Mia had never been as glad as she was when history finally let out. Just knowing those two girls were there, constantly glancing her way was enough to completely ruin any excitement she felt for the subject. She'd tried to pay attention to the teacher, but the feeling that she was being constantly watched kept her from focusing. She couldn't get out of the room fast enough – as soon as the bell rang, Mia bolted from her chair.
Fortunately, it turned out that history was going to be the worst class of the day. She'd gotten lucky, and she knew someone in almost every one of her other classes. More importantly, she was glad to realize that neither of those two girls were in any more classes with her; she could at least breathe easy the rest of the day, even if history was going to be hard to get through.
Of course, her favorite period of the day was lunch. And not because she got to eat whatever it was they served in the cafeteria, either. Now that she was a vampire, she never really seemed to have much of an appetite. What she did enjoy was the time she finally got to spend with her friends.
Mia headed towards the cafeteria, hoping her friends would already be there. She found them without too much trouble, sitting outside at a red-lacquered picnic table just in front of the cafeteria doors. Carmine was busy unwrapping a sandwich she'd brought from home. And sitting next to her, a quiet, raven-haired girl named Anna sat patiently waiting.
Anna, like Mia, was a vampire. They'd met last year, but hadn't really become friends until Anna confronted Mia about an attack she'd witnessed. Even now, it surprised Mia that Anna had brought the fact to her attention – it was just something she'd never expected coming from Anna. It had been impossible for Mia to deny it, so she'd simply told Anna the truth. Realizing that they actually had a lot more in common than they'd thought, the girls ended up becoming surprisingly good friends – they even went out hunting together on occasion.
While they might have some important things in common, there was one thing about Anna that was very different. Unlike Mia, Anna had been a vampire for a very long time and was a lot older than either Mia or their friend Carmine – almost three hundred years older. She'd become a vampire sometime in the 1700s as far as Mia knew. But for some reason she had decided to enroll in high school – even though she clearly didn't have to. Anna had tried to explain it before – something about TV, Mia remembered. But, it had never made much sense to Mia; after all, who would choose to go to high school if they didn't have to? Mia shrugged – as long as it made Anna happy. And luckily for Anna, she'd stopped aging as soon as she'd become a vampire, so she didn't look out of place at all – even though she did manage to show her age at times. It wasn't really that she acted old – more like misinformed.
Looking at Anna and Carmine, Mia couldn't help but marvel yet again at the fact that they'd managed to become friends with each other in the first place; they were almost the complete opposite of each other. Anna took days to come to a decision about anything and seemed like she was trying to stay invisible as much as possible. But Carmine was one of the most outspoken people in the school and would do anything the instant she decided it was a good idea. It was great to know someone who wasn't afraid to do things, but sometimes Carmine just didn't think things through. Still, she was one of the most loyal friends Mia had ever had, and Mia was glad to know her – even though her eccentricities could definitely attract unwanted attention. Mia shuddered inwardly as she remembered the trouble Carmine had helped to stir up last year at school. But despite that, Mia couldn't help but be grateful that Carmine was there. After all, Carmine was the first friend Mia had ever had who knew she was a vampire and was perfectly fine with it.
As Mia approached the table, Anna looked up and smiled. Carmine saw Anna's smile out of the corner of her eye and looked around. When she saw Mia, she grinned widely and waved her over to their table.
"Hey!" Carmine said by way of greeting. She scooted over to give Mia room to sit down.
"Hi." Mia replied.
As she sat down, Mia grabbed her English book out of her bag and set it in front of her. It wasn't that she needed to study; not only was it the first day of school, she hadn't even been to English yet. The only reason she even got her book out was so that she could have something in front of her at lunch.
As a vampire, she didn't actually need to eat food and was never really hungry. The only reason she brought food last year was to keep up the appearance of being normal. But since Carmine had found out about them, both Mia and Anna had stopped bothering. Now, Mia only brought lunch on days like today – when her mom was in the kitchen watching Mia get ready. Mia's mom would never let her go off to school without a lunch – what kind of mother would do that? So, on these days, she'd bring the sandwich her mom insisted she make and give half of it to Anna to finish off.
Mia took a bite out of her half of the sandwich and sighed to herself. Maybe she could at least convince her mom to give her money to buy lunch. If she told her it would save time getting ready for school, maybe that would get her mom to agree. And it would be better than having to eat sandwiches she didn't even want!
The three were lucky to have lunch together. They'd been worried that since the school had two lunch periods, they might be eating at different times, and they were glad to find out that wasn't the case. Over the summer, Mia and her friends had hung out every week, and as soon as they'd gotten their schedules, they'd tried to compare. Of course, Carmine had lost hers and had had to call the school for another copy. She hadn't remembered much of what it said, but she did know she had second lunch. Even though Carmine hadn't been able to remember the rest of her schedule, it had been nice knowing ahead of time that the three at least had that period together; lunch was the most important period to have with your friends, after all. Anna had kept careful track of her schedule, so Mia already knew that the two of them would have chemistry together right after lunch. Mia would have liked to have more classes with her friends, but she realized she was going to have to settle for one class with each and lunch with the both of them.
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