Not Another Vampire Story - 8
8. No Visuals Please
PG13. Tween, humor, middle school, angst, vampires, serial, teen, fiction, summer. #ReadFree
Suggested Music: K-Pop AudioNetwork
Lords of the lunchroom. . .
Second hour was math, and they finally got real assignments, being the third day of school, and third hour was science, in which they were assigned partners for a project due at the end of September. Holly got Jamie, of course, and Sylvia got Matt, naturally.
It wasn't until lunch after fourth hour that Holly got a chance to get the details on Sylvia's glowing left cheek.
Holly just shook her head. "You gotta be quicker, Red."
Sylvia gave her a dirty look. "Maybe they coulda said my name first, not just heads up." She squeezed a mound of mayonnaise out of the packet onto her chicken patty sandwich and replaced the bun. "You know?"
Holly nodded.
They'd picked a corner table of the cafeteria, one of the power positions in the room, where they could look out over the seventh grade tables on the other side. All this—all nine seventh grade tables—was their new fiefdom, and they would rule it from the domain of the eighth grade tables. But they would be gentle masters, especially to the untrained sixth graders in the halls.
Holly leaned closer, positioning a straw in her peach nectar bottle, away from the others sitting at the table at the other end. She'd gotten a brief glimpse of Terry as he drove Julia to school, but a glimpse had been enough, worth at least a thousand words. "I think he's gorgeous. Not Dracula-like at all. Where was your head last week?"
The words hit a sour note with Sylvia as she flattened the top bun on her chicken sandwich. "If you'd seen what I did, you'd understand. It was just a metaphor, anyway. I didn't really mean he looked vampirish; just, you know, all hanging on her, and had . . . his . . ." She didn't want to say the words. Julia was her sister, after all.
"Pouncing?" Holly added hopefully, eyes wide, munching methodically on a French fry.
"He wasn't moving fast enough to pounce." Sylvia took a bite of her sandwich.
"Did she move away?"
Sylvia shook her head, mouth full. "Would you?"
Holly sighed, a dreamy look crossing her face. "No."
"It was just the body language, you know?" Sylvia washed down the bite with the carton of tepid milk. She hadn't told Holly about the rest of what she'd seen at the party that night, of Terry and the needle later in the back bedroom. She hadn't said anything to Julia, either.
"I thought he had good teeth." Holly shrugged, sticking two French fries in her mouth.
Sylvia saw Jamie finish loading his plate in the lunch line and search the room for Holly. He found her easily, being the second tallest boy in eighth grade, his brown eyes smiling when he spotted her. Sylvia sighed. She wished someone smiled that way when they saw her. He made his way toward their table. She nodded. "He does have good teeth."
"He didn't smell like smoke to me." Holly was oblivious to Jamie's approach, intent on her taco salad. It was actually more iceberg lettuce with sparse taco-flavored meat-type stuff on top, sprinkled with shredded cheddar and whatever crumbs the lunch ladies had scraped up from the bottom of the tortilla chip bags. With enough taco sauce and sour cream, Holly had made it appear almost passable.
Sylvia moved her tray a bit when Jamie slid his across the table, his gaze on Holly.
"He does smell good," Sylvia agreed. "All musk and cologne."
Jamie's eyes snapped to Sylvia, and then Holly. "Who smells good?"
Sylvia wanted to answer, but she was in the middle of taking a bite from the chicken sandwich.
Holly answered first. "Julia's new guy." She sipped her peach-colored drink with the straw, cocking her head to the side, looking askance at him. "Sylvi thinks he looks like Dracula."
Sylvia swallowed, coughed, burped, and blushed in order. "I didn't say it that way, Holly."
Jamie's attention left the pile of food on his tray to look at her better. "Holy shit. What happened to your face?"
Sylvia wished blushing would take some of the color out of her burning cheek. "Dodge ball."
He nodded and opened the first of many ketchup packets. "Ouch."
Sylvia nudged Holly with her elbow. "I didn't mean it that way. Not like all rabid and stuff."
Holly turned her attention to her. "Like a vampire but not Dracula?"
"Dracula was actually based on the historical Vlad the Impaler, a real figure in medieval times who was noted for his lust for blood," Jamie said. He squeezed ketchup onto his first of two hamburgers. He smiled, reaching for the two packets of mustard by his twin cartons of milk.
"Not like that." Sylvia took a drink of milk so she could clarify what she meant.
"Bela Lugosi was the most popular vampire actor on TV." Jamie nodded and took an enormous bite from the first burger. "The special effects in his movies where he changed into a bat were cutting edge, for his time."
Sylvia groaned, recognizing the name of the actor. "He doesn't look like Lugosi at all; I just meant he has dark hair—perfect dark hair—and really deep brown eyes, and he's tall, and the way, well, he . . ."
Jamie was leaning over his tray now, waiting for Sylvia to continue. Holly had edged closer, too.
"I didn't mean vampire at all," Sylvia said. "I just meant really really intent on, well, on Julia."
Jamie grinned. "Why wouldn't he be? Julia's a looker."
Holly kicked him beneath the table. "She's way older than you, Bucko."
He nodded, taking another bite from the burger, fiddling with his two orders of French fries until they were in a pile on the tray. "I don't mind." He found another stash of ketchup packets by his milks. "You're only seeing him as a predator because she's your sister."
"I didn't say predator," Sylvia said. She finished her sandwich and pulled her sliced peach cup closer. "And he is nice to her."
"He's a smooth one." Holly offered the last half of her fries to Sylvia, who shook her head, and then Jamie, who smiled and willingly took them. "The whole package, Red."
Jamie made a disagreeable face at the statement. "Don't be looking at packages, Chocolate."
Sylvia pulled the plastic off the fruit cup and stirred the peaches with her spork, frowning at the bright yellow pieces. "Yeah, Terry's really got it all."
It was time to talk to Julia about her new guy.
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Thanks to Sakurapu for sharing her story!
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