When we arrived home Miles immediately went to Reza to tell him what had happened on our hunting trip. 

 So much for cooling me down.

 The whole Magne, Nuru thing made it much worse for me. Not only did I have to worry about my public life, but also my private life and those two things couldn't intertwine. 

 "Tell me again, who these vampires were." 

 Reza was so deeply engrossed that he became completely still like a marble statue. 

 I admit when we're home we don't pretend to breath, blink, eat or whatever other mundane things humans do, but it was so strange to see Reza react so strongly to the threat in the woods. 

 After hearing the same story about a hundred times he finally moved from his statue like position. He asked us to refrain from hunting alone and promised to find a solution that would keep us all safe. 

 I doubted anything could keep us safe now. If those two really wanted to kill us, there was no stopping them.

I just hoped that Nuru had lost interest in Miles back in the woods and they were thousands of miles away from us. 

 The next morning Miles repeated his story a second time when Winny was back from her shift at the hospital. 

She too seemed to be bothered by the sudden encounter with our kind and agreed with Reza that we should all hunt together from now on. 

 Reza hadn't come up with a plan that satisfied him yet, but told us not to worry and get going to school. 

 I can't believe he was sending us to school when there were much more important things going on at home! Couldn't we just be home schooled or say we're dropouts? Why did we have to pretend? 

 Winny gave me a weak smile before shoving me out the door behind Miles.

She wanted us to be out of the house too. Maybe they were planning to ditch us. 

I started panicking until Miles honked the truck horn as I walked mindlessly towards it. 

"Mother of!" 

 "Get in the car! I'm not going to be late, because you're too stupid to move your legs." 

 "Bite me," I yelled as I ran around to the passenger side. 

"Maybe I will," he teased. 

 I stuck my tongue out at him then folded my arms in front of me. 

I hated riding with Miles. I wished I had my shiny silver beetle again, but Reza and Winny both agreed that flaunting our money would only cause people to talk and become curious about us. 

"I'd rather be talked about than be in the same space as him though," I grumbled to myself. 

Miles ignored me and kept his eyes on the road. 

 Time seemed to pass more slowly at school. I was relieved when it was lunch and I could cut the whole "I'm listening" act.
 

"Hey."

I looked up from my tray just in time to see Chelsea sit down. 

I could tell it was her from a mile away, but I had to pretend like I didn't know until the moment I looked up.

Hopefully it was believable. 

 "I didn't mean to startle you," she continued. 

 I shook my head. 

 What else should I do? Tell her I smelled her coming? That I can distinguish her footsteps, breathing and whatever else from the others?  

Nope.  Definitely not. 

 I could hear the others making their way to the table and I knew this was my chance to ask her about the after school wood shop activity without potentially embarrassing myself. 

 "It turns out there wasn't much left to unpack," I quickly blurted out. 

 Her lips stretched across her thin face. 

 "Do you want to come today then?" 

 I blinked not expecting that she would ask me to come over today. 

I thought over what Reza, Winny and Miles kept repeating to me. That I should try to make friends. Try to have normal human experiences as much as possible. 

 But then again, there were the two mysterious vampires. One who was especially intrigued by Miles. 

 Fuck it. 

What's the difference if I go or not? Those vamps would have their way either way. 

 "Where do you guys usually meet?" 

 Her smile broadened even wider. Her mouth taking over the lower half of her face. Two deep dimples accented her cheeks on either side of her lips. 

 "My place after school. Well. You can come whenever you want or come and hitch a ride with me." 

 "Okay," I replied. 

I was overwhelmed with the amount of choices I had to make. I'd rather have someone just tell me to be somewhere at a certain  place. Not frett over being too early or too late. Am I overdressed or underdressed? 

The latter didn't apply in this case, but you get the gist of it. 

"May, you coming over today?" 

Connor grinned as he made himself comfortable in his chair. Dan was carefully watching me again while shoving a huge sandwich down his throat.  

"Yup. Guess I am." 

 Connor, Liz and Chelsea were excited, but I could tell Dan was rather disappointed. 

 Liz was sitting between me and Chelsea today. She leaned into my ear  and whispered, "Don't worry about Dan. He's never been out of the county so he treats everyone new that way. Plus, He's having troubles with his girl." 

 We both chuckled which made Dan give us a stern look. He wasn't too happy that Liz was openly telling the newcomer about his private life. 

 I get it. It was also weird for me that everyone was so open and friendly. Not something I was use to. Not even in my human days. 

 "So you're parents are cool with you just going to some strangers home then?" 

 I was startled by the deep bass of Dan's voice. I'd never heard him really talk before. 

 "Um. Yeah. They're cool," I stated. 

 "You're mom is super young though. She must have had you guys in her teens," Liz added. 

"They're not technically my parents. Winny is my aunt from my father's side. That's why we don't share our last name either," I lied. 

 Hopefully they bought it. 

"That's why! I was talking to Chelsea about how odd it was, but we brushed it off to being one of those modern women, who didn't want to take the man's last name. But then again, her last name sounded Persian." 

 Dan was taking it all in like a sponge. Quietly processing all the things Liz and I were saying.
 

"How do you know Winny," I asked Liz. 

I was definitely curious at the strange connection. Winny had never stepped foot near the school. 

 "My mom works with her. She's also a doctor at Berkley Memorial Hospital. She told me how awesome your mom, I mean, your aunt is and she is super sweet." 

 That sounded like Winny. She easily fit in anywhere she went. Just like Miles. 

Speaking of Miles, I saw him from the corner of my eye sitting at a table with a bunch of jocks. He couldn't join the football team, because it was so late in the season, but he was already friends with them. 

 "So you're living with your aunt now," Connor asked with interest. 

 "Yeah, my aunt and uncle since my parents passed away." 

 I saw a frown appear across Chelsea and Liz's face. 

 "I'm so sorry," Chelsea said solemnly.  

 "That's okay. It was a long time ago. I hardly remember it anyways." 

 The memory flashed through my head as I thought about it. 

The roads were slick from the storm that had suddenly appeared during a drive back from a family friends house. We were following down a curved road when the car on the opposite side lost control and crashed into the side of our car. 

Both cars ended up tumbling down the side of the mountain and into the woods below. It felt like hours, but nobody had come. I believed that I would die, because we were hidden beneath the thickly leaved trees. 

My parents were both gone on impact. Miles was the only other one to survive. He kept me awake even though his condition was, in hindsight, much worse than mine. 

I don't remember anything else after that until I was a vampire already. And after becoming one, my human memories were more of an old story that I heard of than actual events. They didn't feel like they belonged to me. 

 The bell rang indicating that lunch was over and it was time to get back to class. 

 Everyone got up and hurried off to next period, Except Chelsea. She turned to me and smiled. 

"See you after school," she said before walking off with Liz towards her next class. 

 I stayed behind hoping to have a moment with Miles. Luckily, he had seen my poor attempt at playing it cool at an empty table. 

 "What's up sis?" 

 He seemed confused that I was even remotely near him let alone trying to talk to him during school. He knew how much I hated being the awkward sister of the cool jock.

 "Just wanted to let you know that I'm going out after school so I won't be needing a ride." 

His brows shot up in excitement. 

 "Finally made some friends?" 

 I sneered, "Maybe. What's it to you anyways?" 

 He nodded with a silly grin on his face. 

 "Nothing, just happy for you kiddo." 

 I rolled my eyes. I hated it when he called me kiddo. We were only a year apart and I haven't been one in over a half a century. 

He took my miserable face as a sign to leave and followed his new group of friends out the cafeteria. 

Before he was all the way out the door, he turned and waved goodbye. 

 Having a popular brother was a pain, but at least he always came through when I needed him. 

 I gave him a weak smile remembering how he had tried to protect me from those vampires yesterday. 

Maybe I shouldn't be too harsh on him. He was, after all, the only blood relative I had left.