Forever And Never

"I don't see why we have to attend the same orientation every year," Lori groaned dramatically, slumping her shoulders and frowning as Ali, her, and I all walked down the crowded hallway and towards the auditorium at the back of the school, drifting subconsciously with the mass of students all headed in the same direction. Elle Point high school had made it standard to put on an annual orientation for all the students of the school, mercilessly cramming all four grades into the old auditorium and droning on about staying in dress code and following the rules. The three of us had endured it since we were freshmen, each year watching bored out of our minds as multiple authority figures from the campus gave speeches concerning the regulations we were expected to abide by, all of which we were aware of.
"I guess they just want to torture us one more time before we graduate," Ali suggested as we squeezed awkwardly through the small double doors of the auditorium, the group of students cramming through the small door way before expanding once again out into the walkway perpendicular to the various rows of theatre seats. Lori laughed bitterly in agreement as we searched for an open space of seats somewhere in the rows, having to scan the quickly filling auditorium for a minute before coming across four of five vacant spaces towards the middle.
Thankful for being able to all sit together, the three of us walked down the row and sat in the red fold-down seats, glancing around at the large area as people found friends and places to sit and endure the orientation. Others were still pouring in from the hallway either in packs of three or four or alone just wanting to sit down and get it over with.
The deafening roar of the students around us prevented me from making much of an attempt at conversation, as I knew my small voice would only get lost in all the noise. Lori and Ali had noticed that when I spoke I was quieter, among various other things, and had begun pointing them out to me every time they arose. The promise I had made to Ramsey in order to come to school prevented me from ever seeing them outside of school and led them to realize how different our lives are now. They'd commented on my pale skin as well as how cold my hands were and that I was always wearing sweaters and sunglasses. It hadn't taken long for the two of them to notice the changes in me, and it took me even less time to realize that it was discouraging to them. If they didn't notice the rift between us now that I had detected at registration, then they had to be blind.
"Nicolette!" I heard over the hundreds of conversations going on in the Auditorium, watching as Ali and Lori's eyes wondered over to the right of us where the double doors were then slowly allowing my own to follow. I immediately spotted Raven's short pink hair, and smiling at her as she excitedly walked down the row towards where I was sitting. I greeted her once she squeezed past the students sitting down next to us, reached me finally and let out an exhausted sigh.
"There are so many people here!" She exclaimed loudly, glancing around with wide eyes before looking back at me in my seat. "Do you mind if I sit here?" She pointed to the vacant chair next to mine, tilting her head and grinning as she awaited my response. "Yea of course," I answered with a nod and watched as she sat in the theatre seat to my right and slid her small backpack into her lap, glancing around once again at everything before leaning forward and spotting Ali and Lori next to me.
"Oh! Hi," She waved excitedly at the two girls on my other side who in turn acknowledged her politely though I could see that Lori was already annoyed at her sudden appearance. Ali attempted to be nicer to her, saying hello back with a smile. Raven grinned at the two of them before sitting back in her seat and asking, "So what is this anyways?"
"It's just an annual thing that the school does," I explained with a laugh as she watched the people around us find their seats, "They just talk about the rules and stuff like that for an hour, and we all pretend to listen." The two of us laughed as I noticed the last students filtering in through the doors. The teachers waited for them to enter before closing them and then looked to the stage where the speakers would start soon enough.
"Speaking of annual," Raven said after a small stretch of silence before lowering her voice slightly, "Are you excited for the Yearly Ball? Only eight days away!" She tried unsuccessfully to suppress a squeal and received stares from the people sitting around us including Ali and Lori. I laughed at her enthusiasm and tried to ignore the stares as best as I could, even if some of them were coming from my friends sitting next to me.
"Yea I can't wait; I had some dance lessons with a vampire named Léonce who's visiting from France for the Ball," I recalled the lessons only two days ago, remembering how helpful they had been towards me actually knowing how to dance once the ball came around.
"Oh, Maribelle knows him!" Raven explained excitedly before lowering her voice once again so that people wouldn't overhear our conversations. "She was telling me that he was turned 1796 so he's, like, two hundred and fourteen years old!" Even her whispering was loud, and I hoped that somehow the people around us were listening to the principal who had just begun his speech on dress code instead of our talking.
"Wow, I remember him mentioning that he'd come to Branch Wood in the 1800's, but I didn't know he was that old," I let my surprise seep into my words as I thought back to the dancing lessons the man and I had done together. Of the people I'd met who told me about when they were turned, he was by far the oldest. Raven nodded with a grin before replying, "Yea Maribelle told me that he lived in France when he was bitten, and had been… thirty-four years old I think?" She paused and put a finger to her lips before speaking, "Yea I think that's what she said."
I nodded silently thinking over everything she'd revealed about Léonce then spoke, "Yea he volunteered to help me learn the different dances at the Ball; we were in one of the REC rooms at Branch Wood for almost two hours." I glanced over at Lori and Ali to my left once I was finished speaking, receiving an annoyed glare from both of them the second they noticed I was looked. I smiled to them weakly, assuming they didn't like the fact that Raven and I were whispering about things and they were being left out completely. When they failed to return expressions that even remotely resembled smiling, I turned away and looked back to Raven as she spoke.
"So do you like him?" She questioned bluntly once I had my attention focused on her. "Maribelle pointed him out to me once and he'd not that bad looking." She grinned childishly as she hugged her backpack to her chest and anticipated my answer excitedly. I thought about it for a second, honestly having to think back on the meeting with him and how I felt about it as well as Léonce himself. "I don't think so; he's alright I guess, but I don't like him that way."
Raven groaned loudly, breaking the ongoing whispering between us and causing several people to turn and look over, then answered in an almost-too-loud whisper: "You never like anyone, how are we supposed to check out guys if you always seem so uninterested?" She giggled a little to show that she wasn't actually aggravated, and I smiled to show there were no hard feelings before replying, "Well, you always have crushes on all the guys so why should I even bother?"
We laughed loudly together, continuing to joke and play around as the people around us turned and glared at us for making so much noise before eventually giving up on us ever being quiet. I could practically feel Lori and Ali glaring at my back as I continued to socialize with Raven throughout the orientation instead of talking to them. I felt bad for excluding the two of them from what Raven and I'd talk but, not only was the material of the conversation exclusive to only her and I, they had made no move to try and join the two of us. They were so hung up on Raven that it was causing the distance between them and I to grown even larger.
For the remaining time in the auditorium, four or five officials for the school gave speeches discouraging us from causing trouble or doing anything stupid and more or less begging for a simple, easy school year. Mostly everyone, including the teachers not speaking, listened half-heartedly to the presentations knowing that no amount of persuading could stop at least one person from having a lapse in good decision making and end up doing something bad. Raven and I talked lightly about various things, mostly more about the Yearly Ball or the Youth Group, while Lori and Ali sat next to us looking as if I'd betrayed them by speaking to Raven instead of them. I couldn't tell them that it was easier to talk to her since the both of us were vampires and had more in common than I did with either of them, so I decided not to address the situation. I didn't try to give any fake excuse as to why I was conversing with Raven easier than I was with them, and I didn't try and apologize later for it. It may have been a bad idea to let them go on being angry, but I was sick of lying and just wanted to enjoy the day without having to say I was sorry for not including them more.
After about an hour or so of speakers, we we're released back to our normal classes to continue with the day. I was more or less unsurprised to find Ali and Lori walking away from Raven and I as soon as we'd been released. I watched them make their way down the aisle and towards the door as I collected my things, standing up with Raven once we we're both ready to leave. "I'm sorry… I think I made your friends mad," Raven apologized once we were walking amongst the crowd to the doors and the hallway.
"No it's fine," I assured her as we walked through the hallway towards our classes, "They just don't understand why we're friends." She smiled to me weakly saying that it was probably better that they didn't understand, and I agreed despite how difficult it was to accept how much Lori, Ali, and I were drifting.