“Hey! Where’re you going?” Reporter Guy called. I ignored him, and dodging past a couple of kids goofing around, I sat directly across from Fluffy. She looked up with a jolt, and seeing who it was, she scowled and went to stand.
“Wait a minute-” I held up a hand and put on my best repentant look. The bloodlust was nearly taking over my entire head now. If it weren’t for pure stubbornness I would have fallen apart already.
“Listen, I’m really sorry about how I was in homeroom. First day jitters and all that. I didn’t mean to be such a creep.”
Fluffy paused and raised an eyebrow. Then she slowly sat again.
“I know how it feels.” She said. “I used to be the new kid around here, too.”
“Really?” I watched as she picked up a napkin and blotted at her finger. “When?”
“Back in the 90’s.”
She’d stabbed herself pretty badly-she was still bleeding. I made myself focus on anything but that: the half-finished scarf in her lap, the Babies Ate My Dingo logo on her t-shirt, the jealous glares Xavier was sending in my direction. Then I realized the strangeness of her reply.
“The 90’s? Shouldn’t you have graduated ages ago?”
Fluffy looked up from her efforts to stare flatly at me. “I never really left.”
Okaaay. Weird.
I couldn’t help myself any longer. Nodding in the direction of her hand I asked, “Are you all right? Looks like an awful lot of blood.”
For a split second Fluffy froze. Then she smiled, but there was something off about it. Her eyes seemed just a tiny bit suspicious.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just a little accident.” She held up one of her knitting needles. The wooden tip was slick with blood, and though I wasn’t familiar with crafty things, it seemed unusually sharp. The sight of it set me slightly on edge.
Fluffy seemed to notice my unease. Her smile was now wickedly genuine. Reaching out with her injured finger, she stroked the needle casually.
“These things are so handy. They’re portable, you can make mittens with them, and best of all, they’re so precise.” She looked me in the eye suddenly, and I felt a chill. “They fit right between a person’s ribs. You know what I mean?”
All of my hunterly instincts slid down around my shoes. I swallowed hard and focused on sounding normal.
“Yeah. So, precision and mittens. That’s what you knitters go in for?”
Fluffy shrugged. “Pretty much, yeah.”
She stared at me for a moment, and then seemed to turn back into the normal, non-scary girl from homeroom.
“How’s your day going so far? Make any friends?”
I was still a bit spellbound from terror and ended up mumbling something like:
“Um, yeah… wha?”
“Well, if you want you can hang out with us. Right, guys?” Fluffy glanced at her friends. Xavier was still glowering at me, so she turned to Pillow, who had on a flat, uninterested expression.
“Right, Pillow?”
“Bored now.” Pillow left her lunch tray where it was and abruptly wandered off.
Fluffy looked sheepishly at me. “Yeah, she does that sometimes. But she’s nice once you get to know her, honest.”
Leaning forwards, she put her hand over mine. It was the injured one. I could smell it. My bloodlust came back a little bit, and I couldn’t help but squirm. Next to me, Xavier looked like he wanted to kill something.
“Anyway, listen,” Fluffy said. “I was wondering if you wanted to join the Knitting Club.”
I had to keep myself from jumping out of my seat with joy. This was perfect! If I was in the same group as her it would be easy for me to get close. And then it was only a matter of time before I could fang her. I grinned and said,
“I’d like that.”
“Good.” Fluffy squeezed my hand. I could feel her blood dripping out onto me. I took a deep breath and bit my lip. I needed to stay under control for just a little bit longer…
“We meet after school in the library, alright? Ask for Miles.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Fluffy smiled and stood, picking up her tray. “I’ll see you there, then.” She glanced down at my hand and then cried, “Oh, I’m so sorry!”
“Huh?”
“I bled all over you. Yuck, huh?” She wrinkled her nose.
I looked down and saw she was right. All of that blood, so close and smelling so good…
“You’re going to wipe it off, right?” There was a steely, strange tone to Fluffy’s voice. Looking at her, I saw that her eyes had regained their watchfulness from before.
“What? Of course I will.”
Trying to hide my regret, I picked up a napkin and wiped away her blood. It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my entire life. When I looked up at Fluffy again there was a satisfied look on her face, almost as though I’d proven something for her.
“You’d better watch it.” She said softly.
“What’d you mean?” I really didn’t like the way she was looking at me now-almost predatorily.
“You know exactly what I mean. Be careful, Mike. You really don’t want to get on my bad side.”
The bell rang, and after giving me a little smirk, Fluffy turned and left, disappearing into the crowd of kids. Xavier gave me one last dirty look before following her.
I sat at the table for a minute or two after they’d gone. Staring down at my empty tray, I couldn’t help but think that I wouldn’t need too much incentive to throw everything up now. Nausea swirled around my stomach as I thought over our conversation. As I gradually felt sicker and sicker, a few things became obvious.
About three things I was totally certain. First, Fluffy was a slayer. Second, there was a part of her-probably all, now that I thought about it-that wanted to stake me. And third, I unconditionally, irrevocably wanted to suck her dry.
. Anyway, I found two maybe typos.
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