Nightburg

chapter four

Chapter Four

Moriah

We walked into the dining room, and it was crowded. People were waiting in lines to get food, and some people were even eating on the floor with their plates.

"Okay, now stay here and get us some food, I need to go find my friends, and then I'll come back to get you," Alayna said as she looked frantically around the room.

I started picking among the foods. As I looked I saw everything I could have wanted to eat.

By the time Alayna came back, I had two plates filled with food, four cups with different liquids in them, and I was trying to swallow the big wad of food in my mouth.

"Okay, I found 'em," Alayna said, almost out of breath.

"Who?" I asked. (Well, I tried to say that, what came out was more like "ooo")

"The people I wanted you to meet..."

I swallowed, "K, hey could you take your cup and drinks?"

"Yeah," Alayna said. She picked them up, told me to follow her, and walked away.

Alayna kept darting in and out of sight. But there was like a whole new sense in me that told me what to do, and where to go.

By the time I found Alayna, (and I mean REALLY find her) she was surrounded by people who I guessed were her friends. One of them was OBVIUSLY Goth; she had short curly black hair, black nail polish, black everything-even black wings. Another kid had orange hair with black stripes that was in pigtails, was wearing a leo underneath her clothes, and had dragon wings. And yet another girl was wearing all purple and blue-she had purple hair with blue ends that was down to her shoulders.

What an odd bunch of...people. I thought.

"I know what you're thinking-that we're an odd bunch of people, which we are. But we're very loyal to each other." The girl with the dragon wings said. "By the way, my name's Lyla Dragon-I know, I'm a dragon with the last name 'dragon' I changed it when I got here; it used to be 'Sheridan' it didn't sound right, so I changed it."

"Ummm... My name's Moriah, Moriah Moon," I stammered. Lyla seems nice-so far anyway. I thought.

"Hi Moriah, my name's Poppy Shadowlightning, used to be Rennie, I changed it." The Goth girl said.

"My name's Julianna Snow, but people call me Snowy; Poppy's nickname is Dark Lightning, or darkie; and Lyla's nickname is Fireball," said the girl that was wearing all blue and purple.

"Hey," Poppy said. "Did Alayna ever tell you her last name?" She said with a smile growing on her face.

"N-no, why?" I said/asked, confused.

"It's...It's," Poppy tried to say something but dissolved into laughter, and Alayna covered her mouth so she couldn't talk.

"She doesn't need to know yet," Alayna said sternly.

"Um, I think that she has a right to know," Julianna said.

"Fine," Alayna said, and uncovered Poppy's mouth, sat down, and stared at the floor.

After Poppy had stopped laughing, she tried talking again, but still had a smile on her face. "Her last name's... Bloodsucker," she said, and then burst back into laughter, with everyone else-except me, and Alayna that is.

Alayna slowly raised her head and looked at me, as if expecting me to burst out laughing, but I didn't, I just didn't really get the joke.

"I don't get it," I said-which caused everyone to stop laughing completely.

"How can you not get it?!?!" Lyla said, and practically glared at me.

"'Cause Poppy didn't tell it right," Julianna said, smacking her head with the palm of her hand.

"You see, Alayna's a vampire, so that's funny all by itself, but here's the thing, Alayna never changed her last name; that was it before she got here, before she knew she was a vampire, before the school knew she was a vampire even, because she was born with the name," Poppy said excitedly.

"Wait, you said 'before the school knew', what'd you mean by that?" I asked.

"Oh, didn't know that either I guess," Lyla mumbled.

Maybe I was wrong about Lyla, now she's acting mean. I thought. Julianna and Alayna gave her glares. Still glaring at her, Julianna said, "Whenever a M.B. is born, the school knows right away-normally."

"M.B.?"

"Magical Being," Alayna said. They were still glaring at Lyla.

They REALLY don't forgive you when you annoy them-or if you're mean, I can tell that right now. Huh, Poppy gave Lyla a sharp look, but didn't stay mad long; I wonder if Poppy ever holds a grudge-I hope not.I thought. That would be REALLY creepy!

Then, as I watched, Poppy got mad at Lyla too. The first thing I noticed was that her wings grew bigger, longer, thicker, and darker; her wings had already been black, now they looked even blacker-if that's possible.

Lyla got scared right then too. "Hey! Okay! Okay! I'll be nicer, maybe I was being a little mean, but I can change again!!!" Lyla looked scared out of her skin right then, but I didn't care, I just-almost-wanted her to like me.

"Then don't be mean, we already warned you, she's actually cool ya know," Poppy almost growled at her.

"Wait. What do you mean 'she's actually cool' when you don't know me-that well-yet?" I asked. But right after I said that, Poppy returned to normal and looked down, sheepishly. Once she did that, I looked closer, and noticed something that should have probably stood out first, I mean; I had known her for ten years-since I was five when I first met her. "Sakura?! You pretended to be a girl named Poppy?!?!"

"Actually, I was sent on a mission to see what kind of a person you were, so I chose a girl named Sakura. I created her, and used shape shifters from this place to be my family; it wasn't that hard to fake it." Poppy said, still looking at the floor.

"How...how did you 'fake it'" I demanded.

"I changed my hair -I can change it to whatever I want it to be; see?" Poppy said, then pointed to her head: her curls were now long and red, and then they went back to short and black, after she asked me if I saw what she meant.

"Oh," I said, now feeling faint. Poppy had so much power, and she knew all my secrets. Don't want to make her an enemy. I thought.

"Ummm..." said Alayna, breaking the silence. "We should probably get to class-Moriah; you're in one of our classes for every period. You'll be in Lyla's class, then mine, then Julianna's, then for the rest of the day, with Poppy."

"K," I said. CRAP! I thought, and then: huh, my first swear word, and it's my first day here, I might be a different at the end of tenth grade.