The spirit of Devfronds

15. Calvin The Vampire

"Okay, let's try this again." Calvin said patiently as he opened his notebook, "This is a human tongue, got it?" He drew a U shape on the last page of the book.

"That does not look like a tounge." Braedon commented.

"Shut up and listen." Calvin shaded the tip of the supposed tongue, "This is where you taste sweet stuff, got it?" He then circled different section of the tongue and labelled, "This is sour, this is bitter and here is salty. Easy enough?"

"So," Braedon asked, dragging out the oo, "if I were to take sugar and put it here," he pointed to the bitter detecting taste buds part, "would sugar taste bitter?"

Calvin sighed and banged his head on the desk once before saying, "No, it would be tasteless. The taste buds don't make taste. They just detect it. Besides, if you put sugar at the back of your tongue, it would still taste sweet because salvia keeps mixing stuff up." 

After a moment of silence, Calvin asked, "You got it, right?"

"Whatever you do in life, Calvin," Braedon said seriously, "don't become a teacher."

"Calvin, you ready?" Sally asked, as Calvin stood in front of the mirror, tugging at the frills of his shirt. His mother had brought him his school uniform from the noble market the day before from her way to work because apparently, they couldn't wear the same thing as the 'locals'. 

It was a white shirt with more frills than he would've liked, the kind you see vampires wear. 

It was bad enough his dad always called him a vampire because he looked like one (hey, it's not his fault he doesn't go out a lot) and now his clothes were vampire-ish too.

The shirt was tucked in a plane black pant, with a leather brown belt, which had a sort of hook in the side, which his mom said was for a sword, if he got selected. 

The clip on the belt was blank grey, which seemed a little odd, but Calvin didn't question it. Maybe they added the logo on it based on what house he got into, if there were houses in the first place. 

At least, it wasn't like the ridiculous clothes they had worn to market. These were comparatively more human. At least, now he looked like a vampire rather than a clown.

"Yes mom!" He called out, as he entered the dining room. His father was at the stove and his mom was sitting at the table, fiddling with a pin in her hand. 

Both of them were in their job clothes, which had more frills than Calvin could ever pull off without looking like a three year old wearing a Cinderella dress two sizes too big, but both his parents looked regal. At least, they didn't look like vampires. 

His mother called him close and brought the pin she was holding close to the grey section of his belt. It stuck like a magnet. It had green background, with a faceless person with deep red angel wings surrounded by larger, shiny fairy wings. They were in sharp contrast to each other and looked amazing in their green background. 

"It's the McKay badge. It depicts a part of every living McKay, in a way. Right now, it's just the three of us. We'll have your wings added to the design when they unfurl." She said. 

"So, junior McKay, excited for school?" His dad asked.

"I don't know." Calvin said, pensively, "I mean, one way, I want to see this new school, but then I am nervous. I know nothing about what's going to happen. I don't even know the basics."

"If it's any consolation, Susan's in your year too. Until the segregation, at least."

"Segregation?"

"You'll know. It's better if it's a surprise."