"Can someone past me a slice or two please?!" Will announces over the table.
Mia hands a slice over to Grace who casually hands it over to Will, "thank you" he says aloud which causes me to laugh.
Margaret and John had ordered everyone some pizzas and soda. Everyone was sitting at one big table eating and drinking. I sat next to Mia and Xander felt he should sit on my left. Across from me to my surprise was Jake and he couldn't stop looking at me. At all. I didn't mind though. I had better things to worry about. He kept sending evil glares toward Xander who I'm sure returned them back.
"Do you guys know what goes good with pizza?" Christian calls out.
"What?" Grace answers him.
He starts to smile and pulls out a bag of blood from his pocket, "blood!" He pours it into his cup.
"Ew gross" I heard Chelsea say. I looked at her and she was holding her stomach with one hand and had her other hand over her mouth.
"Keep those things to yourself Christian" Margaret yells from across the room. She was over by the room entrance door talking to John.
"Sorry" he laughs and gets up to put his blood bag and plate in the trash.
I smile and roll my eyes.
"So uh Zoe" I look up into Jake's face and he's smiling, "I never got a chance to tell you that I'm sorry about your mom" the whole table went quiet as everyone waited for my response.
"Um thanks, it's fine. I'm sorry too but its life" I force a smile toward him and get up to put my trash in the bin.
Then I head back to the table, "What happened to your mom?" Mia asked me with a worried look on her face.
"She was um...killed. You know the whole hybrid things drives people crazy. So they were trying to get to me but she was in the way"
"Do you think she was keeping that from you?" she asks.
"Yeah, for my safety" I swallowed and held my head down.
"I'm sorry Zoe" Mia tells me, putting her hand on my arm.
"Yeah" I said quietly. Then I look up at her and around the table. Everyone was looking at me. Even Margaret and John.
~.~.~.~
Margaret aloud us to take a break after we ate. The silence that fell when I told my story in front of everyone was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I felt like I was comfortable enough to tell them since I'm gonna be here for a while.
"Alright Emily" Will broke through my thoughts with his words then.
We had walked outside, it was Will, Mia, Emily, Grace and I. If you guys remember Emily didn't get her turn earlier in the classroom, she decided now she could do it I mean she's gonna have to in front of the class eventually she had told us on the way out.
"Okay, fine" she said. She bent down to the ground and placed her hands flat on the grass. Then closed her eyes.
"What are you-"
"Sshh" she quieted Grace before she finished her sentence.
She opened her eyes and stood up, "now speak" she said, folding her arms.
"What were you doing?" I asked her in a quiet voice.
"I was feeling the vibrations of the ground and I could hear every animal near us. Birds, snakes, and some others"
"Woah, that's some serious ass mojo" Will says and Grace laughs. They playfully start hanging all on each other and head for the door back into the building.
Emily looks at me and smiles. Her, Mia and I start walking together in line slowly toward the door also.
"So Zoe, what do you hope your gift or gifts are?" Emily asks, her head facing the ground.
I looked up at her, "I really don't know to be honest. I just wish I could understand so many things more"
Mia spoke then, "yeah I know how you feel. My parents are mad rich but I always felt like I didn't belong. Like money was never something I always ran too, I just wish I had someone to talk too instead of keeping all my problems in"
"Yeah your right about that" Emily cut in.
"Like the only time they wanted to talk to me was when they told about what I was and all that. But that was it" Mia finished.
We stepped into the building and headed for the stairs. As we walked, I thought about what Mia said. Maybe I wasn't the only person with problems. Problems even beyond my gifts or my mom and dad. I had friends to talk to now. I wasn't going to let those problems build up inside me ever again.
"Hey guys, I'll catch you in a little okay? I'm gonna ask Margaret something really quick"
Mia and Emily nodded then walked up the steps, talking.
I wanted to talk to Dad. I needed to ask Margaret when I could and I wondered if he told her to not let me call him so much that way our phones couldn't be traced or anything.
I spotted her at the end of the hall through her office door.
When I reached it, I knocked first.
"Come in Zoe" she said, putting her pen down.
I looked around to see if John or anyone else was in here but they weren't.
"What's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you about um...calling my dad" I stammered.
"Oh yes, he told me you could call maybe once or twice every two or three weeks" one of her eyebrows shot up.
Damn it.
"Oh my God, that's it?!" I blurted.
"Yeah, your father was very precise" I rubbed my hands over my face.
I guess dad is just doing this for my protection. If that's what's best, I don't like it but I'll just have to deal with it.
"Zoe?" I looked up at her, "why don't you give him a call now" she handed me the box with everyone's cell phones in them and I took mines out.
I smiled and told her thanks and before I walked out the room, "only a couple of minutes okay Zoe?" she looked at me with a serious expression. I nodded and headed out into the hallway.
When I dialed his number, my heart started to beat faster. I had no idea why. But I know I was shocked he picked up on the fourth ring. I forgot he must be working...or maybe he stopped since I left.
"Um hey dad" I said quietly, I smile playing at my lips.
He was happy to talk to me. I tried to keep my emotion to a minimum but I didn't know how long I could. The tears were coming but I was away for my protection with other people, crying would not solve anything.
"Dad I miss you so much" I told him, I sat down on the steps outside of the main entrance door.
"Yes, everything is fine. Great actually"
Then it was like a switch clicked on and his voice changed. He started talking lower.
"Dad, you okay?" I asked him.
"Sweetheart, I'm sorry to send you off at such short notice and I would hope that we can sit face to face one day and talk about everything"
"Me too dad" I swallowed back the tears but one slipped down my face.
"I have to go okay? I'm fine here, I just wanna know if your okay. And please remember what I said. Try not to call so much"
"I know, I won't. And I'm okay, I promise" I answered through the phone. I wiped the tear from my face and he told me he loved me before hanging up the phone.
I put the phone in my lap and covered my face with my hands. I missed them so much. I missed him and mom and it felt like I'd lost them both instead of just mom.
"Zoe?" someone said and I wiped my face and ran my fingers through my hair. Then I turned around.
"You okay?" Jake said, he came outside and shut the main door before sitting on the steps next to me.
"Yeah, I'm okay" I forced a small smile.
When he sat down, I got a whiff of his colon that smelled like night. Like a sky full of stars on a dark blue night. It smelled good. I could see he wore a white tshirt and a pair of black pants with boots.
"So how are you liking it here so far?" He leaned into me a little and I didn't mind. I looked up at his face and bright blue eyes shined like the sky.
"Its great actually, I mean everyone's just casual" I said and he laughed a little and looked out into the woods.
"Casual huh?"
"Mmhmm, what about you? How long have you been coming here?" I asked him then.
"Its been two years" he answers.
"Do you have family back at home?" I questioned.
"Well no. See my dad left me and my mom when I was young. And my mom, well she was the greatest Dhampir fighter ever. Guess that's where I got my skills from" he looked at me and he must've seen that my face was turning pale.
"Don't worry Zoe, she's not the one trying to hurt you. She fights for the good, like me" he smiles.
"Oh yeah?" I raise my eyebrows and nod in agreement.
"What's with that anyway? Is it really because your a hybrid that those people killed your mom and now they wanna get to you?"
I swallow and wrap my arms around my body, "yeah, supposedly my blood is pure. I have yet to have the most special gifts and now my mom is dead because of me. They wanted me but they got to her first"
He just looked at me then. He had a worried expression on his face.
"I hope the same doesn't happen with my dad. I just need to focus and stay ahead of things so that won't happen. I will not allow these people to hurt me in anyway"
I began to feel confident about it too. I need to do this. I need to be here and earn my gifts and learn how to control them for my parents and myself and I need to protect myself. Mom would want that.
"I won't let anyone hurt you Zoe" I heard Jake say. And as he looked out into the distance again, I stared at him and I wondered why he wanted to protect me?
Come to think about it, Margaret did mention something about everyone having to protect themselves and she looked at me. Was she trying to get help protecting me from the high rollers? Whatever the answer was, I now knew how hard these couple of months were going to be.