Ricky yelled as a football whizzed passed my head.

“Ariel! Did you take my hair brush?!” A purple brush flew out of Ariel’s room and into Roxy’s before she even finished the sentence. This was pretty normal, instead of trying to walk across the hallway and hand the items to the person that asked for them, they threw them.

“I’m leaving!” I shouted as I entered the living room where the front door was located. “Anyone coming with me better get in here, NOW!” As I predicted my friend Ariel came running toward me and didn’t stop until she was but an inch away.

“I’m here” She said as if I didn’t already know that.

“Alright” I waited a minute to make sure everyone that wanted to come had the chance to. “The others are properly leaving with Lester so that means were good to go. So lead the way.” I pointed to the front door and Ariel skipped ahead of me. Maturity does not come with age; this house is an example of that.

I followed Ariel out to the Garage where my baby was sitting, just waiting to be driven. I threw my bag in the back of the Mercedes and got in beside Ariel who had already started the car and was starting to tamper with the radio. She finally stopped at a children’s station with “I can go the distance” playing. I stared at her for a moment before putting the car in reverse.

“I’m not even going to ask.”

We arrived at Forks High school a little early and managed to find a reasonably good parking spot next to a shiny silver Volvo. The moment we stepped out of the car, I stiffened.
There were vampires here; there wasn’t a question about it. Their scent was everywhere, and incredibly strong. Unlike us, this wasn’t they’re first day.

“Should we leave?” Asked Ariel from across the car. Her voice brought me back to the real world and I remembered what was going on.

“No” I said slamming the door behind me. “This is our new home and I will not run like a scared rabbit.” We had more than enough right to be here.

“Alright” she said closing her own door and coming to stand beside me. “Then I guess we better go inside and get our schedules.” She gave me a mischievous smile and I knew she planned to do more than that.

“Yeah, I guess we better get Lester’s and the Twins’ too, because you know they won’t be here in time.” That was just like Lester, to annoy me about getting ready and then end up being later than I was. It was just plain rude.

“Yep” she said with sigh and grabbed my hand before pulling me toward the entrance of the school.

As we walked I noticed that there was a group of teenagers standing to the side. They smelled like vampires but with so many humans around, I couldn’t recognize whether they were or not.

Just as Ariel opened the front door of the school, I thought I saw the one person I had been looking for. But it couldn’t be, Jasper was a loner, he didn’t do well with crowds, so I simply brushed it off as wishful thinking.