Scholarship Girl

by Kat Cotton

  “So, Ren’s going to be a vampire,” Lucas said.

  Seemed Mr. Norton had already explained things.

  “Why did you let him go back to his room?” I sat down at the table. “It’s okay for you guys but I’m in the room next door. When he goes looking for his first victim, that’s way too close for comfort.”

  “The chances of Ren turning aren’t that likely. We’re just taking precautions at this stage. And his room is the best place to contain him. Of course, there are measures in place for ensuring he can’t leave that room. I’ll advise his teachers tomorrow that he’s under quarantine, leaving the reason vague. We do, however, have to have plans in place in case the worst happens.”

  “Were you telling the truth about staking him?” Once I’d have happily driven a stake through Ren’s heart, vampire or not, but now it seemed like a terrible thing. Not just because of the money either.

  Mr. Norton winked at me. He actually winked. Had I seen that right? In my entire time at Edgewater Academy, he’d never before made a jovial facial expression.

  I exhaled, happy that we wouldn’t have to go that far.

  “We do need contingency plans in place, though.” Mr. Norton turned serious again. “Britney and Lucas, you research everything you can find on the vampire turning process.”

  Britney nodded. “I’ll ask my auntie as well.”

  “Mark, Seth, Tarragon, we need you on standby.”

  That left me. I wasn’t sure what I’d be able to do.

  “Cherry, you continue as you are. Ren will be confined to his room but you’ll have access. You keep tutoring him and make sure he gets his meals and has his other needs seen to.”

  I raised my eyebrow at that but Mr. Norton ignored me.

  “What symptoms should we look for?” If Ren was going to turn vamp, I wanted to know as soon as possible.

  “Fevers, sweats.”

  “Blood lust,” Mark added.

  Great.

  Before we got any further, Principal Murphy burst in the room. “What’s this I hear about Ren Worthington being in quarantine? That’s not possible. Mass panic will break out. The school’s reputation — we have to think about the reputation.”

  Mr. Norton held his hand up. “We’ll discuss this later.”

  The principal gulped but didn’t respond.

  “Okay, I think that’s all for tonight. Training at the usual time tomorrow. You are dismissed.”

  I lingered behind. “But Mr. Norton, what do I need to do? If Ren isn’t in quarantine, I’m not going to be his little errand girl. To be honest I don’t think it’s a good job for me anyway. He’s demanding and—”

  “We’ll discuss it tomorrow, Cherry.”

  Yeah, I got the hint. Mr. Norton wanted me gone so he could discuss things with Principal Murphy.

  I dragged my feet going back to my room even though all I wanted to do was crash into bed. It’d been a long, long day. But I saw a crack of light shining from Ren’s door. I stopped, my hand poised to knock, not sure if it was a good idea to talk to him or not.

  I walked away then realized this couldn’t be easy for him so knocked lightly on his door.

  “Come in.”

  I wasn’t sure if I heard the words or not, they were so quiet. I gulped and opened the door.

  Ren sat on his bed, staring out the window.

  “I’m a prisoner in here. I can’t get out.”

  I nodded. “I know. I have to bring you food.” I didn’t want to say that the principal wanted to end his isolation. I didn’t want to give him false hope. I was pretty sure too that Mr. Norton would win out in this. Having Ren turn rabid and attack the other students would be the worst thing for the school’s reputation.

  “So, if I order a midnight snack, you’ll have to open the door to the staff?”

  “Try it and see.” I grinned as he turned to face me.

  “Pizza or tacos?”

  “Both. And maybe some drinks. And desserts. You need to keep your strength up, and maybe you should enjoy human food while you can.”

  Ren picked up his phone and put in the order. When he hung up, he studied me until I got uncomfortable.

  “You’re not going to tell anyone about this, are you?”

  I shrugged. “Who am I going to tell? Everyone I talk to already knows. It’s not like I’m going to get all buddy-buddy with Oscar or Blake and blab your secrets.”

  “What about those girls from your dorm?”

  “Not my friends.”

  Ren smiled. “I’m glad you’re an unpopular freak, poor girl.”

  I picked up a cushion from his bed. “You think I’m an unpopular freak? Wait until you grow fangs, rich boy.”

  Ren’s fading smile made me almost feel bad for saying that.

  “I don’t want to be a vampire. I don’t want to change my life in any way. And I don’t want to be a prisoner in this room.”

  “There are worse places to be prisoner. It’s a pretty swell room. You can play games and order up food and maybe work on your math homework. I don’t know why you’d want to leave actually.”

  “Will you play with me?”

  He handed me a controller.

  “I have no idea how.”

  A knock on the door disturbed us. The food. I took the trays from the staff member and put them on Ren’s desk. The two of us made short work of that food, practically inhaling the pizza. When my belly was almost at exploding level, Ren picked up one of the drinks sat it beside the bed.

  “Okay, time for gaming.”

  He handed me the other controller. I tried to position his computer chair so I could see the giant screen while he laid on the bed.

  We started playing.

  “You’re hitting the wrong buttons.” He huffed. “You really don’t have any idea, do you?”

  “I’ve never played before.”

  “I thought you were kidding about that. Come here. I’ll help you.”

  He tried to sit up but groaned. He’d been injured more than he’d let on. There was nothing for it. I moved to sit on the edge of Ren’s bed.

  He gave me a quick run-down on what buttons to use for what. Knowing that, we started the game again.

  “I’m winning! I’m winning!” I jumped around, shocked that I even had a chance.

  “Not anymore.”

  My body swerved right with the controller. Then, bam. My leg touched Ren’s and an electric shock jolted through my body.

  I jumped away from him.

  I sat the controller down on the bed. “It’s late. I should get back to my room.”

  I’d forgotten I couldn’t touch him. I’d forgotten I didn’t want to touch him. For a moment, we’d just been two people fooling around. I couldn’t let that happen ever again.

  Chapter 27

  “I got the results back from my auntie.” Britney held out her phone to show me. “She says there is something weird about Ren’s blood but she can’t determine what. Same with your DNA. She’s never seen anything like it in all her years of forensics.”

  “Wait...what? She tested my DNA?”

  “Well you left so much hair around the dorm, I figured it was best to get you tested too.”

  I grabbed her phone and read the screen. “Ah, Britney. I’m not sure if that’s legal. You can’t just go around testing people’s DNA without their permission.”

  She shrugged and smiled. “Fae laws are different from human ones, and what’s the difference between testing you and testing Ren?”

  She had a good point.

  “Well, we’re no better off than we were before. We don’t know anything about either of us.” I yawned.

  After my late night, I’d had to run between classes and doing things for Ren. He messaged me to get him lunch, then snacks then a bunch of other stuff. I’d told him I’d be in training for the next hour and not to contact me. Surely, he could amuse himself for an hour without me.

  “I guess you won’t be going to the dance,” Brittney said. “
Not with Ren, anyway.”

  In the middle of all this, she still thought about going to the dance?

  “That was never going to happen.” I tried to sound regretful.

  We spent most of the training session talking about the Ren problem. No one had any clear idea about how to stop the turn.

  “It’s not a common problem.” Mr. Norton scratched his head. “Most humans nowadays turn willingly. Have you noticed anything strange about him?”

  “Not more than usual.” I shook my head. “He gets bored easily but I don’t think that’s a vampire thing.”

  “I’ve found a potion that might work.” Tarragon said. “It’ll weaken the blood lust and block his strength. Problem is, it could be toxic if we give it to him and he’s not turning.”

  Mr. Norton nodded. “Make a batch just in case.”

  “We haven’t had time to research,” Lucas said. “But we’ll get onto it straight after this.”

  “Come to my office after training. I’ve got quite a few books to go through.”

  Lucas grinned like having access to Mr. Norton’s dusty old books was the greatest treat ever.

  Mark ran through fighting techniques for killing vampires. He could’ve done that a few days ago.

  My phone beeped.

  “Ren. Again.” I shot Mr. Norton an apologetic grin. “He’s bored. Tell him I don’t exist just to run jobs for him.”

  “That’s okay. It’s probably good for him to be occupied.”

  “Good for him. Not good for me.”

  I took it that Mr. Norton had convinced the principal that Ren should be isolated.

  “It’s only for a short time, Cherry, and it’s better than him trying to leave his room. Anyway, you’d have to go to tutor him now so you can kill two birds with one stone.”

  I didn’t want to kill birds, I wanted to kill Ren. Or maybe sedate him so I didn’t have to deal with him for a few hours.

  When I got to Ren’s room, he’d already ordered food. That was one perk of this job. I bet the staff wondered why I was constantly in his room, though.

  The school had sent out a broadcast message saying Ren had an unusual strain of flu and that’s why he needed the quarantine but that didn’t explain why I could go near him. Already half the students wore flu masks in class. They gave me a wide berth too.

  Ren held up the game controller to me.

  “We’re studying, not playing.” I used my sternest voice.

  “But I’m sick.”

  “You’re not really sick.”

  “But it’s not going to look believable if I return to class with good marks. No one studies when they’re really sick. And if I do turn into a vampire, I won’t need to study. I’ll have centuries to learn all that stuff.”

  I rolled my eyes and got out my books. “You might. I won’t. So hit the books, vampire boy.”

  Ren sighed but didn’t resist.

  I handed him the homework sheets I’d picked up in class. “Work through these and then I’ll check them.”

  I started on my own homework while he did that. I really couldn’t afford to let my marks drop. Ren sat on his bed while I used his desk. I finished my math homework and turned to see why he was so silent. He sat cross-legged with his tongue out the side of his mouth. He looked so sweet when he did that and even if he could be horrible at times, that didn’t mean he deserved to become a vampire.

  “Does it hurt?” I thought he hadn’t noticed me watching him but he glanced up, brushing his hair aside. “It would have to hurt your mouth, right, growing fangs like that.”

  I inhaled. I didn’t want to lie to him but I didn’t’ want to scare him either.

  “I’m not sure. I don’t really know that much about vampires. Lucas said it really hurt the first few times he shifted but now he’s used to it. And Tarragon is preparing something to help you.”

  “A potion?”

  I nodded. I didn’t want to tell Ren too much but I couldn't leave him in the dark, wondering what would happen.

  “Did you use a potion on Thunder? Is that what happened?”

  “Yes. It wouldn't have hurt him.”

  Ren studied me. “But why?”

  “To stop you going in the woods, idiot. A fat lot of good that did me.”

  “Sorry,” he whispered under his breath.

  Then our food turned up.

  “Have you been feeling feverish?” I asked as we ate.

  Ren shook his head, his mouth full of pizza.

  “And you definitely aren’t off human food. They are good signs.”

  My watch beeped.

  “What’s with that watch?”

  “Can’t explain now, got to run.”

  “Can you bring me back a sandwich?” Ren called after me.

  “The way you’re comfort eating, I think you are going to have bigger problems to worry about than turning into a vampire. You wouldn’t want to ruin that perfect body.

  I rushed from Ren’s room, realizing what I’d said. Perfect body. I said he had a perfect body. My face burned. Why had I said that? Ren would think... he’d think I found his body perfect. I didn’t want Ren to think that I thought about his body at all. I mean, I tried not to but it was pretty darn close to perfect. That was just facts.

  But I’d said it out loud.

  “We think we’ve found a way to save Ren,” Lucas told me when I got to the training room.

  The two of them sat at one side of the table with Tarragon on the other. Mr. Norton had a pile of dusty books with him.

  “It’s a long shot.” Britney’s smile belied her words.

  “It’s dangerous.” Lucas smiled back at Britney.

  Obviously researching together did something to their hormones. The love stuff between them had intensified. Like their eyes turned into heart shapes when they looked at each other.

  “We’ll go into details when the others arrive.” Britney folded her hands on the pile of books in front of her.

  Tarragon handed me the potion he’d brewed.

  “Two drops in his food as soon as he shows any sign of turning.” Then Tarragon handed me a pendant with a crystal hanging from it. “And wear this, just in case. It should protect you more than a cross or any of that religious stuff.”

  I grinned and thanked him. At least someone had my back.

  Mark and Seth stumbled into the room, covered in sweat. They’d obviously been in training and hadn’t had time to change. My own training had fallen by the wayside since I had to spend so much time with Ren. I kind of envied them. Even though I’d hated working out to start with, once I saw the results, I really got into it.

  “Okay, people.” Mr. Norton stood, holding one of the books. “I think we’re found a way to stop the turning.”

  Thank goodness. I could stop running around after Ren and get my life back.

  “We have to kill the vampire who bit him.”

  “Yeah well, couldn’t we have worked that out by watching any vampire movie ever made?” That was mighty mouthy of Seth. “It’s not exactly a secret.”

  Mr. Norton sighed. “We can’t take movies or other popular entertainment as fact. But that brings us to a bigger dilemma. We need to lure the vampire to the school.”

  Mark pursed his lips. “I guess we do since we don’t exactly have their home address.”

  “We’re better off fighting on home ground, too,” Seth added.

  “They can’t come onto the school grounds,” I reminded everyone. “We’d have to remove all the protections.”

  “You know what would be the best bait to lure him?” Mark looked around the room. “Ren Worthington. That’s what the vamps want.”

  “You can’t use Ren as bait. He could be killed!”

  Everyone stared at me.

  “You've changed your tune.” Mark snorted. “You would’ve been the first to put him out there just a week ago. All that proximity and those late-night study sessions have changed you.”

  “Have not. I’m just being con
cerned for a fellow human being.” I folded my arms. I hadn’t changed. Not one bit.

  “This is what I think,” Mark said. “The school dance is on Friday. Ren and Cherry pair up, like they planned.”

  “Did not.” I slapped the desk.

  Mark rolled his eyes. “Cherry and Ren pair up, unlike they’d planned. The dance is off school premises so the vamps know it’s the best chance to get Ren. They turn up. We kill them all. Problem solved.”

  “We never planned to pair up. We never planned anything.” I glared at Mark hard enough to make him cringe.

  “I don’t think that’s the issue here,” Mr. Norton said. “There are a number of flaws in Mark’s plan. The main one being that we put the whole student body at risk by luring vampires to a dance.”

  “And it’s a dance. You guys are throwing me under the bus here.”

  Mark ignored me. “We could charm the main part of the hall to keep vampires out then have Cherry and Ren go outside for some ‘private time’ so the vampires can get him there.”

  I held up my hands. ‘Okay, okay, this is going to help Ren but who is going to protect me from the entire female student body when I go out for ‘private time’ with Ren. I’ve had it bad enough spending time with Ren already. That’s going to push me over the edge. And what are you all smiling about? I mean it. I’d rather face a whole pack of vampires than deal with chicks in Ren frenzy.”

  “That would’ve been much cooler if you’d called it renzy,” Lucas said.

  Mr. Norton shot me a sympathetic look but didn’t jump in to save me.

  I huffed. “This plan sucks. This plan sucks worse than anything. And what’s to say other students won’t follow Ren and me outside? The protections seem a bit lame and flawed.”

  “I think it could work,” Mr. Norton said. “It’s risky but it’s our best chance.”

  I turned my glare on him but it seemed to bounce right off. Did no one in this meeting have any sense but me? I looked at Lucas.

  “Britney and I will research how best to repel vampires.”

  Betrayer.

  “I’ll work with you,” Tarragon said.

  Ha, Lucas didn’t like that one bit. Served him right.