Halfblood

The plane ride from my home town of Crystal Cove to Arbordale was torture. I was relieved when we landed. Leaving Crystal Cove was heartbreaking but I had no choice. Not that I had any friends to say goodbye to. Aunt Estelle, for some reason, thought it necessary for me to transfer schools in the middle of my sophomore year. I wore my Levi’s and dark purple, long sleeve shirt and had my brunette hair out, which traveled down the length of my back. The airport was crowded with people and I kept getting bumped into. I hated it.
“Lyra, hurry up!” called Aunt Estelle. She was standing at the rental car desk, probably renting a limo. I walk over to the desk and stand beside her. She looked younger than her age and her bright red hair made her look even more so. She was tall, even without heels, and always wore the most expensive clothes. Today she was wearing a black pencil skirt, with a jacket to match, over a white blouse. I always wished I had her confidence.
“Come now, Lyra.” she says once she’s finished renting the limo.
The limo was a glossy black with tinted windows. The driver, who was standing by the door, opened it for us. My aunt got in and I followed. The interior was leather and spacious. I sat in the seat opposite my aunt and leaned my elbow on the window.
The car ride was irritatingly quiet for a while. I dreaded getting to our destination. She insisted I go to the boarding school she went to, have new experiences, find my way in our society. To me it was just a whole new school were people would tease me. I felt uncomfortable just thinking about it. I sighed.
“Don’t worry. I know your nervous but, trust me, you’ll love it!” she says enthusiastically.
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re not a freak.” I throw back at her as I look out the window and watch the trees rush by.
I don’t expect her to answer since she knows I’m right. I usually avoid talking to her about the subject because it always ends with an awkward silence. I wish I had my Ipod with me so I can escape reality. I’ve always used music to drown out everything when I felt overwhelmed or something. This would be one of those times.
I knew we had arrived at the school when we got to the gates. The car parked in front of a building where all the teacher’s offices were. We walked in and up to the receptionist’s desk. She looked up at us, stood, and bowed to my aunt. The receptionist had long, straight blond hair and seemed a little too thin. She walked us down a long hall way and we stopped at a door that said ‘Headmaster Hillcrest’ on a gold plaque. The receptionist opened the door and waved us in.
“Welcome Arachne-kane!” he said and gave my aunt the formal bow all commoners gave her kind. He turned to me and shook my hand. “And Miss Monaghan! Welcome to Hillcrest Academy!” He looked to be in his forties but his receding hairline showed he was probably in his mid-fifties. We took our seats and I tuned out the conversation that followed.
I thought of how different my life will be now that I’m enrolled here. Could there be a way out of this? Maybe I can runaway and start my own life? Probably not. I wouldn’t know what to do if I started a new life.
I snapped out of my thoughts when Aunt Estelle said, “Have you informed the teachers of her,” she paused trying to find the right word, “condition?” She always referred to it as my ‘condition’. It always angered me when she did.
“Yes and I’m sure the students will give her a warm welcome!” he said with a smile. I fought the urge to laugh. Fat chance that will ever happen.
“Thank you for your time. I can’t stay much longer. I have business to attend to. Tell Umbriel-kane I send my thanks as well. Farewell.” And with that she stood and left. I stared after her, hating her for sending me here.
“Well, I shall show you to the dorm. Umbriel-kane will probably show you around the school.” he said. The suffix ‘-kane’ was always used as honorifics for the pure ones. I smiled at the Headmaster but I highly doubted someone like Umbriel-kane would want to be seen with someone like me. As we walked to the dorm, the Headmaster gave me a brief history of why he founded the school, but I wasn’t listening. I was mentally preparing myself for the ridicule that I knew was to come. I snapped myself out of my thoughts when we reached the front doors to the dorm.
I looked up at the tall dorm building. I decided it had to be three stories tall along with a possible attic. The white brick building seemed to glisten in the sun. The double doors were wood painted black.
As the Headmaster opened the doors, I fought back a gasp. The interior almost resembled a palace living room with couches, flat screen television, a huge stereo, and other expensive looking things. The floors and walls looked to be granite. The room was filled with the students that lived in this dorm (which was shared by both girls and boys). The talking and chatter of the students died down as we walked in.
“Why is there a human here?” said a girl, breaking the silence. She had curly, blonde hair and her arms were crossed with a look of annoyance. I can feel my cheeks getting hot from embarrassment. I knew that they were all thinking the same thing, or worse.
“This is Lyra Monaghan. She is a new student and I want all of you to make her feel welcome!” said the Headmaster.
“But she’s human.” said the blonde girl, disgust dripping from every word.
“No she’s not! She’s that freak Halfling!” said a boy with black hair, followed by laughter. I looked to the floor. I felt like running out of the room and crying. This is the exact thing I’ve had to deal with my whole life. It’s not my fault if I’m half human, half vampire.
“Jessica. Alex. That’s enough. I’ll speak to you two in my office.” said the Headmaster sternly. “Gwendolyn?” he called out, looking around the room. A girl raised her hand, waving excitedly. She stood from sitting on the couch and skipped over. The Headmaster turned to me and said, “Lyra, this is your roommate Gwendolyn Adrienne. I’ll leave you two to get acquainted. You two,” he said, pointing to Jessica and Alex, “come with me.” As they followed after him, Jessica gave me a dirty look. When they were gone, the room filled with talk and chatter once again.
“Hi! You can just call me Gwen! Gwendolyn is such a mouth full, I always hated it!” Gwen said, smiling. Her jet black hair was cut in a bob that curled at the end. From what I could tell, she was extremely perky. “Come on, I’ll show you to our room!”
We went up three flights of stairs and went down a long hallway, all the way to the end. My luggage, which wasn’t much, was outside the door. She opened the door and helped me carry it in. As I put my luggage down on the floor, I looked around the room. It was a comfortable sized room with white walls, two beds, a window, and a built in closet. A nightstand was in the middle of the two beds and a full length mirror next to the closet.
“I was so excited when they told me I was getting a roommate! I didn’t have one before because there was an odd number of girls in this dorm. This is going to be so awesome!” She smiled at me and I couldn’t help but smile back. “I can tell we’ll be great friends!” she said excitedly.
“Thanks.” was all I can say.
“Don’t worry about Jessica and Alex. They bother everyone outside their social groups.” She said, waving her hand in the air as if waving them away. “I think it’s so cool that your half human, half vampire!”
“I think you’re the only one who thinks so.” I say.
“Well, any whose, your lucky to be in this dorm!”
“Why’s that?” I ask, curiosity getting the best of me.
“Umbriel-kane lives in this dorm!” she says with a huge smile on her face. My eyes widened. Tristan Umbriel-kane was a Pureblood. The Purebloods were rare, had many powers, and ruled the Senate, the ones who governed all vampires. The fact I was in the same dorm as him was amazing. “He had a meeting with the Senate, unfortunately.” she said, frowning. “He is the hottest guy in this school! Hey, your aunt is a Pureblood, right?”
“Yeah.” I say flatly. My aunt only brought me here so I can learn how to be around other vampires. She thought it would help me be accepted by the vampire community. The problem with me being a Halfling is that I’ll never belong with vampires or humans; I’ll always be an outcast.
“It must be so cool to have a Pureblood in your family! Which of your parents is a Pureblood?”
“My dad was.” I say as I fiddle with my necklace, a crystal butterfly on a gold chain. It was a gift from my mom and always wore it.
“Sorry, broached an uncomfortable subject. I won’t bring it up again, promise.”
“It’s alright. I just don’t like talking about them.” No one, except Aunt Estelle and the Headmaster, knew what happened to my parents when I was younger. I was trying to keep it that way.
“I’ll change the subject. I know there was something I had to tell you.” she said as she tapped her chin, apparently trying to remember. “Oh yeah, they sent your schedule! I put it in the nightstand drawer!” I thanked her and started to unpack. She helped me put the few clothes I had in the closet. When I finished putting blankets on my bed, I lay down on top of them and sighed. I was exhausted. Probably jetlag. Maybe having Gwen as a friend could make school bearable. I looked over at her and noticed she was looking down at a closed book, her hand on the cover.
I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “What are you doing?” She looked up.
“Oh it’s my ability. I can read a book through touch! I know it’s strange, but it actually makes it easy to study for tests!” She said, laughing. I couldn’t help but laugh, too. All vampires had a least one magical ability. I didn’t have one and was kind of happy to not be burdened with one.
We started talking about movies and we were debating the hotness of Leonardo DiCaprio while we eat popcorn
“No way, he might be old but he’s still a hotty!” I argue after Gwen says Leonardo is too old.
“Yeah but he’s, like, forty-something! You know who’s really hot? Brad Pitt!”
“You do know he’s in his forties too, right?” I ask, laughing.
“Don’t ruin my fantasy!” she’s says, laughing as she throws popcorn at me. I look at the clock and see it’s almost six o’clock. Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door. Gwen walks over and opens it. I see two girls and a guy standing at the door.
“Hey G! We just heard your new roommate is the new Halfling!” says one of the girls excitedly. She had dirty blonde hair and was wearing a denim mini skirt and black shirt that says ‘Life is a Runway! Work it!’.
“Don’t be rude!” Gwen says to her. Gwen turns and says to me, “Sorry about Tessa. She pretty much says the first thing that comes to mind! It doesn’t go through the filter!”
“Hey, I can’t help it if I speak my mind!” says the girl.
“By the by, she’s Tessa Sukuyan,” she points to the dirty blond, “she’s Luna Melanchoi,” she points to a girl with dark red hair, “and he’s Damion Dofran!” she points to a boy with blonde hair. They all say “Hey!” as Gwen introduces them. “Guys, this is Lyra!” she says to them.
“Hey.” I say, shyly. They all file into the room. I was comfortable and had my guard down before. Now with all these new people, I put my guard back up. I wasn’t very good at meeting new people.
“So where did you transfer from?” asked Damion. He was wearing skinny jeans and a light blue shirt.
“I, uh, used to live in Crystal Cove.” I said.
“It must have been awful leaving your friends behind.” says Luna. She wore black jeans, combat boots, and a dark green shirt that said ‘Punk isn’t Dead’. Her dark red hair was tied in a pony tail.
“I didn’t really have any friends.” I said, flatly.
“Guys, your making it a little uncomfortable.” says Gwen. I make a mental note to thank her later.
“What’s your schedule?” asks Damion.
“I haven’t checked yet.” I say as I walk over to the night stand and open the drawer. I pull out my schedule and hand it to Damion. They all look at it. Suddenly they all gasp and look up at me with wide eyes.
“What?” I ask nervously.
“You have, like, four classes with Umbriel-kane.” says Tessa. I don’t say anything. I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to say.
“You’re so lucky! I don’t even have one class with him.” says Gwen. I’m too nervous to ask which classes he’s in.
“How do you guys know which classes he has, anyway?” I ask.
“Well, everyone knows which classes he’s in.” says Luna.
“Hey, you have the same study class as us!” says Gwen, excitedly. She could probably tell I was overwhelmed.
“Cool, we can hang out in study!” says Damion.
When they were gone about a half hour later, I could feel a headache creeping up on me.
“Where’s the bathroom?” I ask Gwen.
“It’s the pink door down the hall, you can’t miss it.”
I grab my pjs then ask, “Do you have blood tablets? I didn’t get mine yet.” She tossed me a small box. “Thanks.”
“No problem!” she says.
I walk down the hall and walk through the pink door. The bathroom was empty, thankfully. I took a shower then changed into my pjs. I stood at the sink, looking into the mirror. I grabbed a cup, filled it with water, and dropped a blood tablet in the water. I watched as the water turned red. Vampires used blood tablets as a replacement for human blood. While most took them daily, I only needed to take them once a week. Without them, I became weak and my health dropped. I drank the now red water and headed back to my room.
As I lay in bed, I couldn’t bring myself to sleep. Tomorrow was my first day of classes and I thought of what the day would bring. Then my thoughts turned to Umbriel-kane. I would be in four classes with him. The thought made me shiver. I wish there was a way out of this. Exhaustion finally came over me and I was finally able to drift off to sleep.