My Sister's A Vampire | Benny Weir

Sophomoric Action

I awoke to my brother knocking on my door, five minutes before my alarm. I crawled out of bed and yanked open the door, clearly annoyed, "What?"

"Mom wanted me to tell you, a babysitter is going to be here tonight, a-" I angrily cut him off before he could finish, "Wow, Ethan! You scored us a babysitter."

"Jane has a babysitter. Not us." My brother said defensively. "She's a junior named Erica."

"Erica? Jones? At least it might be her, not someone else." I said, mostly to myself, but Ethan heard me anyway.

"Do you know her?" He asked me. We may have been twins, but I had been moved up a grade when we were ten, so while he was just starting high school this year, I was already a sophomore.

"Yeah, she runs the Dusk Club." I was in said club, one of the only four people who actually cared about Dusk. Well, cared about not hurting Erica's feelings. "But it could be another Erica." I kind of hoped that it was. I didn't want anyone who knew me to know about this.

"Cool." He disappeared back into his room as my alarm went off. I closed my door, hit the button to shut it up, and opened my closet. I grabbed a thin grey sweater, a nice little thing that I saved for days like this. I threw it on my bed before digging through my dresser for a nice pair of pants.

I settled on a pair of black wool leggings, which I proceeded to throw on top of the sweater before grabbing a bra and panties. I then got dressed, tossing my nightclothes on the chair in the corner. I grabbed my makeup bag and went to the bathroom I shared with my siblings to do my hair and makeup.

When I was finished, I went downstairs to grab a quick breakfast. I grabbed a muffin, held it in my mouth as I pulled my shoes on, slung on my jacket and backpack, and took a bite of my muffin as I leaned against the wall, waiting for my brother to get down here.

Ethan finally made his way downstairs, glancing at my hasty breakfast routine. "In a hurry, huh?" he remarked, grabbing a granola bar.

"Yeah, gotta get to school on time. Don't want to be late on the first day of my sophomore year," I replied between bites of muffin. "And you sure as hell don't want to be late today."

We left the house, still eating our breakfasts as we walked to school, picking up Benny on the way. My cheeks felt hot as we chatted, for no reason I could see.

We arrived at school about ten minutes later. I quickly split off from the boys, heading to meet up with my friends before homeroom. "Hey, Katie."

Kaitlyn Roswell was a Drama kid, and she took me under her wing when we were freshmen. "Hey Em!" She seemed overly excited about something, but that was par for the course with her.

"What's up?" I opened my locker to drop off my jacket as I spoke.

"Jesse, the head of the Drama Club, invited us to his party." Her voice got more high-pitched with each word.

"Seriously!" My excitement was extremely evident in my voice, "You scored us an invite to a senior party!"

The prospect of attending a senior party filled me with both excitement and nervousness. Katie and I spent the rest of homeroom discussing what to wear and how to make a lasting impression. The morning dragged on, each class feeling longer than the last. I had one of my classes, pottery, with another girl from the Dusk Club, Sarah Fox.

Finally, the lunch bell rang. I headed towards the cafeteria. I grabbed a tray and got in line with Kaitlyn. As we stood in the lunch line, chatting about the upcoming movie premiere, I saw Ethan and Benny fighting over something, and then Rory Keaner, a nice guy, if not a little naïve, started talking to them.

Ethan, very clearly annoyed, took a few steps backward, turning around to immediately crash into Sarah, spilling his tray down her shirt.

She was clearly pissed, and Ethan yelped when she angrily exclaimed, "Dork! Thank you so much!"

She then stomped away to where Erica was sitting. Benny walked over to Ethan, saying something I couldn't quite hear, though it sounded like there were a lot of Bs. Kaitlyn and I went over to my usual spot at a table in the corner.

As we passed the other members of the Dusk club, I heard the girls talking. "No, but you're a good girl." Sarah sounded... off.

"We both are," Erica responded,

"I don't know anymore," Sarah muttered,

"Straight A's, always nice to everyone. Trust me, you are. Anyway, I saved you two seats. Jesse's coming, right?" Erica replied, her tone showing that she didn't agree with Sarah's self-assessment.

I couldn't hear what Sarah said back to her, but as Katie and I sat down at our table, I saw Benny heading towards them.

I couldn't hear what he asked Erica, but I could tell from my brother's reaction that it was about tonight. I glared at him as Erica replied and Benny gestured towards Ethan before scanning the cafeteria, evidently looking for me.

I looked out the window as his eyes reached our table. "All clear," Katie said, glancing towards the girls' table.

I watched Benny walk back to Ethan and Rory, annoyed, or maybe closer to fuming, about what he had just done.

The lunch period continued, and I couldn't shake the feeling that tonight's situation was bound to be more complicated than I initially thought. When the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, I gathered my things and headed to my next class, Algebra, with Katie.

Throughout the afternoon, I couldn't focus on anything but the impending party. The excitement mixed with the uncertainty of the party was overwhelming, but not in a bad way. English class, in particular, felt like an eternity, and I exchanged anxious glances with the clock all hour long.

Finally, the release bell rang, and I rushed to meet up with Kaitlyn and head home. We chatted about the party, discussed what outfits we might wear, and speculated about the kind of night it would be. As we approached my house, I couldn't help but feel a pang of nerves about what awaited us.

I split off from Kaitlyn and went inside. Ethan was already home, sitting at the counter and doing homework. I went to my room and started sorting through my clothes.