the last picture 

~~~~~

“Jack hurry up or you will miss the bus!” Leonard yelled up the stairs, Jack was in that moment looking for his charger “Give me 2 minutes!” He yelled back as he began crawling under his bed “Fine but the bus leaves in 10.” Leonard had given up at this point if Jack missed the bus that was his problem “yes, yes I will make it don’t worry.” Jack was running down the stairs with his backpack in hand. Madalena came out of the kitchen to say goodbye to her son “Have a good day okay sweetie?” Jack tried to resist the urge to roll his eyes at her. 

Out the door his dad handed him some money for the bus “here, this should be enough for the bus, then the school should give you a bus cart.” Jack took the money and said bye, the bus stop was not too far away from their house, but he still had to hurry a little, so the bus didn’t just drive passed without him. 

At the bus stop, there was one other person as Jack walked up to stand next to her, he saw that she was a lot shorter than him her hair was red and on her wrist was this white ribbon-like thing it looked to almost be shining in the sunlight. Before Jack could look at other details, she stuck her hand out towards the road and when Jack looks up, he could see bus number 129 slow to a stop Infront of them. That was his bus and he almost missed it Jack was already chewing himself out for not paying attention, as he stepped on the bus the person behind the wheel looked at him and then asked, “Where to?” Jack looked up at him then answered “Uhm O High School.” The kind smile the driver had seemed to fall and his look harden “that will be 5 dollars unless you have a bus cart?” Jack was a little choked hearing the price he had only gotten 3 dollars from his dad, so he was still missing 2 dollars, he looked around the bus a little shocked that no one seemed to react ‘I guess that’s the normal price then’ the girl form before made eye contact with Jack looked at his hand then gave him 2 dollars from her pocket “here, now pay before we are late.” Jack looked at her and then gave the money to the driver who just grunted and began driving.

Jack followed the girl down to the two empty seats the only place where other people didn’t have their backpacks on the other seat, as he sat down, he turned to the girl “um thank you.” She looked at him “don’t think about it. The moment they hear we go to O High the price is almost double so just carry a little more money on you than you think you need.” Jack was choked to hear this he wanted to ask more about it but the girl had turned away from him and now had headphones in so he decided to just wait till he got to the school then he could ask somebody there.

After about 30 minutes of a silent drive, the girl reached up above them to press the stop button “This is our stop, now get up before he drives passed.” Jack picked up his backpack and began walking towards the bus’s doors. The bus came to a stop pretty quickly almost making Jack fall, but he caught himself on the seat handles, as the doors opened Jack was one of the first ones out then came the girl and five other students who when Jack looked at them all that the same white ribbon on them some had it on their wrist others in their hair “come with me, I can show you where the office is.” Jack nodded and followed her inside the school “I don’t think I got your name; my name is Jack.” She looked back at Jack then answered, “I’m Laura Grey.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

In the office, one of the teachers saw Jack walk in “Hey, you must be Jack, come over here then we can get you sorted.” Jack smiled at her as he walked over “yes, I’m Jack, uhm can I ask your name?” She smiled up at him “of course my name is Effie Rhodes but just call me Effie, now I can see here that this is not your first time transferring but hopefully this will be your last.” Jack sat down on a chair that was next to Effie’s desk “There are a few rules here, the first is pretty simple don’t kill another student, fighting is only allowed under certain conditions, but that rule is mostly for the werewolf since they can be a bit territorial, and since you are a vampire, you can drink blood from the other students, just make sure you get their permission first.” She turned away from Jack for a moment to take something from one of her drawers “Now the last rule is that you have to always have this white ribbon on you even when you are just at home, it’s to show that you go to this school and that you are not dangerous. You can also use it to identify if somebody is human or not even though most humans in this town know about us.” She handed the white ribbon over along with a bus cart “Now go before you’re late, Laura can show you to your class.” Jack thanked her and walked out to Laura again. 

“Can I ask you something, Laura?” Laura made a noise that Jack took as a yes “how do you know what class I’m supposed to go to?” She stopped and turned around to look at Jack “This is a school for supernatural creatures, someone is bound to know when something big happens, and it’s not every day that there is a new student.” Jack nodded that did make sense. 

After a few minutes of walking, they stopped in front of a door “This is your class, now I have to go, see you later.” Jack watched as Laura turned down a corridor before entering the classroom. Inside the classroom, Jack saw the teacher sitting behind his desk as Jack closed the door the teacher looked up “ah you must be Jack Striga, you can just take a seat next to Rhesus, we are just doing some free reading so if you have a book with you just read in that.” As Jack looked out the towards the classroom a boy stuck his hand up to indicate that he was Rhesus. Jack walked down to his seat and after hanging his backpack on the chair sat down “Striga, so you’re a vampire, right?” Rhesus asked with a sort of teasing tone to his voice Jack looked at him before answering “Yes I am, and by the fact that your name is Rhesus I also think you’re a vampire.” Rhesus smiled at him and playfully hit his shoulder “Yeah, guess I’m busted.” Both of them looked up when the teacher spook “Boys, can you please be quiet you are supposed to be reading.” Rhesus snickered a little before saying sorry “we are sorry Frances we will be quiet now.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Now I believe it’s time for lunch, we will see each other later for history.” Jack followed the teacher with his eyes as he left the classroom but before he could focus on anything else what looked like a black heart entered his vision, he almost made himself crossed-eyed just to better look at it “Mavis please don’t scare our new friend now.” The heart left his vision and instead stood a tall girl with purplish skin, dragon-like wings coming out of her back and a pair of horns coming out of the sides of her head and curling down behind her ears, she was a succubus that much was clear “Mavis can you please change back before you make the whole class horny.” The girl Mavis pouted “I never get to have any fun.” But she did change back so she now looked more like a human her wings curled into her back and vanished the same happened with her horns her skin looks to be more copper-like than purple the only thing left from her other form was her tail. 

“So, you are the Jack Striga I have heard so much about. Would you mind drinking my blood I have always wanted to know how it feels.” She seemed to be so excited she was leaning on the table her tail almost wagging behind her “Uhm I-I’m not supposed to, and you seem to be friends with Rhesus why don’t you just ask him?” her excitement seemed to drop “believe me I have tried but he keeps saying his fangs are too weak to break skin yet.” Rhesus looked almost offended “I have told you time, and time again, I got my fangs really late, so yes they are too weak to break your skin, and even if they could I would not give you the satisfaction of drinking your blood.” Jack laughed as they kept bickering back and forth.

Mavis dragged a chair closer to their table so she could sit down and eat “Hey, Neg do you know where Lori is? Shouldn’t she have been here by now?” Mavis hadn’t even fully chewed her food before she talked but there wasn’t really a reason for her to ask because as she was talking Laura walked in through the door “Mav you know you aren’t supposed to talk with your mouth full.” Mavis turned around to see who was talking and she seemed to light up like a child in a candy store when she saw Laura “ah Lori-Cakes! my beloved I have missed you so much.” When Laura came close enough Mavis warped her arms around her waist to drag her down into her lap. When Laura was seated Mavis wrapped her tail around her instead so she could use her hands to eat.

Jack was a little confused by the names used but he guessed they were nicknames “I can understand where Mav and Lori come from but why Neg?” Mavis laughed and whipped a fake tear away “you’re funny, but I guess it’s not that obvious. Neg comes from negative, you know the blood type rhesus negative. It’s just a fun intern joke.” Jack nodded and laughed a little it did make sense and it was funny “and I guess you can Laura are together, right?” This time it was Laura that answered, “yes we are together, Mav is actually my mate.” Jack took a bite of his food while he processed the new information he just got “but if Mavis is a succubus and as far as I know you’re not. How are you, mates?” Laura looked at Jack like he was an idiot “I’m a shapeshifter just so you know and being mates with other races or species is normal.” All this new information was making Jack's head spin. He had been told all his life that you could only be mates with people from your own race or species and if not, you don’t talk about it. ‘maybe me being together with Liam wasn’t so bad after all.’ Jack now had a lot to think about.

Words: 1915