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My name is Dean Ryder and I'm just your typical grade eight student. Well at least everyone thinks I am. I just moved here, downtown Los Angeles, the city of angels and I want to start this new school as a fresh start. No one is going to see me as the loser anymore, this time I'm going to get it right. You see if there's one thing I learned from the bad hand life dealt me, don't be you. Unless you're Tom Holland then be him. Be who people want you to be that way nothing can go wrong... or so I thought... People picked on me ever since kindergarten when I brought a pink stuffed wolf for show and tell. Apparently it's considered a girls toy. I mean don't get me wrong I like the colour pink. In fact I love it. I'm not ashamed of it. I own it but it's a frickin wolf, wolves are sick. Did you know when a wolf in the pack gets injured the others dont leave it behind in fact when the injured wolf can't chew, The wolves chew up the food for them and regurgitate it into his mouth so he can eat. That's what I call family, I wouldn't really know It's been me and my dad as long as I can remember. I mean he is a great guy. He taught me how to hustle at pool and count cards playing poker but he's just not a mom you know. I've always wanted a mother... but don't go feeling sorry for me. I hate that you shouldn't be feeling sorry for me as much as I should be feeling sorry for you, for what has yet to come. I think I've been kicked out of every school on the west side of Manhattan where I used to live. My dad decided we needed a fresh start but it's really because no school would take me, I got suspended in grade one for breaking another kids nose but it wasn't my fault the kid bullied me every day, shoving me, tripping me, calling me names. One day I finally had enough and that's when I learned to stick up for myself. In fact I never saw that kid again. His family moved away because they thought I was picking on him. Can you believe that? Everywhere I seem to go trouble seems to follow but this time

I will do it right, I have to, I need to. It all started on my first day of school at SandyShores middle school. It was a regular school, one as normal as any other middle school. Walking by I noticed that somebody had obviously vandalized the Los Angeles chargers logo on the school wall writing sucks underneath it in graffiti. I walked up the front steps feeling nervous yet at the same time hopeful, hopeful that I can live a normal life. One where I can live without the fear of being pushed into a locker and have to wait until the principle unlocks it. The other kids were looking at me funny, it's not every day a new kid comes in the middle of the year, so I just smiled and nodded at a few of them. I went inside the office and that's when I saw a really big mean looking guy. He looked like he was being scolded for something as I got closer I heard the principal say

"That better be the last time Thomas, you know how I feel about vandalism on school property, save your vandalizing for your own time not during school hours and definitely not on school property. Do you hear me?" Thomas looked at her with pure hate in his eyes. He then sighed and drawled

"Yes Mrs Vandhousen" "Okay good now hurry up you don't want to be late for class." Mrs Vandhousen sighed and muttered to herself "Not that you'll even show up." When Thomas turned around that was the first time I got a good look at him and boy do I tell you he has a lot of acne he had acne on acne, his face was scrunched up like he never smiled with a short military buzz cut, he was about 6 foot 4 and I gulped as he walked by eyeing me with a look that said stay out of my way and I might not hurt you. As he left the office I turned my attention back to Mrs Vandhousen a short but stern looking woman who looked like she has never gone a day without a full course turkey dinner and a buffet table of assorted desserts.

"Uhm Mrs. Vandhousen?" I asked not really knowing what to say since I'm socially awkward when it comes to new meetings.

"I'm. . ."

"Oh yes." She smiled, turning around "you must be Mr Ryder yes?" looking at me like she expected an answer so I did the most logical thing I said

"uhmmm." Wow I sound like a bumbling idiot.

"It's okay dear first days can be really, well awkward." she smiled again even wider I counted up to four missing teeth. She walked over and gave me a firm handshake. Unnaturally strong, especially for a lady. She eyed me up and down as if to see if I was worth the trouble.

"Well I'll bring Cassidy Davies up here and she will show you around the school." As if on cue without her doing anything, a pretty pale girl around my age with blonde hair and startling purple, wait purple eyes? They're probably just contacts, I reassured myself. She had a beautiful physique and walked in with a small spring in her step and asked Mrs Vandhousen

"you wanted to see me?"

"Yes dear please take young Dean here and show him around the school" Cassidy turned to me, looked at me and smiled with her pearly white teeth

"Don't worry I dont bite" she laughed then winked and whispered "without permission." She grabbed me by the hand and pulled me out the door into the hallway not giving me time to respond. Just then the bell rang and everyone started bustling around to their class. "It's fine we don't have to get to class on time today, I still have to show you around." She started off the tour just walking around naming off random facts about this school like when it was built, who's the most popular student, the nicest teacher and so on. Truth was I was only half paying attention to her. She was so pretty and just mesmerizing, I swear she could have been a goddess in a past life. She showed me what classes I had and I sat next to her in every single one, which I found odd but really did not care as my brain wasn't thinking straight around her. "This is your english class." She continued. Which seemed to snap me out of my trance. "He's pretty nice but he gets stern if he thinks you're not paying attention. . . . Well that concludes our tour lunch is at twelve-thirty and if you need any help I eat in the student council class room." Just then the bell rang.

"Okie dokie," She smiled. "It's time for gym."

She pointed down the hallway that's in the building next door. I'll meet you there, '' she smiled."

"Uh okay." As I walked down the hallway I mentally smacked myself and muttered "Stupid. . .Stupid. . .Stupid."

"Hey." shouted a voice. "You're the new kid right?" Oh no I know that voice a ugly looking Thomas stalked up to me with two slightly less ugly guys both with buzz cuts and wearing the exact same leather jacket as him. Me being, well me I said

"No I've been here since sixth grade six."

"Oh." He stopped and looked very confused. "How come I haven't seen you before?" He asked this looking completely puzzled. He turned to the guy on his right. "Do you remember seeing him little Tim?" He asked Tim, who was sadly slightly more intelligent than Thomas said

"I've never seen him. I think we got ourselves a wise one." I gulped as he turned to face me clenching his fists.

"We got ourselves a wise one eh? You know what we do to them?"

"No," I gulped.

"Tell him what we do to wise ones Ted." Ted who must have been the one on the left who was slightly taller than Tim but shorter than Thomas cracked his knuckles.

"Uhh," he looked at Thomas and said "What do we do to them again?" he asked this looking completely puzzled.

"Ugh," Thomas bellowed. "It's swirlies for the nerds, wedgies for the dorks and a punch in the face for the wise guys. How many times do I have to tell you this." He asked, looking downright terrifying.

"Sorry," Ted muttered. Thomas ignored him and turned to look back at me but I was already running. I was a fast runner, I was lucky as all of a sudden the bell rang. I could hear my ears ringing as I dodged and weaved through the crowd. I hear a faint,

"Hey," They called after me trying to move through the crowd but they were not as skinny or as fast as me thank god.

"We'll find you at lunch." They yelled after me.

The rest of gym class was pretty bad. I kept looking over my shoulder expecting them to come barging through the gymnasium doors any minute. Luckily we didn't have any of the same classes. While I was deep in my thoughts a loud voice snapped me out of it.

"Mr. Ryder. Earth to Ryder, anything you would like to share with the class?" Asked Mr Jefferson, making me blush a deep shade of red. Mr. Jefferson was our gym coach here at SandyShores middle school his hobbies include wearing shorts that were way too short, which I liked to call Short Shorts, yelling at children, commanding children and throwing dodgeballs at us very hard. If he ran out of dodge balls he would start throwing tool wrenches at us. He was a bit on the bald and chubby side but at least we couldn't see his balls, if he had any.

"No sir" I replied. He made me run laps until the end of class throwing dodgeballs at me if I tried to slow down to a walk. The other kids just sat there and laughed. Near the end of class I was so tired I felt like I was dehydrated from sweating so much. Luckily I was saved by a blood curdling scream coming from outside the teacher ran out and we ran after him joining a crowd at the football field. It was slightly snowing outside and what I saw I could never unsee. A body was lying in the center of it. There was a body that looked like a dried raisin. I recognized him as Mr Smith the english teacher when Cassidy showed me his class, he looked like he lost at least a hundred pounds. Just then Mrs Vandhousen showed up

"Okay what is it, what's all this commotion everybody back to class." Nobody moved, everybody was shocked at the sight of Mr. smith laying on the ground all shrivelled up. The only person who didn't seem shocked was Mrs. Vandhousen who just pursed her lips and said

"Okay everybody, school is cancelled for today, everybody go home. I'll see you back here tomorrow morning bright and early." At that everyone left all muttering to each other coming up with crazy stories about aliens raiding earth and weight loss experiments gone wrong. I guess I was trying not to think about it. I was in shock sure but still, who would want to hurt Mr. Smith and why? I was going to leave when I realized I really needed to use the bathroom.

By the time I got out I realized everybody had already left. I started walking down the hallway when I heard two voices talking coming from the student council room. I went to go see what was going on and I peeked through the door It was Mrs. Vandhousen she seemed to be scolding Cassidy about something so I leaned in close to the door.

"You can't just go around sucking people dry." Mrs. Vandhousen said but her voice was deeper, more like a growl.

"I'm sorry" Cassidy hissed. "I didn't mean to, he just got me so angry."

"That is no excuse what if somebody saw you you can't just feed on whoever you. . .?" Just then My backpack strap broke and it hit the ground with a big bang. Stupid text books why did they have to make them so heavy. Both of their heads snapped in my direction.

"Somebody heard us, kill whoever it is," Mrs. Vandhousen screeched. I ducked away before they could see me, picked up my bag and took off in a full sprint straight for the exit and I bolted out that door and down the street I took a sharp left into an alley and immediately regretted it! A hand flew out and punched me in the chest. I fell to the ground coughing and wheezing, trying to catch my breath. I heard a slow drawl as a familiar voice said

"I missed the face, I guess we're going for round two as this time his fist went flying toward my face. I heard a sickening crack as my nose burst out blood splattering everywhere. Thomas started laughing

"I told you we would find you." I tried to clear my vision. I saw six of them, two Thomas's Ted's and Tim's. They laughed and started walking away as Iaid there for what seemed like hours until the manager of the building came out to take a smoke and saw me lying there trying hard to breath. He picked me up and yelled to his assistant for help. Together they dragged me in and placed me on a round table at the back of their workshop where I fell into a dreamless sleep.

When I woke up I was light headed and couldn't see anything. It was pitch black. I realized there were bandages all around my head. I was wrapped like a mummy except for a small hole allowing me to breath. I clawed at my face trying to get all of it off.

"He's awake" yelled a young boy probably around my age.

"Coming" replied a deeper voice.

"Where am I, what's going on," I said, panicking. I got up and immediately regretted it. I fell over in pain. "Careful the man said you had three broken ribs, a broken nose and a concussion." "Why can't I see, where am I, what happened."

"It's okay if you're at Cythrex and son's antique emporium" He replied "I'm Cythrex and this is my son Geoffrey you got quite a beating. Somebody must hate you a lot for you to be in this state."

"Just some guys." I replied, "Can you get this mask off my face please?"

"Yah sure it's clipped at the back." Cythrex reached his hands around the back of my head and pulled off all the bandages at once without it hurting. Wow I gasped as I looked around the room. There were antique shields and armor all around, I even saw a metal coo coo clock.

"What do you mean had? How long have I been out?" I asked.

"Three days," he replied. How have I healed from that much in three days."

"Honestly I have no idea how that happened. You probably have a god watching over you." he replied mysteriously.

"What do you mean, as in more than one?" "Yes child" he replied again starting to get slightly annoyed. "There are more than one god in this universe."

"If you say so" I didn't believe him I thought he was just an old nut job.

"You'll see someday soon" he smiled "Anyways you should be going. He handed me a pair of crutches and helped me get up.

"What do you mean someday soon?" I asked, slightly terrified of the answer.

"All in due time young mortal." That did not help my anxiety.

"Nevermind I should get home my dad must be worried sick" I said trying to get out of there before he decided he was done playing pretend and ready to make a 13 year old virgin stew. I got up and he smiled mysteriously pointing at the exit where I could have sworn there was no door there before. I got up and went to the door as I opened it and went outside. I turned to look back but no one was there. I shrugged it off even though I was slightly disturbed they probably just had a secret room or something. I was walking back to my house when I saw Cassidy walking down my way before I could do anything she jogged over.

"Oh my what happened to you?" she asked. "Nothing," I said.

She raised her eyebrow.

"I just got beat up by Thomas and his buddies." Is it weird that I still find her attractive when she drank Mr. Smith dry.

"Oh I'm so sorry" she pouted, "Where have you been the last few days I missed you at school."

She was definitely suspicious of me. So I tried to play it cool.

"I decided to tell her parts of the truth just in case she had any other vampiric powers instead of just drinking human blood, if that even counted as a power.

"Well I was leaving school when I went down an alley where I got beat up by. . ."

''Hey look, it's Mr. Wise guy," Thomas's voice drawled. His two lackeys Tim and Ted chuckled like it was the funniest thing in the world.

"Wise guy" Ted repeated giddily shaking his head.

"Oh. . ." she said, suddenly making the connection which probably got me off the hook.

"You better leave him alone" Cassidy said.

"I don't think so Thomas scoffed while he and his buddies cracked their knuckles.

She turned back to me and looked me in the eyes and muttered one word "go."

Okay no offense but I can't just leave a girl to fight for me even if she has vampiric super powers.

"It's fine I can hold my own,'' I said standing up straight. She muttered something to herself about how stubborn boys are. Thomas threw a punch at her but she had super fast reflexes and caught it. Any normal person would be lying on the ground right now. Much to his surprise she threw an uppercut punch connecting to his jaw which sent him flying up and came down with a hard smack with the pavement cracking under his weight. By this time a crowd was watching and taking pictures with their phone.

Somebody from the crowd shouted how did she do that and she just smiled and said,

"girl power." The other guys Ted and Tim took one look at her and ran. She then turned to look at me and asked

"Come back to my place, you look like you need to eat. . . and have a shower. I blushed and I didn't want to but she just saved my life. Maybe I'm over exaggerating but I didn't want to end up with a bandaged face again. So forgetting how worried my dad must be I said

"Why not," as I bit my tongue for saying yes and silently prayed that she wouldn't drink me dry too.