What seemed like a semi-permanent blanket of clouds covered the sky as the dark colored van continue winding down the road, heading towards a large building near the very center of the huge city. A bright, blue colored sign with gold lettering proudly announced "Olympia High School" with the school's emblem and list of sports teams displayed underneath. Another sign near the entrance listed upcoming school activities and events, but neither the driver or the passenger inside the van paid much attention to either as the vehicle finally stopped near the school entrance.
As the vehicle stopped, a few passing students glanced over to see who had come up to the school only to be met with a 17-year-old girl who was obviously going to be a student here as evidenced by the backpack that was slung haphazardly over her shoulder. She was about medium height and rather petite, with pale skin and long dark brown hair that framed her slightly heart shaped face. greyish blue colored eyes stared up at the school entrance with a uncertain look before she turned back to the woman sitting in the driver's seat of the vehicle.

"You sure you have everything Calla?" The woman asked as she eyed her daughter with a quizzical stare.

"Yes mom I made sure I had everything together last night." Calla said for what felt like the hundreth time as she fought the urge to roll her eyes. Despite reminding her over and over again that she had everything she needed, her mother continued to ask the same question again and again. Then again she always was a little scatterbrained as Calla knew all to well, but she didn't mind it so much. She was use to being the more level headed between the two of them anyway.

"Alright then, I'll see you tonight when I get off work." Her mother told her, and after another quick farewell Calla made sure she still had her bag before heading inside the building that would be her new school.

Calla and her mother had moved here to Olympia after a job transfer promised her mother not only a promotion but better pay as well. Not only that but the location wasn't horrible, just completely different from what Calla was use to. The cool air of the city was in stark contrast to the near constant heat of Florida that she was use to, and not only that but the city seemed to be covered in a constant layer of clouds that blocked out most of the sun. Then once she added in the fact that the city had the strangest name she had ever heard, well none of these factors seemed to fall underneath her favorite list. Then again with a city this size and the way the entire downtown area was impossible to get through in a day, Olympia seemed to fit rather well.
As she made her way down the wide hallway, Calla could feel the stares of students as they watched her every move. And why wouldn't they? She was the new girl, the oddity that everyone was curious about. She was pretty sure everyone would know about her presence before the day was over with, and she tried not to think about it as she made her way to her first class. She had already visited the school office and gotten her schedule and everything the day before, now all that was left was to have each teacher sign the blue slip of paper in her hand saying she had been to their class for her first day. If she could survive through her first day that is, and at the rate this was going she'd be lucky if she made it through the first half.

Daniel arrived at the school, pulling into the first parking spot available. He threw his car in park and stepping out in one swift movement and walked into the school, keeping to the same human pace that he'd somewhat grown used to. He barely noticed the faces he'd grown used to seeing every day in the halls, just avoided running into somebody as he made his way to his first class, which was history. He found American history to be quite boring, especially since he was there for most of the events that had happened. Before the wall cut off his view, he caught a glance at what he assumed to be the new girl. She was quite pretty, though not what he was expecting considering she was from Florida.

It had only been a half second before she was out of his sight. The girl was walking his way, but there were four other doors from here to the back exit and her first class could be any of them. Curiosity, for some odd reason seeing as he usually wasn't a curious guy, got the better of him and he found himself hoping it was the one in five chance.

Ignoring the other people, Daniel moved to his usual seat. His eyes flickered at the chalkboard to see what today's lesson would be about, but he found his glance returning to the door. He knew he was being stupid, it was just another human, but he wasn't the only one. Five other male faces were looking towards the direction of the open door.

Although she had easily caught the stares she was getting, mainly from the male population of the school, Calla did her best to ignore them all as she continued weaving her way through the mass of students. For some reason everyone found something interesting in staring at her as if they were sizing her up, or rather judging her overall approachability from a first glance. As if that was anything new, even back at her old school she was familiar with the usual critical stares everyone gave new students but now she was on the recieveing end of such looks.

In her opinion it was rather uncomfortable, but there wasn't much she could do about it. All she could do really was do her best to act like she didn't notice the glances and continue on as if nothing were different. Of course that was easier said then done, especially when she walked into her first period class only to find most, if not all, of the guys staring at the door with near expectant looks on their faces. She almost did a double take when she realized it had to have been her they were looking for, but what in the world for? She had seen plenty of girls they could be looking at instead of her, but she could just chalk this up to her status as the new girl. Either way Calla wasn't about to give them the idea she was available to any of them at the current moment. Instead she merely overlooked their glances and made her way to the first empty seat she could get to.

At least one small string of luck seemed to be in her favor, seeing as this desk was close to the back of the classroom. That seriously cut down on the curious stares, and she was glad for it. It gave her a chance to think on other things besides the obvious unwanted attention she was attracting, and she really hoped that would wear off as time went on. At least there was one student who didn't seem to be giving her to many critical stares, she had noticed that as soon as she walked in. True he'd glanced up when she came in but that was about it, and that she could leave with. That was a definite relief to know there was a few sane acting students, if that counted for much and in her opinion it had to somewhere.

Daniel held his breath when she passed by his desk that was one row back from being in the middle of the room. He'd made a habit of not breathing when people passed by, not because he wasn't in control but just because it made the temptation easier to deal with.

Daniel smirked as the excited-looking faces that had so eagerly welcomed her with their glances faded into many disappointed expressions upon the girl's choice of seating towards the back of the class. The girl seemed shy, but that could simply be the result of being the new girl around here. He forced his thoughts away from the girl and tried to focus on the lecture that the teacher was giving but found himself only half paying attention. He'd learned this so many times, he couldn't help but zone out occasionally. In a desperate attempt to get himself to stop acting like all of the other teenage boys, he finally just told himself he'd find a chance to speak to her today and then get it over with and move on. That would satisfy his curiosity without getting too close to her.

Finally, his train of thought changed. To a more morbid topic, though. There's a vampire loose in Olympia, likely more than one, judging by all the "terrifying" (to the humans, he was sure it would be, but to his species it was just considered uncivilized) stories and photos to hit the front pages of all the newspapers. But there were so many attacks that he was beginning to wonder how many could be sabotaging the city and why--they're feeding more often than needed. He shook his head and sighed aloud, the teacher pausing to give him a glare. Daniel wondered, with the girl having supposedly just moved here, if the new girl had already been informed on the attacks. Probably not, but she'd probably get the gist of it at lunch, when all the teenagers will be babbling about the most recent one that happened just yesterday about forty-five minutes from here.

While Calla had been fully prepared for the usual stand in front and talk kind of thing that teachers loved to pull on new students, it would seem she had avoided that scenario for the time being. Her history teacher seemed more interested in getting the lecture going then getting introductions out, and Calla was seriously thankful for that. Still even sitting out in the back like this she could still feel the familiar stares from a few students and she wondered to herself how they pulled that off. However they did it she certainly didn't know or care, her only goal was to get through today as painlessly as possible.

Her first few classes seemed to fly by rather quickly, and only one teacher really gave much of an introduction. Overall it was just the usual 'hey everyone we have a new student blah blah blah' kind of thing that Calla had expected. No one seemed to interested in asking questions, and the initial curiosity and slight excitement over her arrival seemed to be wearing off as the day went on. Needless to say she was seriously relieved about that, and even moreso when the bell rang signaling that it was finally her lunch break. This was the one time of day she actually looked forward to, mainly because it was the longest break they got during the day and it gave her a chance to get better aquainted with the overall layout of the school itself. True she had gone over the map more times then she could count, but looking at a sheet of paper and being in the building were two completely different things.

"Okay, guess this is where I need to go." Calla said to herself as she glanced at the paper and began walking down a crowded hallway. Sure enough it wasn't long before she reached the cafeteria, and by the time she got there most of the tables were either half crowded, or full with talking students. The usual ruckus swirled around her as she got in line and grabbed her food before looking for an empty table. She saw a few empty seats at some of the tables, but since she didn't really know anybody yet she just looked over those. Instead she opted for a small table near one of the windows that looked as if it was never used much, and deciding that would be better then nothing she headed in that direction. The other added plus to this spot was it gave her a near perfect vantage point to watch people coming and going from the cafeteria, and she would have a chance to catch anyone heading in her direction before they could get to close.

Daniel had, boredly, sat through his next three classes. None of the classes truly interested him anymore--he wondered if, the next time he needs to renew his birth certificate, he should just move on from high school. Change from seventeen to twenty... Maybe college would at least teach him something new every now and then. He toyed with the idea in his mind as he lurked behind all of the students, watching them pile their way into the cafeteria as quickly as they could before crowding the lunch line. The smell of all the food was completely unappetizing. However, the beings eating the food...
He cut off that train of thought before he could finish it, a fiery burn exploding itself into his throat.

Today was a little different, though; it would appear that somebody else has taken a liking to his table at the far end of the cafeteria. Nobody really sat there besides him--most people thought Daniel was too 'different' to talk to. Which was safer for them, anyway.

For show, Daniel picked up a tray of food quickly from the lunch line which was moving quickly despite it's length. He then began walking to his usual spot, towards the new girl. He wished he knew her name already, that may have made this upcoming conversation a little less awkward for her. Regardless, he'd like to meet her and move on.

Daniel fluidly made the transition from standing to sitting down at the other end of the table, placing his tray down gently. He hoped he hadn't surprised her too much. "Hello," he greeted with a small smile. "My name's Daniel... I transferred here last year," he said, giving her the usual story he gave other humans. "I thought I'd come chat with the only person who ever sits at my table besides me," he smirked. "It seems to be a nice enough change," he finished speaking, giving her a chance to talk.

Calla had to admit she was a little caught off when she caught the same guy from her first class heading in her direction. She thought for sure she had been just seeing things until she looked again and sure enough, he was walking right towards the table she was sitting at. She noticed a few students shoot glances in their direction as if wondering what was up, but once they saw everything they quickly turned their attention elsewhere. Except for a few girls that shot her some envious looks, and she mentally rolled her eyes at that.

"Oh sorry, didn't know anyone sat here." Calla said as she glanced up at Daniel just as he sat down across from her. Although she had gotten a slightly good look at him during class, here she was closer and she covertly glanced over him as if memorizing how he looked so she'd be able to put his name with his face. Lucky for her she memorized stuff rather quickly and she was pretty good with names and faces so that definitely helped.
"And the name's Calla, yeah weird name I know." She said since people would often asked how she was named after some flower. Long story short her mother had a flower fetish and calla lilies were her favorite, so yeah there's the answer to that question.

However, that wasn't really where her train of thought was going. Now that she really thought about it, something seemed a little....well off about Daniel for some reason. True he kind of looked normal, except for the unusually pale white skin and the way he seemed to act a little differently from everyone here. Well okay even she didn't act like a normal teen half the time, but her mother always said she acted as if she were born middle aged. Oh well guess everyone had their weird points, but that still didn't shake the feeling that she was talking to someone a lot less normal then even her.

Daniel smiled, "It's fine, I don't mind," he said, and then wondered if in the future, on one of his more thirsty days, if he really would mind. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Calla. I like your name," he said truthfully.

"In one of the classes we had together, you stated that you came from Florida... I have an old, friend who lives there. Where, in Florida, did you move from?" he asked. Daniel wasn't sure if he would allow himself to talk to her again, so he figured he may as well ask as much about her as he politely could.

Feeling a little self-conscious by her stares, he ran his hand through his dark brown hair, the locks falling right back where they were before the movement. He couldn't help but wonder if she was noticing too much. Sure, vampires didn't look THAT much different from humans, but if she was some ex Floridian vampire cultist, she might find his eye color a little more shocking than the other students. He shook off the thought in his head, labeling it as ridiculous.

For the first time, Daniel noticed that they were getting a lot of glances from the other students, which was to be expected. He tried to keep his distance from the humans, and because there may be one or two other vampires in the school maximum, he generally appeared anti-social and was considered an outcast. He didn't seem very anti-social today though, he noticed as he looked back to the girl to listen to her response.

"About a few miles out from the Jacksonville area, that sound familiar?" Calla asked since she wouldn't deny, she was a little surprised to find out he even knew anyone from the Florida area. Okay so yes she didn't look like someone who came from a state that saw sunshine for most, if not all, of the year. When most people thought of the state she came from they'd think she'd at least have a darker skintone then she did, but here she was one of the people forever cursed with pale skin. Even in the summer she never tanned, unless she was sunburned but then she only had red blotches all over her skin before it turned right back to its regular pale tone. She could swear she must have albino genes somewhere in her family, and she was the one that ended up stuck with them.

In all honesty despite being as unlikely of a person to come from that area, she had loved living in Florida. She actually missed the heat and sunshine, but now here she was stuck in some cold constantly cloud covered area that obviously didn't see sunlight very often. Needless to say that didn't earn much in her favor, especially when it was cold and rainy at the same time. That was an even worse mix and she had already seen her fair share of that since moving out here. In other words she wasn't liking this city much more then she already did, and that wasn't much to say the least. In fact the only interesting thing that had happened so far was that someone found it worth while talking to her for any given length of time, but gauging from the reactions of the people sitting around them it was unusual for this guy to talk to anyone at all.

All in all she'd just be glad for this day to be over and done with so she could get out of the spotlight that seemed to be shining right on her. She hated being the center of attention, it made her feel extremely self concious and nervous even when she was trying to hold a decent conversation.

Daniel watched and listened, content to be socializing. He shook his head gently, "No. My friend... she lives closer to Tampa. I don't remember where exactly, I haven't visited her in a rather long time, but it's a small town somewhere between Orlando and Tampa."

He thought back to his ex wife. He never talks about their relationship with anyone... What's in the past is gone. Long story short, when he was nineteen and just changed, it wasn't a day after being changed that he had changed her. Their relationship survived for a while... Both blood crazed, both desperate to stop what they had become yet still ever thirsty.
But the guilt was on his shoulders and the hatred towards him for making her that way (despite that she always said she didn't mind as long as they were together. He could see the self hatred for what she had become because of him) on her's. Their relationship ended soon after, when blood became more important than love... Daniel painfully shoved the memories that never left him out of his present mind.

"I used to live in the panhandle," he told her simply and then changed the topic. "How many people did you meet today?" he wondered aloud. He examined Calla a little more closely, his eyes skimming over her facial features. She was a pretty girl, not what he'd expect from a Floridian, but good looking nonetheless. Seeing all of the obsessive male faces in their first class together, she had probably met a lot of guys. Though this was a good school education-wise, the teenage boys were just as hormonal as anywhere else and Calla's being the new girl was an easy excuse to talk with her.

Oh yes the infamous area between Tampa and Orlando, how many times had she travelled through that particular spot? She lost track, mainly because of all the times both her and her mother had been stuck in the hellish traffic. Okay so it wasn't always that horrible, but sometimes it could be really bad going through that particular area, but at any rate that wasn't much of importance.

"Nothing but the usual curious people, but I swear are these guys obsessed with new people or something like that? If I had a dollar for all the times these people stared at me I'd be rich by the time the day was over with." She said in a slightly irrate tone of voice. She hated it when people gawked at her like she was some kind of alien or some other such thing. It just seemed ridiculous the way the students around here acted as if they had never seen a new person before, granted it probably wasn't often new people came this way. She could almost swear the guys would be asking her out by the time the school year was over with, and in all honesty she wasn't interested in any of them.

True she'd been in a few relationships in the past, but nothing solid ever came out of it. Mostly they had been trial things I suppose you could say, kind of like feeling things out before deciding whether something would definitely work or not. Those hadn't been to much trouble leaving behind but to say she had ever been in a serious relationship, well she was a little lacking in that department. Although she wouldn't deny she did tend to shy away from real relationships sometimes, but a few incidents in the past were to blame for that. Things she would much rather forget, but still affected her life in many ways no matter how hard she tried to leave it behind her.

Daniel grinned, glancing at one of the faces who happened to be gawking at her now and the guy quickly turned back around, followed by a low whisper of, "Dude, did you just see that guy?" to some of his other guy friends. "What guy?" "Daniel..." he replied, and one by one the faces turned to look at him. Daniel watched out of the corner of his eye. "What a creep," he heard one say and the others agreed. Daniel got that a lot, so he ignored it easily.

"The guys are like that here..." he said, lowering his voice a little and leaning forward on his arms, "You're better off staying away from them, if you ask me." He leaned back into the chair, not touching his food. It would probably better if he did something to diminish it, but he certainly wasn't going to eat it. It made him want to gag just thinking about eating it-the smell was bad enough. Besides, there was a perfectly good meal sitting right across from him... NO. His throat flared to life, flames licking up at the back of his throat as he subtly, forced his gaze away from the exposed side of her neck. He began yelling at himself inside his mind, telling himself over and over that it would be an idiotic move on his part if the new girl sat by the freak at lunch her first day and then disappeared a few hours later.

After a long mental lecture to himself, he regained his mental composure with one last thought to himself: stupid vampire.
Before anything else could go wrong or before another crazed thought came to him, he decided it was better to leave. Better her be left to finish lunch alone than to never finish lunch at all, he decided, even though he knew himself better than that and he wouldn't really harm her. Not today, at least. Daniel decided long ago to take one day at a time: it would be easier to fight his occasional bloodlust one twenty-four hour period at a time.
"I have to leave," he stated simply and stood up, picking the tray up and dumping its contents into the trash can before setting it on top of it. "Hopefully we can chat again in the near future... Tomorrow at lunch, maybe?" he suggested, staying as long as was polite before leaving quickly, the sound of the lunch bell ringing loudly through the cafeteria behind him as he walked through the halls.

Calla didn't have a chance to answer Daniel's question before he had left only a few seconds before the bell rang. At the low buzzing sound students began gathering up their things and heading towards the door for what would be the second, and last, half of the school day. However Calla was in no hurry to get to her classes because she knew these last few would drag by like molasses in wintertime. That's always how it happened and she wasn't expecting much less either, so with that said she eventually dumped her tray and headed for her next class.

As usual she found everyone watching her with curious glances as she ducked into the classroom, and like before she sat as close to the back as possible. A few people did speak to her and ask the usual questions you'd expect someone to ask a new person, but for the most part she managed to avoid a huge Q&A session. Just like she expected her last classes did crawl by, especially with the way she was even more anxious then usual to get out of here. Although thankfully the final bell of the day did ring, and Calla didn't give many people a chance to ask anymore questions as she grabbed her bag and headed out the school doors.

Thank the gods above she didn't have a lot of homework so she didn't need to change out many books. That saved her a huge amount of time, meaning she could get home that much quicker. Needless to say that was a huge relief, and she would be all to glad to get out of here and away from the prying eyes that were still watching her even as she left.

OOC: Sorry for not posting in a while. D:

Daniel didn't speak to anyone, except the occasionally teacher who called upon him for a question, for the rest of the school day. No reason to tease temptation.
During the class after lunch, he found himself getting a lot more stares than he was used to. A lot of glaring, as well. He disregarded them all and paid more attention to the teaching after lunch.

He had seen Calla a few times, but generally stayed away. Daniel found himself thinking multiple times that his dramatic exit was very rude and that he should go apologize, even if it was just a real quick say-it-and-leave apology. But he stopped himself each time; he would see her tomorrow at lunch anyway, there was no reason to make a bigger deal out of it than he was pretending it was.
Daniel decided that hunting would be a good idea to do sometime during his free time. In the meantime, he had switched out one or two books for the small amount of homework that he had tonight and left the school building, people seeming to step out of his way as he walked down the halls and out into the parking lot towards his car. His car wasn't anything too special, but he's never been a formal vampire.

Without necessarily thinking, Daniel took a right turn off the school grounds and drove towards down town Olympia, about thirty-five minutes or so away. Better to feed sooner than later.
And maybe, if he was lucky, he might get a little more info from another vampire on all of the attacks going on recently.

OOC: No problem, and I like the avatar! ((Then again I loved the movie so I guess I'm biased on that, LOL))


Although she had managed not to dwell on it to much, Calla did end up wondering why Daniel was avoiding her all of a sudden. It seemed like every since their first, and last, conversation he hadn't wanted to go anywhere near her making her wonder what she might have done to cause that sudden change. True he had left rather abruptly that one day but she had just guessed he had a reason to leave suddenly and not pressed it. However, now she was wondering whether she had said something wrong and not known it, or maybe he just decided he didn't really like her all that much and wanted to just keep his distance.

Either scenario seemed rather likely, but everytime she tried to go up to him and ask about it something stopped her or she found herself busy doing something else at that particular time. Which effectively prevented her from tracking him down and asking questions, so by the end of the school day she wasn't any closer to finding out why he was avoiding her then before. Then again she had just come up with the usual answer that he had to have a very valid reason, and maybe she didn't need to go digging more into things.

Once the final bell of the school day rang, Calla quickly changed out her books for the ones she needed for her assignments and headed out to the parking lot. As usual it was another walk home since she still had not invested in any type of vehicle, and in all honesty that didn't bother her either. She didn't mind walking, it gave her a chance to think things over and just think through everything that had happened during her day. Not only that but she was pretty much free from the usual advances that most of the male population had started pulling on her, and that was really starting to get annoying.

Evidently none of these guys knew when to quit chasing after someone, but then again that was nothing new. She'd known guys like that back at her old school but it was still annoying to constantly have to repeat herself. Well at least she had a few more hours free from that before starting over again tomorrow, but she would deal with it the exact same way she had done so today and everytime before that.