I turned around and saw Nova leaning against the wall.

“What do you mean?” I asked while tilting my head to the side.

He started to walk towards me and the look on his face scared me. It had a mixture of hunger and something that I have never seen before. Something felt different from the other times that I caught him staring at me. I started to back away from him and he followed my every footstep.

“Can’t you see that his evil vampirism is going to taint you?”

I bumped into the wall and then he reached out to touch me.

“Why do you think he is evil?! I have known him for most-”

“-Vampires are just evil! They drain the blood of the living to survive in this world!”

That one line I hated whenever strangers said it to me and I could not take it when someone that I know and care for, repeating that same evil line. I guess I just snapped.

“Listen here, Nova! Just because Bram is a vampire does not mean he is evil! He is my dear friend and I do not want to hear that coming from your mouth ever again! He is a sweet person that tries not to harm anyone unlike you!”

Nova started to laugh after I stopped to breathe and my nails were digging into my hand. I could feel his fingers on my cheek.

“Come to the music room tomorrow before class, I have something to tell you,” He told me as I felt his fingers move down to my neck.

I closed my eyes because I was afraid of what he might do. I felt a light pressure on my head then I heard the door close. I waited a few seconds before opening them again. He was gone and I saw a note on my bed. I walked over to it and a sunflower fell off my head as I picked it up.

Don’t forget, before the magic class in the music room, I’ll be waiting. I hope you like the sunflower, it lights up your face.

– Nova

I picked the flower and smelled it. It was not my taste, but the thought was nice. I carefully put it back in my hair.

“It’s a bit girly but how did he write the note so fast? Where did he hide that sunflower? Where was he hiding when Bram was here?”

I looked back on my bed and saw a textbook on beginner’s magic on it.

“How the hell did that get there so fast? Where did it come from?”

This school is strange but I guess it is telling me to study. I picked it up right as someone knocked on the door. Then I walked over to the door and it slammed open right on my face. The force caused me to fall back and I fell on my butt. She walked in as I got up from the floor.

“Ash! Where are you?! Bram told me that you would be here!” Joy yelled out.

“I’m right here; you seriously need to remember to wait a bit before rushing head-on into a room. I could be changing in here and accidentally flashed you.” I said while holding my nose.

She started laughing at me until I saw her staring at the sunflower.

“Bored or given?”

“Given,” I was a bit nervous to let her know who it was from. “Let me grab something and I’ll tell you outside.”

“Alright! Hurry up, I am not very patent.”

I grabbed my magic book and followed her out to the couches. If she is going to kill me, might as well make it public. She pulled out her knitting kit as we sat down. I was flipping through the pages while waiting to get the courage to speak.

“So spill the news, who gave you the flower? I want to know so I tell you something.”

“Nova gave it to me and I think he likes me.”

“Oh, well he should know that yellow is a bad color on you, maybe a black rose or a set of small moonflowers would be better. It would fit better with your light hair. Yellow makes you look diseased.”

I had to blink at her because she took it extremely better than I thought.

“Who are you and what did you do to my Joy?”

She flipped me off.

“Dick, I had fashion lessons from my mother growing up.”

I had forgotten that her mother was an incredible tailor. I also forgot that her mother was originally from Silvermine.

“So you are not mad?”

She started to create what looks like a scarf. She looked so calm while she worked on it.

“Nope, why would I?”

“You said that you liked him and then he gave me a flower.”

“So what? There are many other catches in this school. Especially, one nice looking human named Erin.” I sat up as she started talking about a cute guy. “This morning, I walked out of the room and I saw him working out over here. He had such a nice chiseled body, I wanted to touch it so badly, well mostly his nice ass. I wouldn’t mind sitting on him while he is doing pushups.”

Growing up, she never cared that I was a guy that liked guys or that Anna liked both guys and girls. I never really had a chance to date though. We started to giggle as Bram walked by us.

“So what are you two talking about?”

“Your ass!” The two of us said together before bursting into more giggles.

“Well thank you! I think it is quite fine!”

Bram started to walk back and forth for us while shaking his hips. I wonder how people thought of us. A vampire shaking his ass and two people cheering him on. Bram pulled on my arm and made me stand up.

“Your turn to shake some ass!”

I must have been as red as one of Joy’s tomatoes. But, seeing them smile made me happy for all of us. Bram walked into one of the shadows then he came back with lots of food. We ate quietly together until all the food was gone.

“Well we have school tomorrow so I’m going to sleep.” Joy told us before we all walked to our rooms.

I picked up my textbook and followed Bram. I was a little sad because I wanted to study for my class but I accidentally goofed off. When we finally got into our room, Bram jumped on his bed.

“I never knew that so many vampires exist in the world!” He flopped down for a few seconds then he sat back up. “Did you know that the leader of Duskwell is a vampire?!”

I started laughing at him.

“Of course he is a vampire! The Shadow Kingdom is mostly vampires.”

“Oh yeah! I guess I forgot,” he said as he scratched the back of his head, “So, where did you get the flower and why did you have your textbook out there?”

“One, I wanted to study up because my magic isn’t as flashy as yours.”

“Nerd! My magic is not flashy because it is shadows. Besides, you can change into a bear and use energy! That’s cool!”

“Two, Nova gave me this flower.”

I saw Bram’s unscarred eye twitch from my words. I jumped when he smiled at me a few seconds later.

“Well, Good night! The class made me super tired.”

He fell back and knocked himself out. I shook my head and quickly got ready for bed.

‘Looks like both Bram and Joy like it here. He is finally with his people and Joy has crushes here,’ I thought as I got in my bed, ‘Looks like we might start fading away from each other already.’

I closed my eyes and started to dream about my future.