Chương 269: I CAN SHOW YOU THE WORLD!

1 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, MUSIC Our class shuffled to the music studio after Mrs Henderson's impromptu math class. Someone should have a law about teachers hijacking lessons that weren't theirs. Winderhill's music studio was in a secluded corner of the school. Unlike the other parts of the school, the floor here was carpeted, and one of the walls was fully mirrored. There was also a small platform at the front of the studio, a red plastic chair on the platform, and a piano on the side.

Everyone got into the studio and took their seats from among the messy bunch of chairs on the other end of the room. I sat at the back with Henry, Marcus, Liam, and Jasmine. Pearl had gone to sit with Abigail. The cool girls sat on the other side. They told me it was bad to sit near guys during music lesson because if you sang off-key, it would make a bad impression on them. This coming from the three girls in our class who joined our school choir!

Maybe most of the girls felt that way cos the class was split, guys on one side and girls on the other, except for our group at the back. Hen, Mars, and Liam were behind us, Jasmine and I in front, but more on the girls' side... because some of the human boys smelled bad. Our Music Teacher was Ms Pitera. She was a young human teacher. At our first lesson, she had told us this was her first year teaching music, and she was very excited about it. Big mistake.

The rest of our first lesson was spent grilling her about her love life. She wasn't married, but she had a boyfriend. He wasn't very handsome or rich, but she felt that was better. Then he would be faithful to her. Her ex-boyfriend was cooler and drove a motorbike, but he wasn't husband material. By husband, I think she meant mate. Wow. Human courtship was complicated. Anyway, that was our music lesson in week 2. (Week 1 was the welcoming ceremony and orientation, so we didn't have a lesson.) Week 3, she tried to get us to have our first proper music lesson. Something to do with sharing what our favorite music was. Then she would play the song from YouTube for everyone to listen to and discuss it. But a lot of the music videos we requested turned out to be inappropriate for a teacher to show a class, so in the end, we watched her selection of favorite music. Mostly piano recitals. Week 4, she tried to get us to sing the Disney Aladdin song as a class.

The guys would sing Aladdin's part, and the girls would sing Jasmine's part. This turned out to be very boring. I found out that Marcus was tone-deaf. Other than that, most of us simply mumbled the words at our turn. At the end of the class, Ms Pitera told us to practice at home and that we would perform this song at the next lesson (i. e. today). Of course, I had been practicing... Not. Oh right. So we had to perform... I wonder what that meant. I didn't have to wait long to find out.

Ms Pitera entered the classroom with a rolled-up rug under her arm. She threw it open on the platform.

"Good morning, class!" she said in her most Sound of Music voice.

"I hope you've been practicing our song, because we are going to have a super exciting performance today." Uhoh. She shook a jar of pieces of paper.

"This class is just nice with an equal number of boys and girls. I've got all the boys' names in here. Girls, come pick a partner. I'll give you 30 minutes to rehearse, and then we will take turns to perform on the stage with the flying carpet." I imagined myself sitting on the carpet singing A Whole New World with any one of the guys in my class. Kill me now. I would rather sing with a potato. The class groaned.

"Noooo...."

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Ms Pitera said. Maybe she was taking revenge on us for grilling her on the first day. Abigail tried to save us.

"Ms Pitera, can we perform other songs too?" But it was to no avail.

"Hm, no. I think we should do this. Then I can grade all of you fairly." What? It was going to count to our grades? This couldn't be happening! The class protested, but it was fruitless. Then Terrence stood up.

"Then you can fail me. I'm not going to roll on the carpet with a girl just to get an A." No one asked you to roll on the carpet, Terrence. I doubt you'd get an A for it either. Then the other guys started standing up to protest too. They crashed out of the music room in an angry mob. Henry and Marcus got up to go too.

"Come on, Liam, you don't want to play Aladdin to 18 girls." Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Liam stood up quickly.

"Sorry, Ms Pitera." And they left. After the boys left, Ms Pitera cried, and the girls had to console her. Luckily, Jasmine and Abigail took care of it while the rest of the girls watched and whispered how pitiful Ms Pitera was and how the boys were so mean. Later on, the girls decided that the guys went too far.

"Sam! Go tell the guys to come back and apologize!" Abigail said. What? Why me?

"Come on, Sam," Jasmine said.

"I'll come with you."

"Go! Quick! Before music class is over!" Another girl said with such urgency, I found myself being dragged out of the music room by Jasmine. We walked for a bit. Where would we find the guys anyway? Luckily, or unluckily, my lucky sense of direction brought us to the football field, where we found Liam stripping at our usual picnic bench while Henry and Marcus worked on their phones. The other guys were already running in the field.

"Ms Pitera is crying," Jasmine told the three male wolves.

"Abigail said to get the guys to come back and apologize."

"Why are you even listening to her?" Henry asked.

"She's just a f***ing cheerleader."

"Well, because..." Jasmine looked down, and then in a small voice she said, "I'm just a cheerleader too." I took off my shoe and threw it at Henry's face. He caught it easily enough.

"F*** it, Sam."

"Don't talk to Jasmine that way," I said. Henry sighed.

"Look, I wasn't the one who started it." He tossed the shoe lightly back to me, but he was growling. Got it. I put my shoe back on and headed out into the field. I could feel Liam and Jasmine following me. The field was snowy and wet. My indoor shoes were getting soaked.

"Terrence!" I yelled.

"What?" He yelled back. I caught the football in midair. With one hand. Wow, I was cool. But aloud, I just informed him.

"Ms Pitera is crying. Go apologize." Since guys gravitated towards footballs on a field, they soon surrounded me.

"I don't want to sing on the carpet," Terrence yelled. Even though he was right in front of me now. I think the boy had trouble with his volume control.

"I'm not asking you to sing. I'm asking you to be a man and take responsibility for making a lady teacher cry. Just go apologize," I said. Terrence paused.

"I made her cry."

"Yes," I said.

"You all did."

"Fine." Terrence took a deep breath and marched off the field.

"Come on, guys," Liam said.

"We'd better apologize before lunch." I tossed the ball to Liam easily and stomped back to the school. Well, that was fun. Once back on the paved and dry part of the school, I took off my shoes and peeled off my socks.

"Sam, you can't go around barefooted!" Jasmine said. But my feet didn't like wet socks and shoes in winter.

"I've got extra socks and gym shoes in my locker," I told her. The corridor was grimy, which was fine, but it was sticky too, which was icky. We made a detour for them. I told Jasmine she could go back first, but she said she preferred to walk with me.

"Thanks for standing up for me just now," Jasmine said.

"Henry was really scary."

"Was he? I didn't notice." I opened my locker and found my stuff.

"But he was right." Jasmine sighed.

"Why am I always just following what everyone says?"

"Don't worry about it," I said.

"What?" Jasmine blinked. I pulled on my gym shoes and adjusted the tongue so that it would fit more comfortably.

"Sometimes we follow, and sometimes we lead." I smiled at Jasmine.

"It's okay for the moon to rest behind the clouds. You were the one who told me that, right?" Jasmine paused.

"But what if I am always behind the clouds?"

"That's a pity, because you're a beautiful moon," I told her.

"You don't have to hold back your brightness." And then I walked, Jasmine following me silently. When we were nearing the music studio, Jasmine spoke again.

"Thanks, Sam." What? I was just saying. She didn't have to thank me for speaking my mind. Henry and Marcus came out of the room.

"You're just coming now? Everyone's leaving or gone for lunch."

"Lunch!" I was hungry.

"Bye, guys!" I made an about-turn and ran up the nearest stairs two at a time. I had meant to grab my lunch and go back down to join my friends, but once in the empty classroom, I remembered that Maria wasn't in school today. Not just Maria. None of the vampires were around. The vampire queen's birthday. That's right. It was this week, a week-long celebration. I wondered how Rebel was doing. Would he really be able to get the cursed ring and escape? I took my lunch bag and headed downstairs again.

And then I passed by my old lunch spot. I had lost the territory to the vamps, but they were not here now. I decided to check it out. The back of the school was cold and eerie today, but otherwise there were the usual smells of trees and dirt and ice—which did have a smell too, except it was mostly covered by the smell of decay. The rotten leaves in the bin were still there. And a few empty plastic packets were lying around on the ground. The smell of decomposing blood. It stank.

I picked up all the empty packets and threw them into the bin of decomposing leaves and shut it. And then I saw it, along the wall: blood prints. Gah! The vamps here made a mess and ruined my favorite lunch spot. That really made me mad. And then I saw more blood, frozen in the ground. Well, I smelled it before I saw it. I thought the bad smell came from the empty packets at first, but now I knew it was everywhere. Did I really think this amount of stink could come from a few empty packets on the ground?

Actually, yes. I had. I was too naïve. Looked like the vamps had a food fight here. By the time I stomped back into the school building, I was more than a little annoyed. I had meant to take back that place and make it mine again, but the place was such a stinking mess, I didn't think it could be salvaged. I ate alone on the stairs in the quiet part of the school building. The food was delicious. Killion had packed me gratin. Gratin!

With salmon and cheese and little bits of green stuff that was acceptable to my taste buds. I felt slightly better after scooping some of it into my mouth. Yummy. No matter how bad my day felt, a few mouthfuls of Ki's cooking would boost my morale. It was like magic food. Suddenly, I heard clumsy footsteps approaching. As usual, I heard them before I saw them, River's voice echoing down the stairs.

"Keanu, hurry. I'm sure it's this way. I can smell food." I gobbled up the last of my gratin and stuffed the box back into my lunch bag.

"Eh~ seriously, River, this is the last time I'm going to try out another shortcut," Keanu said.

"All corridors lead to the cafeteria," River said, and then he must have seen me.

"Oh, hello, Sam." I pretended to be walking past the stairs.

"Are you lost too?" River asked me. I shook my head.

"I'm just heading to the library."

"Eh, River, this is the bad part of the school. I heard some nasty stuff about this place," Keanu said.

"Like what?" I asked.

"I heard that a few of the vampires like to take humans here to play," Keanu told me. Oh. well, that would explain the blood.

"What's wrong with coming here to play together?" River asked.