“Okay, class we are going to the classrooms for your first lesson! You all are attending a college,” Ms. Todd exclaimed before returning with us to the classroom we all started this adventure in. We were all asked to be seated in our usual spots. Once everyone has settled a group of adults walked in. Zoe believed that all of them were vampires. Maybe Ms. Todd was the only adult human in this mansion? They were introduced by Ms. Todd to be the best professors of the subjects they teach. This was what Zoe wanted, it was what she was risking her life to be here for.
After the professors’ introductions, Ms. Todd called out the two groups that the students would be split into for their studies. Zoe and Josh were placed in a group with Evan and Freddy, everyone else remained forming their large group. The larger group was asked to remain in the classroom they were in while, Zoe, Josh, Evan, and Freddy were escorted to the classroom next door by one of the History teachers. As Zoe left, she waved bye to Lily and Jackie who looked like they were jealous of Zoe’s group. Once in their new classroom the History teacher, Mr. Westin, began his lesson immediately. He was introducing the humans in the class to how the vampire society of today was created. This was information that humans weren’t taught. Mr. Westin claimed that the information wasn’t really a secret it was just not useful for humans to know if they weren’t allowed to be in vampire society.
According to Mr. Westin, an agreement was reached between humans and vampires that ended their prey-hunter relationship. Vampires needed human blood to survive but killing humans to get it was dwindling their supply, so the humans agreed to willingly give up their blood in exchange for the end of the attacks on humans. This agreement was easy for the adult vampires to keep because they were old enough to control their activation around humans, but unchecked young vampires would still have become activated near humans and attack them. Another agreement was made to teach the younger vampires how to control their activation around humans. This final agreement is why this college exists the way that it does.
After hearing this brief history Zoe had so many questions. How were the humans chosen? How exactly do vampires learn to control their activation? And how do humans exchange blood? Mr. Westin could tell that Zoe and Freddy had a lot of questions. He had been through this every year since the school had hired him and knew the usual questions that came up. Firstly, he decided to freely answer how the humans were chosen, before receiving Zoe and Freddy’s questions. He told them that humans were chosen by how often they break their skin and draw blood out.
“Freddy and Zoe, you were both chosen to attend this school because you obsessively pick at your skin, it could be at a scab or hangnail,” Mr. Westin said as a matter of fact. “Humans that do this regularly are very good at stimulating young vampires with a small amount of blood regularly enough for them to learn how to control themselves.”
Mr. Westin’s answer made perfect sense to Zoe. It was true that she would pick at scabs, hangnails, and pimples, or anything that raised on her skin. She knew that every time she did it that sometimes it drew blood and that it was often caused by stressful situations. Her new question was how did they know this? But Zoe thought she already knew the answer. It had to be that the vampires told the humans who to look out for and when the humans found them, they told the vampires who. She did vaguely remember her Mother telling a teacher to stop Zoe from picking at the bumps on her arm when she was in elementary school and her best friend in middle school would verbally reprimand her when she caught her doing it too. Her arm picking was probably also obvious in high school too. Even now Zoe was examining her arms for bumps that she could pick at.
Zoe raised her hand to ask a question and Mr. Westin allowed her to ask, “How do vampires get blood from humans?”
“Humans will run blood drives and will sometimes collect blood for us, too,” he responded. “I’ll be honest with you here that sometimes vampires only want blood from particular places or even people because it tastes better to them. But you have seen how much blood the vampire students consume. One human would die supplying that amount of blood, so we have protocols to protect people from over donating as any regular blood drive does. And vampires aren’t allowed to seek out humans for blood in their own time, either.”
Zoe had a burning question about how the blood is collected for vampires, “Do vampires consume whole blood or double red cell blood?”
Mr. Westin was a bit surprised and intrigued by Zoe’s question, “Vampires collect whole blood. We take nutrients from the plasma as well.”
As a blood donor, Zoe was upset that humans were being tricked into donating blood for humans when it was going to vampires, but it seemed like the fact that you could donate blood in other forms specifically for humans was good, plus its life and death for both humans and vampires if they don’t have blood. After Zoe’s mind calmed down a bit, she decided she didn’t have any more questions for Mr. Westin. Mr. Westin decided to ask the two vampires in the room if they had any questions about the school.
Josh raised his hand, “How exactly do us vampires show you that we can control our urge to activate?”
Mr. Westin again surprised by the question, thought about whether he should answer it, and figured that these students who were by far the smartest in the class could handle his response, “You have to bite your partner and drink their blood. I know you all must be thinking that we are crazy to have that as the test but remember why you are partners. The test is also only conducted if the human partner feels safe to go through it.” Thinking about his response, Mr. Westin felt the need to add, “If you, humans, were wondering, you can’t become a vampire by any means. Humans and vampires can have children that will be vampires because it is more of a genetic thing. So, don’t be afraid of being bitten by a vampire.”
What an ordeal Zoe had to go through all just so Josh can prove to vampire society that he’s harmless. But she knew back in her mind that even though Josh was a bit mean and very distant he was probably the most trustworthy person here and that meant she could trust him enough to go through that test.
Another question popped into Zoe’s mind, “Does that mean we can prevent a vampire from passing this test? By withholding our consent?”
Mr. Westin chuckled at that question, “Only for a time, young vampires have to rejoin society, so if there are any problems with the trust needed for the test, we may ask another student to volunteer or have you completely replaced. Therefore, by the end of this year, we will have the vampires drink your blood, no biting, and see how good their control is.”
So, they have that figured out too. This school is amazing, Zoe thought. Josh could only roll his eyes at the fact that he had a human as a partner that would dare to stop him from leaving this place. Zoe was just another tether on Josh’s freedom. And if he had to, he would do everything in his power to get Zoe under his control. But first, he had to see what her true intentions were. Why did she ask that question? Josh was going to find out, who Zoe was.
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