Forever And Never

I stepped though the door to the counselor's office quickly, walking up to the U shaped desk parallel to the door where a woman sat, looking up from a file cabinet drawer when she heard the door open. "Can I help you?" she asked as she sat up in her seat, taking the small purple piece of paper I'd been sent regarding my meeting with my counselor when I handed it to her. It was finally Tuesday after school, and after a less awkward day that the previous one it was time for me to discuss my plan to get all of my credits earned before June when it was time to graduate. Not only was I anxious to began getting my credits finished so that I wouldn't have to fear not graduating with Lori and Ali and my class, but while I was here I could get taken out of my seventh period since out of some cruel twist of faith I'd been put in the exact same class I'd had with August all those months ago.
"Okay, let me go check and see if your counselor is in," She said as she stood from behind the desk and walked quickly down the small hallway to the left of the desk, looking into one of the rooms. After seeming to have a small conversation with someone in the room, she turned and walked back to where I was standing. "Yes she's in right now so go ahead; it's the second door on the right." I nodded at her a walked forward down the hall, coming to the door and walking in quickly.
My assigned counselor, Mrs. Thompson, was sitting behind her large desk quietly sorting papers when I entered and once I sat down in one of the two fold out chairs set up before her desk, she smile at me warmly and saying, "Your Nicolette Stevens, here to discuss credits right?" When I nodded in reply, she turn to her computer on her left and typed away for a few seconds, pulling up my file.
"So, it shows here that you've got… ten credits to complete before the school year ends." She looked to me for agreement and, though I hadn't calculated it sounded correct, so I nodded to her. "The school does have an after school program to make up credits by computer, so you'll probably have to take advantage of that…" I nodded in reply, having already known that the after school program was the only way to get it all done in time. She paused and typed some on her computer for a few seconds then continued, "Due to your medical condition you're not taking PE, so that gives you more room. I tried to put you in the classes which were easier to just take normally, and some of them like Art or ASL you cannot make up on computer, which is why your schedule is the way it is."
"Actually…" I interrupted suddenly as I leaned forward, "I wanted to see if I could retake World History on computer after school." She frowned at me for a second, and after looking to her computer monitor then back at me she answered: "I know it's difficult to do this much work, but you can't take the easy way out. You're the one who dropped out last year, if you honestly want to graduate this spring then you need to work for it."
"Can I at least get another teacher?" I questioned desperately, not liking being scorned for simply wanting to get out of a class that I had a lot of memories in. She shook her head again saying, "We only have one teacher teaching World History this year." Once she was finished speaking and had awkwardly looked to her computer, I slowly sat back in my seat knowing that I'd been defeated. Whether I was willing to or not, I was stuck in my seventh period.
After a minute of silence in the small office, I heard the printer in the corner come to life suddenly, spitting out a few sheets quickly onto the tray. Mrs. Thompson wheeled over in her chair to the printer and grabbed the papers, then returned to her place behind the desk and looked to me. "It looks like you've got three credits to make up in the after school program, Chemistry, Algebra II, and English III. Since you left before the second semester was finished, you've got to make up both parts of the credit." She laid the paper before me and pointed to a list of classes I had to take in the program, the first and second semester labeled A and B. All three credits were like that, meaning six semesters worth of work which had to be done in two.
"Because most seniors need only four credits their last year of high school you've got three spaces in your schedule to make up for credits you missed last year, which is why ASL III, Art, and World History are in your normal schedule." She marked the three classes named with stars, then once she was finished sat back into her chair. "With this plan you should be able to graduate in June, as long as you compete everything."
She smiled at me once more and when I nodded in understanding she spoke again, "I'll call you in the next few weeks to discuss your exit level exams, since you weren't here in the spring to take them last year. And we'll talk about college and SATs… are you planning to attend college once you graduate?" I opened my mouth to answer her, though I wasn't sure what I would say. Ramsey had let me go to high school, but would he let me go to college? I had no idea what he was planning for me once I graduated, and whether or not I could even think of my future without consulting him.
"I don't know yet…" I answered truthfully as I looked down at my lap, ashamed that I had no real control of mu future even though I was now an active member of the human world again. She nodded understandingly, though I'm sure she was just trying to avoid making me cry so that she wouldn't get in trouble for it, and soon she ended the meeting quickly, telling me to have a good afternoon and to come in if I had any questions. I took the hint to gather my things as well as she papers she'd left at the end of the desk for me and stood, wanting to leave her company as soon as possible because her bitterness was toxic. I told her thank you and walked out of the room, leaving the counselor's office after thanking the secretary behind the desk.
I made my way quickly to the side doors of the school, remembering that I'd parked in the parking lot next to them. The hallways were mostly empty now, and only a few students and teachers walked down the silent halls either leaving or going someplace. I glared at my seventh period classroom as I passed it, though I knew stubbornly remaining angry was futile as there really was no way to escape the class. I was stuck there with all the lowerclassmen and the aggravating teacher and the memories, and whether I was happy or not I simply had to stick it out.
Only when I reached the side doors and pushed through them quickly did I noticed someone standing about ten feet from the doors next to the small street which ran alongside the cafeteria. I would have ignored them and continued on down the walkway to the parking lot and then to my car, had I not seen the head of bright pink hair shining in the sunlight.
"Oh, Raven…" I mumbled with a little surprise as I walked toward where she stood. She was wearing a light pink cardigan and a dark teal floral shirt, and black Capri pants which stopped at her knees and a pair of sandals. She held three textbooks in her hands, and only when I uttered her name did she notice me, smiling happily as I approached her.
"How have your first two days been?" Her face was bright and her wide, friendly grin was contagious as I put my hands in the pockets of my jeans. I hadn't seen her at all since school had began, since she was a freshman and her classes were in different parts of the school as mine where. "It's been alright I guess, yours?"
"Fantastic," she exclaimed, looking away to glance at the building we were standing around. I didn't feel that it was that great, but her eyes seemed to almost glow as she glanced at the large brick walls. "Already I've made several new friends that are human!" She looked back to me and the spark of excitement in her blue eyes was incredible. "And all of my teachers are nice, and my classes are fun!" I laughed at her enthusiasm, hoping it wouldn't fade over time and she wouldn't come to hate school like everyone else seemed to.
"How are your classes?" she questioned, still smiling as she looked to me for a answer. I looked down to the concrete sidewalk for a second thinking of how most of my classes were just fine excluding my seventh period. "They're okay, but a few seem like they'll be kind of hard," I replied truthfully. "But a few of them are classes that I was taking when I was human, so I know the first half of the course."
"Hm," She pondered to herself as she shifted the stack of books in her hands and changed her footing, "At least the classes will be easy for a little while, since you know it all already." She laughed at her joke after a second and I joined her for a few seconds before finally questioning: "Why are you standing here anyways?"
"Oh, I'm waiting for Maribelle to pick me up," She answered as she looked out at the busy road that stretched in front of the school. "She has the same job as Ramsey does, and once she gets off at 5 PM, she picks me up and we go home." She smiled quietly to herself, but looked to me with a curious expression when I started laughing.
"Why didn't you say so? I'll just give you a ride home?" I pulled my car keys from my jacket pocket and held them up, smiling at her as I walked past where she was standing and down the walkway to the parking lot, Raven following me quickly. "Don't you have that after school thing? Maribelle told me that Ramsey was talking about how you had to do it so you could graduate…" I reached my car in the center of the almost empty parking lot and looked over the car at her as I unlocked my door, seeing her face concerned about me. "I don't want to make you late…"
"Those classes don't even start until next week, so it isn't a problem. I was going home anyways so it's fine." I gave her a reassuring smile as I opened my car door, then got in and unlocked the passenger door for her to get in. She slid into the seat quickly, her books in her lap, and looked to me once again. "Thank you, I'll have to text Maribelle and tell her I found a ride home." She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and began texting quickly, sending the message off before dropping the phone back where it was.
"It's fine with me, just tell me where to go…" I mumbled as I put the key in the ignition and listened as the car started quietly. "Oh sure, It's to the left of the school so just drive down the main road and I'll tell you where to turn." I nodded and left the school parking lot, turning left and driving down the wide road which ran in front of the entrance of the school. It was always busy in the morning and when school let out, but now that it was about thirty minutes past 4 – when school ended – all four lanes were almost empty and it was just a normal street.
"I won't have to worry about getting a ride soon; Maribelle's going to teach to drive and get me a car and a license soon so I can go to school on my own." She smiled as she looked over at me and I replied, "But you're only a freshman? And weren't you turned when you were fourteen?"
"Yea, but I've got to learn sometime… Even if I'm technically fourteen, I've still got to grow up a little and just because I look like a kid doesn't mean that people are going to want to treat me like one forever." She laughed to herself lightly as she looked out the windshield to the sky above, "And as far as the school goes, I've just got to park a few blocks from the building so my peers don't ask questions, and Branch Wood will take care of the rest."
"Well that's good," I laughed as I drove down the long stretch of road in front of us. "I'm sure if Ramsey was your trainer he wouldn't let you even think about driving a car until you were older." She giggled along with me as she shifted her books in her lap once again, agreeing with me about how constricting Ramsey's hold could be. "Oh turn left here," She said as she pointed to the turn coming up and I switched lanes quickly, turning into the street of houses which seemed to go on and on. "The next turn is on the right, I'll tell you when it's coming up. Sorry but it's kind of like a maze in here…"
"It's alright, I used to live in the suburbs so I know what its like," I laughed as a reply as I drove down the neighborhood of houses. Most of the properties were average, the houses not rundown or anything like that but not anything close to the richer neighborhoods where my old house was located. It seemed like a nice street to live on, safe and average enough to be considered something you could be proud of.
"Y'know… I was a little nervous about seeing you," Raven announced suddenly, causing me to pull my eyes from the houses around us and look to where she sat next to me in the passenger seat. She was slumped forward a little in her seat, looking almost ashamed at what she was admitting through she was smiling a little, finding comedy in how embarrassed she was. I gave her a confused look before looking back at the road, "What do you mean by that?"
"…I was afraid that once you were back in the human world with all of your old friends that you would forget about me, turn here." She pointed to the street on the right, and by the time I realized that she'd told me that this was the street I had to make a sharp turn to prevent hitting anything. Once I was straightened out and was driving down the new road I looked at her again. "You were so excited about going back, I was scared that we would grow apart since you have your old friends now."
"I wouldn't do that…" I reply, hardly knowing how to come up with the right words to convince her that I wasn't like that. We reached the end of the street and Raven told me to turn left down another street of houses, driving for only a few seconds before she instructed me to turn left again then stop at the fourth house on the right. The street was a dead end, only containing about ten houses which circled around. I stopped at the fourth house, looking to see a decent sized white house with a small porch and a concrete walkway leading to the sidewalk in front of it. I only admired the house for a few seconds before turning my attention back to Raven.
"Just because they're my friends from when I was human doesn't mean that I like them more," I continued immediately, desperate to take away the frown on her face and have the hyper childish girl back. She didn't seem phased by my words, and instead remained staring down at her lap where her textbooks rested with her expression unreadable. I paused for a few seconds as I watched her, then continued speaking: "I mean, they're my best friends and all that but they'll still human... even if we're still close friends there's still the fact that I'm a vampire now and I can't relate to them as much as I was able to when I was still human."
Though I found myself saying things to convince Raven that our friendship wasn't anything now that I had Lori and Ali in my life again, I couldn't help but still lines of truth to her the more I rambled on. I wasn't human anymore, and that caused a rift between me and my old best friends, whether they felt it or not. "They're my best friends, but I can't talk about things like I can with you... I can't tell them about Branch Wood or the Youth Group or about Ramsey or drinking blood or anything... It's different now that I'm not human..."
At last Raven glanced up to where I was sitting in the driver's seat and looked at me strangely, a sympathetic and understanding expression on her face. Though she was acknowledging me once again, I wouldn't be completely satisfied until I was a smile. "They're my human best friends, but you're my vampire best friend," I concluded with a laugh, making her grin after a second once she understood what I meant. I was more than relieved to see a cheerful look on her face once again, knowing all was normal once again if she was smiling.
"I guess you're right," She agreed with a small giggle as she picked up her books and hugged them to her chest. "I'm sorry for seeming like such a baby about that... I was just scared of not having you as a friend anymore." She paused and looked away from me again, seeming to be in deep though for a matter of seconds before looking back to the left in my direction. "I have friends and all that and Branch Wood, but you really are my best friend."
I heard her seatbelt unclick as leaned back, letting it slide past her and return to it's original place before she grabbed onto the handle and opened the passenger door. "Text me if you need a ride even if it's in the morning," I said as she climbed out quickly onto the side of the road nodding with a smile, resting her stack of books in her right hand before shutting my door and waving goodbye. I waved back and drove forward so that I could turn around and exit the street, quietly pondering when exactly I had began to consider Raven my best friend instead of Ali or Lori.