Sacrifice Helle Season Two

The principal pushed his glasses up closer and took a good look at the two students in front of him. “So,”, he sighed and looked at the student to his left, “You have ended your stay at the cathedral and will attend to your studies for the remaining weeks? I trust you to have the intelligence and will to catch up with your class. Then we will not have to put you through an extra month at school.” He smiled a little and looked down at the papers planted on his desk, made a grimace and started at the student on his right side. “Vaan Kuromi, is that so?” “My cousin.”, I shot in. Principal Jefferson narrowed his eyebrows at the odd name combinations of our so called family. Asami, Helle and Vaan Kuromi. Asami currently a missing student, Vaan just signed in. “And Vaan, you are…”, he looked down at his papers again, “17, is that so.. Well, Miss Hanna will give you further details about your classes; just address her on your way out. And welcome to our school.”

-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-

“Helle, where’s your jacket?” “I have no idea.” My mother rested her hands on her hips and glared at me. “So now what? We have to get you a new one since you can never keep track of your belongings?” “Don’t get all grumpy about it, I’ll buy my own fucking jacket!” “Helle! I will not have you swearing in my house!” I lowered my head and mumbled an excuse. Why did mornings have to start like this? Mom being grumpy, me being probably just as grumpy. But today was not an ordinary day, these were not ordinary days in general, and that might have stressed us both especially much. If one didn’t know the circumstances we would have looked like just a regular family, fighting in the mornings, teenagers hating the world and parents grounding them.

I bumped down on a chair in the kitchen waiting for Vaan to finish his breakfast. Although a new member of the household he seemed comfortable with the situation. Mom and dad adored him; he was always smiling at them and being helpful, so they didn’t mind him staying. For how long I didn’t know. It was his first week as a human for centuries and I must admit I was curious about how he would fit in. My parents had no idea where he came from, but believing he had helped me out in my search for my sister they accepted him like he was, a stranger with no past. They let him have the guestroom and I got my own room for the first time in my life. Well, you couldn’t say it was my own room, there were belongings there that weren’t mine. An extra bed, clothes in the closet, toys in boxes. Things that would still need to get unpacked. I sighed thinking about them and from every thought they brought with them.

Vaan threw the last piece of bread in his mouth and got up from the table, “We’re late!” He poked my shoulder and I looked up at the time. “Oh, shit, 10 minutes left!”, I yelled and ran out to the hallway complaining to Vaan, “Why didn’t you tell me, why do you use so long time eating breakfast?! I was ready hours ago! You make me late for school!” Vaan tied his shoes and looked up at me grinning “Food is good! You should try to enjoy it a little, and not throw it in like you do!” “Since when did bread become the most amazing thing on earth?” He stuck his tongue out and walked out the door. I rolled my eyes at his childish behavior. I would have never expected him, Vaan of all creatures, to be like this.

It was rather chilly outside, the week so far had been colored grey by the skies. And I had no jacket. I couldn’t think of where it was, where I had left it. Well, one jacket was forever lost somewhere on earth, and the other one I had no idea of where was. My bet was that Vaan had taken it just to tease me, he begun striking me like that kind of person. I pulled my sweater up, it was a turtle neck and I constantly checked that it hid the two little wounds from vampire fangs on my neck.

To get enrolled in school was no problem, especially not for Vaan. I was still plundering on it, and I caught myself spying on him to find out exactly what changes he were going through and if there was at all any vampire power still left in him. It might have been just me who lacked that ability; however Vaan seemed capable to charm anyone to whatever he desired. And he was smart. We told people that he was my cousin and that he just moved here and also lived with me. Then all he needed to do was register, take some tests and voila! Ready for school. So as I said, he was smart, and scored top ratings on all the tests. And therefore, something he was kind enough not to rub into my face, he was placed two grades above me. With the 18-19 year olds! Like.. He would go to college or a university next year! Well, he could at least, if he wanted to.

I looked over at him while we were running for school. He looked so different, more and more different from the Vaan I first got to know for every day. His skin had gotten the color of someone who spent most of his life outside in the sun, and even his hair got darker, still blonde stripes in it, but also dark blonde tendrils and even light brown. And he smiled so much. He seemed.. Happy. His eyes met mine. They always kept their color, those eyes that were the only ting I knew from before, in them I could still see the one he used to be. And I believed then, when looking deep into them, that there were things in him that never really changed, they were just hidden away.

I opened the door to my classroom and was amazed to confirm that our teacher hadn’t showed up yet, even though I was at least 10 minutes late. I slumped down on the first seat I saw today, ignoring the rest of my classmates. I didn’t even want to look them in the eyes, my first week here with them hadn’t been the best in my life and with everything else happening I didn’t want more complications.

‘Friends, who needs them anyway?’

‘Okay, that thought almost made me cry’

‘Stop being a baby. And stop talking to yourself.’

The door suddenly flung open and our English teacher rushed in, fixing her hair last minute, a hair pin in her mouth. I had forgotten her name already. “Excuse the delay class, had to talk to Principal Jefferson, a sudden school inspection is coming up tomorrow morning.” The hair pin finally got stuck up in her long brown hair, “So tomorrow morning I want everyone here ON TIME and no fooling around!“ Finally she settled down on her seat and seemed to try to focus for a second, before picking up her list to check who of us where here and who were not.

I was surprised to find out that I hadn’t been the only one who had to go to the cathedral, apparently there were some kids with fanatic parents who were forced there too. “Helle Kuromi, you’re back with us already? Okay, you can get the printouts from last week from Nina, okay?” ‘Nina? Who the f is that?’ I turned around searching for a face with Nina written on it. Yey! Nina got a plus in my book for being smart enough to face me when her name was mentioned.

Lunch break came slowly today. I had fallen asleep several times already during class. You would think that made time move quicker, but in fact it just made the day seem longer. Listening to my belly complain I realized I had forgotten my lunch at home. I remembered that only after entering the cafeteria and rolled my eyes. Great, I was starving by now, I wasn’t the type who could go for days with no food and without noticing it. I was considering just running home and back to school again, even though the teachers hated it if their students left school property during school time. It was a huge no-no around here. “Helle!”, someone shouted for me. I turned on my heels and saw a preppy girl with short brown hair wave at me from her table at the far end of the room. Nina. I walked over to her, then stopped when noticing Kim sitting at the very same table. He looked up once, then focused on his food again.

‘Helle, you have spent the last week with vampires and demons, a little kid your own age is not gonna scare you off.’, I told myself and nonchalantly continued walking towards them.

“Hi!”, she smiled at me. “Hi.”, I mumbled and waited for Nina to tell me what was on her mind. “Uhm, the printouts, I have lot’s, hehe, and notes, I don’t know if you want them, notes from the lectures..?” “Uhm, sure, yeah, as long as I can read them..” She laughed a little, “Don’t worry, I don’t write that bad, uhm, but still, I have it at home, so maybe it’s okay if I, like, bring them tomorrow?” “Yeah, sure, no problem. And thanks.” “So where do you sit?” I fumbled a little and needed to analyze her words before I could think of an answer, thereby searching around the room before stating that what I thought before was still correct: I didn’t know anyone and I wasn’t sitting anywhere either.

“You can sit here if you want to!” I looked at her surprised, and then at Kim who again didn’t show any affection. “I kinda.. Forgot my lunch today..” “Oh.”, she actually looked disappointed by what she figured was me declining her great offer. Then she noticed the look I sent in Kim’s direction and laughed, leaning closer to me and whispering “If it’s him you worry about I promise he wont give you any more trouble. Kim is an ass at times, once you get to know him though, he’s fine. Besides, after your boyfriend nearly killed him” (at this part she giggled an awful lot) “he hasn’t dared to be anything but nice to everyone.” Nina then grabbed my shirt and dragged me down on the seat next to her.