I'm sorry I haven't updated for ages. :( I've been really busy with all my coursework and revision...

R E C K L E S S . . .

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

My second detention with Chris was probably worse than my first.

This was probably due to the fact that the last detention I’d had with him I hadn’t known he was one of the waking dead and he hadn’t tried to eat, attack or turn me into a vampire yet. I’d even stabbed him with a compass during that detention.

Oh, those were happy memories. It was sad to see those happy times squashed by the overwhelming scariness of my second detention with Chris as it entered my thoughts.

There was no compass stabbing, whispering or any ways in which I annoyed him at all. There wasn’t any attempt at ripping out my throat, though, so that had to be a plus.

Nevertheless, I could feel his eyes trained on my back for the whole hour– an unwavering presence that both infuriated and terrified me. Not once did I turn back and acknowledge him. Instead I focussed on reading every word in my Physics textbook, hoping that by the time I looked up again he would be gone by some brilliant twist of fate.

It wasn’t just the terrors of the day before that made me feel terrible; it was the effect of Chris’s blood. I felt ill every time I thought of it inside me. The worst part was that I could feel its effects taking hold of me. I was stronger and quicker than I’d ever been in my life after ingesting his blood, and I felt more at home in the dark than in the bright lights that burnt into my eyes during the day. I desperately hoped that these were passing effects.

The teacher who was overseeing the detention saw no fault with me throughout the detention, though I was sure that she had been told that I was going to be trouble. She resorted to having to snap at a terrified year nine at the back of the classroom whose phone had unexpectedly gone off half way through the detention. After that the teacher sat at the desk at the front of the room, glaring at the students in the room through her periwinkle blue glasses.

When we were finally dismissed I stayed in my seat until I was sure that I’d heard everyone leave. I let out the breath that I had been holding for what had felt like the whole hour and picked up my bag, turning to leave.

As I turned I found myself facing Chris. Apparently not everyone had left the room.

“Fuck off, Chris,” I told him pleasantly, and stepped around him towards the door.

“Annabelle! There is no need for that sort of vulgar language in the classroom!” the detention teacher called to me, looking aghast. I could tell that she was pleased for the opportunity to yell at me, though – she was probably thrilled at the fact that she could tell the other teachers that I’d been disorderly.

 “My name is not Annabelle,” I called back at her, not bothering to turn round. “And I can say whatever I fucking want.” Despite the teacher’s tone I didn’t feel bothered one bit by the situation; perhaps it was just the mood I was in or maybe it was because of the vampire blood inside me – I wanted to run, fight, bite… kill. I felt like I could do anything and everything.  A small retort at a teacher was hardly what I wanted to do but it was sure as hell the only one of my impulses I was going to give in to.

 “I agree,” said Chris, smiling widely. His fangs were thankfully retracted, but I could still see the small points that marked their beginnings and even those scared me.

I didn’t give Chris what he wanted and reply, I just continued to walk across the classroom.

Chris caught up with me as I opened the door to step out of the room. There was no surprise in his quickness - there wouldn’t be much use in being a vampire without being super-fast. “I’m disappointed that our time together yesterday got cut short,” he said, keeping pace alongside me. There were still some people bustling around the corridors and I was hoping it would stay that way until I found a way to escape the vampire.

“I’m not sorry about it at all.”

“I didn’t much appreciate the way that you treated me yesterday.” This time his voice was mocking, as if it had been a trivial matter and he didn’t mind or seek revenge. I knew that everything his voice implied was false.

“I daren’t say you did.”

He paused for a second, thinking about my bland answer, and then tried again, eager to taunt a longer, angrier reply out of me. “I hear that you’re going on a date this weekend.”

“I guess you did.”

“I don’t appreciate you dating other guys, Anne,” Chris said darkly.

“I don’t appreciate you spying on me, Chris. What I do in my spare time is none of your business, to be honest.”

“But it definitely is.”

I swerved away from him down another corridor. There were less people in this one – everyone having gone to get dinner or up to their dorms. I knew that in a few minutes the corridors would be mostly empty. Chris followed me.

Sighing, I stopped and turned to face the vampire. I couldn’t stand him following me any longer and the time I had spent with him told me that saying something angry or spiteful would only encourage him further. “Go away, Chris. Just… please.”

Chris grinned from ear to ear in one of the most unnerving facial expressions I had ever seen. “Now that’s the word I was looking for, Annie. Have you ever said please to me in your life?” he questioned.

“I daren’t say I have. Now go away.”

“I will today, Annie,” Chris said unexpectedly.

“Really?”

“Yes. I have better things to do right now. Places to go, people to see…”

I was surprised to see that when I nodded and strode off in the opposite direction, Chris didn’t follow me. He simply stood where I’d left him, looking at me with a half-smile on his face. I wondered how this guy could’ve been trying to kill me just a day before.

“Annie,” he called to me just as I rounded the corner. “I’ve thought of a way to gain your favour again.”

Somehow a death threat would’ve seemed less daunting than those words.

--

By Wednesday morning the vampire hunters had enabled every form of protection that they could on me without locking me in a prison cell – and if they’d actually been able to lock me in a prison cell, they probably would’ve without a second thought.

Blake had taken to turning up at school every day and trailing behind me in the corridors in what he thought as a ‘surreptitious’ way. Every time I asked him what the hell he was doing he would deny ever following me and say he was there for ‘his education’. Blake was probably the worst liar I had ever met. I had to wonder if he was even trying to conceal these things from me and if he thought I was really as stupid as the hunters were treating me right now.

I didn’t have a moment’s peace during the day thanks to Blake and at night, when I’d initially thought I’d finally escaped the watchful eyes of the vampire hunters, Hunter and Alex sat outside of my window. Sometimes I even saw the hunters weaving through the trees that marked the edge of the woods, watching for danger, and more than once I’d seen Hunter wondering the school corridors. It made me wonder how lax the schools security was, if a whole group of guys could infiltrate the grounds with what seemed like complete ease.

The insistent trailing of the vampire hunters around me hadn’t helped Blake’s cause one bit. If I’d been hurt and annoyed at him on Monday, by the end of the week I was maddened and even more unflinching in my opinions of him. I’d made this obvious to him, but he kept on apologizing about how he hadn’t got there in time whenever there was a spare second. Each time I turned away. I didn’t want to hear his excuses.

In the most unlikely of places I found my escape from both the vampire hunters and the vampires – sitting in the art room with Ben on Friday night. It was the first time since Monday that I hadn’t felt watched or stressed.

I could’ve gone back to the dorm with Sam and Claire, but even there where the hunters couldn’t see me I felt watched, knowing that Hunter and Alex were straight outside the window and alert for any signs of disturbance. 

My friends wouldn’t even look me straight in the face, anyway. They were too guilty about leading Mr Veritas towards me and Chris. I’d assured them that it wasn’t their fault – if they hadn’t got to me in time I probably wouldn’t be okay now, and in the grand scheme of things a detention was the least of my worries – but they refused to accept that. So instead of making me feel better to make up for the whole event they were making me feel even worse by ignoring me. I seriously didn’t get them.

The art room seemed to be the best place for me to be, so that was where I headed on Friday after lessons. Ben had told me he’d be there earlier in the day and it was comfort to talk to him. He wanted to be in the art room as much as possible, he’d told me, so I was welcome to join him and give him some company even if Miss Harris and a few other students were going to be there. Our art exam was next week – a whole 10 hours of creating a final piece – and everyone was getting desperate. I already dreaded it.

My choice of theme for my art project wasn’t welcoming, either. The blood dripping off the vampire’s teeth in my latest drawing was taunting me and giving me all too graphic flashbacks. I’d done the rest of the drawing in black and white, but the blood was coloured a vibrant red that I couldn’t ignore.

“I like this,” said Ben, leaning over the table to get a proper look at the paper in front of me. I’d just about resolved to crumple it up and throw it in the bin. “It’s good.”

“I don’t like it,” I said immediately and truthfully. “It freaks me out.”

He smiled at me. “Art’s no good if it doesn’t evoke emotions in us, and I’d say that negative emotions are the best. If you can make someone freaked out by a piece of art then you’ve done well.”

I smiled back ruefully. “Thanks, but I still don’t like it.”

I let my gaze slide to the other side of the room where Miss Harris was talking to a confused looking guy and demonstrating pencil strokes. She hadn’t so much as looked at me since I’d found Mrs Court’s body. I didn’t feel like I’d lost something as important as a friend, but losing her trust and respect hurt me. She’d been the only teacher at the school that I’d genuinely liked.

 “It must’ve been hard,” Ben said, as if he could read my mind. “Finding Mrs Court.”

“What? You don’t think I was instrumental in her murder or anything?” I said bitterly, looking away from the art teacher and back to him.

He looked genuinely shocked. “No. Why would I?”

“Everybody thinks that – they just don’t voice their opinions. I can tell that they’re saying these things behind my back. They wouldn’t be surprised if I turned out to be a murderer.”

“But you’re not a murderer,” he said simply. “That’s all that should matter.”

I sighed. “It’s not that simple, even if you put it like that, but thanks anyway. You’re a good person.”

 “And so are you – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The world is full of absolute idiots; it’s just up to you to avoid them at all costs.”

We went back to our art. I cut out the finished drawing and pasted it into my sketchbook. Each page alternated between black and white, and I stuck it firmly onto the black side. Vampires definitely belonged in the dark, where no one could see them.

I closed the sketchbook, squashing the vampire between its pages and hoping that I’d never have to lay eyes on it for more than a few seconds again.

For the rest of the time that we spent in the art room I worked on a title page, splattering coloured paint all over the blank page of the sketchbook for no particular reason.

When Miss Harris finally told us to clear out of the art room an hour or so later I packed up my things slowly. I wasn’t too eager to return to my dorm just yet, and I knew that if I left before everyone else Blake would use my solitude to try and talk to me if he was there. Finally, when I could stall no longer, I slung my bag over my shoulder and stood up.

“Hey,” Ben said to me as I turned round, a smile on his freckled face. “Are you doing anything else tonight? You can come to my dorm if you want. A few friends and I are going to watch a film or something if you want to join us.”

Words could not describe how much I loved Ben at that moment. I smiled right back at him. “That sounds cool,” I said. “And I have nothing else to do, anyway.”

We left the art room together, talking about anything that sprung into our heads. It was nice to be with someone who didn’t see me as a freak or a murderer, or a person who had to be constantly protected from the rarely-present vampires.

“So what movie are we watching?” I asked.

“Well we were thinking of watching the first Lord of the Rings. You know, the Fellowship of the Ring?” he said bashfully, his face turning as bright as his hair. “I mean, if you don’t like it you don’t have to come.”

“Seriously? Those movies are awesome, Ben, why wouldn’t I like them?”

He grinned, his relief evident on his face. “I don’t know… I’m just never sure if people like them or not. Most people think they’re pretty lame.”

“Well I’m not one of those people,” I told him confidently. “I seriously can’t see how anyone could think that they’re lame, though.”

We spent the rest of the walk there talking about the movies and books – well, more like chattering excitedly like the absolute nerds we’d turned out to be. When we got to the main building Ben led me to a corridor that was the floor above mine and to along it to his dorm.

A few people were already sat in the room when we walked in, talking to each other and laughing. As Ben walked in in front of me their gazes swung to rest on us and they smiled.

 “Hey Ben!” one guy said. He was sat on the small sofa and had long black hair that reached his shoulders; he had his arm around a pretty girl with hair as long and dark as his who I recognized from my IT class. “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh, this is Anne,” Ben said.

I waved, stepping forward from behind Ben so I could see everyone better. “Hey guys.”

“You here to watch some movies with us, Anne?” asked another guy, who was leant at an angle against the side of the sofa so he could still see the television. He wore a bright white hoodie over his school uniform, which contrasted brilliantly with his tanned skin and dark hair.  

“I am if you’ll let me,” I said, smiling shyly. “You’re in my IT class aren’t you?” I asked the girl. “You’re friends with Hayden?”

“Of course we’ll let you,” the girl said. “Yeah, I’m in your class, but Hay can’t come today. I’m Mindy, in case you didn’t know, and this is my boyfriend Cody… and that’s Russell – he’s not really sure why he’s here, since he hates these movies and would much rather watch crappy action films.” The boy who was leaning against the sofa, Russell, waved cheerily.

Ben sat down cross legged on the floor next to Russell and I stood awkwardly, still in the doorway, not sure of where to go. Mindy beckoned me towards her, patting the spare space on the sofa. “Come on; make yourself at home and all that. The others should be getting here soon.”

“Others?” I asked. How big was Ben’s friendship group? I’d only thought he had a few close friends and that was it.

“Just two more,” Ben said. “Carmel told me that she was having a hard time getting Clementine down earlier – you know how she is with these things.”

“Wait, you mean Clementine McGiffin? She’s friends with you guys?” I asked, the shock evident in my tone.

I couldn’t believe that Clementine, the girl who was friends with Nora and all the deemed ‘popular’ people, was friends with what I could only put as a group of the least popular people. Sam, Claire and I were never really important factors on the scale of popularity at the school – we’d sailed through school, being invited to parties and asked out by guys, without doing anything to draw attention to ourselves until recently. All the same, I was considered as a remote girl who could be popular if she wanted to, while these guys were seen as the social outcasts of the school.

Then I realised what I’d said, all too late. “It’s not that she wouldn’t be friends with all of you, but it’s just… strange. That’s all.”

Cody laughed. “It is strange,” he said in his deep voice. “She’s a strange person.”

“Yeah,” Russell agreed, smiling despite himself. “She won’t let anyone know about being friends with us. I would feel hurt, but she’s such a lovable idiot that you just go along with it in the end.”

“Isn’t that a bit harsh on you guys? I mean, she won’t tell anyone that your friends – that has to suck. Doesn’t she even acknowledge you in the corridors or something?”

“Nope,” proclaimed Mindy, grinning at the abnormality of it all. “Except for when one of her ‘friends’ criticises us and she laughs along with it.”

“And you’re not hurt by that?”

“Not at all,” Cody said. “I think that it’s funny, to be honest. She likes us better than she’ll ever like those bitches.”

I frowned. “So why does she go around with them?”

“She’s been friends with that Mandy girl since she was tiny, and she met Bella and Nora in year seven – she’s terrified of how her life will change if she leaves them,” Russell explained. “She’s the popular girl right now, it’s all she’s ever known, and you know how much hell they’ll give her if she rejects them for the likes of us.”

“You seem to know an awful lot about this, Russell,” Mindy said suggestively.

Russell looked away. “It’s easy to tell that if you’d just listen to her properly.”

“I do,” Mindy protested. “She just never opens up that much to me.”

The conversation was interrupted when the door swung open once again and two girls stepped into the room. I recognized Clementine immediately and I smiled at her. Clementine seemed to notice me as well and her face paled as if she’d seen a ghost. She looked half ready to bolt out of the door.

“Relax,” I said to her. “I’m not going to tell anybody, though I don’t see what the big fuss is about.”

She looked to the ground. “I just… it’s complicated.”

The other girl, who could’ve only been Carmel, almost skipped in after her. Carmel, I realised, was the kind of girl to go all out when it came to fashion. Her plain blue uniform was covered in brightly coloured badges and she’d added rips and tears in the fabrics, her tights alone were laddered and ripped for their whole length. Her hair was dyed peroxide blonde and had bright pink streaks all down it. One quick look told me everything that I needed to know about her for now. I liked this girl.

“You’re Anne, right?” she said, flopping down beside me on the arm of the sofa.

I nodded. “You must be Carmel. How come I’ve never seen you in any of my lessons?”

She shrugged. “I’m a Year Ten.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah… so is Cody…”

“Oh,” I said, truly expressing my intelligence. “I didn’t know that.”

Cody smiled. “It’s fine, seriously. Nobody really notices.”

Clementine edged past us and sat next to Russell. She looked petrified of me.

“Clementine, I wouldn’t have come if I’d known it would make you this uncomfortable,” I said. “I don’t want to cause any trouble or anything.”

“No,” she said in a small voice. “It’s fine… just please don’t tell