Everyone was hungry after the tests, so once everyone was done changing both vampires and humans were ushered by Ms. Todd to the dining hall. The humans were offered an assortment of foods for lunch. There was a buffet of salads, hummus and pita bread, boiled eggs, sandwiches, and Jell-O or pudding for dessert. Zoe grabbed a sandwich and Jell-O, as she didn’t like pudding. She sat with all the other humans in the dining hall, in a spot that faced the vampires. Observing the vampires was easy for her to do since she didn’t have anything else to do. The vampires didn’t have a buffet of food, instead, they sat down and were hand-delivered opaque cups with, presumably blood in them. Each vampire quickly consumed the cup, beckoning for a second one, which arrived promptly. The second cup of blood lasted longer than the first one, and a third was not brought out.
“So, you’re hot stuff, aren’t ya, Zoe?” Lily proclaimed to Zoe and the rest of the table they were sitting at. Zoe was caught off guard, didn't chew her food correctly, and had to grab her drink to dislodge the food in her throat.
After coughing, Zoe finally replied, “There are plenty of vampires that want your blood too. And we both share one of those dangerous-looking female vampires.”
“What are you talking about Zoe? What dangerous female vampire?” Lily asked, looking mildly concerned.
“During the physicals, there were a few female vampires that didn’t participate to the best of their abilities. But, when it came time for the blood draw, they were excited and looked right at us, while the other vampires seemed ashamed and looked away,” Zoe explained. Lily thought about what Zoe had said for a minute. Everything Zoe said made sense and looking back Lily had also noticed those two female vampires acting differently from the rest.
“Okay Zoe, I’ll try to stay clear of those two vampires, you too Jackie. But, Zoe, you also must be careful. I’m sorry I tried to make light of the danger you could be facing. At least you have Josh, who if I remember correctly is one of the top athletic vampires,” Lily acknowledged.
“Ugh! Don’t remind me. What if he is dangerous? I’m dead! I must be careful around him too. You never know,” Zoe moaned back.
“Yeah, but at least he’s hot! And he didn’t even react to your blood,” Lily fawned. Zoe just rolled her eyes. Clearly, Lily couldn’t see the seriousness of the situation. She couldn’t see that Josh and all the other “hot” vampire guys weren’t humans. They look human but become monsters with a whiff of blood. At least Zoe was able to clear her conscience of warning Lily to be safe around those two dangerous female vampires.
When the humans finished eating, they brought their dirty plates and cups to bins to be washed by the kitchen staff, then returned to their seats waiting for their next instructions. Zoe looked over at the vampires seated at the other end of the dining room and noticed that they were also done drinking from their cups. It finally occurred to Zoe that she didn't know what the schedule for today was. As Lily returned to the table to sit down, Zoe asked her, "What are we doing after lunch?"
"Hmm, Oh, you don't know? We are going to have our first academic class, then dinner and a movie.” Lily exclaimed excitedly.
‘Well, this ought to be interesting,’ Zoe thought.
Ms. Todd returned, gathering all the students together to explain our next activity. “Okay, students, we will soon be having our first academic class as college students. It won’t be as much as a class as it will be a variety of activities to understand where your academic level is. Now follow me.”
A few minutes following Ms. Todd, and we were back to the classroom we had started in. “Please sit at your assigned seats,” Ms. Todd commented to us as we walked in. The humans knew more about the vampires now, especially those who wanted their blood, but they reacted just as awkward if not more than the first time they were in the classroom. No eyes were meeting, no talking, and what was new was that the humans were sitting as far away from their partner as possible.
“Okay class, all the activities are to be done with your partner. We will give you a packet of questions for math, English, and science. Which you will attempt to complete in thirty minutes,” Ms. Todd explained.
All the groups had their packet, and when the time started, no one moved at first. Zoe couldn’t take the pressure of losing time anymore, she looked at Josh, who was already waiting for her to meet his gaze. This surprised Zoe, but she was able to get through it to briefly speak. “Um, can we work on this?” She asked motioning to the packet.
“Sure,” Josh spoke more confidently, than Zoe. “Here.” He moved the packet closer to Zoe. Zoe rummaged around in her bag for a mechanical pencil and eraser. Then she instinctively started to read the first question. All the years of public school, teaching her to attack any question thrown at her quickly, were impossible to fight off. Well, the first question was something simple, some Algebra 2 math. She knew how to answer it, but didn’t, she first wanted to know what Josh knew. So, she asked him if he could do it. He had no problem with it. And then she asked him to do every question after that, without realizing it looked like she didn’t know how to do any of it. Josh flew through the Algebra 2, Trigonometry, and Pre-calculus questions. Then he finally paused at a question he didn’t know how to answer. He paused to briefly think about what to do. The question was about Statistics. By then the pair only had ten minutes left to attempt to complete the rest of the packet. Zoe loved Statistics. It was her best math course back in high school that she took during her junior year. Josh looked at Zoe, smirking, thinking he was finally getting back at her for making him do all the work, he told Zoe to do the question. But Zoe to his surprise took the pencil she had in her hand and determined the probability that it was asking for in a matter of seconds.
Josh turned the page of the packet to look at the next question. Darn more statistics which he didn’t know how to do. Zoe completed the next question and the next until the packet began asking about Calculus. Calculus was one of the last math classes that Zoe had taken in high school, therefore she was still a novice at the subject.
“So … do you know how to do Calculus?” Zoe inquired of Josh.
“No. Haven’t learned it yet.” He retorted.
“Okay, I’ll give these a go, but I think I won’t be able to do all of them,” Zoe sighed.
The first few questions were basic limits, functions, derivatives, and integrals. Once the questions had stepped into specific derivatives and integrals that you had to memorize, Zoe couldn’t continue to complete the questions any longer. That didn’t quite matter anyway as the time was up.
Zoe looked at Josh as he turned in the packet. He seemed underwhelmed about the fact that Zoe was smarter than he thought. Josh turned to look at Zoe after receiving the next packet. He thought about how interesting it was that she wasn’t completely inept. But now he was intrigued at how much intelligence she had. The next packet contained English; Zoe was average at best at English. If English is learned through reading books, that would be why Zoe isn’t great at it. Zoe could barely get into a book when she wanted to and only completed one book during high school that wasn’t required reading. Josh turned the first page to open the packet when Ms. Todd had started the next thirty-minute timer.
The first page was a wall of English text. It was an excerpt from a book. Josh and Zoe had to lean in close to each other to read the text. Zoe finished reading the text barely half a minute before Josh. For those thirty seconds, she was able to get a closer look at him. He had brown hair and long eyelashes. Zoe thought it was crazy that a guy could be prettier than a girl. Her eyes worked their way down Josh’s face. His nose was average, but his lips were plump and matte, not a single crack anywhere, and they looked extremely soft. Suddenly, Zoe needed to know what color Josh’s eyes were. When Josh finished reading, he looked up into Zoe’s two black eyes, revealing to Zoe his own hazel eyes.
“Uhh, are you ready for me to turn the page?” Josh asked, snapping Zoe out of the trance Josh’s physical beauty put her in.
“Yeah…” She said now looking at the packet.
There were questions that followed the long story, basic reading comprehension questions. Zoe and Josh told one another which answer they thought was correct and then if they agreed they put down that answer. When they disagreed, if they could easily show that their answer was right, they put that one down, otherwise Zoe chose to default to Josh’s answer. In completing the English packet, Zoe found that Josh seemed to have more correct answers than she did, so she concluded that Josh was better than she at English. She didn’t disregard the fact that there could be a human that was better than Josh at English.
Zoe was already tired after completing the English packet and now there was a Science packet to complete. Josh received the final packet and with the start of the final thirty minutes, they began working through the questions. The Biology and Chemistry questions were no sweat for the pair. Most of the Physics questions were also easily completed. Either Zoe couldn’t keep up measuring Josh’s intelligence due to being tired, or they were tied in their Science intelligence, but Zoe felt that Josh and perhaps all vampires weren’t necessarily more intelligent than humans.
With the final packet returned, Zoe and Josh both took a deep breath. They briefly looked at each other, acknowledging their intelligence.
“Good job,” Josh said unexpectedly to Zoe.
Zoe yawned, “Yea, you too,” before grabbing her bag and stuffing it under her head on the desk. Josh chuckled at how easily tired humans become. She closed her eyes for a second, and then opened them and sat up to look for Lily. Zoe’s eyes scanned the room, and she found Lily sitting on the left side of the room towards the back. After she was able to make eye contact with Lily, she mouthed the words “How was it?” and Lily mouthed back with a sad face, “Omg, it was hard.” That response initially put a sympathetic frown on Zoe’s face, which was replaced by a smile when she turned to face forward towards the front of the classroom. When Zoe had first arrived at this Mansion, she wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to enjoy the social life she left back home here. With Lily and Jackie too, Zoe felt she wouldn’t have to go through this ordeal alone, especially when she was uncertain about the role the vampires were playing in this mansion.
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