“This place is fucking huge,” Mila said. “Like, I don’t know where to even begin with what I have to say about this place. And the food smells so goddamn good, like wow.”

“Wait till you see the classrooms,” Monroe told her. “You’ll probably get one of those classes that can fit up to a hundred or so students. A lot of the first-year classes are like that.”

I was completely shocked. “Are you serious?” My brain couldn’t comprehend what it’d be like in a classroom at all, but to be in a classroom with a hundred or so other people? I was beginning to wonder if it was too late to switch to online classes.

“They recently built those other buildings, though,” Travis told us.

Monroe was clearly confused. “What other buildings?”

“Didn’t Leo tell you? Some of the Counselors proposed that there should be more classrooms for the first-years. They finished construction like five months ago.”

“Oh.” 

I noticed several people walking by looking in our direction. Well, it was more my direction. They weren’t even trying to hide the fact they were staring as they walked by, and the way they were staring just made me feel weird.

“Can other students see who’s a vampire or not?” I asked Travis and Monroe, trying to shake the feeling off. “Or can their magic sense that kind of thing?”

Travis probably didn’t understand what I asked with the way their expression changed. Monroe paused for a moment and looked around us. He seemed to have noticed a group of people that I didn’t see who were looking at me from across the food court.

“Those are also vampires,” he said simply. “I think those guys are third-years. I’ve seen them around before.”

So, other vampires can sense each other? It made me wonder if the people before were also vampires. 

“They’re probably realizing you’re new, maybe?” Travis suggested. “Though, I don’t really like the way they’re staring.”

“Should we ask them what’s up?” Mila asked, and almost immediately I shook my head.

“No way,” I told her, looking back at the menu next to me. “I’d rather not annoy them.”

“Well, maybe we should stop Monroe then.” I looked over at Travis as soon as they said this and saw that Monroe wasn’t standing by them. He was already talking to the vampires.

My stomach felt like it was in knots. What if they were looking for trouble? I wished that Monroe didn’t walk off to confront them. Also, how did he get over there so damn fast? Do werewolves just naturally walk fast or did he use some teleportation magic to get over there?

The second option seemed more likely to happen. It was too far of a walk to go even if you were walking really fast. But back to the situation at hand: 

I watched the way Monroe talked to the vampires. So far they didn’t seem provoked or annoyed. I remembered Monroe saying he had seen them before, though it seemed like he was well-acquainted with them. They looked as if they were talking about something that had nothing to do with the staring situation, though I couldn’t help but wonder what they were talking about. I actually began to wonder if my “super hearing” could work like it did when I heard Travis in the hospital.

How do I even go about eavesdropping on a conversation that far away? I had no idea how to focus my hearing to that extent. When I heard Travis that one time it happened out of nowhere—plus, I wasn’t exactly “in control” in that situation. 

I saw Monroe moving his hands and focused back on watching him. He was motioning in our direction, so I felt like he was trying to convince them to talk to me. I looked back at the menu when I caught them looking at me again. I was wishing that I could turn invisible that very instant.

“Looks like they’re coming over,” Mila told me. I could tell she was already concerned about me. 

“Y-Yeah,” I managed to say. I was hoping that distracting myself by reading the menu would help me relax, but I could hear the group of footsteps approaching.

I didn’t realize how close they were once I looked away from the menu, because now they were within a few feet away from us.

“Hey gang,” Monroe greeted us along with silent waves from the strangers. “Here’s some cool cats y’all should meet. I’ll leave the introductions to you guys.”

The taller one of the group—they looked to be about as tall as me, maybe a little shorter, had waist-length hair that shone like silver and eyes much the same, and they wore all black with a mix of a modern and Victorian goth aesthetic going on—glanced over at the others, almost expecting one of them to step up and introduce themselves, but they looked towards them. They took a step forward and cleared their throat quietly.

“I hope you all are having a lovely afternoon,” they began to say. Their voice was much deeper than I expected it to sound, but it was also oddly warm and inviting.

I don’t know if that made any sense. Does it? I don’t know.

“My name is Kiarran, and I’m a third-year student here. I use any pronouns.” Kiarran continued to introduce themselves to us and pointed towards the shorter person to their left. “This is my younger brother Revon, this is his first year at the Academy.”

Revon, much like Kiarran, had silver hair and eyes and was wearing mostly black and white, but his style was a lot more on the techwear side than the rest of the group. I noticed a strip of his hair was black with almost a faded green tip on his right side. His skin was much darker than Kiarran’s, but it glowed almost as if he wore a lot of highlighter. 

As soon as his eyes met mine, I noticed one eye appeared to be a bit cloudy, and he immediately looked away from me. I didn’t know how to feel about that brief moment of eye contact. It was somewhat tense, but not in a bad way. Definitely not in a good way either. Just tense.

He glanced over at everyone else and gave a small bow. “I use male and neutral pronouns. It’s nice to meet you all.”

To Revon’s left a much preppier individual smiled and waved at us again. “The name’s Reese! I’m in my second year here, and I use female pronouns.” 

Reese had a style very much similar to Mila, but more on the feminine side. It’s something Mila calls “perky goth”, though I’m not too sure on the legitimacy of that name. Her blonde hair was tied in a very long and very high ponytail and had orange, red and black streaks in random places. There was also a lot of fire patterns going on with some of her accessories, which I assume were intentional considering that Reese is synonymous with fire from what I’ve heard. Lots of red and black with splashes of white to her outfit, which kind of reminded me of Harley Quinn for some reason.

She nudged at the last of the bunch, who looked an awful lot like Lee. Very similar hairstyle and color, same eyes and skin tone, but was dressed like a punk rock biker. I was kinda digging their leather jacket, but in this heat? 

“Bleir Grime, male pronouns” was all he mumbled out before looking down at his feet.