A first day in a new school is always terrifying. But nothing even compares to the stares I received when walking into Redcrest Academy. I tried to walk past my peers with confidence that I belonged there, but their stares were intimidating. Every step that I took, made me that much more noticeable to them. They whittled down my confidence, making me retreat into a protective shell. I kept my back straight as much as I could, wanting to make it seem like they weren’t affecting me, but it was obvious through my eyes. I couldn’t see it directly, but I was getting tunnel vision as everything blurred, becoming an incomprehensible mess. A peer stepped in front of me, making me stop in my tracks. I looked up at him and he snickered to himself and as he looked me up and down. He was more powerful than me in both height and composure, not to mention his physical presence. He leaned down to my level, his nose millimeters from mine as he smiled wide with his fangs. I couldn’t hear him, or read his lips as I was terrified, but I could make out his jaw as it moved. I understood that he was making fun of me, even when I couldn’t hear him. He stood up straight and reached a hand out to my shoulder, but was stopped by who I assume was the dean of the school. His presence was much more horrifying than what I heard. Much more so than the peer in front of me. I couldn’t see much of what was going on, but the dean reached a hand out to me. It didn’t look terrifying as he was gesturing to me to take it instead of forcing me into the school. I started to calm down at that sight and looked up at the dean’s face. He wasn’t much taller than my peer he seemingly pushed aside, but he was exceedingly more terrifying. When I looked into his eyes, I couldn’t see anything that looked friendly. His intent was hidden, yet so vivid. He was sneering at me, waiting for me to take his hand. I gently took it, gave a handshake and walked past him. He didn’t seem to be surprised at my actions, but he probably didn’t like how I acted, seeing as how he runs the school. My composure didn’t change on the inside, as I was still acting very timid, not having said a word to anyone yet. My posture also remained the same, but I didn’t exude confidence like the others around me. My eyes had dulled again as I was looking through everything as if it were a tunnel once more. I pushed the door open and walked inside. There were other silhouettes inside, but I wasn’t focused on them. I was focused on getting to my locker and relaxing once I got into class. Walking past all of these schoolmates who were more interested in my blood was exhausting more than anything. I didn’t want to pay them any heed, even though I was getting all of their attention. It was fairly easy to get to my locker, but I also happened to notice that I was alone in this corridor. There were no silhouettes, no figures waiting for me. I was alone for the first time since I had arrived. I leaned against a wall and just breathed raggedly, holding my chest, feeling like I was having a heart attack. I slumped down to sit on the floor and held my head in my hands. I wanted to cry, go back home, do anything other than this, but I couldn’t. I made my bed, and I’ll have to sleep in it. It took a little longer than what I wanted it to to calm down, but Once I did, I opened my locker and put my supplies and books away, only grabbing what I needed for my first class. My first class would be the hardest out of every other class today. I had physical education, or P.E. I have no idea why they include this class in the curriculum but it was a requirement for me to attend. For my classmates, I don’t know why they have to take it, maybe to learn the anatomy of the body better, but that is what science class is for. They are already in their peak form, and will be forever. But I grabbed my clothes and went to the changing room. It wasn’t partitioned off for students, but they did grant me some leeway for changing, letting me be the first one in and out. Giving me some sense of safety before the class starts. I had gotten changed quickly, not wanting to meet any of my peers before class. Now, I am not in the best shape, but I am not unfit either. I can hold my own against people of the same caliber as me, but not if they are vampires. Of course they are faster, and stronger than me, but I didn’t disappoint their expectations of me. The first thing we were doing in P.E. was a mile run. Not my absolute favorite activity, but I do like to run. I didn’t get the best mile time, but I wasn’t last. I was about fifth to finish. The fastest run was under four minutes. Extremely impressive for a human if they did it, but average for a young vampire. I had gotten just under 5 minutes for my time, but that was pushing my limits to the extreme to the point where I had sat down to catch my breath. Sweat was running down my face like a fountain as my peers were unphased by the running. Some laughed at me because they find it funny to see me like this I guess. But others had a bit more respect for me with the time I finished at. One of the friendlier ones offered me a hand to get up and get ready for the next activity. I took his hand out of appreciation and lined up for the next activity since the run was so short. The next thing we had to do was the pull up challenge. I did not like this challenge at all because I was just out-shone by my peers as they easily soared into the hundreds before they could even have the chance to get tired. While they didn’t look physically tired, they still had trouble getting above one hundred and fifty pull ups from their muscles being tired. After ten of my peers went up, it was my turn and I did fine. I’m not heavy enough for it to be a problem, but I don’t work my arms to the same amount as my legs, so my number wasn’t as impressive in comparison. I had only gotten eighty five before I called it. Of course it was excruciating to hold on so tightly to the bar as sweat had drenched my hands. Once I was back on the ground, I wanted to catch my breath again as others did their own pull ups. There were about thirty students in the class so when the student after me had gone up to do their pull ups, the bell had rang. I rushed to the changing room to change for the next class, not wanting to be caught literally with my pants down. While I rushed though, the vampires took their time to get here. I appreciated their laxness as it helped me get dressed in record time. I put my P.E. clothes into a pull string bag and left for my locker to get ready for math. I was still sweating from class, but it was easier to cool down inside since they had the air conditioning blasting cold air. It felt so good after the class, that I can’t describe how it felt to me. I had left my drawstring bag in my locker and had closed it, making my way to math class. I made it to class but nothing special happened there. I did the best out of the students in the class, surprisingly enough. I thought I had gotten lucky, but apparently they can just be physically strong and not all that smart. The day passed by rather quickly, making my second period disappear before I knew it. My third period class was history. One of my weaker subjects for school. After the third period had started though, I was called into the dean’s office. When the announcement finished, my classmates turned to me and a few chuckled, obviously thinking i'm in trouble earlier in front of the school. I wasn’t sure what it was for, but I went anyway. I left my stuff there since it probably wouldn’t take all class period. I would be very wrong later on. I made my way to the dean’s office and knocked on the door when I arrived. The door opened and I was invited inside and to take a seat. I did as instructed after closing the door, sitting down in a very comfortable chair in front of the Dean’s desk. He sat down in front of me and leaned back into his chair, just staring at me. I felt uncomfortable, but it wasn’t as bad as this morning when I was having a panic attack. The dean then leaned forward and asked me “So, what made you decide on redcrest?” His voice was deeper than I had expected, I had met him before but we didn’t exchange any words personally. His voice sounded pleasant, to a very uncomfortable degree. That wasn’t the question I thought he would ask, but I answered honestly. “I came here because the education is incomparable to any other school I would have access to.” He nodded and mumbled to himself. I couldn’t understand what he said, but I patiently waited for him to continue. He took several minutes to continue until he looked at me again and told me “We will hold a special assembly for you to introduce yourself later today, as we have done with other human students. I hope you do not mind this as you seemed to have a crisis this morning.” I nodded slowly and asked in return “What kind of announcement will you be making?” He shrugged at my question and then continued to not answer me directly. I assumed he wouldn’t give me the answer so I sat there in silence, wondering what else he would ask. The silence continued for a few minutes until he stood up and said “Don’t worry Simon. You proved yourself with your grades and resolve, so there is nothing for you to worry about. I won’t let the school do what they want with you. You will be in safe hands here as long as I am the dean.” I looked up at him and stood up to try and meet his eye line, although my height never changed and definitely wouldn’t have changed from earlier this morning. I nodded as his words felt genuine, but I would still not fully trust him until he would keep to his word. He had stood up before me and reached out his hand to shake mine. Reluctantly, I grabbed his hand with mine, and his hand was massive in comparison. He gave me a firm, yet gentle hand shake since if he went full bore on the hand shake, he would most likely break my hand. I appreciated the wariness he had, and left after he was done with what he had to say to me. I sighed as the door started to close behind me and then my whole body shivered as if a monster had caught sight of its prey. Just before the door fully closed, I had caught a glimpse of the dean glaring daggers at me, with a grin I can only explain as bone chilling. He bore his whole set of teeth at me. Jagged teeth, perfect for tearing the flesh of a human. After the door had fully closed, I slumped my shoulders and nearly fainted from that experience. There was no mistaking it now. I would either die in this school, or graduate as one of them. I hated the idea of becoming one of them just for the sole fact that I would turn my back on my family, and the rest of my kind, who are dwindling in numbers, teetering on the brink of extinction. We haven’t gone from this world yet because of the vampires. They keep us primed for their needs like the cattle we are. There are some kinder vampires, but none that are “pure bloods.” Of course, they are natural beings who are born in this world like any other being, and are what caused the human race to be nearly extinct. Something odd about them though is that they don’t explicitly need human blood for survival, only the turned need human blood. Of course the pure bloods do still drink blood, but they treat it as a fine wine that is to be savored rather than treat it like water. I suspect the principal is a pure blood and relishes in human torment, which is why they accept humans into this school. So that he can watch humans suffer. I am not easily deterred, because I can be incredibly stubborn. But even this school is challenging my beliefs in if I should be stubborn. I don’t want to die yet, and I fear me being in this school is just expediting my demise. I didn’t stay in front of the dean’s office for long, making my way back to my history class. Of course, when I walked back in, everyone looked at me and a few chuckled at me returning, probably thinking I am crazy for staying in this school, which some like about humans. I took my seat again, and I found that my bag that I left behind was ransacked. The teacher didn’t care for my stuff as he was also a vampire, not wanting me here. I sighed to myself and sat back down, quickly stopping when I had found that one of my classmates had stabbed my pens through the seat, ruining them, along with the seat. I didn’t make a noise, I just removed the pens quietly for me to sit back down. Once I had finished, the teacher passed out homework for what he taught today. It was general questions about things with humans and vampires, stuff like “In human religion, who is considered to be the first human?” and “Who is considered to be the first vampire?” These questions were comically easy for the first day of school. Soon the bell rang and I had to pack up what little things I had left. When I had finished packing up, Nearly everyone was gone from the class. I sighed and walked out hurriedly, not wanting to miss lunch. At this school, they split lunch up into two blocks for schedule purposes. Lunch A would go after the third period, and Lunch B would go after the fourth. Before I could get my lunch though, a general assembly was called for the whole school. I could figure what it was about since the dean had called me in not too long ago. So, everyone moved to the gymnasium and I was pulled aside by the dean to go to the center of the gym floor. I was horrified of what announcement the dean would make, since he neglected to tell me what he would say. Once the rest of the students had sat down on the bleachers, The dean and I made our way to the center of the floor. All eyes were on me, I could feel every set locked on my throat. My face went from terrified to deadpan. I was too afraid to show emotion, to do anything. But then the dean spoke up and his voice echoed throughout the gym, making my ears ring with how loud he was. “Hello and welcome to a new year at Redcrest Academy!” He gave a beaming smile to the students, and slowly, I felt the eyes leave me and direct themselves to the dean, who looked overly confident about what he was doing. He wasn’t the slightest bit scared of anything it seemed, much less fledgling vampires. “I know that this assembly is a bit unusual for how early in the day it is, but this is an important announcement! As some of you may know by now, we have a human student!” murmuring was heard as many of the students who hadn’t seen me only heard rumors about a human student on campus. Then, all eyes were back on me. My face hadn’t changed from the deadpan look I had. “Now, since he is a human, we all must be wary of how we act around young Simon here! And because he is a human, many of you may be wondering, is he on the table for lunch?! And the answer to that is… not exactly! He may choose, if he wishes, one vampire to have his blood! But that is only if he is willing! If his blood is taken forcefully, we will know! And the student that takes his blood without his permission will be banned and expelled from this school, forever! The ban is not just for the student, but also their progeny!” At that moment, my head twisted to look at the dean, and he was being completely serious, about the students being expelled, and by me being able to choose who gets my blood. “Of course, Simon must stay alive to complete this school year and the years after! So, if he does choose a student to partake of his blood, they must show restraint! Otherwise they face the same punishment as those who take his blood forcefully!” I was a bit more relieved at that fact, but not by much. The eyes never left where I stood. This time it wasn’t focused on my neck, but on all of me, to see if I would interject and add something, or if I would just outright refuse this announcement. I didn’t move from my spot as I was much too afraid to do anything else. I was having a panic attack inside of my head, being very careful to not show it on my face. But the dean thankfully continued with another stipulation. “To continue, Simon is the only one who can approach a vampire about his blood! He must be the one to offer, he cannot be asked, or swindled out of this right of his!” There were more than audible groans, students were outright booing the dean. They would throw things if they weren’t scared of him. He dropped his smile and yelled with a commanding tone “SILENCE YOU INSOLENT TWERPS!” It became silent instantly. I had to cover my ears because of my proximity to the voice, and no one laughed at me. It was a weird feeling since the students in the front row were also covering their ears. The dean relaxed and put his hands into his pockets. He continued by saying “I am ashamed of you for your reaction just now! He was accepted into this school just like you, despite his disadvantages, and had walked among these halls to spite the danger! He deserves to be here more than some of you! Respect my wishes for him to choose who drinks his blood, because if you don’t… I will personally give you a lesson on respect, and dignity! Which most of you clearly lack!” The students stayed silent. I uncovered my ears hoping he had stopped, but I was wrong. “NOW! Get back to your business already! This assembly is over!” I covered my ears once more from the yelling but quickly uncovered them as I could faintly hear the students walking away. I looked towards the dean, but he was gone already. I sighed shakily and made my way to the lunchroom to eat food. After the assembly, I had noticed that students were being a lot more courteous to me than before. No one spoke to me still, but they wouldn’t glare at me as excessively as before. I felt a little more at ease, but that feeling would soon leave my body as I walked into the lunchroom. Already, there were hundreds of other students sitting down having what looked like blood smoothies. I couldn’t react to anything like that because of course they would figure out a way to make the blood more delicious in some way. I walked to a small window where it said “human food” to get my food. To my surprise, I saw a human serving food there. He looked anemic, and malnourished. I looked at the other window for the blood smoothies and saw other humans giving out the beverages to the students. While it wasn’t much of a surprise to see them, It was still jarring for me to witness how humans were treated at this school. My lunch server gave me a steak, cooked to medium rare, with a side of mashed potatoes. It was the fanciest food I had ever seen, let alone eaten in my life. I ate all the food as slow as I could to savor it, until I had noticed why they served me so much red meat later in the day. When I sat down to start eating though, I noticed a group of students walking towards me. I had no idea what was going on, so I turned back to my food slowly the closer they got. The group was composed of mainly male vampires, but there were three female vampires as well. When they were right next to me, the leader of the group put his hand on me and said in a tone that seemed friendly “Hey, mind if we sit with you?” I turned to the group and saw that there was enough to fit around the table. I wondered why they wanted to sit with me, but I knew why pretty much instantly when I thought back to the assembly. I nodded my head and said “Yeah. I don’t mind.” They all smiled softly and sat down. It wasn’t until I noticed them all next to each other and next to me that their skin is remarkably pale. It was a weird sight to see to me how when they drank their smoothies, their skin would gain some life by the blood running through their veins, making them look alive for just a moment. It sent shivers down my spine thinking about my blood running through their bodies so I just went back to my food. Not much was said to me as they spoke amongst themselves for the most part. I wasn’t given much attention until one of the girls looked at me and asked “So… how’s your first day going? Mine’s been sooooo boring.” A bit caught off guard by the sudden small talk, I turn to her and say “My day hasn’t been that boring. Except for the assembly, everything was how I thought it would be. A top class academy with top class teachers. What more could a human want?” I took a drink of my water and asked “What does your schedule look like for the rest of the day?” She thought about it for a second before taking out her schedule paper. Her first three classes didn’t interest me because I hadn’t seen her in my first three classes. It wasn’t until the fifth class that I realized we had the same teacher. I lit up while reading the subject as it was one of my favorites. Anatomy was my fifth period along with hers. She was more interested in human anatomy whereas I had a general interest in everything. She lit up some more and said “Well maybe we could be partners in that class and you could teach me about humans… more thoroughly than the teacher.” She gave me a weird smile that I hadn’t seen before. I tilted my head in confusion to her suggestion, and right as I was about to ask more about what she meant, the bell rang for Lunch A and fourth period A to end. I had finished my food entirely and slipped my tray into the washing area. When leaving the lunchroom, the classmate I was speaking with walked up behind me and whispered in my ear “See you in fifth.” I turned around startled, holding my neck in fear of someone biting it. When I had turned around, she was already halfway out of the lunchroom when she turned to me again and winked at me. I had no idea what to do with the situation I was in. But I knew I had to get to my fourth period, which was music. I found my way to the music room and saw that the conductor wasn’t as pale as the students. She seemed to be… human. I was more confused as to how she got the job here, but she would answer my question soon enough. I found my way to an open seat and soon, the class began. She looked at all of the students in the room and introduced herself. “Hello class. My name is Ms. Tylin, and I will be your instructor and conductor this year. As many of you may notice, I am human. The reason why I am here is because I was actually a conductor for one of the dean’s children a few decades ago. He has kept me in this school since then and has allowed me to stay at his estate during the summer.” There were some murmurs among the students, but a student spoke above the noise and asked “Then do the rules that apply to Simon over there apply to you as well?” Ms. Tylin smiled gently and said “Yes the dean promised me safety in this school and has kept his word for the last twenty years. Now, since this is the first day of school, let's see who wants to play what instrument. Who would like to choose first?” Many hands shot up in response, making Ms. Tylin smile some more, but she chose me first and said “What instrument would you like to play Simon?” I was surprised by me being chosen first but I looked around the room then stood up and said “Percussion, Ms. Tylin.” She nodded and said “Excellent choice. Please, make your way to the section Simon.” I nodded and walked over to the section, finding a seat in front of a snare drum, patiently waiting for the rest of the class to choose their instruments. Of course this took up most of the class, but it wasn’t long before everyone had chosen an instrument. I wasn’t alone in percussion as 6 other students chose it alongside me. In the class there were about forty students. Relatively small in comparison to the whole school, but it was fine for me. Made it much more comfortable there since music was the main focus of the class. Eleven students went into the brass section, four for trumpets, four for trombones, and three for the tubas/sousaphones. Thirteen went into wood winds, three into the flutes, seven for the saxophones, and three for the oboes. The final nine went into string instruments, three for violins, fiddles, and basses each. A fairly well rounded group for music. Ms. Tylin was pleased with everyone’s selection and handed out music sheets for everyone to take back to their dorms to read and be ready for the next week when we start to practice. I had chosen a snare drum for my instrument, and the music sheet for it seemed to be simple until you get to the third measure. I sighed softly and heard the bell ring. I packed my things and made my way to my fifth period. When I got in, I was among the first to arrive since the classroom was fairly close to my music class. I had noticed that the vampire girl from lunch was already here, and when she saw me, she waved me over, motioning me to sit next to her. I was very weirded out by the fact that she was being so friendly to me, but I couldn’t just ignore her. So I sat next to her and waited for class to start. She was to my right and was just… looking at me, resting her head in the palm of her right hand. I was getting creeped out and increasingly worried that she was just going to ignore the rules that the dean had set in place to give me some semblance of safety. But the bell rang and I was relieved when she stopped looking at me. The class was mostly uninteresting, except for the fact that today, we were just discussing human and vampire anatomy. The teacher was constantly using me as an example, along with the girl next to me. It was highly embarrassing but she didn’t seem phased by it. When the teacher stopped using us as examples, she looked at me and said “Forgot to say, but my name is Priscilla. Pleasure to meet you Simon.” I gave her a timid smile and said “Pleasure to meet you.” We then focused on class once more, and listened to the teacher speak of his experiences with both humans and vampires. He was a forensics specialist for unusual deaths and crimes from both species. He had dissected multiple “cadavers” as he called them, and explained how there was very little difference between humans and vampires, but what differences there were, were significant. Like vampires didn’t have a pancreas, or a liver. Those organs were replaced with ones that were “specially made” to facilitate the digestion of blood. He also had mentioned that when drinking blood, vampires tend to get drunk, literally speaking, because fresh blood is like alcohol to vampires. I was extremely confused about this because of the smoothies in the cafeteria so I raised my hand. The teacher called on me and I asked “If blood is like alcohol to a vampire, then what about the smoothies in the cafeteria?” The teacher smiled and said “Yes, that has been brought up many times in the past, mainly by the dean actually. But I guarantee you, the smoothies in the cafeteria will not make the students drunk. Mainly because the blood is not fresh from the source. It only acts like an alcohol when it is warm and freshly pumped by the heart. It is the electrolytes in the blood that activates the stimulus in vampires that make them seem drunk. The colder the blood is, the less effect it has as an alcohol. So far, there have been extremely few situations where vampires were in a drunken stupor from drinking the smoothies. Those cases happened decades and decades ago. We perfected it to the point where that is a non issue.” I nodded and went back to my notes, writing that down. I was extremely weirded out by the answer I received though. I wouldn’t expect blood to have such an effect on vampires. It doesn’t make me sympathetic towards them since they still drink blood nonchalantly, but it does help me understand a little more what they feel when they drink fresh blood. I just hope that I don’t experience it first hand. Something else I didn’t expect was the other students' reaction to my question. They all looked at me like I was some kind of genius for asking that question since they all knew that blood did have an effect on them, they just didn’t care what effect it was until I asked. I chuckled nervously and looked back down at my notebook, continuing my notes on the alcohol affect blood has on vampires. I stayed focused until Priscilla leaned over to me and said “well, being drunk doesn’t sound too bad after a good drink.” She smiled at me and went back to her notes. What she said sent shivers down my spine. She was inches away from my neck as she spoke, and it made me fear for my life as I can’t get a read on her. She was too unpredictable. I couldn’t tell what she wanted from me either. The class continued with the teacher explaining his past experiences on cadavers until the bell rang. His stories were fascinating but I had to move on to my next and final class of the day. While I only had six classes, the other students had eight. I had two less classes because I was human. They gave me a bogus reason to explain it away, but I had heard rumors about what those classes actually are. The rumors say that the classes are about the best places to drink blood from humans, and the places where the most popular human farms are. Of course if the rumors are true, then I'm glad I don’t have to take those classes, otherwise I’d be traumatized. But my sixth class is just as bad in my eyes. My last class was called common sense. Surprisingly, there were not that many students in it. There were only about seven other students there. The class is just as it sounds. It teaches common sense in this day and age. The vampires there seemed to be delinquents, and the reason I had this class was to teach me the common sense of vampires, so that I could understand how they work just a little bit more. The actual class was fascinating to learn about since I don’t even know the first thing about being a vampire, so this gives me a good insight on the social hierarchy and how they might think. I wasn’t expecting them to be so close to humans though. Whenever they are in a relationship though, it is vastly different from humans. For vampires, when they are in a relationship, they share the same blood as they drink it, whether it be fresh, or not. And when they get married, if they are a turned, they, the vampire marrying the turned, drink the blood of their significant other from when they were human, connecting the pair even more. It seemed weirdly intimate for a mostly dead species of humans. So much more intricate than I had anticipated. Humans in comparison seemed so simple, that it was amazing we would even be compatible. Another lesson I learned is that it is possible for humans and vampires to be significant others, but it is dangerous for the human of that relationship because the vampire would have free reign over their life, whether they lived or died. The vampire of the relationship would essentially have an all you can eat buffet if they didn’t care about the human at worst, or they would have their own personal keg of blood that they would savor if they liked the human at best. It wasn’t fun learning about that in the slightest because it made me think, what was Priscilla wanting to do with her suggestive tones both at lunch and in class? Was she wanting to become a couple to get a loophole to the rules? Or… was she just wanting me to get to know her and trust her a little better so that she would be chosen for the blood at lunch thing the Dean announced earlier today? I am not sure of either of those, but this has been an interesting and stressful first day. Wonder what tomorrow has in store.

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