A Mélange of Blood

Adjusting (4)

Ana rolled up her sleeves but didn't take her eyes off her teacher. She had worn a jacket because it was a bit chilly in the morning, but now that she was sitting in a classroom with so many other people, she was feeling warm. She didn't want to take it completely off in class though because it always seemed like there were so many eyes on her when she had done it in the past.

She had been going to school for three days now—it seemed she was destined to never have friends here. She tried to avoid sitting with her siblings at lunch, but they always searched until they found her. It seemed like they were trying to help her by sticking close and trying to engage her in conversations with their friends, but she really just wanted to be left alone, or at least make quieter friends.

"Let's do a group project for the last twenty minutes," said Mr. Karlsson, eliciting excited whispers from some of the students and quiet groans from others. "Groups of five. Let's just do it by horizontal rows. I want you to discuss democracy versus republic for the next ten minutes, and then give a short presentation on which government your group believes is better. Got it?" Heads nodded. "All right, go ahead."

Several students stood to walk over to their assigned groups, while others just pushed their desks closer together. Ana was seated by a wall, so she glanced to her left to see what her classmates were doing. The girl on the other wall walked over to stand between the two guys in the middle, so Ana stood as well, leaning against her desk, but trying to seem like she was interested in the discussion they were about to have.

"Republic," said the other girl immediately. "Kay?" She glanced at the girl who had walked up with her. Kay nodded. The other girl raised her delicate eyebrows at the strawberry-blond boy on her left questioningly.

He shrugged. "Sure."

"We have to come up with an argument," said the other boy, leaning back and crossing his arms. He was sitting two seats away from Ana, so she had never really noticed him before, but she immediately liked his honey-blond hair and freckles, although she snapped her eyes away from him when he gave her a glance.

"I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page," said the girl. She jerked her chin at Ana. "What about you? Democrat or Republican?"

She looked at the floor. "Republican." She had never given much thought to her political party before, so she just went with the same as her mother.

"Great, so we're all good. How do we want to divide up the speech? Should one of us do it or all of us?" The eyebrows went up again expectantly.

"I don't mind speaking," said the freckled boy, glancing around at their group. "Jeremiah can do some too because he needs to put more effort in than just stating his party." He grinned, showing his lack of fangs. He was a human, like Ana was.

"Hey!" objected his friend.

The girl rolled her eyes. She had a lot of confidence, especially since she didn't seem to know the guys all that well. Her outfit was dark and heavy, in shades of black and red, but not over-the-top goth. Her vibe said 'vampire' so Ana kept an eye on her mouth while she talked, wondering if she would be able to spot fangs.

"We'll all do the presentation then," she said, sparking a fire of panic in Ana's stomach. "That is, if we can even put one together. Let's say one thing we support in the Republic party and one we don't like about the Democratic party, then see if we can put them in a coherent paragraph." She grabbed her notebook and a pen, scribbling something before speaking again. "I like that the Republic party focuses on government issues rather than social ones and I don't like that the Democrats are trying to take away guns." She looked at Ana. "What's your name?"