You are cordially invited to attend school at the Algul Academy...
Calla still remembered the letter she'd gotten that had started this whole mess. She'd been almost awestruck when she'd seen it. And Calla had been dumb enough to accept. Still, things had been working out surprisingly well; she'd been so good at hiding what she was. But now, one little slip-up was going to ruin it all.
She tried to remain calm; no one had seen her, no one knew what she'd done. All she had to do was get through the rest of the day. Then she could go home and pretend it never happened.
School was almost over. She had ten minutes left until her final period when one of the counselors came into the room and pulled her teacher aside. They chatted quietly at the door. Calla tried to eavesdrop, but she was too far away to tell what they were saying.
Did they know what she'd done?
Everyone around her was looking worried. Calla put on a concerned face of her own and turned to the seat next to her – where Nisha sat.
"What's going on?" Calla whispered.
Nisha looked at her blankly. "Didn't you hear?"
Calla shook her head. "I wasn't paying attention." she lied.
"They found something in the library. Something bad."
"What?" Calla's eyes went wide. She tried to parlay her concerned expression into one of confusion; it might not have been because of her. "What did they find?"
"No idea. Some kind of weapon or something." Nisha told her. Calla just stared at her wide-eyed, trying to figure out what to say to that.
"All right, everyone. Settle down." Mr. Villalobos said, turning back to face the class.
The whispers quieted down to about half of what they were.
"Class, now." he said again, snarling slightly.
The class fell deathly silent, as if half the students had stopped even breathing.
"As I was saying," he continued. "There's been a change in plans for the remainder of the day. Instead of last period, there will be mandatory class meetings. Freshmen will go to the gym, sophomores to the cafeteria, juniors to the library, and seniors to the courtyard. No exceptions."
After that announcement, there was no settling the class down again. Calla slumped in her chair, wishing she was invisible.
"What happened?" someone called out.
"What'd they find?" someone else wanted to know.
"Who did it?"
"Are they going to get in trouble?"
"Suspended?"
"Expelled?"
"Nothing's been decided yet." the teacher told them. "Go to the meeting, and everything will be explained there."
When the bell rang, Calla numbly followed the rest of her classmates out to the library. She wondered if she could make a run for it. But if anyone saw her, it'd all be over; they'd know for sure that she'd done it. And she seriously doubted she'd be able to outrun everyone. Her only saving grace at the moment was that about half the kids seemed as nervous as she was. At least it meant she didn't stand out.
"Don't worry." Nisha told her. "It's probably nothing – just some stupid senior prank."
Calla nodded, knowing that was almost definitely not true.
Her math class hadn't been far from the library, so they were some of the first students to get there. She and Nisha grabbed chairs at a table in the back. A couple minutes later, they were joined by the rest of their lunch group: Keeran, Selene, and Hunter.
"What do you think they found?" Keeran asked, looking worriedly around the table.
"Something bad enough to basically lock down the school." Hunter said.
"I heard it was a steak." Selene told him quietly.
"A wooden stake?" Calla asked, confused. Could someone have really brought something like that to school?
"No, like a sirloin." Selene answered. Calla couldn't tell if she was being serious or not.
"Why would they care if someone brought a sirloin to school?" Hunter scoffed.
"Maybe it's symbolic or something." Selene shrugged.
Calla was fairly sure she heard Hunter mutter something under his breath about Selene's intelligence. But when she saw him jump, she knew for certain that Selene had kicked him under the table.
Hunter curled his lip slightly, but before he could say anything, Ms. Blackwood cleared her throat. With her long charcoal dress and an almost supernatural grace, she glided up to a space near the checkout desk and paused, ready to address the group. A hush fell over the room.
"As I'm sure you've all heard, we had an incident in the library earlier today." she said.
The students all shifted uncomfortably, looking around the room. It was as if whatever had happened would still be visible and one of them might be sitting on the evidence right now. Calla just stared down at the table, refusing to look at any of the other students.
So, it was true. This was all her fault. She was too busy kicking herself to listen to what Ms. Blackwood was saying, but she didn't need to hear it to know exactly what they'd found. How could she have been so stupid? What were they going to do to her now?
She sat there, alternating between mentally kicking herself and trying to figure out an escape plan. She'd long given up listening to the teacher. But Ms. Blackwood's final words tore through Calla's head: "Someone at this school doesn't belong."
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Calla's head jerked up from the table at Ms. Blackwood's statement. She looked around wide-eyed at the other students. Part of her did it to gauge their reactions. Another, more desperate part of her, did it because she did not want to be the only one in the room not looking for the culprit. As she glanced vaguely around the library, her gaze fell on the chair just to her left. Nisha was sitting there, trying to catch her eye.
"Who would do something like that?" Nisha asked.
"No idea." Keeran replied. Calla thought she saw him scoot his chair just slightly away from Selene and Hunter, eyes narrowing as he did. Great. Was her mistake about to cause a school-wide incident?
It was just a sandwich!
She wanted to scream – maybe explain. But she didn't think anything she could say would convince them she wasn't some depraved monster.
It had taken her almost no time at all to realize that this wasn't a normal school; it was a school that seemed to cater almost exclusively to vampires. But they'd been trying to open the school up a bit – to diversify the student body. And they'd done that by inviting a number of werewolves from the neighboring town. It was sort of an exchange program, apparently. And Calla had been caught up in the list of invitees.
It was just too bad that Calla was human.
Still, once she'd realized where she was, she'd decided to make the most of it. She wasn't about to admit to a school full of monsters that she wasn't one of them, and she thought she could pass. Her first decision was whether she'd pretend to be a werewolf or a vampire. She decided on vampire – she didn't know how to change into a wolf, or how often they did it, or anything like that. So vampire actually seemed like the less dramatic option. The only problem with that plan was that it ruined lunch period for her; the only students at the school who ate lunch were the handful of werewolves. Calla solved this problem by sneaking off to the library and stuffing her homemade lunch into her face as fast as possible before hurrying out to the courtyard to meet up with her more magical friends.
This afternoon had been just like any other. She'd rushed to her favorite study corner in the library. After making sure she was alone, she slipped the sandwich her mom had made out of her bag and bit into it, closing her eyes and sighing contentedly. It was usually both the most rewarding part of her day and the most nerve-wracking. But today she was starving, and her sandwich tasted like heaven.
Roast beef on toasted rye bread. Her mom always made the best lunches. And today, she'd gone all out – crisp lettuce, thick tomato slices, and a big helping of her favorite garlic mayonnaise.
She was halfway through her lunch when it dawned on her that she was eating garlic mayonnaise. She couldn't have that here! What was she thinking?
She choked down the bite that was already in her mouth, wrapped up the rest of her sandwich, and quickly threw it in the trash. She hurried out of the library and into the bathroom. She rinsed her mouth out with soap as best she could. It tasted pretty gross, sure. But she couldn't afford to actually smell like garlic while going to a vampire high school. Once she was reasonably sure she was in the clear, she left the bathroom and went to join up with her friends for the rest of the period.
She sat down as casually as she could at a table under the canopy-covered courtyard. No one said anything about her smelling like garlic, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Her hand rushed automatically to her mouth when she realized what she'd done. She'd sighed. With potential garlic breath. She saw Selene looking at her sideways, but she tried to stay calm.
"Everything ok?" Selene asked. Calla swallowed, trying to steady herself before she answered.
"Yeah, fine." Calla grinned, taking a deep breath through her nose as she forced her heart to slow down. She wasn't sure if Nisha and Keeran could hear her heartbeat. Just how sensitive were vampires to that kind of thing? she wondered. Too bad she couldn't exactly ask.
"You sure?"
"Just... worried about Mr. Villalobos's test." Calla mumbled.
She really did have a math test coming up later. But honestly, she wasn't all that worried about it. Still, it was the best excuse she could come up with off the top of her head.
"Don't be – I heard it's really easy." Nisha shrugged.
"Is it?" Calla asked idly.
Hunter nodded.
"Well, that's good." Calla murmured.
No one else said anything to her, and she figured she was in the clear. She was even pretty sure she did alright on that math test. But halfway through fifth period, everything changed. And now that she was stuck in the library with a bunch of edgy vampires and anxious werewolves, she really wasn't sure what she was supposed to do.
"Well, we know it wasn't one of us." Nisha was saying, glaring coldly at Selene. "That means it had to be one of you."
"You've got to be joking." Selene scoffed. "It was a rye sandwich."
"Yeah? Just goes to show that werewolves eat all kinds of disgusting things."
"Haven't you ever heard the phrase, 'The werewolf sits amid the rye'?" Selene snapped.
"Never." Nisha glowered.
"Rye affects us." Selene told her. "Makes us change."
"So... you're saying that no werewolves would have eaten that?" Calla asked. And here she'd thought that the biggest problem she had was the garlic; this just got worse and worse.
"Not unless they wanted to change in the middle of class." Hunter grumbled.
The table fell silent as everyone considered what that meant. Calla wanted to ask if there was still a chance that it could have been one of the werewolves, but she didn't want to bring any attention to herself by opening her mouth. Besides, if one of the werewolves had started changing in the middle of class, they wouldn't have gathered all the students up to figure out who'd done it. No, she knew it was her sandwich that had the school in an uproar – what were the odds that a werewolf was as careless as her on the very same day?
Calla put her head in her hands and sighed. At least she was pretty sure no one suspected her. Now all she had to do was wait until school was out – they'd have to let her go home then, right? And she would never, ever, ever come back here.
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The bell rang, signaling the end of final period. Calla looked around hopefully, but no one left their seats. The teachers were still huddled together, mumbling amongst themselves.
Did this mean they weren't going to be allowed to leave?
Calla looked around the table, wondering what her friends would think once they found out what she really was. Nisha and Hunter were arguing quietly, and Keeran was glancing around the room, looking bored. His fangs were showing, and he was pushing his tongue into one absentmindedly. Calla tried not to stare.
When she turned to Selene, she saw she was staring right at her, head tilted slightly to the side.
"You ok?" she whispered.
Calla nodded before mumbling, "My mom's going to kill me."
"For being late?"
Calla nodded again.
"Just tell her we got held in class."
"For a sandwich?" Calla asked. Her sandwich? How would she ever explain that to her mom? Besides, if her mom ever found out about the kinds of people her only daughter went to school with, she'd be horrified.
Selene didn't say anything for a minute. She looked like she was having some kind of internal debate with herself. Finally, she stood up.
"Come with me." she told Calla.
Calla didn't move. Under the circumstances, she didn't think she should go anywhere with a werewolf – friend or not.
"Seriously? Come on." Selene said, giving a prodding motion with her chin.
Calla stood. The rest of the table turned to watch.
"Where are you going?" Nisha asked.
"Bathroom." Selene said.
"They're not going to let you." Hunter told her.
"Oh, yes they will. Watch." Selene said before grabbing Calla's wrist and practically dragging her to where the teachers stood.
"I need to go to the bathroom." she told them once they noticed she and Calla were standing there.
"I'm sorry, dear. No one is to leave this room for the time being." Ms. Blackwood said, gently but firmly.
"But I really need to." Selene insisted. "And if we're going to be in here much longer, it's going to be a problem."
She bounced on her toes, trying to help sell it. Ms. Blackwood looked from Selene to Calla.
"You too?" she asked skeptically.
Calla opened her mouth, but Selene cut her off before she had a chance to say anything.
"I don't want to go alone." Selene said. "Not when there's some kind of who-knows-what out there."
Calla winced inwardly; she could practically hear her friend calling her a monster.
Ms. Blackwood studied them for a moment.
"Go." she said finally. "Then come straight back. Be quick about it."
"Yes, ma'am." Selene nodded, dragging Calla out of the library and towards the bathroom. As soon as they made it through the doors, Selene turned to Calla.
"It was you, wasn't it?" she asked.
"What?" Calla tried for shocked indignation, but it came out as more of a squeak.
"You planted that sandwich, didn't you?" she asked. But she didn't sound angry. Instead, she sounded curious, confused. "Why'd you do it?"
"I didn't plant anything." Calla insisted. She'd thought she'd thrown it away.
"...What are you?" Selene asked. Her eyes seemed a little more yellow than Calla remembered, and she wondered if Selene was getting ready to change. ...Was she afraid of Calla?
"You know what I am." Calla said, trying to call her friend's bluff.
"I know what you said you were." Selene corrected. Then, "Show me your fangs."
Calla's eyes widened. She scoffed, hoping it was convincing. "Why would you ask me something like that?"
She tried to make it sound deeply personal – like showing off her underwear or something. But Selene wasn't buying it.
"Oh, please." she rolled her eyes. "Keeran does it all the time. I don't think I've ever seen him without fangs."
"Well, that's just Keeran..." Calla trailed off. But she stopped when she saw Selene's face.
"No, it's not – it's every vampire here. Every one except you."
Calla opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to figure out what to say.
"So what are you really?"
"...Human." Calla whispered. She leaned up against the wall to steady herself, wondering what was going to happen to her now.
Selene just stared at her.
"Well, that can't be right." Selene said finally.
Calla let her eyes sink to the floor.
"Wait – really?" Selene asked, sounding shocked.
Calla nodded miserably. Then, before Selene could get the wrong idea, Calla blurted out, "I didn't mean to – it was just a sandwich! I didn't even make it. And I didn't realize it had garlic until I was halfway done!"
"And you threw it away..." Selene said slowly.
"Should have just stuffed it in my locker." Calla mumbled at her shoes.
Selene let out a short, barking laugh. "Yeah, that probably would have been better."
"Couldn't be much worse, anyway." Although if someone had smelled it, there'd be no question as to who it belonged to. Then, she pulled her head up, looking her friend in the eye. "How'd you know it was me?"
"Well, I didn't – not at first." Selene admitted. "But I've never seen anyone look so guilty before. And then I got to thinking... you're the only one who doesn't complain about late-night hunting, or trips to the blood bank with your parents, or anything like that. You don't seem to hear as well, either. And I've thought I caught salami on your breath more than once."
"Really?" Calla had always thought she'd been so good at brushing her teeth after lunch.
"I just thought I was imagining it. But now..." Selene shook her head. "I can't believe I missed it."
"Please don't tell." Calla tried not to flat-out beg, but it was hard. She wasn't sure what the vampires would do to her if they knew she'd been lying.
Selene stared at her for a moment. Calla swallowed hard, but she tried to be brave.
"I'm going to tell them it was me." Selene said matter-of-factly.
"Really?" Calla couldn't believe it. "Why?"
"You're my friend." Selene shrugged. "Not a lot of outsiders like us. You do. And you... you actually want to go to a school like this."
"Will they believe you?" Calla had thought half the problem was that no werewolf could have eaten the rye bread.
"I'll just say my older sister was playing a prank and didn't think I'd actually take it to school."
"You'd really do that?"
"Sure." Selene shrugged. "But if you ever end up in a situation like this again, pick werewolf next time."
"You think there's really going to be a next time?" Calla laughed. How many opportunities would she really get to pretend to be something other than human?
The two walked into the library, Selene ready to cover for her. Calla took a deep breath, trying to ready herself. She jumped about a foot in the air when the library door banged closed behind them.
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Calla awoke with a start. There was another loud bang. She looked around vaguely. It took her a second to realize she was in her room. The window was open and periodically smashing into the wall.
Relief rushed through her as she realized she hadn't tried to poison an entire school of vampires. Then, the relief gave way to disappointment. She might not have freaked out a school of monsters, but that also meant she didn't have any of those same monsters as her friends.
She got out of bed and headed downstairs. At least it was the middle of summer break, so she'd been allowed to sleep in.
She was in the process of pouring herself a bowl of cereal when her mom walked in the room, flipping through the mail.
"Good morning, honey." her mom said.
"Morning." Calla mumbled dejectedly through a mouthful of food.
Her mom gave her a look that said she knew better than to talk with her mouth full. Then, she set an envelop down in front of her daughter.
Calla stared at it, reading the elegantly printed calligraphy on the envelope over and over. Could it really be? Or was her mind just playing tricks on her? She ripped the envelope open and unfolded the paper that had been neatly placed within. As she read, a smile plastered itself across her face.
You are cordially invited to attend school at the Algul Academy...
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