Chapter 1:
I drummed my fingers on the table, staring at the pencil that was scratching away at the paper. The pencil was moving so fast that I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if the sheet of binder paper burst into flames right before my eyes. Utterly bored out of my mind, I pressed the home button on my Samsung S6, staring at the clock.
7:28... my eyes darted to the paper in front of me. Making good time.
I looked out the window, staring at the darkening skies outside. Not even a month ago, it still would've been bright out at 8:00 flat. The warm days of August and September never lasted forever. The bright afternoons of summer buckled under the strains of time, giving way to the chilled days of October. I wasn't even complaining. Sure, Summer was nice enough, but I just didn't like it as much as the latter half of the year; fall and winter. I liked the cold much better.
I pressed the home button on my phone again, turning on the darkened screen once more.
7:29. I peeked at the paper again. Nearly...
"Done!" Elena said triumphantly. I smiled at her, turning off my phone.
"19 minutes." I declared. "Good speed. Let's see if that can translate to good accuracy with your answers."
"I'm pretty sure I... well, not pretty sure... I'm 'sorta kinda' sure that I got more than 75 percent right." Elena chewed on the end of her pencil nervously, nearly decapitating the pink eraser with her pointy fangs.
If anyone ever asked me what I liked to do after football practice ended, I would've told them I liked to go home and do my homework. Not a complete lie, but not a complete truth either. In truth, I went to my second 'home', the Sokolov household, to tutor Elena in World History and do my own homework at the same time. As I already finished my own homework for today, I was solely focused on Elena.
When Yulia and Anton told Stasi that Elena was struggling with the subject, Stasi recommended that I tutor her, being quite good in history myself. When Yulia and Anton approached me and asked for my help, I happily agreed to help Elena for free, despite their insistence that I be financially compensated. For one, it'd give me an excuse to go to Stasi's house every other day after practice without looking like a clingy stalker, and two, Elena was family to me. You never shake down your own family for money when they're in need.
I looked down at Elena's handiwork, examining her multiple choice answers with a critical eye. I compared her answers to the answer key. She certainly had studied and improved. I was twirling my pen in my fingers, utterly enraptured with the paper as if it were a videogame.
"How are you and Anna doing?" Elena asked, breaking my concentration and sending my red pen clattering to the floor.
"Damnit..." I mumbled to myself, bending down and picking up the pen once more. I was on a roll with the pen twirl, too!
"Oh. We're doing great, perfect actually. Things couldn't be better. I love her alot." I confessed happily, my heart beating faster in anticipation at seeing her at the end of this tutoring session.
It was true; Stasi and I were doing better than ever. It was like our relationship became stronger every single day that passed. We never really disagreed with each other on anything, and even if we did bicker, we quickly resolved it, realizing there were better things to do than fight. Everything was perfect. The person, the love, the moments, they were all equally mind blowing... especially the sex. Of course, I couldn't tell Elena that part. I had to keep it PG-13.
"That's good." Elena said, going back to chewing on her poor pencil nervously, peering at her paper in the corner of her eye, a fact that wasn't lost on me. Something that I learned while tutoring her; I had to be cautious about correcting her mistakes. Despite Elena's 'never let anything hold me down' attitude on life, she took school very seriously and was a perfectionist. Too many mistakes on a simple practice quiz had to potential to seriously discourage her and make her question her own intelligence and capacity to learn.
I went back to my inspection of Elena's practice test, before finding a flaw in what was a perfect streak. I uncapped my pen, circling the number in bright red ink so she knew what to study. I double checked the questions, making sure I hadn't simply missed any. Satisfied that I didn't, I wrote down 14/15 on the top of the paper, making her whoop.
"Good job." I said, impressed. "You've improved on the multiple choice. Better than I ever did, I can tell you that."
"Thanks, Chris. Only because of you." Elena gushed gratefully. She heaved a sigh of relief at the minimal amount of red ink I marked on her multiple choice.
I simply nodded in return, traveling further down to read her free response. Her handwriting was neat and orderly, making the process so much easier. Some people's handwriting is so abysmal, it's like reading Egyptian hieroglyphs. I was underlining Elena's key points on the Song Dynasty Art and Literature when Elena spoke once more.
"She's mad, you know." Elena said quietly.
My head snapped up. "Who?" I asked.
"Anna."
"What? Why?" I asked, alarmed, Elena's paper completely forgotten.
"She's disappointed that our parents are pretty much forcing her to go to the Coven Ball this year. Even though she doesn't outright tell our parents she doesn't want to go, we all just know that she'd rather be spending Halloween with you and your guys' friends. Heck, we'd all rather because spending time with you than anything else. The dance is so... so boring! All the teenagers are stuck up rich kids and the last time we went, there was this creepy old lady hitting on Vik." Elena shuddered. "But of course, if we don't go, we just know our parents will be heartbroken."
"Hey, don't be so negative... maybe this year it won't be so bad." I said, more relaxed now that the situation wasn't as serious as it could have been.
"Well, that's true, I guess." Elena relented. "It's at the Fairmont Hotel, so that's pretty cool. All we have to do is get introduced and stuff ourselves with good food. Then, all three of us are probably going to just sneak back to our suites and go buy those sweetened synthetic blood packs at the shops. Well, at least me and Vik are going to eat the SBPs. Stasi gets spoiled by you with the real stuff." Elena made a face.
I, of course, knew where the venue was and I was raring to go. The Fairmont Hotel was an extremely high class hotel in upstate San Francisco. It was antique, built in 1907, but that was all part of the charm. Vampires liked their historic sites and so did I. I never stayed there, but I heard it was like walking through a time traveling machine to the early 1900s when you walked into the lobby. It was also known for being one of the ten hotels in San Francisco that accepted monsters as guests, albeit with some fees involved.
"Anyways, our parents already asked Anna if she'd be willing to be brave and stay for the whole Ball with them since she's the oldest. She's going to be so bored that even I feel bad." Elena giggled.
"I don't think she'll be that bored this time." I said, looking back to Elena's free response. I was nearly done grading it. She was doing really well. Exceptionally well. I was proud of her improvement.
"Why not? She's like me and Viktor. She never fits in at the Ball and she always just sits off to the side hiding from everyone. Then she goes back to the room and hides there all the next day while our parents are doing business."
I glanced back up from paper to Elena. I debated whether to tell her about my invitation to the ball. Anton asked me not to tell Stasi since he wanted it to be a surprise but he never said anything about Elena. I thought on it for a second, before making up my mind. If there's anyone who could ever take a secret to the grave, it was Elena.
"Elena..." I began, taking a deep breath. "I'm going to tell you a secret. Can you promise me not to tell anyone, especially Stasi, the secret?" I asked, a mischievous smile on my face.
"What secret are yo-..." She began, before her eyes widened in realization. She gasped, slapping the palm of her hand over her mouth. "You got a silver envelope, didn't you?"
She's more perceptive than I thought.
The silver envelope was the Coven's way of delivering invitations to individuals. It was kind of ironic and humorous that the color of the invitation to an event mostly populated by vampires was the same color as the metal they were all allergic too.
Like I mean... come on. That couldn't have been an accident.
"I won't tell you anything unless you promise." I replied, sticking up my left pinkie. The pinky promise goes way back. The both of us have done it since she was six. She always asked me if I would play with her the next time I came to Stasi's house, just as when I was leaving for the day. I always pinky promised her that i'd play with her when I came back and to this day, I have never broken any promise we made with each other, and neither has she.
The pinky promise was sacred. It was life bonding. It was our own special little thing we had going on.
Elena interlocked her pinky with mine, sealing the deal. "Ok, pinky promise! Now spill." She demanded. I raised my eyebrow at her. "Please?" She continued, pouting and staring at me with her green eyes.
I relented under her faux politeness. "Yes. I got a silver envelope a few weeks ago. I'm going as a guest of your family."
Elena squealed. "Oh my god, screw going back to the room than. I'm staying for the whole thing. This is going to be so much fun with you there! Anna is going to be so happy that you're coming. Can you imagine the look on her face when we pull up into the hotel lobby and you're standing there waiting for her?"
