The Vampire Prince goes to High School (Book 1)

Stamped and Approved

I gaped at the Prince for the longest time. To begin with, I couldn't believe he had actually uttered those words and secondly, why did he still have his arm across my shoulder?! When anger finally overruled shock, I grabbed his arm and tossed it away from me. Almost immediately after, his arm returned to my shoulder.

"Don't you know the meaning of personal space?" I snapped. "Let go of me."

The Prince looked at down at me. It didn't help that he was almost a head taller than me and had a superiority complex. I raised my chin in defiance and even managed to raise an eyebrow - a feat on all its own because normally I couldn't.

"That's all you have to say?" he eventually asked.

I glared at him. "No. I have a grudge or two to pick with your lawyers. No one said I had to pretend to-" I stopped, abruptly, unable to even say the words. "Look, there has obviously been a mistake and you really need to get your arm away from me."

It was then that I saw someone pointing and someone else was on their phone - texting perhaps. Paranoid or not, it seemed like we were attracting too much attention. It wasn't like everyone lived under a rock. They would know what the Vampire Prince looked like.

"We have to leave," I said, trying to stand. "Come on."

The Prince squeezed me against him. "You're giving me orders now?"

I could feel myself trembling but I wasn't about to back down. "We need to get this straighten out," I said firmly. "If you want, follow me. I just need to get out of here."

When I pushed against him, I managed to slip away. The nice weather held no comfort as I walked back to the Sector Police. This couldn't be happening. Those leeches had tricked me. They hadn't said I needed to pretend to be in a relationship with the Prince. All they had asked me to do was see if I could maybe tweak his personality a bit. How was lying and pretending going to help anyone?

"Take me home," I said, reaching the black vehicles.

I yanked the door open and climbed inside. My anger seemed to speed the vehicle forward. As we reached my home, I didn't even speak to them. I climbed out of the vehicle and stomped toward the front door.

"Rin?" Mom asked from inside the kitchen.

I didn't bother answering. I kept walking. This situation had to be resolved and quickly.

#

I paced around my room with my cell phone pressed against my ear. I had been on hold for thirty minutes now. You would think vampire secretaries could easily find their bosses.

"Hello?"

"Hi, this is Rin Borek," I said. "Am I speaking with Mr. Kemler?"

"This is he, how can I be of service?"

Did I detect a hint of annoyance? Well, sorry if I was making you do your job.

"The Prince is under the impression that we have to be . . . that we're in a . . . intimate relationship."

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

Shocked, I stopped. "Uh, yeah. A big problem," I said. "This wasn't in the contract."

"Miss Borek," he said coldly. "If you had read through the contract you would have read Section Three where it is clearly stated that both parties' cooperation is needed keep the incident under whatever pretense. If that meant under the pretense of a romantic relationship then so be it. Now, if you have nothing else to say, good day."

I listened to the dial tone for a long time. I felt my eye twitch. They had come to me. I never wanted any of this. I didn't want to pretend or lie. I wanted things to go back to the way things were.

"Bastards."

"Excuse me?"

I swirled around just as my mom walked in the room. Wait, hadn't I closed the door? I plopped down on the bed.

"Those bas- vampires want me to pretend to be in a relationship with the Vampire Prince. Supposedly, it's to hide the actual attack as a form of 'flirting'."

Mom sat beside me and pulled me into a hug. "You can say 'no', Rin," she said. "You know your father and I will support your decision."

I pulled away. "I can't," I said. "What if they go after Carlos? Sonia and her family would be devastated. It's just -" I sighed. "Why me?"

My gaze settled on my desk. The rubric for my English paper lay on top of the keyboard. Sh*t. "Um."

"What is it?"

I wasn't sure how to answer her question. She would ground me if she knew I had gone out without finishing my homework. While I was extremely angry, my school work came first. I would not be the girl who failed high school because I couldn't get my priorities straight.

"I'm going to do some homework," I said. "You know, to get my mind off of things."

Mom looked at me. "Okay," she finally said. "I'll let you know when dinner is ready."

I closed the door behind her and immediately sat down in front of the computer. I could always ask my parents to interview some of their co-workers. All the interviewees had to go was write their response down on a piece of paper or record their answers. I would be fine. I could get it done in time.

Four paragraphs, 2 pages of math online homework and a science interaction website later, my mom called me down for dinner. I didn't think about Sonia and how she never texted me. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if her parents didn't let her hang out with me. It stung but it couldn't be helped.

As I neared the living room, I heard the television murmuring. Walking into the room, I found my dad on the recliner, flipping through the newspaper. Both of my parents worked at a vampire supply distributor which was responsible for packaging and delivering supplies to all the vampires in our region.

"Hey, Dad," I said.

He placed the papers down on the coffee table and looked at me. "Hey, kiddo. How are you holding up? Mom told me what happened."

I sat on the couch. "Better, I guess. It's just so stupid."

Dad patted my back. "You could say 'no'."

I smiled weakly. "You would think that I would be able to say that."

"Before we sign off for today," said the news reporter. "We got a special segment for you tonight. We have an eye witness report of seeing the Vampire Prince in public . . ."

I felt my mouth drop. Grabbing the remote from the coffee table, I turned up the volume. Before my eyes, the image on the television shifted to a poorly recorded video. Despite the pixels, I knew exactly what was happening. There for the entire world to see was the Vampire Prince holding a blurred image of me against him.