Yeah...okay, I'll admit I kind of went over my head for this one. It is LONG! Take your time, just as long as you read it, I'm happy :D
Picture: Brenton Thwaites as Tanner Preston
Song: Gives You Hell by The All-American Rejects
Chapter 3: Crying for help
Walker Code 012- We do not fight with those of different species for our own amusement
Tanner
After the screaming, the crying, the whining, the swearing, the kicking and the punching, Tanner was finally able to get Maria into the van. A week ago they had received the official letter explaining the sudden relocation of their schools, and the Walkers that would be attending them. School now apparently started at five in the afternoon and finished at midnight; the Day Walkers could get their fair share of sunlight and the Night Walkers got to spend some time under the moon. The letter also explained that the Day Walker girl dorm would be on the East side of the campus and the boys’ would be on the south side of campus. The boy Night Walkers would have their dorm on the north of campus and the girls would have theirs on the West side, and the school and other buildings would be in the middle of everything. The letter pointed out very clearly that any vampire caught fighting or provoking one without any serious reason, would be expelled from the school immediately. Tanner wondered how long it would take the school board to close down the school, because he was sure that within a week, more than half of the students would probably be gone; that is, if they even chose to go to school this year.
It was only when they found out that they needed to wear uniforms this year that Maria started to break down. The uniforms were to prove that they were all in a strange way the same, and also to avoid any vampire girl fights. Maria had completely lost it three days ago, when they had each received their uniforms in a package. The girls had a choice of either a short black dress with a black or white blouse under, or they could wear a dark blue or black skirt with a blouse and a sleeveless sweater vest. The girls had to wear nylons and black shoes, and they also had a choice of either a black or a blue sweater. The boys had to wear either a black or a dark blue sweater vest, with a V neck; they had a choice of dark blue, black or grey chemise to put under it. He received two pairs of black jeans, a pair of black socks and black shoes. They also had a black sweater with a white zipper and a hood. The students were allowed to wear their own clothing only for fighting classes, or on special occasions, but again, the whole outfit needed to be black. That was a big disappointment to all Day Walkers because usually they avoided all dark clothing. The Nights on the other hand, Tanner thought, must be over rejoiced, he supposed. Tanner thought the uniforms weren’t that bad, they looked kind of cool for Goth wear; Maria however, had started panicking, crying, and screaming that she would never wear that in her life.
Their parents had finally come around, and let them attend school this year because they thought that being around Night Walkers would set them straight, and that it was big enough of a punishment for everything they had done over the year, and their life. It was right about then that Tanner started to think that a Mortalis public High School didn’t seem so bad after all. He also suspected that their parents simply wanted them to attend the school so that he and his sister could find the two Night Walkers that had broken into their house a couple weeks ago. Tanner kept running scenarios in his head about what he would do if he did find them again; so far, it was nothing pleasant. He hadn’t known what had gone through his mind when he let those two girls go; maybe he just pitied them and their poor fighting skills.
Today was the day where they were finally supposed to leave home and go to school. Their parents wanted them to take only one car for him, his sister and all of their stuff. For some reason, Helen and William were afraid that Tanner and his twin would attempt to street race each other on the way to the school if they drove in different cars. So far, Tanner had handled the idea of staying nearly four hours in the same space as his sister; the only problem was that Maria didn’t want to get into the van; she kept saying that she would rather go to public school than share a school with freaks and wear a Goth uniform. Tanner was miraculously able to calm her down when he told her that the rules didn’t say anything about adding things to the uniform, and that they weren’t required to actually talk to the night vampires. He even promised Maria that she could drive, if she would just shut up and get into the car. She finally came around and grabbed the keys from her brother.
“Well” Tanner said after putting the final thing in the trunk and turning towards his father. “I guess that I’ll see you at Christmas.”
“Oh, I was meaning to talk to you about that.” William replied clearing his throat and putting a light hand on Tanner’s shoulder. “Your mother and I will be spending the Holidays in Australia; you and Maria will have to stay in school for Christmas vacation.” Where was his mother anyway?
Tanner looked around the garage, and Helen seemed to be was nowhere in sight. Was she even aware that her children were leaving today? Tanner brushed those thoughts away, and tried to concentrate on what his father had just said.
“So, we’ll only see you guys on spring break.” Tanner recapitulated, shrugging away his father’s hand.
“We’ll see.” His father answered taking out his phone. “Your mother keeps talking about wanting to go to Thailand or India and I’m starting to like the idea.” William put back his phone in his pocket after checking what he wanted to see. He then cleared his throat again. “Now” He said to Tanner. “Don’t get into too many fights, make sure that Maria stays under control, and both of you try to get enough grades.”
“Dad, Maria and I both finished last year with straight A’s everywhere.” Tanner replied, closing the van truck and furiously walking around the car towards the passenger’s seat.
“You did?” His father replied, clearly stunned.
“Yeah, we did.” Tanner answered opening the car door, and stepping in.
Maria leaned over Tanner as soon as he sat down, to talk to their father. “We’d left the report cards on your desk and you said you’d looked at them.” Clearly she hadn’t missed a second of the conversation despite that she had already been in the car.
William looked at them, seeming rather uncertain. That was when Tanner had had about enough and closed the car door right in their father’s face. Maria was still leaning over him.
“You know” She said to him, attempting to sound comforting. “Even if we would have failed everything, he still wouldn’t have cared.” She then got off of him, and leaned backed against her driver’s seat, hands on the car wheel.
It was rather nice of her to put her thoughts aside for once and think about how he was feeling; only he’d rather not talk about it. Tanner reminded himself once more that he had given up on trying to get his father’s attention and approval.
“It doesn’t matter Maria.” He mumbled looking out of his window; their father had already gone back into the house. “Just drive.” After one last uncertain look at him, Maria started the engine, and they slowly left their house behind them.
It was a three and a half hour drive to get to their new school, Walker High; yet to Tanner it seemed more like a nine day trip. Maria kept singing along with the radio the whole way, and most of the time she didn’t even know the lyrics and when that happened, she hummed really loudly and was completely off tune. Tanner tried to change the station once, and Maria almost broke his hand.
“If you touch it again” She said holding on to his hand that was near the radio. “I will stop the car and kick you out, and then drive off. Understand?” He nodded, as she let go of him.
So, he spent most of the ride starring out the car window, trying to block out his sister’s horrible singing. The sun was high up; and he felt its wonderful warmth through the glass window. Young Night Walkers were only bothered by the sun, the older ones burned into dust when they were in contact. The moon didn’t have much effect on day vampires; they just became week, tired, and they were practically blind.
…
An eternity later, Maria finally pulled the van up into a big parking lot in the woods. It was filled with cars, luggage and vampire students. Tanner got out first, happy to get away from his sister, and resisted the urge to kiss the ground because he was so happy to get out of the car.
Their new school was much, much bigger; in a certain way, it looked sort of looked like a cathedral, Tanner thought. Well, it was more like five cathedrals all stuck together surrounded by a tone trees. Looking at the school from this angle, Tanner was almost sure that he was going to get lost in this new environment within the first five minutes. He couldn’t help but notice that all the windows of the building were tainted black, for the Night Walker teachers, he assumed. As he looked around him, he was able to see his dorm and was happy to notice that their windows were not tainted; at least he would get to enjoy the sunlight.
He suddenly heard a loud thump from behind him; he turned around and saw that Maria had happily thrown all of his stuff to the ground. “I’m taking the van to my dorm.” She said to him closing the trunk of the car. “I have so many things; I can’t carry everything in my hands. You’re strong enough to bring your own stuff though, right?”
Tanner had only brought two large suitcases, one small one, a backpack, a pillow and lots of money; Maria on the other hand, had brought her entire wardrobe, make up, accessories and other things that Tanner couldn’t care less about. Hector had gotten rid of the backseats of the van just to make room for all of Maria’s stuff, and in the end, everything had been a tight fit. Maria had proposed to get rid of Tanner so that there would be more space, but apparently that wasn’t acceptable; sadly.
“Yeah sure, I’ll see you in Vampireologie.”He said to his twin, as he started grabbing his stuff off the ground.
“Yeah, whatever” Maria rolled her eyes at him, got in the car and then drove off towards her side of campus.
Maybe if Tanner was lucky, on her way there she would get into a really bad car crash and he wouldn’t have to see her again for the rest of the year, but sadly, he was never that lucky.
As Tanner walked with his stuff towards the boy dorm, he was amazed to see how many Night Walkers were present around the school; he never thought that there could be so many of them. Most stood together, looking extremely threatening and dark minded. Tanner wondered if that’s what he looked like when he was with his friends. He doubted it, they were too busy doing stupidities and had no time to simply stand around and scare the life out of everyone that passed by.
Tanner was half way to his dorm when he suddenly felt someone pull his backpack, jerking him backwards; he turned around ready to hit the Walker straight across the face, when he realized who it was.
“Jonas!” Tanner exclaimed dropping his stuff back on the ground to give his friend a guy hug. “How was Mexico?”
His friend had light brown hair, a normal size nose with freckles around it, dark brown eyes and a square face. He was shorter than Tanner but had more muscle than him, and he had the same pale skin that all vampires had. He was also already wearing the school uniform.
“Mexico was great.” He responded clearing his throat. “The girls were great.”
“You have a girlfriend.” Tanner pointed out, picking his stuff back up.
“Hey, I said they were nice. I never said that I did anything with them.” His friend responded sounding rather disappointed.
“Right, they probably wouldn’t want to anyway.” Tanner mockingly commented.
“Dude!” Jonas whined grabbing Tanner’s pillow and hitting him with it.
They laughed as continued walking towards the dorm. Jonas had decided to help Tanner carry his stuff, by carrying the pillow. How thoughtful of him.
“But there was this one girl—” Jonas said after a while.
“Come on man, you have a girlfriend, remember?” Tanner interrupted, not meaning to sound irritated. “Her name’s Viola; she’s got brown hair, green eyes, small nose, big mouth, kinda short? Does any of this ring a bell? Oh yeah, and on your first date she punched you for making your move too fast.”
Jonas hit him with the pillow again. “That was confidential!” His friend exclaimed.
When they arrived at the dorm, Tanner went to the counter to ask the number of the room that he would be staying in this year. When he got the number, he and Jonas went up the stairs to look for his dorm room.
“I’m sharing my room with Dylan again.” Jonas said as they walked. “He found a way to sneak his hamster into the room without getting caught. I hope for Dylan’s sake that the thing doesn’t keep me up all night again, because this time I will eat it and tell Dylan that it killed itself over night; hamsters do that right?”
“At least you have a roommate.” Tanner responded. “I’m alone again this year. And besides, if the hamster doesn’t keep you up, I’m sure Dylan’s snoring will. Where is he, anyway?”
“I think he’s helping his sister unpack. I feel sorry for him, lord knows how much clothes Gwen has.” Jonas said in a daze.
“I think we should go easy on him.” Tanner said to Jonas. “He and I were at the store a few weeks ago and apparently he ran into some Night Walker chick; poor guy practically had a heart attack.”
“Well then” Jonas commented. “I guess we’d better start preparing his funeral, because he’s probably going to die soon with all the Nights that are here.”
When they reached Tanner’s room, he unlocked the door and threw his stuff in, thinking he’d take care of it when he got back, then he changed into his uniform while Jonas waited for him in the hallway. When Tanner was ready, he locked the door, and then they went back outside.
Close to the school, there was a small crowd forming into a circle. As they got closer to it, they heard a boy yelling and cussing.
“… And if you think, for one damn second than I’m going to fucking put up with your fucking sorry Day Walker ass, you’re fucking wrong! If it weren’t for the damn rule about fighting, I would have already ripped your fucking head off, bitch!”
“I’m so sorry man, I really didn’t mean it… it, it was an accident, I swear.” A voice responded, one that Tanner recognized immediately. You have got to be kidding me, he thought.
In a hurry, Tanner and Jonas made there way into the front of the circle being careful not to push anyone too hard as they passed through. In the middle of the crowd, were a Night Walker, the one who had been yelling and swearing, and a Day Walker. The night vampire was tall and slim, he had an oval shaped face with dark brown hair that fell into his eyes, a pointy nose, and pale green eyes. He had the common white skin that all vampires had. Standing in front of him, looking more terrified than ever, was Dylan York. He was close to six two, had blond hair with brown highlights, a small nose, hazel eyes and freckles all around his face. How his friend always ended up in these types of situation will always remain a mystery to Tanner, but what he did know was that Dylan wouldn’t hurt a fly; not on purpose anyway.
“You know what?” The Night Walker suddenly shouted, spitting on the ground. “Maybe I should just teach you a lesson right now, screw the fucking rule, I don’t even want to be in a damn school full of fucking Day Walkers anyway.”
Just as the Night was stepping closer to Dylan to “rip his head off”, Tanner blocked his path, closely followed by Jonas. The night vampire seemed for a moment confused, but he soon regained his thoughts.
“Step aside bitches.” The vampire warned Tanner and his friend, licking his lips with his fangs out.
“Walk away.” Tanner replied in a dangerous tone. “There’s three of us and only one of you, plus its day time; do the math, Night Walker.”
The vampire was about to reply but was interrupted by someone. “Evander!” A voice yelled from the crowd.
A boy who looked very much like Evander, made his way to the center of the circle. He had dark brown hair that was shaved into a Mohawk, he had the same pale green eyes as his brother but his seemed more dangerous especially with his scar across his right eye; he and his brother also had the same oval shaped face. His nose was large, he had an earring on his right ear and his arms were covered in tattoos. He had a hunting look on his face. Oddly enough, his skin was rather tanned, for a vampire that is.
“Stay out of this Chayton.” Evander warned his twin.
His brother didn’t listen. He walked to the center of the circle where Evander stood and grabbed his arm. “Let it go. Not here, not now.” In response, Evander snarled in disgust, Chayton shook his twin’s arm in disapproval. “Will you grow up? Don’t give anybody the wrong idea about us.” When his brother didn’t answer, Chayton continued. “Do you remember what Hayden said? No fights.”
Tanner swore that he saw smoke coming from Chayton’s hands. Evander jerked his arm away from his twin with a scrawl. He gave his brother a cruel look, and cussed one more time before walking away into the woods.
The crowd visibly disappointed that no fight happened, slowly started dissipating. Once most of the vampires were gone, the Nights Walker spoke.
“I’m sorry about my brother.” Chayton said to Tanner, still looking at Evander from a distance.
“It’s okay.” Tanner responded cautiously. “No one got hurt.”
“I’m Chayton.” The Night Walker said bringing his attention back to Tanner, extending his hand. “Chayton Chriss. And that swearing horse you sadly just met was my younger twin brother Evander.”
“Tanner Preston.” He responded ignoring his hand. “And this is Jonas King and Dylan York.”
“Ah, Dylan, so what exactly did you do to provoke my brother? He usually has some sort of pathetic reason to start a fight.” Chayton asked Dylan with an evil smile.
Dylan for a moment stood frozen, until Jonas subtly slapped him on the back so that he could start talking. “Well” He begun, clearing his throat, his voice shaking. “I didn’t really do anything, I think. I was coming back from my sister’s room because turns out, she’s rooming with Maria—that’s Tanner’s twin sister. I left because Maria and Gwen kept talking about girl stuff, and I have my brotherly limits, then when I got out, I was talking with my mom on my cell phone, and I didn’t notice Evander walking by, and I accidentally bumped him, and then he started screaming and swearing at me, saying how we Day Walkers have no respect for you Nights.”
Chayton nodded. “That sounds like him. Sometimes he’s like a ticking time bomb, one wrong move and he’ll just explode.” The vampire laughed slightly as if there was something amusing in his words. The Night Walker then stared into the woods where his brother had disappeared off. “I need to go talk to him; again, I’m sorry about what he almost did and it won’t happen again.”
“Yeah, it better not.” Jonas added sounding rather threatening.
Tanner shot his friend a warning look. They had gone through an entire conversation with a Night without any threats, now was not the time to start picking a fight.
“It won’t.” Chayton assured before leaving them to go join his brother in the forest.
When the Night Walker was gone, Tanner, Jonas and Dylan finally decided to check out their new school. Tanner hoped that because he was with his friends, he wouldn’t get lost. Curse his sense of orientation.
When they entered the school building, Tanner was for a moment confused. Was he in a medieval church or a High School? Both, he concluded. The floor was made out of pure marble, and there were many expensive chandeliers hanging from the ceiling as well as cheap lights. Lockers, publicities, posters and classrooms were everywhere and so were students. On the outside the windows seemed black, but inside they were stained glass revealing each traditional pictures from the sacred Walker books. It was cold inside and many day vampires were wearing their school vests, the Night Walkers didn’t seem bothered by the sudden change in temperature, they loved the cold, because that’s what they were, cold. If Tanner had to choose only one word to describe the school he would chose different. But wasn’t that the whole concept of this semester; to make things different?
Hayden
She was in front of her locker with Callista, Cole and Aria comparing schedules when she saw Him. He was walking into the building with two of his friends; his perfect face admiring their new school. She also recognized the Day Walker that she had ran into at the store. Hayden must have been grimacing because Aria followed her gaze, her eyes widening instantly at the sight of Him. Her twin went rigid. She was probably about to make a run for it, but Hayden grabbed on to her sister’s hand; no way she was going anywhere.
Aria sighed, and tried to struggle out of Hayden’s hold. Finally she gave up after a while. “We are so dead.” Aria muttered mostly to herself, discouraged.
“You guys talking about that tall yummy Day Walker?” Callista wanted to know staring at Him and licking her lips. “Hmm, I would love to take a bite out of him.”
Hayden continued to stare at Him, she could tell by the way he was walking that he was uncomfortable with the Night Walkers at the school. She was able to deduce by the way people greeted him that he was popular. And she also just knew for a fact that when he’ll see her, he will want to finish off what he’d started, and he probably wouldn’t let her go so easily this time.
“Is that the Day Walker who’s house you robbed?” Cole asked pulling Hayden closer to him. “Man, you know how to choose your enemies, Babe.”
“Not funny.” Hayden snapped pushing him slightly away; he’d called her stupid this morning and she hadn’t quite forgiven him yet despite his apologies. “This Walker can fight; I doubt you can even beat him Cole.”
“Is that a dare?” Cole wanted to know with an evil smile. “Because you know how I love challenges.”
“If you want get expelled go ahead.” She then opened her locker and grabbed her books. “I on the other hand, need to go to class, do whatever you want.” She slammed it closed.
“I will” He happily answered, clearly not understanding that she was forbidding him. “Can I have my goodbye kiss now?” He asked pulling her closer again.
“Are you gonna fight him?” She asked seriously, backing away from him again; he was irritating her. To Hayden’s surprise he actually thought about it. Maybe they were making progress. Still, she would have liked him to answer right away that he wasn’t going to fight anyone; because that would have been the proper response. “Cole?” She asked him, backing away even more.
After a while he answered. “Fine, I won’t fight him” He mumbled dragging her back towards him until their lips met.
She broke it off after a few seconds because he was getting too intense.
“See you guys at second period.” Hayden said to her boyfriend and Callista, as she and Aria left in the other direction.
They entered the Vampireologie class slightly later than the others. It was weird how when you arrived late people stared at you as if you’d done something wrong, and when you arrive early they called you a nerd. Where was the compromise? Hayden and her sister avoided all of the Day Walkers stares, as they went to sit down in the back row, far away from everyone’s attention. Hayden liked school, but not enough to sit in front; those seats were usually reserved for the teacher pets, trouble makers that got caught, and of course when all the good seats were taken.
The class was composed of Day and Night Walkers; their teacher was a middle age immortal day vampire. Sometimes for no particular reason at all, vampires stopped aging, and others continued to grow old until their death. When a Walker became an Immortalis, they couldn’t have kids anymore. It was sad, but fair in a twisted kind of way.
Hayden noticed Chayton walk in, she raised her hand for him to sit next to her and Aria, Evander was already to her right looking incredibly angry as usual. Hayden quickly put her hand down as soon as she saw who was walking right behind her friend. He must have seen her too because a strange smile appeared on His face, a smile that Hayden knew could mean absolutely no good; even if the smile was incredibly attractive. Behind Him was his sister, He tucked her twin’s arm and pointed in the direction that Hayden and Aria were sitting, when she saw them his sister did a smile too, but hers seemed crueler. The Day twins walked together and sat behind Hayden and Aria, Chayton went to go sit beside his brother, acting as if everything were perfectly normal. When the second bell rang announcing the beginning of class, Hayden had started to feel nauseated.
The teacher got up from behind her desk and began class. “Before I start, I have a few announcements to say to my fellow Day Walkers who were with me last year.” She said visibly trying not to sound insulting towards the Nights. “Noah, you have three suspensions to catch up on.” Hayden heard a Day Walker whining, probably Noah. “Maria what are you doing in the back of the class? Get in front young lady, I won’t have you fighting with your brother the whole period!” Apparently Maria was the twin sister of Him. “Yes Tanner, I haven’t forgotten. Don’t make that face; you’re still on eraser duty because you refused to do it last year.”
“Mrs. Hail it wasn’t my fault that the desk broke in two!” Tanner was The Day Walker. Hayden was happy she now knew his name.
“Mr. Preston, karate chopping a desk in the middle of class can only be your fault!” Mrs. Hail objected. Hayden couldn’t help but envy all the Day Walker that had gotten to see that.
Tanner mumbled something ungrateful but said nothing more. The teacher recomposed herself, before finally addressing the entire class. “Good afternoon my young Walkers.” She said. “I’m Mrs. Peggy Hail, your Vampireologies teacher. As you Night Walkers may have noticed, I have gotten quite familiar with my previous students, and I hope to get to know you all as well too.”
The teacher talked about herself for half and hour, explaining her roots, how old she was, what she’d seen throughout her long years; she also précised that she will not favour the Day Walkers, and has no favourite student. Finally, after way too long, she begun to teach something that mattered. “How many of you here are twins?” She asked the class happily.
The whole classroom raised their hands, all of them obviously thinking that the question was beyond stupid. If the whole year was going to be like this, it was going to be an easy A, Hayden thought.
“How many of you here are triplets?” Mrs. Hail questioned. Everybody put their hands down.
Hayden remembered learning briefly about triplets last year, but the teacher had made it seem so boring and tragic. If she was going to learn the same thing twice, it had better be worth it.
Miss Hail cleared her throat before continuing. “Does someone here have anyone in their family that are triplets?” The teacher wanted to know.
Both Chayton and Evander raised their hands. The teacher smiled. “Well, I wasn’t expecting this” she said delighted. “What are your names dears” She asked.
Evander made a face at the word dear, so Chayton was the one to answer. “Evander and Chayton Chriss.” he said avoiding all eye contact.
Mrs Hail smiled at the mention of their names. “Yes of course.” The teacher replied happily. “I should have known that members of the Night Walker Chriss family would be in my class this year.” The teacher began to move swiftly around the classroom. “Chayton, can you please tell the class where the triplets of your family are now.” She asked him.
Hayden and Aria had known the Chriss’ practically their whole lives, and they knew for a fact that Chayton was never comfortable talking out loud in class, but he still did it because he knew that his brother would always answer rudely and unnecessarily.
“There’re in a fucking damn Walker Government facility” Evander muttered. “Damn Government, can’t leave our fucking family alone.”
“I was expecting that” Mrs. Hail said to the class, ignoring that it was Evander that had answered in his usual cussing way. “Triplets are extremely rare, but they do exist. There were once many. You see class; triplets’ strengths are very much superior to average Walker twins, their speed is three time as fast than any of us here, and they each had strong abilities.” Mrs. Hail then paused as the class broke into murmurs.
An ability was a sort of power that certain Walkers had the privilege of having. Sometimes it could be something dangerous just has it could be something good. Every Walker wanted one, and occasionally it happened that they even got two and in some exceptional cases it went up to eight, but there were only six vampires in all Walker history who were ever known to have so many
“This brings me to my next question.” The teacher said bringing everyone’s attention back to her. “How many of you here have an ability?” Mrs. Hail asked.
Hayden looked around the classroom. Again, only Chayton and Evander raised their hands. She had been there the day that Evander had discovered his.
They were thirteen years old, at that time Evander had a huge crush on Hayden and he followed her everywhere she went. One night they were racing their bikes, and Hayden had hit a huge rock and had fallen really hard to the ground; she had even broken her bike in the process. Evander had rushed to her side, only to discover that her arm had broken as well. At thirteen, Walkers healed faster than humans, but not fast enough. Hayden remembered Evander swearing and saying that everything was his fault and so on. But the moment his had hand touched her arm to inspect it, the pain was gone and her arm had felt as good as new. Both of them had been so amazed by what had just happened that they had just assumed that her arm had never broken in the first place. It had been later on that night, when Hayden had gotten a serious beating for breaking her bike that they knew that Evander had an ability, because he had been able to heal all of her wounds simply with one touch. At the time, Evander had been so thrilled to have a power, but Chayton on the other hand, was living in chaos when he discovered his a few days later. At the time, he had a lot of anger issues, so whenever he got angry and touched something, it either caught fire or exploded. It was strange that a Night Walker, a vampire basically composed of cold and darkness, had a fire ability; something warm and nice, but also very dangerous. It was as if a Day Walker would have an ice ability, it was just wrong and weird. Evander was able to heal burns and anything that was broken; things that were reduced to ash he couldn’t do anything to fix it; still, it had helped Chayton a little to know that his brother could heal some of the damage that he accidently caused with his fire. Of course, Chayton still had problems keeping himself under control, especially with a brother like Evander, but he had gotten better at it. Chayton had gotten tattoos and made himself look scary so people, Mortalis or Walker, would keep a fair distance away from him. He had to start taking anger management classes because his parents had gotten tired of him constantly burning stuff down every time he got angry. These days, he rarely got mad, even if Evander did everything possible to provoke him. When a Walker got older, their ability got stronger; Chayton was mostly scared of what he could do now, so he practically never used his ability. Hayden often heard Evander telling his brother how lucky he was to have such a cool power, because he thought his own was boring; now Evander practically never used his own ability anymore either. Evander qualified healing as a “sissy girl power”.
Mrs. Hail smiled even more. “I assumed you two would.” She said to the twins. “When there are triplets in the family, abilities are often more frequent.” The teacher mentioned to the class.
A student in the front raised his hand. “What is it dear?” Mrs. Hail asked.
“What happened to the triplets?” A student questionned.
Mrs. Hail let out a long sigh. Hayden assumed that it was the teacher’s least favourite part of the story. “First and for most, you all must need to know that for triplets to be at their strongest the three of them need to be reunited.” She said slowly. Mrs. Hail walked around the classroom before continuing. “A long time ago, the Lapinotuum— the correct term for werewolves, for those of you who didn’t pay attention last year; yes Noah that means you—and the Dimidium-Lamias—Half-Vampires—both felt the need to protect their species from the Walker triplet race.”
Hayden shivered at the mention of the Half-Ones. She had very bad memories about them. The creatures were the result of a Humana and a Walker mating, or a Half-Breed mating with a Half-Breed, or when a Walker bit a Humana. There was a one in twenty chance that the Mortalis turned into a Walker when bitten for transformation, but in most cases they turned in a Half-Breed. Dimidium-Lamias were incredibly unstable and were constantly drinking and killing to live. Over the centuries, Walker Trackers and Hunters have been doing their best to kill them, but the Half- Ones kept reproducing themselves faster than anyone had anticipated. The Lapinotuums on the other hand, were a complete other story. The Walkers and the Wolves had made an agreement three decades or so ago to not bring harm to each species and to stay out of each others way. So far, the rule had been respected well enough.
Mrs. Hail continued her story. “The Lapinotuums and the Dimidiums knew that all they needed to do was find one of the triplets and then kill them, because of a link that the siblings have between the three of them. If one dies, the two remaining follow shortly after.” She said. “But it wasn’t as easy to capture them as they thought. It was a terrible blood bath for almost a hundred years. But it was only when the Lapinotuum and the Half- Ones teamed up that the triplets lost all chance of survival. They killed almost every lining ever known.” She turned to face Chayton and Evander. “I say almost every lining, because the Chriss family still has the occasional family surprise.” Mrs. Hail went to sit in her desk chair. “Like mentioned earlier, triplets are now kept in a Walker Government facility under heavy guard, completely out of reach from the Dimidium-Lamias. The Government also run tests on the triplets, to try and figure out what makes them so special, besides the extra sibling.”
Mrs. Hail went on and on about triplets for the rest of the period. Someone asked if quadruples Walkers existed. The teacher explained it was nearly impossible, because they would have killed each other while still in their mother’s stomach.
Hayden had been so dazed listening to the teacher, that she hadn’t noticed a note on her desk until around the end of class.
Ever since you broke into our house with your silly little sister, I’ve been impatient to see your pretty little faces so that I could ruin them. Now here’s what I want you to do, to avoid a fight outside of school and possible expulsion;, you’re going to stand up in the middle of the class and say to me or my brother “I’m sorry that my sister and I broke into your house two weeks ago we don’t know any better, do you accept my apologies?”
It’s your choice, you can either apologise or, Tanner and I will fight you again. Trust me; you don’t want to get us angry again.
Maria Preston
Why did it need to be Hayden? Why couldn’t Maria have simply given the note to Aria? The Day Walker had probably deduced that the whole “break into the house to make money” scam was Hayden’s bad idea. Still, she was torn. Hayden knew that if she did fight against the Preston twins, she was probably going to lose badly because of the sun and she’d probably get expelled from school and sent back home in the process; and she knew she wouldn’t be able to explain to her whole family the entire reason about her expulsion.
But, Hayden knew that there was really only one reasonable and correct option; she just needed to stop acting like a child and do what was necessary. She took a deep breath and stood up; she stared at Maria from across the class, because it was clear that she obviously wanted all of the attention on her.
“Young lady what are you—?” The teacher began to say.
“I’m sorry that my sister and I broke into your house two weeks ago” Hayden said in a robotic tone. “Do you accept my apologies?” She asked the Day Walker.
Hayden left out the “we’re Night Walkers and we don’t know better” part, because that might lead to a whole new different kind of fight; one that she was not interested in.
Maria looked at her brother from the other end of the class; completely baffled that Hayden had actually done it. The whole class was silent. She heard a few giggles, and rude comments from the Day Walkers, but the Nights remained silent because they all knew Hayden, and what she could do for revenge.
Maria was smiling revealing her perfect teeth. When Hayden turned around to see Tanner’s expressions; he was looking down at his notebook, he looked almost as embarrassed as she felt.
“Why Tanner” Maria said to her twin from across the classroom. “I think that we might have just made an actual scientific discovery! Who knew that Night Walkers were capable of apologising? See, this is way better than your stupid diving board-thing.” A few Day Walkers laughed; apparently there was some kind of joke to that.
“Shut up Maria.” Tanner responded lifting his head up finally. “Don’t push your luck.” He then looked at Hayden and considered her, before continuing. “It’s fine, we accept your apology, you can sit back down and—”
Maria interrupted him “Wait; wait, wait.” She said as she stood up so everyone could see her. “Why did you break into our house anyway? Are you that desperate to find friends that you need to bother us?”
The whole class was staring at Hayden now. She looked beside her and saw Chayton retaining Evander; he probably would have killed the Day Walker if his brother didn’t have such a firm hold on him.
Aria of course didn’t bother saying or doing anything to help her sister; instead she let Hayden make a spectacle of herself as usual. “Well it was either becoming friends or sucking your blood out” Hayden sarcastically replied with a smirk. “Which one would you have liked better?” Maria was going to step towards her, but Tanner suddenly ran across the classroom and held his sister back.
“Alright class, calm down before I have you all put in detention, or expelled.” Mrs. Hail finally said, later than she should have. “Young Night Walker, you may sit down, and Tanner...well stay with Maria until she calms down.” Hayden stayed up a few seconds longer, holding Maria’s gaze.
If they had been wolves, starring someone down would show a sign of superiority and dominance; Hayden was certain that Maria was thinking the same thing at this very moment. As Circle Leader, Hayden was sure that she could stare down a silly, shallow Day Walker. Finally, after maybe three minutes, Maria backed off and sat down. There were a few small chocked cheers from the Nights, but nothing to start another small conflict. Hayden was pretty sure they were all expecting her and Maria to start ripping each other’s hair out at any second now.
Mrs. Hail sighed, and tried to change the tension in the classroom. “For homework, I want you all to write two full pages on why triplets are so important and I want it on my desk by Friday. Oh, Hayden and Maria, I want you both to write an extra three pages on why it’s not okay to fight with classmates.” It was a fair price to pay instead of expulsion, Hayden immediately thought. “Class dismissed.” The teacher concluded.
The bell then quickly rang and everyone got up to leave. As Maria walked by Hayden, the Day Walker whispered in her ear. “Don’t get used to me backing off.” She heard her whisper. “I can fight you any time I want and win, bitch.”
With that, Maria swiftly left the classroom and went the complete opposite direction that her brother was heading. Before leaving, Tanner gave an apologetic look to Hayden, that she did her best to ignore, and then he was out the door as well. She only looked at him when he had his back turned to her. He had a nice butt, so she noticed.
“He’s pretty hot, you know, for a Day Walker.” Aria said to her as if reading Hayden’s thought, as they left the classroom. “Okay so, we have a fifteen minute break and—”
“I swear, if you weren’t going to fucking figure out something smartass to say soon, I was going to fucking rip that damn Day Walker’s fucking throat out.” Evander suddenly said to Hayden, interrupting Aria.
But she wasn’t in the mood right now; Hayden had more important things to deal with. “Guys, can you meet me in the café in five minutes, I need to talk to my sister.”
“Sure Hay” Chayton answered, dragging away his brother with him, even though it was obvious that they both wanted to stay.
When they were gone, she faced her sister. “What?” Aria asked completely and pathetically clueless.
“How could you do that to me!?” Hayden furiously replied. “You completely let me humiliate myself in front everyone!” She paused and stared at her twin in disgust. “Some sister you are.” Hayden eventually added.
Her twin seemed to be taken aback, as if she had actually just been insulted. “You didn’t have to apologize to them, Hayden. We could’ve fought them together after class.” Her sister said.
“No we couldn’t have!” Hayden shouted as they walked down the hallway. She grabbed her twin’s arm to bring her to a halt. “You need to stop thinking that just because I drank Dim—”
“Shut it!” Aria exclaimed to cut her off. “Do you need to shout it in the middle of the hallway?!”
What happened to Hayden two years ago, was always a sensitive subject between the two of them. “Look.” Hayden said to her sister in a dangerous tone. “The Prestons would have beaten us to the ground again, do you know why?” Aria looked down, seeming guilty and afraid of the answer. “Because you put all of your faith in me, and barely fight; that’s why! I can’t take on two Day Walkers when the sun is up!” Hayden furiously argued to her sister.
Aria still stared at the ground, Hayden was wondering if her twin was even listening. “Well apparently you can’t beat them at night either.” Aria finally snapped back. Ouch.
Hayden suddenly saw Cole appearing from the other of the hallway; he also saw her and waved.
“Fine, maybe they were able to beat me two weeks ago, but you weren’t much help Aria. You really need to wake up and realise that I might have some sort of “condition” to me, but that doesn’t mean that I can take on the whole world alone. That’s why we have twins, so they can help; which by the way, you never seem to want to do.” Hayden harshly said to her twin as she walked away to go meet Cole “See you next period, Sis.” She added meanly, as she left Aria behind her in the middle of the crowded corridor.
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