When all the pairs completed the final pass, set, spike task, they were offered free time to play with the volleyballs and nets as they pleased. The only requirement was that they had to play with their partners. Zoe looked at Josh with puppy eyes, begging for him to play with her over the net. The other guy-guy pairs played dodgeball with the volleyballs, and some of the girl-girl pairs either sat out conversing or played across the net. Josh wasn’t in the mood to play with Zoe, but he was afraid of looking like a bully. Why was he paired with a girl? For the rest of the time till lunch, Zoe and Josh tried to volley the ball for as long as possible. They were using the full court and all the running tired out Zoe. Her face and forearms were red. Josh was completely unfazed. He laughed at Zoe for how she wouldn’t stop trying to return the balls that he sent far from her, despite being tired after going at it for thirty or so minutes.
Ms. Todd called the class over to her, gave them praise, and sent them to the locker rooms. This time Zoe, who had run her heart out playing volleyball with Josh, decided she needed a shower. She found toiletries in her locker and gathered them up for a quick shower. When she finished, she toweled off, threw on her clothes, and tossed her gym clothes and towel into the laundry basket, and replaced the toiletries. She noticed that she finished fast enough to not be left behind.
Lunch was next. Once again there were fewer tables in the room. The staff had finally removed enough of the table such that the vampires and humans would be sitting side by side. Ms. Todd directed the students to eat either sitting next to or across from their pair. As the vampires sit down first and get served their food, the humans don’t get a choice for who they want to sit with. Zoe was looking forward to talking with Lily, Jackie, Theresa, and Reina. But she wasn’t sure who she would be sitting with. Enough of thinking about that Zoe was hungry. She walked over to the buffet with the other humans and found beef and chicken burgers, as well as chips and fries, and for dessert cookies and brownies. Zoe grabbed a beef burger, extra pickles, chips, and a brownie. Looking back at the tables, she found Josh sitting off to the side and noticed a seat free next to him and one free in front of him. There were only a few seconds for Zoe to pick one to sit at, but her decision was made when Lily picked the seat in front of Josh, forcing Zoe to sit next to Josh. As Zoe placed her plate full of food down, she locked her eyes with Lily and noticed she winked at her, as if she were trying to set us up.
The vampires already had their drinks in their hands when the humans sat down. Zoe could tell, the opaque drink container concealed blood. She knew what her blood smelled like as she was one of those people that was clumsy enough to get scratches and scrapes throughout her life. Zoe was curious how the vampires obtained their blood, but with her rumbling stomach, she focused on her burger instead after placing the wad of pickles with lettuce and tomatoes between the bun and the cheese. Josh and Lily looked at Zoe with interest and astonishment, respectively. Josh who wasn’t accustomed to seeing human food wanted to know why Zoe had put a giant pile of something the other human students didn’t touch or had a moderate amount of. Lily was simply impressed by how much Zoe liked pickles.
Zoe took a bite of her burger with slices of pickles falling out. She smiled enjoying the sour taste and contrast between the cold slices and warm meat. There was truly nothing like a good burger.
“Did you get enough pickles there, Zoe?” Lily asked, interrupting one of Zoe’s burger attacking bites.
“I did, Lily. This is the perfect amount.” Zoe said just before taking another bite.
Josh wanted to say something. He was curious about human food as he had never tried it. The only food he had was human blood. Which could be good, but often wasn’t anything special and it certainly wasn’t something he could choose to have a particular kind of, in any amount he wanted.
“So, why do you like those … pickles,” Josh asked Zoe.
“Do you know what pickles are?” Zoe asked back.
“I’ve heard of them.” He replied.
“Well, I like them because they are sour and salty. And I like sour and salty things.” Zoe replied after finishing the final bite of her burger.
Sour. Salty. Josh didn’t think that he could taste those words in blood.
Out of nowhere, with a brownie in her hand, Zoe asked Josh, “What does your drink taste like?” She gathered a few looks from around the table, but the humans within earshot were the only ones paying any attention.
“Well, no comment,” Josh said, trying to wriggle his way out of the question.
“I’ve tasted my own blood before. It tastes metallic. Is that what you taste?” Zoe asked, rephrasing the question.
“Um, no? I don’t know what metal tastes like?” He spoke.
“What can you taste?” Zoe questioned.
“Blood has different tastes,” Josh replied, realizing he admitted to drinking blood from a human.
Zoe stopped the questioning right there. She didn’t need to know more and didn’t want to make everyone more uncomfortable than they already were. Josh wanted to tack on to his statement that when vampires drink blood what they taste is a feeling that they get, but he decided against it. As the vampires finished off their second blood-filled drink, Zoe worked on her chips and brownie that were left untouched during her conversation with Josh. Minutes after everyone was done eating, Ms. Todd reappeared with more instructions.
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