RockScars

It was the middle of the first semester at Vengeance University and although I wasn’t one of them, I was still as much a part of their life style. The other students with the exception of a select few treated me as though I was very much the Vampire. Some chose to treat me as if I had the plague. Not so much for the fact that I wasn’t one of them, but simply because Vengeance University wasn’t just my academic academy, it was my home and Vengeance himself was my guardian.

Gates, Mr. Gates, in the classroom, was seated at his desk looking at his lap top while we waited for him to give us today’s assignment. Of all the courses I had here, his was by far the toughest. He was rigid in his teaching style and strict with all of his students. He expected his students to do well and didn’t settle for slackers in his classroom. Of course, he gave the most homework.

Everyone looked up when the door opened and Vengeance himself walked through it with a new student. Gates stood and listened while Vengeance explained that he would be getting a new student. That was another thing that seemed to irritate Gates. New students in the middle of a semester meant he would have to give them added attention to catch them up with the rest of the class.

When Vengeance left, Gates turned his attention to the class. “We have a new student. This is Daisy and I know you’ll all assist her in getting caught up on what we have already done so far.”

“Hey y’all!” The peppy blond who was obviously southern waived at the class. Gates cringed at the way she addressed the class.

“Please take a seat, Daisy. There’s one over there.” Of course he pointed to the empty seat next to me. I always get the one seat next to that one wacko student that wants to be everybody’s friend.

Daisy walked over and sat down in the empty seat and smiled widely at me. “Hey ya. I’m Daisy.”

“Twyla.”

“That’s such a pretty name. I got a feelin’ bout you girl! I just know we’re gonna be the best of friends.”

Great, next she’ll want to take me cow tippin’

“Settle down everyone, time for a pop quiz. Pencils on your desk and everything else underneath.”

A pop quiz? Really? So glad I studied.

I picked up my backpack and rifled through it, but couldn’t find my pencil. All I needed was to be scolded in front of the class by Gates for not being prepared.

“Here, you can have one of mine.” Daisy slapped a pencil on my desk and smiled. “I’ve got plenty of pencils.”

“Thanks.”

“Twyla, no talking in class.” Gates looked at me stone faced and I just shook my head. Figures, I’d be the one to get caught.

“Daisy, you are exempt from taking the quiz. Grab a text book from my desk and read chapters one through five.”

“Yes, sir!” Daisy got up and got her textbook and sat back down in her seat. While we took our pop quiz, she opened the book and started reading.

The classroom was finally quiet and that was how Gates liked it. Didn’t last long though.

“Well aint that just the cats pajamas!”

Man oh man. Everyone stopped and looked at Daisy.

“Something wrong, Daisy?” Gates asked from his desk with an obvious hint of annoyance in his voice.

“I’ll say! I aint never seen so many big words in one place. Ya’ll read all this?”

The whole class erupted into laughter. Gates waived his hand at the class. “That’s enough. Daisy continue reading and do it quietly.”

She smiled and gave him a wink, which made him even more frustrated. Daisy was the complete opposite of everything that Gates worked to achieve in his classroom. This was certainly going to be an interesting year.

When classes broke for meals Daisy didn’t join the rest of us in the cafeteria. She said something about fixin to do a …whatever. She just didn’t come to eat. As luck would have it my newly appointed BFF was in all of my classes and of course she sat right next to me in every single one.

After classes let out I walked through the tunnel back up to the main house. Lark was usually getting ready for bed at this time and always waited up for me to say goodnight. I entered the house through the kitchen and set my backpack on one of the chairs at the table. Like I usually did, I filled a glass with milk and grabbed a cookie. Lark was usually waiting on the couch and that was our little ritual. Every night before she went to bed I’d bring her milk and a cookie and she would tell me a story about her adventure as a princess. I know that they were just made up fables from the mind of a child, but I always played along with her and made her feel like I was interested in hearing all about it.

As I walked through the kitchen door, I could hear the sound of her laughter. There seemed to be a lot of commotion in the living room tonight. Lark wasn’t sitting on the couch. There he was with my sister in his arms. Shadows was home.

“and then I saved the prince from the dragon!” Lark was telling him the story she was supposed to be telling me.

“Well, you are a mighty little warrior princess!” Shadows was smiling at her. I hated him. Hated the connection he had with Lark. Whenever he was around, she never left his side.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too, princess.”

“Are you gonna stay for a while this time?”

“Yup!” He nodded. “I’m going to be living in the guest house.”

“Sleepovers!!” Lark shouted and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Maybe on the weekends princess. During the week I am going to be teaching at the University.”

“You have got to be fuckin’ kidding me!” As much as I thought the words were in my head. They came flying out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

“Twyla watch the language and no, Shadows isn’t kidding. Corey’s wife is in her last trimester and he needs to be home with her when the child comes. Shadows will be taking over fight class.”

Shadows was smirking at me and if Lark wasn’t in his arms, I would have walked over and punched the smirk right off his face. “Come on, Lark. It’s bed time.” I tried to take my sister out of his arms, but she latched onto Shadows for dear life.

“Leave her alone. I’ll put her to bed in a little while.”

“She’s my sister!”

“Twyla,” Vengeance said as he put a hand on my shoulder. “Shadows will put Lark to bed.”

“Fine!” I slammed the glass of milk on the table and threw the cookie down beside it before running upstairs to my room.

There I sat on my bed totally pissed off. I hate Shadows. The knock on my bedroom door snapped me out of my hatred. I looked up to see Gates sticking his head in my door. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“You left your back pack in the kitchen.”

“Thanks.” I took it from him and set it down on the bed.

Gates sat down on the edge and looked around my room. “Twy?”

“Yeah?”

“I want to ask you something, but I didn’t ask in class because I didn’t want to draw attention to it. Why aren’t you wearing your glasses?”

Great. Here comes the lecture. “Because they hurt my eyes.”

“Maybe the prescription is too strong. I’ll talk to Vengeance about having you see the doctor again.

“I’m so sick of doctors. It’s pointless anyway. You know as well as I do that I am going blind.”

He nodded and touched my hand. “When that day comes, Twy, I’ll be here for you, but right now, you can still see some images right? So, for now you’ll go see the doctor and have your prescription adjusted. You’re my best student, Twy. I won’t have that change because of a technicality.”

“Ok.” I gave in. I knew my place with Gates. When I was in his classroom I was his student and acted as such. At home he was my best friend and could always make me understand things that I would never have seen if he didn’t point out the obvious to me. He was also the only one who didn’t get his head ripped off for calling me Twy.

“Get some sleep, it’s been an eventful night and it’s almost daybreak.”

“Yeah,” I nodded.

Gates got up and hugged me tight and kissed the top of my head. “I love you, Twy.”

“I love you too, Bri.”

He smiled and started for the door. “By the way, you aced the pop quiz. Good job.”

“Well aint that just the cat’s pajamas!” I couldn’t resist. We swore we wouldn’t talk about school at home, but he walked right into that one. Gates laughed and walked out of my room closing the door behind him.

I lay back on my bed and rested my arms behind my head and looked up at the ceiling. As I lay there I couldn’t help but think about them. The members of the clan. The numbers were growing by the dozens, especially now with Vengeance University in place.

Vengeance was the clan’s Prince. In terms the average person could understand, that meant he was the ruler of the clan. Every decision was made by Vengeance. All members of the clan followed his rules and his principles. If you dared to go against him the consequences were dire. I’ve never seen any extreme case of disregard for the rules, but Gates did tell me that punishment could be as severe as being kicked out of the clan and banished from the city. I love Vengeance like a child would a father. He raised me, took care of me and never made me feel like an outsider. For him, I would lay down my life.

When my parents died, Vengeance took Lark and me to live here. It was hard for me at first, but Lark has known no other life. Shadows is Vengeance’s right hand man. Thankfully, he’ll never be the Prince. The only way to be Prince is to kill the current one and Shadows would never do that to Vengeance. Shadows gets under my skin like no man ever has. I’ve never been able to clearly picture his face, but there are times I have imagined knocking his nose right off it. When my parents died, I broke a promise to my father and Shadows is the only one who knows. For that, I will hate him until the day I die. We fight and fight often when he is around. It’s hard to control my temper when he is here. I’ll never understand why, but he and Lark have a bond that I’ve never seen anything like before except for when my parents were alive. He treats her like she’s his own flesh and blood and with each year that Lark gets older, their bond seems to be getting stronger. It’s almost like she needs him and he needs her.

Gates was the one who helped me deal with the pain and loss that I suffered after my parents died. He also spent a lot of time privately teaching me the ways of the clan so that when I started school with the vampires I could feel comfortable there. I would die for him just as I would vengeance. I guess in someway he is to me what Shadows is to Lark, without the parental attachment.

Then you have Christ who I could take or leave. He teaches world history at the university. I like his class I guess. He’s a little more relaxed than Mr. Gates. At home he’s pretty casual. He talks to me sometimes about random stuff, but mostly sticks to chasing girls around and fixing his Mohawk. I don’t think he means to, but in some ways he kind of acts like I’m not even there.

Lastly, there’s Jimmy or The Rev. He teaches Physical Education at VU and his class is one of my favorites. I guess mostly because his methods of teaching are unconventional. At home he reminds me of a stoner. Just a chill kind of guy, but manages to make everyone feel welcome. Jimmy was the one who taught Lark how to speak so she could communicate with her voice as well as her hands. He was also the one that kept me out of harms way the day my parents died. So for him I would also give my life.

That’s my family. With the exception of Shadows, I wouldn’t change a thing. Well, that’s not really true. It may not bother Lark that she can’t hear, but it does bother me a little bit. It’s a little bit fucked up that my parents named her Lark. By definition a Lark is a songbird, yet she’s never even heard a single note. I’m sure they didn’t know she would be born deaf when they named here, but it’s still kind of a fucked up little bit of irony.

The more I thought about my family, the more I tired I became. As I drifted off to sleep I felt my shoes being slipped from my feet and the covers being pulled up over me. Cool lips pressed lightly against my forehead and turned on my side hearing the door close quietly just before I succumbed to a deep sleep. Probably Vengeance.

********
The following evening. Fight class.

Self-defense was one of the major principles of the Vengeance clan. Although there hasn’t been a war in many years, it was necessary that we learn to defend ourselves and be ready for anything.

Shadows was there observing while Corey paired us off into couples and gave us our instructions. Vengeance also came along to class tonight to inform everyone that Corey would be leaving at the end of the week and Shadows would be taking over. This of course seemed to make all the girls happy. Not that they didn’t drool over Corey, but they all practically wet themselves over Shadows. I concentrated on my task and tried to completely block out the fact that Shadows was even in the room.

Shadows titled his head to the side and spoke quietly with Vengeance. “She isn’t doing as well as she used to.”

“It’s her eyes. They are getting worse.”

Shadows nodded and continued to watch. “We’ll have to work on training her other senses.”

“Agreed,” Vengeance nodded. “When do you plan on telling her that you have taken over guardianship of Lark?”

Shadows chuckled and set his hands on his hips. “Probably when she’s bound and gagged so she cant hit me or scream at me.”

“You have to tell her. I mean it. Explain the will to her if you have to, but she has to know soon.”

“I get it!” Shadows held up his hand cutting off any further conversation regarding Lark’s future.

“S’cuse me Mr. Vengeance!”

Vengeance and Shadows both turned their attention to Daisy. “Hello, Daisy. Have you met Mr. Shadows?”

“No, sir.” She smiled at Shadows. “It’s right nice to make your acquaintance.”

Shadows looked at Vengeance and grinned and Vengeance jabbed him in the stomach with his elbow. “What can I do for you Daisy?”

“Well, Mr. Vengeance, I just don’t know about all this hittin’ n stuff. It don’t feel right just punchin’ that poor boys face in for no reason.”

“Daisy,” Vengeance set his hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes. “That boy just kicked your favorite cow.”

“Awe hell no.” Daisy shook her head. “Now, I’m gonna have to do somethin’ bout that. When I get through with that boy he aint just gonna look like he fell outta the ugly tree, he’s gonna look like he got whomped by a whole dang forest!”

While she ran off to knock the living hell out of her opponent, Shadows held his stomach on his hand and laughed as hard as he could. “What the hell was that?”

“That’s Daisy, she’s new.”

Shadows just laughed as he watched Daisy’s arms flail wildly as her opponent looked truly horrified.