I chugged my bottle of coconut milk as I stared up at the ceiling. The tiles were painted by various students of the school years ago before the school’s initiative to cover up all the murals. The last piece of evidence the now gray lifeless school had any symbolicance of color. It bothered me how they were trying to erase student history in their efforts to make the school look more cleaned up and professional. What else would change over the next year and a half of high school? How many other things would I be forced to adjust to? I clenched my fist around my empty bottle of coconut milk and crushed it. Then I looked down at the crinkled bottle. I wish I would have waited to crush it until I could throw it away. My AP chemistry teacher doesn’t allow us out of our seats during her instruction, so now I would be forced to sit and stare at this destroyed bottle for the rest of class. I pressed my fingers into the creases, but they weren’t going to straighten back out. I sighed and set it below me, but I still couldn’t get it out of my head even when it was out of sight. 

I wish I didn’t fixate on the most frustratingly stupid things. Perhaps it was deflection from my actual fixation, blood. I was born a vampire. Yes, vampires can be born despite most medias depicting them as turned. But humans don’t know that vampires are real, or that only 1% of vampires are turned. While turned vampires don’t age, born ones do. Modern vampires don’t drink blood anymore though, we are raised on coconut milk. It’s a known replacement for human blood plasma in the human world. But it’s also a blood replacement for vampires. 

The elders say that children raised on coconut milk won’t crave human blood, but I’ve never found that to be true. Not that I’ve ever had the courage to say that to anyone. Last time someone expressed a desire to drink from humans, they were executed along with their entire family at the last full moon festival. The elders wanted to send a message to all vampires in the area, and it was received loud and clear. 

I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn’t realize how strongly I was gripping my desk. My classmate, Raymond or Ray for short, passed me another bottle of coconut milk. I released my desk and grabbed it from him, flashing a grateful smile. I whispered too quietly for human ears to hear me, “thank you, I’m especially thirsty today.” 

“I know, you always are.” He whispered back. I flushed. This wasn’t the first time he’s lent me food, but I would hardly say it’s happened more than once a year. Was he scolding me for being too reckless? Did he know I still craved real blood? I tried to push the thoughts out as I chugged the new bottle of coconut milk down to the last drop. 

My focus started to return and my head felt clearer. Good, I was just hungry. I didn’t actually want real blood. Certainly not. That would be preposterous. I turned to look at Ray for a minute. His sandy hair was cut carefully, just brushing his forehead and his deep blue eyes popped boldly on his fair skin. Looking past the fact that his fangs were retracted up to a normal canine length, his looks matched those people typically associated with vampirism. Thin, yet muscular and toned. Tall. Clean cut. Most girls at school swooned over him and his aloof nature. But he was just, him. 

“Hazel,” Ray whispered, noticing my eyes lingered on him longer than socially acceptable. 

“Yes,” I breathed back, averting my eyes hoping he didn’t notice my earlier glance. 

“You’re getting too thin. I think you should see a witch. Something is not right. You drink more coconut milk than anyone I know, but you’re only growing thinner.” His eyes tilted toward me, his first outward indication that he was actually engaging in a conversation with me. At least the first one a human would notice. 

I bit my tongue and tried to ignore him. There was no way I would go see a witch. They could realize my desires and execute my family. I gulped at the thought and then tried to focus back on class to distract myself from that. The rest of class flew by in a blur and next thing I knew I was in the crowded hallway heading to the next one. 

I dodged and weaved through the crowded halls. I felt like a lone puma in a herd of deer. They may laugh at me, they may whisper about me. But they are only chattering about things they do not understand. Besides, this was better. Predators should not befriend pray. 

Suddenly I saw a girl walk toward me in the hallway. What was her name again? Jo? Josie? Joann? I guess it didn’t matter. She was human. And I wasn’t. 

“I can’t believe your audacity. You won’t talk to anyone and yet you take Ray’s drink in the middle of geography? Stop using people and mind your own business.” She shouted. 

Heads turned to look from all around but I kept walking. Ray offered me that drink whether she heard it or not. And the feelings of humans mattered little in the world of vampires. 

Ray looked back at me from where he stood up the hall and then turned back. “What?” I whispered to him, too low for humans to register but loud enough for him to still hear over all the chatter. 

“You’re embarrassing me. Pack an extra bottle of coconut milk going forward.” Ray whispered back. So I kept walking. My gut dropped. 

When the end of the day came, he didn’t come to get me so I walked home since I missed the bus.