Faith and The Vampire ✔️

Chapter Twelve

Today had one of the class that I didn't really enjoy ; Physical Education. Well, I have French class, another class that I didn't enjoy very much, since I haven't even finished my Romanian language issues. For P.E. , Domnule Puiu set us loose outside to enjoy the warm sun while we still had it. I straightened up from touching my toes, annoyed. When I finished my stretches, Andre and I were walking the track field. It was late October, and we'd had early snow last night that had started melting almost immediately. I expected the sun to be coming up, lighting up the snow-capped mountains with an orange glow. It didn't really warm things up, and I soon felt the cold pierce my lungs as my need for oxygen deepened. We didn't speak. He slowed his pace to match mine, so we stayed together. 

When we reached the third-to-last loop, a couple of other students passed by, preparing to go to the their classes. Seeing me, Aisha cheered. "Looking good, Mel!"

I made a face and waved back.

"You're slowing down, Miss Darmawan" Domnule Puiu snapped, jerking my gaze from Aisha.

Andrei elbowed my hand. "Better not to be easily distracted."

Embarrassed, I increased my speed once more, despite the fact that my body started screaming obscenities at me. We finished the twelve laps.

"Not bad, huh?" I crowed when we headed back inside for cool-down stretches.

Andrei shrugged. " You'd probably shaved two minutes off your best time."

When we arrived at the gym, I noticed there's a bunch of people sitting on the bench across the locker room, but couldn't get a sight. Andrei and I parted ways. I reached the door that led me to a locker room with mirrors along the walls and another door to the restrooms. The girls' locker room was empty. Well, maybe Andrei was right. I was a little faster now. I changed, left my folded clothing on the bench in front of my locker, took out my bag and decided to sit down on the bench. I couldn't feel my own feet. Then, I remembered that P.E.'s my last period before lunch. My feet felt numb, but I was starving.

I slammed the locker closed and tossed my folded clothing into my bag. The backpack I kept with me as I exited the locker room into the gym area. I slid my feet, left the room, meeting Andrei just outside the girls' locker room.

"Ready for lunch?" he asked with a playful smile on his face

"No. I'm just suffering from extreme hunger."

He laughed while walking ahead of me. We'd almost made it past the benches when a voice behind me called our name.

"Melody, Andrei!"

Peering in the voice's direction, I caught sight of the cliques. Glancing over, we saw Tuba Avci waving at us. Andrei and I exchanged looks. Andrei shrugged and but we refused to get closer in that direction.

"I'd heard you nearly expelled yesterday." Tuba said, glancing at me.

"I heard you are a social climber," I said matter-of-factly. " But I don't believe every bit nonsense that gets rumored about."

My probation was not something I wanted to talk about, that was for sure. Apparently sensing my discomfort, Andrei started to walk again. I followed him, wanting to leave them.

"There's a lot of speculation about the hard lives that you live."

I came to an abrupt stop. I looked over my shoulder, glaring at her.

"Poor girl, live up to the scandalous lives just to survive college." She laughed harshly. "No wonder, problematic girls will always get along."

"Screw you, Tuba." Andrei retorted