Truth of the Silvers (Vampire Knight)

1. Welcome

"Why are the school gates so big?" I said with all the exasperation I could muster from the long trip. Exhaustion did nothing to deter how set I was on not liking the academy. 

"Ugh, don't you start that. We're already here, just give it a chance. This is our school now." Jason wised at me. I turned to quip another complaint but stopped short at small but excited smile on his face. Jason was a vampire, but apart from that he was an ordinary guy. That is, besides being my best friend. It took a bit more than the ordinary to entertain someone like me and I appreciated it more often than not. 

He, like me, was exhausted by the trip, but we differed in the sense that he had much more reason than me to be excited about the academy. He would finally make vampire acquaintances, and perhaps if they were good enough, maybe even friends. As long as they were nice, and cool, and not mean to him. 

"Mom made me come here! Just because we've arrived, I'm not about to start touting Cross Academy Spirit. I wouldn't be caught dead in a Cross Academy sweatshirt," I pretended to gag, but Jason only shook his head at me. I flashed him three fingers, "Jason- three and a half looong years of my life wasted on denying Mother the pleasure of sending me to Cross Academy. Honestly! As I live and breath, I STILL can't believe I let her get to me. I might as well have saved myself the grief and said yes years ago." I shook my head, disappointed in myself. How could I let her get to me?

"I'm going to make sure you remember that." He side eyed me as he shouldered all of our luggage. One perk of a vampire gentleman friend was one trip from the car with groceries and in this case. I didn't have to do any heavy lifting for the miles that seemed to stretch between the gate and the first sign of life. 

"Honestly, after this long, what made you decide to go? I'd really love to know. If we'd come when the night class was first established, we'd all have friends already," He pointedly said, making a very valid point.

I was never going to tell him my primary reason for accepting Cross Academy as my fate. It wasn't until I found out that some Pureblood Kuran had asked for support from vampires all over, that I realized that Jason probably wasn't just wanting to go to make stupid vamp friends. Perhaps he wanted to heed the call of a Pureblood. 

I don't know. I didn't really understand all that vampire stuff, and perhaps that's what made me feel the worst about having denied going for so long. I knew vampires, but I also didn't know vampires...I just knew Jason. BUT I would never ever ever let Jason know all of that. It would get to his head. 

To me, he could have left me anytime to go if he felt such a calling to this Pureblood. But instead, he chose to stay, and he, like my mom, begged that I gave Cross Academy a chance. And now I was giving it a chance, even though every bone in my body was telling me that something would change my life forever. 

"You were there when mom hit the nail on the head," I said to Jason, "She said Cross Academy had gumdrop lined paths and mushroom shaped houses with lollipop gardens. I don't think you need anymore convincing than that." I made the obvious gesture of looking to my left then to my right before I exchanged a flat expression with Jason, "I'm giving the frosted gingerbread men 24 hours to show before I'm calling mom to come get me."

"Twenty-four hours is fairly generous." He chuckled, "But in twenty-four hours if you do decide to leave, I'm going to want the real reason you agreed to come here."

I heard the night class didn't actually have graded work- so when I found that out, there was no way I was going to an academy where I had to grind and Jason got to goof off. But then a year after establishing, the class released blood tablets. Mom explained to me that they were researchers. I told her that was free labor. Then Dad explained some mumbo jumbo about Pureblood reverence- I never got it.