Alacyn Bradley's Story

Room 206. An english classroom. The homeroom that Alacyn had been assigned to in the waning months of her previous year at Roseville High. She was bad with faces, bad with names, but there wasn't a way in hell that she'd forget how to navigate to room 206. She'd perfected her route from Dr. Bradley's house to room 206 to the point that she could avoid as much contact with other people as possible, but still arrive exactly on time. She was, at least she hoped, known within the class for her punctuality and little else.

Alacyn entered room 206 in much the same way the moon rises in the sky, slowly, cautiously, but steadily. She made no scene as she surveyed the landscape, weighed her seating options, and made the logical choice of seating. Empty table, center back row, as removed from the rest of the class as one could possibly be. Sure, someone would likely sit beside her, but that was unavoidable. For now, however, she reveled in her exile. Around her, she caught snippets of conversation. If she focused, she could follow even hushed words across the room. Among the perks of vampirism was enhanced senses, and though she cared little for banter of her fellow classmates now, it felt good to be as aware as she was of her surroundings. It made her feel safe.

There was, however, a singular personality within room 206 that occupied her attention, albeit greatly to her chagrin. Luca Evans. The only name, unfortunately aside from Lily Edwards, that she bothered to remember in the entire class. He was seated in front of her, to her right, with his friend, whose name she did not recall. She eyed him casually for a moment, before catching herself and glancing up to the clock. She didn't want to like him, but she did, and she knew what the consequences could be. Still, no matter how hard she fought it, the fuzzy, warm feeling that came over her when he was around never truly went away. She could only hope that homeroom was the only class they shared this year.

"Hey Alacyn!" The bubbly and smiling face of Lily Edwards greeted Alacyn not long after she sat down. The red-haired girl was wearing a bright purple cardigan and a flowery dress that looked like it belonged in a 70s war protest. "How are you? How was your summer?"

The girl grinned cheerfully, "What were you looking at just then? You looked all daydreamy for a moment. Or were you just thinking about something? I sometimes do that, when I'm thinking about a particularly interesting question or idea, and someone will think that I'm staring at them, when I'm totally not!"

Words seemed to pour out of her mouth like a faucet without an "off" setting.

The sound of Lily's voice startled Alacyn from her rumination and, suddenly aware that she'd been holding her breath, resumed normal respiratory function. Alacyn actually liked Lily, and as far as people who could have walked in on her and learned her secret go, she wasn't too bad. She had a tendency to babble, which was fine by Alacyn because she preferred to listen than speak anyway, and when Alacyn did need to respond, she always had ample time to compose her words. She never stumbled over her words with Lily like she did around others. As much as she wished that Lily would ignore her like everyone else, she was grateful for her friendship.

"Oh, hey Lily." She offered a small but warm smile. "I suppose my vacation was alright. It was quiet. I read 'The Count of Monte Cristo', 'Jane Eyre', and 'Of Mice and Men,' to keep occupied." She reached into her backpack and removed a notebook labeled "Homeroom" a little preemptively, opened to the first page, and scribbled the date. "I don't know what you mean, 'daydreamy.' I was checking the clock. How was your vacation?"

(oops, sorry Architect, tagged Jerrard and Amy by mistake)

"Oh my god, so, I was looking up online some wiccan ways I could protect my house, and I found a ritual that involved ladybugs. So I bought some ladybugs online, and I thought they'd send me like, a jar with a dozen or so in, right? No, they sent like, this bag with hundreds of them in. And I opened it up to try and get a few out, and oh god they went everywhere." Lily shuddered, "It was horrible, there were ladybugs all over my bedroom, the bathroom, everywhere!"

The redhead shook her head, "My mum had to call an exterminator, and I mean, I totally hate taking lives but holy shit, there were so many. We had to stay with a relative for three whole days because the house was totally infested. Ick. Apart from that it was all rather boring, I mean, I helped Amy with some research a few times - that was fun, she was doing a project all about vampires and werewolves and demons! Particularly demons. I never realised she was interested in that sort of thing, like, I love all that mythology and fairy tale stuff, but I never thought she was the sort for it!"

She grinned, "Don't worry, I didn't say anything I shouldn't." she added quietly, giggling.

Alacyn grimaced when Lily mentioned ladybugs. She hated insects, even harmless ones like ladybugs and just the thought of so many made her shudder. Oddly enough, she didn't mind them all so much when she was younger, and only recently did she really begin to detest them. She pondered this thought as Lily kept on talking, only half listening to the red-haired girl.

Her attention returned to Lily when she heard the word, "vampire." She turned to face Lily, just as she finished. When Lily walked in on Alacyn drinking blood from a bag last year, she didn't freak out, not noticeably, anyway. She seemed more excited than scared, almost as if the revelation had vindicated her beliefs. Ever since, they'd been, "best friends," in Lily's words, and she acted like the secret Alacyn shared with her was no different than a secret crush. Funnily enough, Lily did not know about her feelings for Luca, and she was perfectly content with that.

"Fairy tales, yeah." Alacyn spoke hazily as Lily trailed off, and glanced over at Amy. "Who would have guessed..." She returned her gaze to Lily. "Did you, uh, learn anything interesting?" She tried sounding as nonchalant as possible, as if she had only a passing interest. Even though Lily knew what she knew, and Alacyn deigned to answer her questions more often than not, she still didn't like discussing it plainly, even if they had privacy, let alone in the middle of homeroom.

Wade Shug oozed into Room 206 wearing a smirk, and too much cologne.

While some of his classmates were a shade tanner thanks to the summer months, "Shug the Slug" seemed to have gotten -- if anything -- paler, and sicklier. You couldn't tell him that, though. He wore a stiff leather jacket that practically smelled expensive over a lifestyle brand blue-and-white striped polo. His limited edition Nike's were just about as white as he was. On anyone else, such clothing may have bordered on attractive, but on Wade, it just looked comical.

Shug scanned the room with wide-set eyes, sauntering to the back and his designated seat next to Alacyn Bradley.

"Ladies .. " he leered at she and Lily both, thin wormy lips spread across flat teeth. His voice was high and wimpy, but he settled into his seat with the confidence of a superstar. He wore his cologne so heavy, and so recently, it still shone on the pale sliver of his neck.

Most in the room only spared the Slug a passing glance. However, there were a few individuals who eyed the youth with a mixture of disgust and sheepishness. It was for those few individuals that Wade secreted confidence, like a slime. His smirk stayed firmly in place as he de-shouldered his backpack, and withdrew a dark green spiral-bound notebook.

He began lazily flipping through the pages. There were names and words written in pencil, and ink of all different colors and handwriting. They were all signatures, names, with items and promises. The Slug nodded along to some internal calculations. Across the room, someone watched him intently.

That someone was Jake Everton, the poster-boy for frail, four-eyed nerds. The youth was twisted around in his seat at the front, watching Wade with an anxious, yet somehow determined expression.

Whatever business was about to conspire between the two, it had to be done soon. And it didn't look like Wade was planning on getting up and moving any time soon.

"Oh, hello Wade." Lily said, a little frown appearing on her face at the arrival of one of the few people who could stem the tide of her incessant rambling by merit of being someone she just didn't want to talk to.

"I'll tell you about it in class, later." she said to Alacyn, nodding her head.

It was then that Jake pulled his gangly and too-tall-for-his-weight figure out of his chair, muttering something to Cody and made his way to the back of the class.

He stopped at Alacyn and Wade's table, prompting a raised eyebrow from Lily before he spoke. "Ah... I have uh... your... um, report, Wade." He proffered a folder of paper to the Slug.

Nathan gave Kayin a look of confusion as the boy continued to shuffle closer, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "Don't know why you've suddenly decided to start talking to me, but whatever." he muttered, folding his arms and shrinking down into his seat. "And don't care about all the meaningless goings on of everyone else. It's all pointless anyway. Looks and drama and sad excuses for relationships."

Clearly, Nathan was a veritable ray of sunshine.

Just a few moments later, the rest of the class started to file in, surrounding - of course - Cynthia Ward. The blonde-haired girl walked with the confidence of someone who knew they were important, knew that people hung on their every word, and knew that they were untouchable.

Around her, the trio of 'drones' as people called them - Katy, Lana and Marissa - walked like a human shield, separating Cynthia from the masses. As well as them, Andy Lawson and Dave Spinelli walked with their respective girlfriends, though Andy seemed more to be trailing after Cynthia than alongside her. Katy was latched onto Dave's arm like a limpet. Finally, Mei - the one girl of the group who seemed to actually have a mind of her own - picked up the rear, laughing about something with Lana.

The group seated themselves in the center of the room, at the tables that had been left unoccupied for them. Cynthia's eyes scanned the room briefly before she sat, finding Wade's. She met his slippery gaze with her lips pursed with distaste, and nodded her head to him. That was all, and then she sat.

The room continued on in a hubbub of post-summer catching up, before the door swung open once more. The noise quieted down, as the class was expecting their teacher, and then quietened even further then they noticed who it was.

Quietly and without so much as meeting anyone's eyes, Jamie Winters crossed to the empty table at the back of the room and took a seat. She was pale and fragile-looking, but otherwise unchanged from the end of the last year. Of course, everyone had heard the rumours that she had committed suicide over the break. There had been police questioning and everything! And yet, here she was, walking into homeroom as though nothing was wrong.

Lily broke off from her conversation with Alacyn to make her way over - she and Jamie were close friends - and sat beside her. The two began to speak in hushed voices.

It didn't take long for the rest of the room to crescendo again, as people excitedly discussed what had happened.

Amy nudged Jerrard. "Does the walking supposedly-dead count as interesting?" she remarked with a smirk, nodding her head towards Jamie.

At the front of the room, Annie stared after Jamie. "Some people," she muttered finally, rounding back to face the front and Rhapsody. "I bet she started that rumour about suicide just for attention."

Alacyn felt Lily recoil as Wade greeted them. She understood why, of course, but didn't share the same feeling of distaste as some of the other students. Rather, her aversion was to the populace in general, so in practice, "Shug the Slug," was no worse a seating partner than anyone else. In a way he was better, because anyone who wanted to speak to her would be forced to endure his presence, and that was something that no one wanted to do for too long.

"Hi, Wade." She greeted him politely, if briefly, and complemented it with a disinterested but nonetheless warm smile. With that out of the way, she returned to her notebook. She had started a doodle in the bottom right margin, a vine, adorned with roses and small thorns, snaking it's way up the side of the page, splitting and splaying, like an intricate web of veins. She ignored his dealings with one of the students from the front of the class. Whatever it was, Wade didn't care to hide it, but Alacyn felt it best to remain ignorant all the same.

Then entered the rest of the class, or, more aptly, Cynthia and her attachés, her "drones", no more than vultures picking at whatever scraps the apex predator left for them. Alacyn thought back to middle school, before she turned. Back when she was a drone to a girl named Cassidy, and she felt like nothing could bring her down. Looking at it from an outside perspective certainly took a dump on those pleasant memories. Is that how I would have ended up? She would have shuddered, if her body still did that.

Lastly, came Jamie Winters, another name that Alacyn remembered. She was on the news after she overdosed and died. Or supposedly died, as it were. Perhaps both, as Alacyn had learned, death might not be so permanent after all. She resolved to investigate, if only to satiate her own curiosity, and to bring the topic up with Dr. Bradley when she returned home. She gave Lily a slight nod of acknowledgement as the redhead moved to join Jamie at her seat.They were friends, and whatever they were talking about now was at least secretive and, given the circumstances, likely related to the rumors of Jamie's death. Alacyn made a mental note to press Lily on the subject. Anything to not have to be alone.

The Slug accepted the sheaf of papers. His gash of a mouth split open from a smirk to a shark's smile. That sort of pleasure on the face of someone like Wade Shug seemed almost obscene. It belonged on the face of a child turning over a rock to poke at slimy grubs, or pull the wings off butterflies.

"Very good, very good," Wade oozed, shoving the carefully stapled document into his black backpack. He closed his dark-colored notebook, and turned that stupid lolling smile onto Jake. A few seconds passed, as Jake stood there expectantly, nervously. Wade's expression darkened into a scowl. "Get outta here! You don't get your stuff until I get my grade. And it had at least better be a b-plus -- " the Slug slammed a finger onto his closed notebook with a sharp tak, "-- we agreed."

In a split second, Wade was all back to sickly smiles. "And I know it'll be just wonderful. I'm sure you'll have your computer thingy --" Shug waggled the fingers on one hand, "-- by next week."

After Jake's reply, there was a brief lull, during which Wade found himself caught off guard by a brief but polite "Hi, Wade" from Alacyn, seated primly next to him. He wheeled around to face her, pale face scrunched. He glanced from her, to his notebook, mentally running through his deals. So used was Wade to being ignored by those who didn't expressly need his services, that when someone simply extended a simple courtesy, the only solution in his mind was that this person expected something of him.

Before he could slap together some response, a group of students entered the classroom, instantly recognizable as the popular crowd, flipping their hair, rapturously intent on Cynthia Ward, the school's undeniable Queen Bee. Cynthia gave the Slug an all-too-familiar look of aversion, followed by a brief nod. The nod was all Wade needed, and it erased any thought of Alacyn from his mind. We're in business, the look seemed to say. The Slug squirmed in his seat with fiendish excitement. He took in the rest of Cynthia's entourage. He wasn't just observing classmates, he was browsing clientele.

The last straggler into the room was a girl called Jamie Winters. Wade regarded her warily. He had heard what happened, just like everyone else. The rumor was that Jamie had died, like, actually died, and was now back to life. Normally, Shug would have scoffed at such a notion, but since a year ago -- since the Gray Man ..

Things that Wade couldn't understand were often dangerous. Danger was chaos, and chaos unsettled things. Things like business. And so, Wade decided he would have no part in anything related to Jamie Winters. He afflicted the girl with one last, lingering look before opening his dark green notebook again, procuring a pen from his backpack. He wrote her name in the very back page, along with a handful of others. He drew his pen through her name twice, thrice, four times with a dark and heavy mark.

If she wasn't dead before, she was dead to him now.

Whilst the class continued to murmur about Jamie, the door swung open once more. The arrival of Ms. Cortez didn't immediately hush the students while she crossed over to her desk and placed down several folders. She took a moment to survey the classroom, eyes lingering for a few moments on Jamie - likely for the same reasons as everyone else - before she brought her hands together with a resounding clap!

The hubbub of chatter ceased after a few short moments, and she smiled. "Welcome back, everybody. I hope you all had good summers, got all your excess energy out of your systems, and are ready for a new year of learning!" she declared, each beat of her sentences accompanied by her characteristic gesticulating. "Yes? No? Well, either way, you're stuck here now - you might as well be making the most of it!"

She picked up one of the sheets of paper off her desk. "I just have a few announcements to make, then I'll let you all get back to your socialising - I'm sure you all have a lot to talk about. Ahem... firstly! Sports team tryouts will be taking place over the course of this week. Be sure to talk to the coach about your sport if you want to try out for a team, and remember, just because you were on the team last year doesn't mean you will be this time. Let's see... ah, yes. There will be a whole-school assembly in the main hall on Friday, where the principal will talk about some matters that arose last year and over the summer. Everyone is expected to attend - no excuses without a doctor's note! Finally, you should all have sorted out your timetables online by the deadline last week, but if anybody didn't, you need to see me in my office now."

The hispanic teacher paused, "And I'd like to see Annie, Adrian, Amy and Jamie in my office as well. Annie, you first - come along."

After a moment of surprise, Annie nodded and rose to her feet. She shot Rhapsody and Cody a bemused and slightly irritated glance, then shrugged, before following Ms. Cortez back out of the classroom."