Ms. Todd relinquished us from her directives, to go wash up in our dorms. All the human girls gathered near each other in the classroom to leave together. Instinctively, Zoe gathered towards Lily’s table in the room, and so did the others. And when Lily was all packed and ready to go, they traveled the hallways and stairways to their rooms. The girls each had their own room, with plenty of rooms to spare. Their area, which was a flight of stairs below the human boys and in a completely different section of the mansion from the vampires, had two bathrooms available for use. Once the girls had arrived at their hallway Lily thought to ask who wanted to take a shower, since most of them had not taken showers during the physical tests. Everyone wanted to take a shower. It made sense as they probably wanted to wash away their sweat or use the hot water to relax. With two bathrooms and five girls, they all finished showering in a total of two hours. There was only about an hour left before they would have to return for dinner.
In this hour, Zoe and all the other girls, giggled, dressing each other up in each of their rooms. They did each other’s hair. Zoe was encouraged to wear a thick white graphic shirt that contained a bouquet on it, tucked into a black pleated skater skirt. Lily chose a casual gray dress that all the other girls liked. Jackie wore a red top with a black and white skirt, and the other two, Reina and Theresa, wore dresses. When it came time for choosing shoes, Zoe was emphatic that they all must wear something they could run in. If the vampires were ever activated, Zoe felt that they should be able to run away at least. Zoe chose her black sneakers. While Lily chose platform shoes and Jackie boots. Both Reina and Theresa wore high-top Converse sneakers.
When they finished with their makeovers, the girls proceeded to walk to the dining hall, gossiping about their pasts in high school. Zoe learned that Reina and Theresa were in basketball and volleyball, respectively, while Lily was in theater and Jackie in a choir. In high school, Zoe was in a concert band and had not participated in any sports. These girls together were an amalgam of different people with different talents and experiences that were bonded by the invitation they received to this school. This fact interested Zoe. She wanted to know more about the vampires’ selection process and what their goals were trying to bring humans and vampires together. Zoe knew that in time it would all begin to make some sense. But now, she was ready for dinner, having been working physically and mentally throughout the day.
The dining hall seemed larger than before. There was more space to move between the walls and the tables. The staff must have removed some of the tables. Zoe thought that maybe they wanted them to sit closer to the vampires. Did they expect the human students to become accustomed to vampires drinking blood? And thus, we would be able to eat with them. For a moment Zoe felt that as long as she wasn’t their meal, they could eat together. The vampires do drink blood in a relatively respectful way.
Minutes after arriving in the dining hall, the human boys walked in and then the vampires from the other side of the dining hall. Ms. Todd wasn’t there, but she was probably going to appear when they were done eating to chauffeur them to the movie theater. One of the staff members waved to the humans to offer them another buffet of foods to choose from. There were plenty of options, this time too: spaghetti, lasagna, tomato soup, and ice cream and gelato for dessert. Zoe’s family only ate lasagna at restaurants, and this lasagna served in this mansion was the best she had ever eaten. As she was finishing her last bites, she suddenly became excited about dessert. The ice cream was also probably good, but Zoe couldn’t pass up the mango and strawberry gelato, which was divine.
At the end of dinner, as predicted, Ms. Todd appeared to take them to one of the mansion's movie rooms. The students entered the opposite of the movie screen, behind homey-looking couches and recliner seats. Enough for all twenty of the students. There was also a table with refreshments and snacks that ranged from healthy such as pretzels to cavity-inducing like brownies and candy. Zoe and the other humans were impressed but confused as to why they were in a movie theater. Ms. Todd explained the situation to them, “Viewing a movie together is just another test for the vampire’s resistance to the human students’ presence. But, with the partner system, everything should go smoothly. You must sit with your partners on these couches. Feel free to grab refreshments and use the restroom before we start the movie. Once the movie has been started, you are not to move from your seats until we say so.”
Zoe and the other girls used the restroom first and then perused the table of food and drink. She was quite full from dinner, so she grabbed a cup of pretzels and a bottle of water just in case she wanted it later and then walked over to the couch Josh had picked while she was hanging at the back of the room. “Hello again,” Zoe said as she slid into her side of the couch while placing the pretzels in the cup holder and the bottle of water on her skirt. Josh rolled his eyes, before reluctantly saying “Hi.”
Curious about what Josh and the other vampires did in their free time, Zoe asked Josh “So what do vampires do in their free time?”
“Nothing. Hang around in our rooms mostly,” Josh replied without offering any more information.
“Well, do you like to watch movies?”
“Sure, as much as anyone I guess.”
“Then does that mean vampires are humans that drink human blood for nourishment?” Zoe blurted out, surprising herself and Josh.
“Yea.” Josh sounded peeved. He had been told since he had arrived at this school that he wasn’t allowed to interact with the humans, especially look at them until the humans meet them halfway first. But he was there to learn to control himself when he is activated. Josh thought that the fastest way to go about this would be to encourage activation as much as possible and have adult vampires hold them back. The school had some ulterior motives, but Josh, who didn’t like school, wanted to be finished, so he could start his life. He was finally out of his parents' house, and yet he still felt constrained as if his life were still not his to live. And now he had to entertain and protect this ridiculous human.
Zoe and Josh stopped talking as they were presented with two movie genres to choose from. “Action or drama?” Ms. Todd offered. Zoe felt that action would be the most appropriate. She knew that depending on the movie, a drama could bring her to tears, and she didn’t want to show any weakness in front of Josh. But the guys wanted to impress the girls and chose drama, the girls wanted drama, and the only two who wanted action were Zoe and Josh. Well, the movie wasn’t one Zoe had heard of, so she didn’t know if she was going to be caught off guard by any overwhelming feelings. So, she decided to just relax and enjoy the movie.
After about thirty minutes in her legs became cold, so she removed her shoes and tucked them in under her skirt. With the extra warmth and the exhaustion from the day, she became very drowsy. She tried drinking water and eating to stay awake, but it only made her sleepier. Eventually she fell asleep, her head propped up by her arm on the couch’s armrest. Then at some point, she curled up into a ball fitting perfectly within her section of the couch. Noticing a lot of movement going on to the left of Josh, he turned to see Zoe scooting down into the seat from the armrest, then curling up, like a shrimp.
Eventually, Towards the end of the movie, Zoe became cold again and started to sleep in search of something warm. Her head, which was mostly tucked towards the corner of her side of the seat, became closer to Josh’s lap. She could tell he was warm, his seat radiated heat, and she wanted it. So, her hands slowly crept up towards Josh’s thighs. When Josh felt something touch him, he initially expected it to be her feet which had been closest to his body. So, when he saw her hands crawling up over his clothes, he freaked out and tried pulling them off him, but they kept coming back. He realized he needed to wake Zoe up, but just before he touched her head, he felt a sense of fear. Josh honestly thought if he wasn’t careful, he could hurt her. If any of the physical tests taught him anything, it was that being a human-made her delicate. With one hand he held her hands to stop them from grabbing at him and with the other hand he first moved her hair out of her face.
Zoe stirred in her sleep. She felt something move across her face and it woke her up, at least a little bit. Her hands moved to wipe the sleep from her eyes and when she could see she noticed she was near someone. “Dad?” Zoe whispered. “I missed you.” She said while freeing her hands to hug the man sitting next to her. She looked at him all bleary-eyed and couldn’t tell who he was or where she was. Josh studied Zoe while trying to undo her clasp around his waist.
“Zoe, Hey Zoe, wake up,” Josh whispered back. Zoe did not recognize that voice. It wasn’t her Dad’s, so she let go of her clasp to look at the person she was hugging closely. When she moved her head closer towards Josh's, he moved his head back.
“Hey, I don’t know anyone with green-brown eyes. Who are you?” Zoe asked just before fully waking up. As soon as she was awake, she moved back into her seat so quickly she knocked over the water she had off to the side of her leg. She was so embarrassed and, it showed, her face was bright red. Zoe didn't know it, but there were still twenty minutes left in the movie. Thirty seconds later, Zoe recovered enough to tell Josh that she was sorry for what she did. He just nodded in response, as he was also quite embarrassed. Josh had been distant from his family and classmates all his life and never gave or received any physical affection due to that. His mind was jumping from the movie, to how Zoe’s touch felt on his leg, then to how deep her dark eyes looked when she stared into his eyes.
When the movie finally ended, the lights were turned back on in the room. Zoe was either looking down at her hands or to her left, just anywhere Josh couldn’t come into view. Ms. Todd announced to the class “Everything seems to be working out with the partners. So, I hope you enjoyed your movie. You can go to your rooms now. Goodnight. I will see you in the morning. And don’t forget breakfast is from 7 am until 8 am.” With that, as Zoe and Josh heard everyone else rising from their seats, they did too. Zoe quickly scoured the room for Lily after collecting her water bottle and pretzel cup. Before she walked over to Lily after spotting her, she looked at Josh quickly, and when he also looked at her before he left, she offered him a soft “Goodnight” to which he nodded. The pair, having rejoined their peoples, went their separate ways for the night.
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