Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hello. My name is Nat Maley. I’m in ninth grade. The girl I love doesn’t know I exist. I am constantly bullied and have a principal that’s out to get me. Pretty standard ninth grade life.
Oh, did I mention? I’m also a vampire. Yep, an honest to god vampire. This is the story of my
life told from a completely crazy perspective. Mine.

Have you ever had a day guided by Murphy’s Law? That is, nothing’s as easy as it looks, everything takes longer that you expect, and anything that can go wrong, will, and at the worst possible time. Yea, that’s pretty much my life. I have three best friends. Seidi Geller, a tall girl with brown hair. She is completely obsessed with me. Lanah Niles, least, that’s what everyone calls her, don’t think anyone knows her real name. She’s the girl that didn’t even know I existed until a month ago. She’s great, athletic, smart funny, but most of all beautiful. Then there’s Lakina Nedel, she’s nice, a little too quiet though, like she’s trying to hide something. I guess I should start this where the drama started. About one month ago.

It was April, and I was walking to school. That’s right, I was walking, the whole sun thing is a myth. Anyway, as usual, Seidi was waiting to meet me two blocks from school. She always did that, and truthfully, I appreciated the company. I hated being alone. In fact, that’s what I’m most afraid of, being alone for all my life.

So there was Seidi. I walked and she followed, like always. “Hey Nat, what’s up?” she asked. I yawned, “Same as always,” I said, “tired.” I was never much for mornings, always liked the night more. I guess that comes with the whole vampire thing. “So…” Seidi said, “I was thinking,” Uh-oh, nothing good ever comes when Seidi thinks, “You wanna go to the movies this Friday?” I tensed up. I hated rejecting Seidi, I really did, but I just didn’t like her that way. “Well,” I said, “I would, but, my uncle is coming down from Alaska this Friday and I haven’t seen him in like, a year. So, sorry, but I can’t.” “Oh,” Seidi said, I could tell she was disappointed, “well, maybe next time then.” It was pretty much silence for the rest of the walk.

I was grateful when we finally got to school, it meant that I could at least talk to someone. I went into the cafeteria, where they herded us before school started, looking for someone that didn’t hate me. I saw Lakina sitting about three tables away, by herself, as usual. Sitting down beside her, I noticed that she tensed up. She always did that whenever anyone was near her. “Hey Lakina,” I said, “What’s up?” “Nothing,” she said quickly. She was always like this, but I didn’t mind, long as she was there I wasn’t alone. I didn’t mind silence anyway. The bell rang, everyone got up and started to class. Then there she was.

Lannah Niles.

She was walking towards me, looking me right in the eyes. She came up beside me, “Hi Nat!” she said. “Um…..hi?” I replied. “What’s wrong?” she asked me. “Well,” I started, “far be it from me to question your motives, but you have never talked to me. Not since I can remember anyway. What do you want?” “Nat!” she said, “I can’t believe you think that just because we haven’t talked for a while, that that means I can’t just have a conversation with you!” ”Un-huh,” I replied, “What do you want?”

“Alright,” she said, “This is weird, but I want you to come to the homecoming dance with me on Friday.” I stared at her, awe-struck. I picked my ear, “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” “Listen,” she said, “My date moved, and I have a reputation to keep up. I need a date, and I knew you’d say yes.” I smiled deviously, “What makes you think I’ll say yes?” I asked slyly. “Nat….” she started, “Alright, “I interrupted, “you’ve convinced me, but you owe me for this.” “Deal,” she said, “come by my house after school, if you’re going with me, we’ve got to get you a good outfit and I’ll have to teach you a few things.”

She walked away, with an air of victory about her. I was in shock. Lannah, the hottest girl in school, had just asked me to the dance. What was going on, I thought. That was too easy, there’s gotta be something up with this, there’s no way she’d just ask me to go to the dance with her, not like that. Seidi walked over, interrupting my train of thought.

“What was that all about Nat?” she asked. “Lannah just asked me to homecoming on Friday.” I said, still in slight shock. “Awww,” Seidi said, “that’s really too bad.” I glared at her. “What?” she said, “I meant that it’s too bad that you can’t go, with your uncle coming from Alaska and all.” Oh, I had forgotten about that, “Umm, yea, too bad.” I said, with a quick recovery. “Well, see you later Nat!” she said happily, and wandered off to class.

It was a boring day, so I’ll skip to after school. I went outside the building, and had my doubts that Lannah was gonna be there. I walked out a few steps, looking around, when someone jumped up behind me and covered my eyes. My defense reflexes kicked in and I gripped the persons arm.

Hard.

I heard a girl yelp, it was Lannah. Oh no…… I quickly let loose and spun around. “Oh my god, I’m sorry! Are you ok Lannah?” She was gripping her arm, a look of pain on her face. “I’m……..fine.” she said, gritting her teeth. She let go of her arm, it had a large, hand shaped bruise on it. “Let’s go,” she said. We started walking.

Once we were out of ear shot of the other kids, I began to apologize. “Lannah, I’m so sorry,” I said guiltily, “you just……you snuck up on me……and I….I….I just reacted without thinking. I’m so sorry.” “Don’t worry about it,” she said grinning at me, “its fine. Besides, I should be grateful I’m going to the dance with someone who can protect me.” She smiled that soft smile that I loved.

I melted.

We arrived at her house a few minutes later. She walked in while I followed quickly behind her into the front room. Her mom was sitting there watching some new reality show on television, barley even glancing up at the strange person in her house. We walked into her room and she shut the door. Now one thing you have to understand about me is that being a vampire improves some things in you. Among these is my perception of people and reasoning skills. This being said, I question and notice things most people do not. However, this one didn’t take a rocket scientist.

“Your parents don’t have much of an interest in your life do they?” I asked. She hesitated for a moment, put off by my question. Then she smiled, “What would give you that idea?” she asked cheerfully. “Well, the fact that I walked into your house, past your mother, who didn’t even so much as look at us, and we both walked into your room, you shut the door, and there has not been an angry adult barge in demanding an explanation for why there’s a boy inside with the door closed.” She just stared at me. I looked at her, “Sorry.” I said. “Don’t be,” she replied, shock in her voice, “it’s just surprising. No one has ever actually cared enough to ask about that sort of thing.”

“It’s actually a bit sad,” she continued, “but my parents don’t take much of an interest in me at all. I don’t even remember when the last time they even remembered my…..” She broke off. A thought occurred to me. “Happy Birthday Lannah.” I said sweetly. She looked at me, her eyes shining bright. She hugged me so tight, that if I required oxygen, I might have suffocated. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,” she cried happily, “thank you so much Nat. That means so much to me, I haven’t had someone wish me that in so long. Thank you so so….” she was actually crying at this point, “ so much Nat.” I hugged her back. She pulled away for a second and looked into my eyes, almost as if she could see into what once was my soul.

We stared at each other like that for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality it was probably more like thirty seconds. She was the first one to break the stare. "Anyway," she said, "do you know how to dance?" I laughed. Being immortal gives you time to learn all sorts of things you normally wouldn't. I got up, and pulled a CD out of my backpack, walked over to her stereo, placed it inside and pressed play.

A smooth piano melody started playing, I looked over at her and smiled. I closed the gap between us, probably quickker than I should have, and grabbed her hips. She had a look of shock on her face as I started her into a slow dance that I picked up in fifteenth century England. "I don't know," I said smiling, "you tell me." She smiled and started laughing. "Alright," she said pulling away from me. She walked over and pressed skip a few times till she found a quick, upbeat piano piece. "What about this?" she asked smirking. I gave her a devilish smile, stepped over to her and grabbed her into my arms.

I started with a quick step and a twirl every so often. We danced like this for the remainder of the piece until at the end, i pulled her down into that pose that you see in almost every movie with a dance in it, with us both bent over and looking at each other. We stayed like that for a minute, staring at each other, though not quite the same as before. This time it had a playfully romantic air to it. She started blushing and if I had blood, I would've too. I pulled her up and let her go.

"Well," she said, still blushing a little, "you can dance, do you have a tux? This is homecoming after all." I smiled, "Of course I do," I said, "and a nice one at that." She smiled, "Somehow that doesn't surprise me after that little performance." She looked outside. "Oh no," she said, "it's already dark! Your parents are gonna kill you aren't they?" I froze. I had to think of something quick, "I...um.....no, I...." That's it! "I told them, I called them at lunch and told them what I was doing, and that I might not be home for awhile." "Oh." she said with a sigh of relief, "So...." she paused. I decided I'd beat her to it, "Can I stay for a little while longer?" I asked. She looked at me, first with shock, and then with a smile. "Of course." she said.


I stayed for a while longer. We talked for most of the time that I was there. It was about different things, our friends, our teachers, how bad the school food sucked. We also talked about our home lives, which was a hard topic for me, since I actually lived by myself. I made it though. I told her that my parents were never around, and how I did everything myself most of the time. I told her about how I took care of our cat by myself, and how we had found him by a dumpster and I alone had nursed him back to health. I told her how he was really the only one I could ever talk to about anything, and she gave me a sad look.

She talked about how her parents never cared. How she had done everything for herself since she was six. How her parents barely ever acknowledged that she was even alive. She talked about how, despite the many “boyfriends” she’d had, she never found someone that she actually loved and that loved her back. It was my turn to give a sad look now. She continued on about how she didn’t have any real friends, and how everyone she hung out with was just with her either for the popularity it brought, or to get laid. I hissed a little, but either she didn’t notice, or she pretended not to.

I gave her a sad expression when she stopped. We stared at each other for a moment, and each of us was wondering what the other was thinking I decided to speak, “Do you need a friend?” It was a pointless question, I knew what the answer was, and I knew what she would say, which were two totally different things. “Yes.”

I gotta say, I was a bit surprised by this. I never thought she would be honest about it. Now I was playing by ear. Not one of my best abilities. I leaned forward a little and placed my hand on hers, “Whenever you need me I’m always here.” She smiled that soft smile again.

I melted. Again.