Do As I Say

Chapter Three

"And so I told him, if he wants another pint by morning, he'd have to pay at least twice as much." The tallest vampire laughed, "And he was like 'I aint gonna pay that!' And he just stormed off."

With the prickling of surprise, Cree recognized the vampire as the punk-styled vampire that had locked eyes with her earlier in the hall. Somehow, this made her feel a little less nervous about being trapped in a bathroom with three always-bloodthirsty vampires.

"What a jerk." The shortest one jeered.

"What would that ghost imp be doing with all that blood anyways?" Another vampire asked aloud.

"Besides, I can't afford to skip as many servings as I did last month to fill his order again. I nearly croaked last time!" The punk one cried, arms thrown in the air.

Cree stood silently with her back flattened against the door. She could either risk having her blood drained in an attempt at fixing her crispy hair or leave the restroom and risk having Opal see her with this hair.

Wincing, Cree pushed herself forward. As she approached the bathroom sinks, hand fishing in her baggy pocket for her trustworthy pocketknife, all six red eyes turned to her.

"What do we have here?" The short one giggled.

"Tasty little thing," The vampire from earlier smirked and traced a spindly finger down the side of Cree's throat. Cree swatted her hand away instinctively. The vampire smiled flirtatiously. "Temperamental too,"

Cree stared flatly ahead at the mirror, which reflected only her charred self. With a firm hand Cree raised the pocketknife and chopped the burnt ends off, her once velvety tresses falling to the marble floor. She heard one of the vampires gasp but chose to ignore it. What did it matter? Hair was hair. She continued recklessly shortening her mane as they gawked until it looked much easier to clean up. Deciding to wash it once she was home instead of here in the sink with the risk of exposing her neck to three bloodsuckers, Cree moved to pocket her knife. Punk vampire grabbed her wrist and easily plucked the blade from her grasp, smirking.

"Pretty, pretty, pretty," She snickered, "Mine now, thank you," She winked at Cree.

"Hey -"

"Ought to cut up that cheap ghost bum with your new toy, eh, Tris?" The vampire with the long nose commented, cutting off Cree completely.

Tris patted Cree's pale neck uncomfortably and chuckled, "I just might," She said as she turned on her heels and sauntered out the door. The trio let the door click shut by itself, leaving Cree standing alone, frustrated and annoyed.

She kicked the fallen hairs under the sink and without another glance at her dull reflection, left the bathroom.

Unsurprisingly, Thimble had left his post outside the girl's bathroom. Cree didn't care; she knew he'd have felt restless lingering there. She began slinking towards the stairs leading to the top floor, where she hoped was the Future Tells All class. As she glanced at a low-hung clock she was relieved to see that she still had twenty minutes left until the end of gym class.

Cree crept through the halls until she came to a classroom with deafening noises coming from within. Peeking through the window in the door, Cree laid her curious eyes on a group of students watching a tall, spindly boy wave his silver wand in the air clumsily. A harried teacher was snapping at his heels constantly, yelling at him to "Concentrate!" and "Don't jab, swipe!"

Thimble continued to wave his wand in the strange looping motion like a drunken conductor until, heaving a greatly agitated sigh, the teacher told him to stop.

"You really need to start attending this class more often, Mister Henniker." the teacher grumbled and snatched Thimble's wand away from him. "You'll get this back after class."

Glowing red, Thimble returned to his seat amongst the jeering laughter of his classmates. Cree sighed and continued down the hall and up another flight of stairs, her thoughts turned to her clumsy friend. If Thimble only stopped skipping classes he would become such a great spellcaster, Cree mused.

At last she came to one of the highest rooms in the towering school. Fortune Tells All was written in small, black letters on the white door to the silent classroom. Cree opened the door just a crack and all nine heads turned to her. Suddenly shy under the attention from the big-eyed seers, Cree scanned the room desperately for Nix. But he was nowhere to be seen. Great, Cree cursed miserably, the little toad must be skipping. Why did Thimble and Nix always have to be skipping classes?

Just as she was about to shut the door and split, the teacher of the strange class beckoned to her.

"Mortal," She called, her voice airy and light, barely hearable over the thrumming energy that came from the room. Madam Iris was a short, tiny woman. But her energy was great and as soon as she stepped into a room, the electric thrumming came too. "Would you do us a kind favour?" Madam Iris's blond poof of hair swayed as she walked towards Cree, her white dress sweeping across the floor behind her heels gracefully.

Madam Iris took Cree's hand and stared unnervingly deeply into her eyes.

"Cree, would you be ever so endearing as to assist us in our class?" She asked, her voice silky and light. Cree felt an odd calm sweep over her, prodding her to help the strange teacher, but putting her in a daze where she didn't bother to wonder how Madam Iris knew her name.

"Sure," Cree murmured. The nervousness she had when she first entered the room was gone.

"Excellent," Madam Iris's smiled gratefully, revealing perfectly straight and pearly white teeth.

Madam Iris directed Cree to a small blue cushion-like seat in the middle of a circle formed by the nine students on their cushions, clipboards in hand.

All of the students were like their teacher, big, complex eyes and emotionless faces. They all watched Cree as if she were a specimen, eyes flicking from her face, to her hair, and to her slouched posture.

"Remember class," Madam Iris spoke, "You have all the time in the world to read her. Breach the walls of this Mortal's mind carefully and do not threaten the structure of her mind." The students closed their eyes and drew slow, precise breaths in.

"Now...Begin."