BITE ME

CHAPTER FIVE: Covington Fort High

CHAPTER FIVE:

VAMPIRE.

Noun.

A mythological undead creature said to feed on the blood of the living. In European culture, this is defined as a preternatural being, commonly believed to be a reanimated corpse, that is said to suck the blood of sleeping persons at night.

Bree read and reread the first entry that had come out of her Google search, none of it coming out useful considering that she knew all of that already. When she first started writing her book about vampires, she had made it her mission at the time to read all about them and the preexisting culture behind them that makes these creatures so darn popular.

Pale, often fanged, and having a certain dislike for garlic, these creatures were made to look like some kind of fictional heroes who would feed on the necks of the most gorgeous girls but would still somehow end up falling head over heels for high school nobodies.

And it doesn’t even make sense. If Snow White’s prince had been a pedophile, what exactly is the label used to describe these hundred-year-old perverts chasing after seventeen-year-olds?

“Hyper pedophiles.” Bree took her eyes away from her phone and only then realized that she had said that out loud. Half the people on the bus were now looking at her like she’d offended them. She just slid down her seat and made herself look as invisible as she could.

If there was anything she was good at, it was pretending she wasn’t there at all.

When her bus stopped across the gate of Covington Fort High, she straightened her blouse and sucked in a huge breath, readying herself for what was about to come.

“Here goes nothing.”

The school still looked like how it did the first time she stepped foot inside the campus. Screaming regality and old money; the centuries-old architecture of the Medieval castle loomed ahead, its stone walls radiating off what was left of the early morning glow. Bree just bit her lip and stuffed her hands inside her jacket, suddenly feeling overwhelmed.

No one was looking at her weirdly this time. But for some reason, it ached her to know that at any second, one of them would realize who she was—or who she wasn’t. Still, she kept walking.

“Aubrey Carter?” a girl, her pin-straight auburn hair tucked tightly into a high ponytail, called over to her and it was the first time since she’d gotten off the bus that people started staring.

Bree stopped in her tracks and blinked. This was all the signal the girl needed to confirm who she was.

She ignored the looks they were getting almost all too easily, something that, by the looks of it, she had already grown accustomed to, and crossed the small distance that separated them in the foyer of the school’s main building. She was taller than her by over an inch and had her school uniform fitted perfectly to accentuate her slender form.

Bree just stared at her in awe. She could tell her right then and there that she was a model from Dior and she would no doubt believe her.

“Welcome to Covington Fort High. I’m Sloane,” the girl said, and Bree snapped out of her trance. “I’m supposed to show you around?”

“Uh ... hey. I’m Aubrey. But you can call me Bree.”

“Okay, Bree. Follow me.” Sloane turned around, her hair whipping in the air as she did, and started walking deeper into the building. Her strides were long, her posture perfect as they passed several classrooms and school facilities.

Bree just followed her wordlessly, her eyes occasionally catching a glimpse of the rooms that had their doors opened.

“So, to start, I would like to introduce you to the Student Council members.” Sloane abruptly stopped in her tracks and Bree summoned all of the self-restraint she had not to run straight into her back. She turned to her and then pointed at a digital announcement featuring the Student Council. “These are the members. Take a good look because I promise you, once you bump into one of them, they could only either be your friend or your enemy. No in-between.”

Covington Fort High’s Student Council contained the normal ranks and positions held in any other high school. Except for this one, maybe it’s more than just students playing school executives. Everyone looked even fiercer than the last. But what caught Bree’s attention the most was the face of the vice president.

“Where have I seen him before?”

“Who? Ares?”

The name didn’t ring a bell. But surely, if she’d seen him somewhere, she’d remember him. He doesn’t exactly have the face of someone you could forget that easily. If Sloane looked like a model, the vice president must’ve been an angel. “His name’s Ares?”

“Yes. Ares Blaine Hawthorne, the youngest heir of ACG Group, the country’s second-largest conglomerate. He’s actually in the same class as you.”

For some reason, that last sentence didn’t sit well with her.

Sloane noticed her expression change but chose to ignore it, pointing to another guy in the digital poster instead. “Now, this is our Student Council president, Harvey Rutherford. And before you say anything, I know that he looks like he sells orphans for a living. And to be honest, he probably does, but who cares? Unless you’re an orphan you shouldn’t be wary of him.”

Bree just gulped at this. ‘I am, though,’ she thought but chose to keep it to herself and continued following Sloane who had now started walking up towards an elevator.

“You wouldn’t mind if I fetch someone from detention right now, would you?” She pressed a button with a well-manicured finger and didn’t wait for her to answer the question before getting in.

Bree just shook her head at this, silently joining her.

They stopped at the fourth floor and the elevator doors opened. What greeted her there looked like a scene from the Louvre of Paris. Marble statues and picturesque paintings decorated the domed halls that were supposed to house the rooms for the seniors. In a vast complex of wings and parametric pavilions, you could easily get lost in this place.

Sloane smiled at the look of pure awe on Bree’s face as she studied the ceiling mural. “You’re liking it here so far?”

“Oh, yeah. This looked like something straight out of a fairytale.”

Sloane turned a corner and knocked on an oak door, the embossed label at the top saying ‘Detention Room’ in swirling gold letters. This was the first time that she’d seen a detention room that didn’t look like it.

When she turned the knob, the first thing that Bree saw was a girl with strawberry-blonde hair. She had her head buried in her arms, looking like she was sleeping on top of her desk as the guy supposed to be watching over her was immersed deeply in a phone conversation on the other side of the room.

“You need to get up,” Sloane said and pulled the girl by the arm, stirring her awake.

“You need to f**k off.”

“Why do I hear talking?” The guy that Bree recognized as the Student Council president, Harvey, whirled around in his seat and glared at Sloane and Bree.

Suddenly, the girl sat up in her seat and glared back at Harvey with the same intensity. “Oh, I don’t know. Because you have ears?”

“Are you talking back to me?”

“Well, yeah. Isn’t that how communication works?”

“Okay, that does it! You’re cleaning the toilets.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“I’m pretty sure I just did.”

“Touché, Captain Khakis. Touché.”

Sloane pulled her by the arm and started packing her bag, pushing her out of the room and pulling me along with her before any more damage could be done.

“Now, I’m really getting jealous of the people who haven’t met him,” the girl grumbled again and yawned, stretching her arm.

When Bree finally got a better look at her, she realized that Sloane wasn’t the only one that was drop-dead gorgeous in this school. If anything, this girl was even more stunning. Her hair was short and she had small traces of freckles lining her nose. With little to no makeup, it became apparent that she’d rock any look, especially with her eyes shaped like a cat’s.

The girl noticed her looking and winked. “You’re the new girl, right?” she asked and offered a hand. “I’m Kaz. Kaz Vaughn-Astor.”

“Oh, don’t be fooled by the nickname. Her real name’s Kasandra.”

“Which is just as cool, by the way.” Kaz smiled at her and tilted her head. “I think we’re classmates in everything except maybe for your sport.”

“My sport?”

“Yeah, didn’t Sloane tell you about that? We’re required to take a training class on at least one sport.”

“Well ... “ Bree trailed, and Sloane cut her off.

“You know what, it’s okay, Bree. You don’t have to pick a sport now. We’ll show you around campus later, and it may help you choose. As for now, the two of you are late. So, you should probably get going.”

When Sloane had said that they were late, she didn’t exactly specify just how much. When they arrived for their first period, the professor was already in the middle of dismissing the entire class. Lei just slipped silently into her seat and pointed at an empty one next to her.

“Don’t worry about him. He can’t see from this far without his glasses,” she whispered to her when Bree had settled down, and she just looked at her, bewildered.

“But he has his glasses on.”

Lei paused at this but still looked unbothered, nonetheless. “It’s fine. He probably doesn’t give a sh*t.”

The number of students in one class looked alarmingly small to her. If her math skills hadn’t failed her yet, there were only about twenty chairs in this classroom. But most of them aren’t even occupied, yet.

“So, are you a tea person or a coffee person?” Lei asked from beside her, and she just blinked, her mind unable to phrase a proper answer to her question that had sprung out of the blue.

“At this point, I’m barely even a person,” she mumbled in response and Lei laughed, catching the attention of several people in there including a very familiar person.

When the guy had transferred his gaze to her, his expression swiftly changed from amused boredom to borderline homicidal. And after a few more seconds of staring at his face, she finally realized why. Ares Blaine Hawthorne had been the guy at the bookstore at that time. He was the one who snatched the book from her and faked an injury just so he could have it.

He was the Book Thief!

“Why are you staring at my cousin like that?”

“Why am I staring at your what?!”