Rose, Devon and Violet walk into class together like they always do. Devon heads over to greet some of his friends in the football team, The Hollow Vipers, but Rose stops in her tracks, she freezes, her eyes widen, and it seems like she's looking at an ogre or a slender man. But she's not looking at either of does. Instead, she's staring at a vampire, a harmless one.
Daniel lights up as soon as he sets his eyes on her, and a smile appears on his face. The reason Rose is looking at him like that is because he's sitting next to an empty seat. His sister is on the right, and Rose is supposed to be sitting close to Violet, but that's the only available seat.
She rolls her eyes and looks away from him, then she heads toward Violet.
"Hey, Vi."
"Yes, sweetie pie," Violet says, batting her eyes at her friend.
"Can you uh, sit on the other seat?"
"Why, what's…" She looks at the empty seat, but then her eyes land on the vampire. At first, Violet's about to tell her that he's a moroi vampire and that he's completely harmless, but she remembers that it was a moroi vampire that killed her Rose's parents.
"Sure, anything for you, bestie." So Violet moves with so much gladness, and Rose sits down.
Daniel looks at Rose for a brief second, and then he looks away, then shakes his head, with that smile still plastered on his face.
Does he always smile?
Rose can only wonder, but she doesn't care; she shouldn't care, it's not like they're friends, and they're most definitely not partners. He's a stranger, and that's what they're going to be.
"Alright, alright, everyone take your seats. Yes, Mr Keegan, we're sure you had fun meeting hot girls during the summer, but summer's over." Ms Addison, the English and drama teacher, says.
She's a thin woman with auburn hair that's always in bangs; she has this earthy vibe and aesthetic. She's in a shawl and a long skirt. She always wanted to be an actress, but she ended up being a teacher instead.
And she's quite good at it despite how dramatic she gets teaching adverbial clauses.
"Still so hot, Ms Addison." Arnold Keegan points to her; his jock friends laugh at his comment. She rolls her eyes.
"Yes, yes, I'm sure you can take your seat now. We will not be doomed to time this year." She says, then flips her hair dramatically.
Arnold high-fives one of his friends. Then takes his seat next to the new girl.
"Why hello, beautiful," he says to Cece. Cece gives him a wry smile.
"Hello, handsome," she says mockingly.
"What do you say I take you out on a date tonight, at Valentine's, my treat?"
"Hmmm, sorry, I'm more into men, not boys," Cece says, and that gets a snort and chuckle from some of the girls, Daniel as well. Brandon smiles to himself because he's relieved that he turned Arnold down; no girl ever turns Arnold down, and this shocks him because he can't believe it.
But he is a bit hurt. What does she mean by she's into men? Like college guys? Or actual men?
Rose smiles to herself as well. She kinda likes the new girls' vibe.
The English teacher begins, and Rose can't seem to concentrate because she finds herself looking at the moroi. She doesn't know why she can't stop; she has to stop.
He's attractive, yes, but not that attractive. She doesn't understand this. Why does she keep looking at him? She has never looked at a guy this constantly before. Why is this happening now? Did he use his spirit power to cast some spell on her? Do spirit vampires even cast spells?
She doesn't understand.
She shakes her head and averts her gaze from him and looks at Ms Addison.
Rose is done staring at him; she's not going to lose focus.
"I know you're staring at me."
Rose looks around to see where the voice is coming from, but she knows where the voice is coming from; she just thought he would be close to her, like really close to her. But he isn't. he's still in his seat. So what did she just hear?
"Don't be scared, my little rose, it's just me."
Rose stops looking around, and she faces him. He looks completely focused with his hands on his chin, looking at Ms Addison like he's paying attention.
It's like he's using his mind to talk to her. Can she do the same? Or will she look stupid for doing so?
"Why are you talking to me? And how are you doing that?" she says, and she waits for a reply. If she doesn't get one, this is going to be the last time she thinks about or even looks at him.
"I want to talk to you. Also, I'm a spirit user, remember."
He responds, and even though he responded, she's not ruling out not talking to him or thinking about him.
She still doesn't know how this spirit thing works. Up until now, she didn't know moroi vampires had a fifth element. Well, they do, so it must be rare.
"Well, I don't want to talk to you. Get out of my mind."
"You're the one who keeps staring at me."
"I'm not-"
"It's okay, my little rose, I completely understand why you would be staring at me. I am attractive after all."
Rose swallows her rage, and she clenches her fist. She just hopes her claws don't appear, she will heal, but it's the blood she's worried about, she doesn't want anyone seeing that. So she unclenches her fist.
She breathes in and then releases.
"Listen here, moroi, I don't know what you're planning, but I'm not falling for it. Now get out of my head and leave me the hell alone!"
"Rosalie Lockwood!" Ms Addison calls her name. "How many books did I say we were going to be treating this semester?"
Shit.
Rose doesn't answer because she wasn't listening. So she just stares at Ms Addison without uttering a word. She doesn't even act like she was listening, but forgot what she said.
"I know, The Great Gatsby, The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter and Of Mice and Men," Violet answers excitedly.
"Thank you, Violet Martinez, and I know Ms Lockwood is your friend, but I wasn't asking you." The smile on Violet's face disappears instantly. "As for you, Ms Lockwood, please pay attention."
Rose nods. "Yes, maa'am."
"I don't blame her, she's probably reminiscing about the guy she boned this summer." Arnold says, causing his friends to laugh.
"Yo Arnold." Devon hits Arnold on his hand.
"What?"
"We all know Rosalie Lockwood doesn't like fun." Piper Blackwell says, and she makes the whole class laugh.
"That's enough." Ms Addison says with so much dramatics. Like she's in a movie or a stage play.
"Yes, little rose, I know I'm hot, but don't let me be a distraction."
Rose's pen breaks in her hand, which causes the people closest to her to flinch.
Violet leans over to Rose.
"Rose, are you okay?" she asks in a whisper.
Rose relaxes and then faces her friend with a fake smile on her face.
"Yes, I am." She looks away and reaches for her bag to get a new pen. At least her claws didn't drive a hole into her palms.
As for Violet, she's not buying it. She knows there's something wrong with her friend.
They're all currently in the cafeteria. Rose, Devon and Violet sit on their usual table with their food in front of them as they stare at the moroi vampires.
"I've never seen a moroi vampire before," Violet says quietly.
"Maybe that's because most of them live in Europe. Where they belong." Devon says bitterly as he stares at them with so much hatred. Even while he's drinking his apple juice, he shoots bullets their way.
"What are they even doing here, in Cupid's Hollow, to be precise?"
"Those are the Ivanovs." Charlie Xavier says, sitting next to the trio. "Their ancestors used to live in Cupid's Hollow until the war that happened with Rose's ancestors."
Devon and Violet face Charlie with shock on their faces, and then they turn to Rose. Rose sighs and then puts her focus on the meatloaf. She really doesn't like Charlie. She talks too much, and she loves to gossip. That's why she runs the school's gossip site, The Blushwood Bulletin.
Once you see that Breton cat that's always on her head, you'll know she's the one, that's the first thing Rose looks for just to avoid her.
"I'm sorry, what war?" asks Devon.
"Oh, you guys don't know. And you're friends with a Lockwood."
"Oh my God, just talk." Says Devon impatiently.
"Okay, okay. This happened years ago, but the whole story is that A Lockwood and an Ivanov fell in love with each other, which caused a war not just between the families but the two creatures. Vampires and werewolves. No one wanted them to be together. So the couple killed themselves for it. The werewolves ended up driving the Ivanovs out of town and told them never to come back; the other morois followed in solidarity."
"Oh my God, Rose, did you know about this?" Violet asks Rose. Rose shakes her head, and for once, she's actually glad she got this info from Charlie, but she's still going to confront her Uncle on the matter.
"Uh, I heard my Aunt, Uncle and your mom whispering about it the other night. I knew there was tension between the two families, but I didn't know about this."
"My mom knows?" Devon says.
"I think the older werewolves do." Says Rose.
"So what are they doing here?" Devon asks while looking at the morois. They eat a burger like blood isn't what eradicates their hunger.
"Oh, I also heard that the fine brother, Daniel Ivanov, did something back in London that made his dad's job move him to California." Says Charlie.
"How did you find out about all this so quickly?" Violet asks the gossipy witch.
Charlie shrugs.
"I'm simply a natural."
You're an annoying ass bitch is what you are.
Rose says in her head while she stares angrily at Daniel. So that's their family's history.
But what did Daniel do in London? This she has to find out.