"You're saying you don't have any stance on it at all?"
Nigel shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't care about humans, I just don't have much of an opinion of them." I didn't see how there was much of a difference, but I didn't say anything. He continued, "I guess it's just cause I've never met any living humans is all."
"You're a pureborn?" I said as I set my empty glass down.
"Yeah, that's right. And I've been feeding from a glass since the cradle. Never bit a neck in my life. Sure I've seen them, I haven't spent my whole life underground, I just never took the time to get up close and personal with a human."
"So you don't have anything against them."
"Yeah, I just don't have any fluffy bunny feelings for them either."
I sighed. This was going nowhere. "Look, Nigel, you can't have no opinion here! This is a big deal! We're talking about the futures of everyone in this school, and possibly beyond, so you gotta have a stance on it!" I realized as I heard myself saying all that that I had never been quite so forceful before. The look on Nigel's normally happy-go-lucky face was tip-off enough anyway.
"Oh, come on, do you have to be such a drama queen?" said a voice to my left.
I made a little sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sigh, and turned my head. "Elizabeth, can't you just say 'hi,' like everybody else?"
She leaned closer, a wicked smile playing across her ruby-red lips. "Do you ever ask if I can't just wear lingerie? That's another thing I don't do, but you've never brought that up."
I slowly turned my eyes toward Nigel, who appeared to be sizing me up all of a sudden, while simultaneously giving me an affirming nod before going back to serving other people.
"You have no shame, do you?" I said. Elizabeth laughed.
"By the way," I added, "Have you talked to Patrick?"
Her smile faded. "Yeah," she sighed.
"How'd it go?" I asked, unable to shake the feeling that I'd just asked a really stupid question.
"I'm beginning to the think trying to teach Tanya the concept of modesty would be easier."
I raised an eyebrow at her. "And since when do you know anything about modesty?"
She paused. "Okay, you got me there," she laughed. "But anyway, maybe talking to Patrick about this isn't exactly the way to go."
"What do you mean?" I asked. "What should we be doing?"
She raised one eyebrow along with one corner of her mouth. "Exactly what you're already doing. You're going around asking everyone about their opinion of Patrick's new position."
"Don't you mean Tanya's new position?"
She scoffed. "Hey, in Tanya's case, there's nothing new about it. She's always felt this way about humans; she's only gone this far now. I mean, Patrick's our leader because he looks like one. He's big and in charge and people are naturally inclined to quiet down when he walks into a room. Doesn't mean he's not a bowl of Jell-O in the presence of Tanya's seduction."
"And you think me simply going around talking to people is going turn them against Tanya?"
"I think it's starting to work."
I stopped all motion for a moment. "What do you mean?"
"I've spoken to people down here who used to be staunch supporters of Tanya's program until they talked to you. Believe it or not, you are proving to be something of an influence amongst the SVA! You're Tanya's major political opponent! You're a leader!"
I said nothing. I was a little preoccupied with the fact that I could feel the walls and the floor falling away as she said this. Was it really possible for me to be that important? Was I capable of making that much of a difference? Not long ago, I would have considered any such notion an indication of insanity. I've always been a generally passive person, who takes things as they come and doesn't try to change much. Now I was actually influencing the decisions people made?
The world suddenly came rushing back to me as I heard, "Which would be why you find me standing here." A sick expression became fixed onto my face as I turned around and found her standing there.
Yeah, you know who.
"Hi, Tanya," I groaned.
She glared down at me, her hands resting on her hips. "Hello, Vincent," she purred. For a moment I said nothing, just stared at her in mute surprise. "What?" she said.
"I'm just a little surprised that you actually remember my name," I said.
She scoffed lightheartedly. "Please, everyone here knows who you are, Vincent. Our resident human-lover."
I gave her a nasty glare. "You make that sound derogatory."
"Vincent," Elizabeth put in, "you should know by now that any sentence Tanya says that has the word 'human' in it is going to be derogatory."
"Look Vincent," Tanya plied, "I understand you're a young blood, and that it's natural to still feel an attachment to humans when you used to be one. But the fact is you're not anymore, and it's about time you realized that."
"Oh really?" I challenged, arising from my stool. "What are you going to do?"
"Vincent, you might want to be careful," Elizabeth warned, sounding just the slightest bit panicky. And when Elizabeth gets panicky, generally speaking, not good.
"At the moment, Vincent," Tanya said, "you're what I call the enemy. I don't like that. Having enemies is not something I consider fun."
