I wake up later than Jacob that day, so he'd already left by the time I had dressed and was out the door, ready for the human school. I remember Thalia mentioning that it was out of this little town, and further north of here, and that a bus took them every day to the correct location. On Thalias tour, I remember seeing the ‘bus stop’, that was marked only by pole that stuck out of the ground, with the English word bus engraved in it. I’ve never been in a vehicle, vampires could travel just as fast running, so there really wasn’t any need, and apart from the train that transported blood, I’d never seen one either. But as I understood it, a ‘bus’ was very different from a train.

The vehicle was noisy when in arrived, it’s chunky metal exterior was pulled along by four large wheels, each a thick dark material encased in the yellowish dirt that formed the roads in town. Running along the sides were rough gaps in the metal casing that were filled with a dirty glass, that was so coated in dust that it obscured the inside. The doors where at the front of the vehicle, they creaked open, creating a dismal hole in the exterior in which to enter. The inside did not fair much better, there were worn material benches either side of the bus, creating a narrow walkway through the centre.

“kid, you getting on?” at last my eyes settle on the driver. An old man in a rough looking suit, hands resting on a hollow wheel that I presume was used to steer the vehicle.

“Yes.” I answer, slightly reluctantly stepping into the bus, wincing as the floor lowers and quakes under my weight. I remind myself that the

“Rosehill Academy?” he asks. When I nod he replies, “One credit.”

I rummage through my pockets, searching for the coins that Thalia gave me. I understood now that coins although shiny were worth a lot less, that paper money was worth a lot more, and that most people deal with coins. Bringing out a small copper coloured coin, I placed it in the man outstretched hand, and gingerly took a seat behind him.

Then the doors swung shut with an unhealthy creaking sound, trapping me inside with the old stale smelling air, and we were moving. My body was jerked forward, but I catch myself on a rip in the leather a moment before I would have tumbled to the floor. My heart clobbered in my chest, threatening to burst out of my skin, as I cling on for dear life. That was the longest twenty minuets of my life, I clutched to the seat with white knuckles, heaving in my breath with short rapid gasps, staring at the dirty back of the drivers seat in an attempt to reduce the jerking and the nauseating feeling rising from the pit of my stomach.

At first I didn’t realise when the bus had stopped moving, I continued to grasp the seat, finger nails digging in causing lesions in the fabric, until the engine stopped and the driver turned around to face me, “You getting off?” he asked.

I loosened the muscles in my hands, forcing myself to release the fabric I was holding hostage. Unsteadily, I got to my feet and stumbled out the door. Sun light hit me, and I breathed in deep, glad to be out of that tin can; when I look back, the bus was already gone. I studied my surroundings: I was in a town, but it was vastly different from the town Jacob and Thalia lived in. It was like they were separate worlds. There was so much concrete, the buildings were larger, and the streets were smaller while being more densely packed with people. I could feel the buzzing presence of hundreds of humans just in a single street, the smell, their heart beats, their pitched voices. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it. I didn’t know a human town could be like this- so… vast. Tall buildings in every direction, streets upon streets in a complex labyrinth, people everywhere. Vehicles in the street, shouting, chatting, doors slamming shut, music playing, smells of human food, human waste, burning fuel; all these sensations mixed together to drown out clarity.

I close my eyes, trying to block to the noise. In the distance, the sound of a distant bell brings me back. I force myself to focus and begin to find the school. Despite the disorientating mass of new things hitting me all at once, I also felt myself grinning ear to ear. Admittingly I was terrified, but there was something thrilling about that, something that filled me up head to toe, adrenaline and wonder coursing through me, causing my heart to beat even faster. These new exciting things belonged to an entirely new world, one that I’d never seen before, that was so vastly different from my own life that it was like stepping into an alien universe.

I stumbled blindly around the streets, but thankfully, the school just around the corner from the street I was dropped off. At the front there were three buildings encased in a brick wall spanning seven feet from the ground with a tall metal gate in the centre left unlocked. Looking left and right, I stepped through the gate. Inside there was a small expanse of concrete before the first building, where the white door at the front pushed open when I leaned on it. A long corridor spread out in front of me with numerous doors stemming from it, I peered through the small window of the first door, and found an empty room with small tables neatly arranged in four lines, and chairs tucked in underneath them. At the front was a large white board with various stains where pen had been half-heartedly rubbed off. In front of that was a larger desk spanning a third of the width of the room, with strange items scattered lazily across it. I go to the next room, almost the same as the one before, and the one after that. Only on the forth, do I find life; there were little clusters of about four or five people dotted around in a random order; one of these groups consisting of mostly girls, were taking and laughing, while another was playing a game with a set of cards, there were also a couple of people sitting alone bent over their desk scribbling on paper.

I look in both directions, then push the door inwards. While I survey the room, the others continue their conversations, and those sitting at their desk continue scribbling, so I take a seat on an empty chair in the middle, for the view of the entire room. Under closer inspection, the room is more crowded than I first thought; there are hand drawn posters in English hanging on the walls, books stacked on the windowsills, and cupboards filled to the brim with papers lining the perimeter. The larger desk was bursting with semi organised piles of items: papers, books, stationary and other instruments that functions were unclear.

The room gradually filled up with young people, until an older man entered and eased himself into the chair at the front behind the large desk. I watched him set his bag down and study the papers in front of him, scratching his thinning dark hair absently as he reads. Finally, he looks up and studies the room, when his expression changes to confusion, “excuse me!” he calls, and I look around the room for a response. Some of the children look up, but most of them continue with their activity. “Excuse me!” he calls again, louder this time. When no one replied, he stands and struts over.

The old man approaches me, “Hello.” I greet him, looking up in surprise.

“And you are?” the older man asked.

“My name is Shion.” I answered. The room had begun to get quiet, and I wondered if I was doing something wrong.

“I think you’re in the wrong class son.” He says.

“Son?” I asked. Other people in the class had started to stare, and at my response there were a few sniggers, but I couldn’t understand why what I said was funny.

“There’s no Shion in this class.” He says.

“I don’t understand. I’m sitting right here.” I say, which awards me with a wall of laughter.

The old man sighed, “You’re not meant to be here, you must be in the wrong room.”

I finally understood, “Ok.” I say to him, draw back my chair from the desk and walked out. Apparently, I to find the ‘right’ class, maybe I should find Thalia or Jacob- but in a place this big, how I could I possibly find them?

I wandered the corridors, looking in the windows as I go, I even try the next building over which appeared to be occupied by younger children, but I couldn’t find either of them. I’m just about to give up when I heard my name being called out, I look up, searching for the source: Thalia- hanging out the window of the second floor of the last building, she’s waving at me with a series of hand signs I don’t understand, “what are you doing here?!” she called, leaning further out so that her entire top half of her body was hanging out of the window. “don’t worry, I’m coming down. Just stay there.” She shouts. So I stand waiting below window, until a couple of moments later, she appears from the other side of the building.

“What are you doing here?” she asked me in an urgent voice.

“You said last week that I should come to school with you guys, so here I am.”

“Well… I didn’t mean that!” she looks confused.

“Should I go then? One of the old men said that I was in the wrong room, so I was trying to find the right one, and that when you found me.” I explained.

She giggled, “Sometimes I forget that you’re not too good with common sense.” I feel like I’ve just been insulted. “You have to enrol in a school, you can’t just turn up when you feel like it.”

“So, what do I have to do to enrol in a school?” I ask.

“Well… you go to the office, give your name and details and stuff…” she trailed off. “Well, I don’t know exactly, my mum did for me. Let’s just go to the office, and I’ll help you out.” She grabs the fabric of my shirt and I’m dragged through the school grounds, and up a flight of stairs, to a part of the school, which was more enclosed, containing smaller rooms and less people. At the end, it widened up and there was large desk, folders resting carefully on the side, with a couple of neatly dressed women working silently on either end. One of them looks up when we approach, but the other continues tapping away on her computer.

“Hi, how do you enrol?” she asks bluntly.

The women’s eyebrows rise with surprise, “Who are you enrolling?” she asks.

“‘im” she points to me, “He’s a neighbour of mine and he just arrived in my town and wants to enrol from today.” She explains.

“I see,” she replies, “Go to the administration office down the hall, Mr. Lloyd should sort you both out.” She explains in a monotone tone, as if she was just too bored to put expression into her voice.

she waves her thanks over her shoulder as she’s walking away again. I had to skip a couple of steps to catch up, “Keep up!” she complains.

“Young lady, shouldn’t you be in class?” the women called after us, and Thalia continues as if she couldn’t hear her complaint.

“Are you going to get in trouble?” I ask her.

She shrugs, “I live for excuses to get out of class, so don’t worry about it.” She answers while surveying the names on the doors until we reached one that said Mr. Lloyd. She knocked on the door, and there was movement, then a soft sound of “come in.” came from inside.

“Thalia you should be in class right now, what’s your excuse this time?” he signed, but when I enter after her, he looks curiously. Mr. Lloyd was an older man with fading ginger hair and aged intelligent eyes. He sat behind a desk with an unorganised mass of files and books screwed across it so that there was just enough room to rest his entwined hands on the surface.

“Don’t worry sir, this time I actually have a legitimate excuse. This is Shion, a boy who moved into our village a couple of weeks ago, and he wants to enrol in school.” She explained sweetly.

“And is there no reason it couldn’t be done out of class hours?” he looks at her critically.

“That was my fault.” I interrupt. “I’m sorry, I kind of just turned up today without telling them.”

His expression softened, “Don’t misunderstand, I don’t mind that you turned up without informing us beforehand. I’m just worried about your friend’s education.”

She grinned gingerly, “So can we enrol him?” she asked sweetly.

“I need some information first, but I don’t think there’ll be a problem.” He says, “it is a little strange though, why did you move all the way out here? I’m assuming you came from further inwards?”

“Actually, I come from further east.”

“I wasn’t aware that there was anything further east.” He says. Maybe I should have said something else, I might not be able to trick someone like him. What should I say? “Oh well, you learn something new every day…” he mutters while rummaging through the papers on his desk, not find what he was looking for, he opens the draws in his desk and pulls out a creased bit of paper. “I seem to have misplaced the second sheet, would you mind filling this out, while I get another copy?” he asked.

We both nod, and he leaves us.

“Remember, write in English!” Thalia hisses over my shoulder.

“I know!!!!!!” I look at the sheet, first name, last name…. I haven’t actually told anyone my last name yet, but I know I cant use my real one- quick think! I glanced around the room, searching for an object I knew the name of, but confronted with numerous of completely alien objects. Quick! Thalia was starting to get curious and was leaning over my shoulder. My sights set on the bookshelf in the corner. I scribbled Shion Liberson. I sighed and hoped no-one knew Latin.

Contact details… I didn’t know going to school would be so troublesome- I’ll just put down Jacobs address. Date of birth- finally an easy one.

“You don’t have any parents with you, so you can just put my mum down.” Thalia says, reading over my shoulder.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

She shrugged, “My mum won’t mind; besides she likes you.” She took the pen and paper from me and started scribing down the rest, “and she had her way you really would be part of the family.” She muttered.

She hands it back to me just before Mr. Lloyd returns scratching his head despairingly. “Sorry Shion, I seem to have misplaced the paperwork, so can we do this another time?” he asks.

I nod. “But he can still come to class can’t he?” Thalia smiled slyly, “I mean a bit of paperwork is nothing, right sir?” she signalled to the surround mess.

He sighed, “For now just get back to class… The both of you.”

“We’ll go straight away sir.” Thalia grabs me by the arm, and I’m pulled out the office. In the next sentence she adds, “but first, I’ll give you a tour of the school.”