By the time Spring rolled around, my lab partner and I had become sort-of friends. I say that because, while we had established midnight drives and random outings as our thing, we still never spoke in school or around my friends. We never referred to each other as friends to anyone else. It was like, Klaus knew I was keeping him a secret, but he didn't care. Or maybe, he was keeping me as a secret too? Whatever it was, it doesn't matter now.
"So, Partner," I greeted Klaus with the nick-name he dubbed me with first day of class in January, "What's the plan for tonight?"
"I don't do plans," Klaus reminded me. "But…I think tonight, we'll go vampire hunting."
This wasn't the first time Klaus had talked about vampires, but it was the first time he'd suggested we try and find one. I'd laughed and assumed he was making a joke. I didn't know he was serious. I didn't know he actually believed vampires existed. I didn't know they really do.
"Oh yeah?" I'd asked sarcastically, "How are we going to find a vampire in Rheymey Falls?"
"Didn't you know?"Klaus asked incredulously before explaining, "Vampires share a long history with Rheymey Falls. Something about this town just…attracts them. I told you that's the main reason why my family moved back here."
"Well then why haven't I ever seen one?" I'd queried with a roll of my eyes. I didn't believe his family actually moved here for vampires. That was just Klaus; he was never serious. Life was all a game to him.
"I guess you weren't looking in the right place."
Klaus pulled over at the only twenty-four hour grocery store in town and told me to wait in the car. When he came out, he had two big bags full of garlic. I mean, it was a lot of garlic. We could have probably made garlic bread for the whole town with the amount he purchased. He tossed the bags in the backseat and started up the engine.
"What are we doing with all this garlic?" I'd demanded, looking through the bags to see if he'd at least grabbed us a snack. He hadn't.
"You'll see…" Klaus loved secrets.
When we arrived at our destination, I was confused as to why we were parking outside of the local bar. We were clearly underage and not getting inside...Klaus's blue eyes were twinkling with mischief, though, so I knew we were probably going to get in trouble. For some reason, I always listened to Klaus's dumb ideas. I let myself be spontaneous with Klaus. I don't know why. His I-don't-give-a-fuck attitude rubbed off on me after spending so many hours in Chemistry with him. When I was with him, I was just Rodialyn; instead of the pretty and popular, neat and controlled, spread-too-thin girl I was at school. It was really nice to have a break from her.
Klaus handed me one grocery bag of garlic, while he kept the other, and he explained to me his 'awesome idea'. I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole thing. "Are you sure we're not going to get in trouble for this?" He wasn't suggesting we break into the cars or vandalize them or anything, so...I didn't think we'd really get in too much trouble. But I had to ask.
"We're not going to get caught, duh!" Klaus said in a hushed tone as he hopped out of the car with his bag of garlic balls, and I followed. "You do those ones. I'll do these ones." Klaus divided the parking lot in half and then continued to gesture some crazy military-looking hand signals at me.
I stared at him, puzzled, before announcing, "I have no idea what you're doing. What is that? Army code? What do I look like?"
Klaus ran over and covered my mouth with his hand, while he shushed me simultaneously. He asked, "You look like you're trying to get us caught. Just be quiet and do it quickly. Okay, Partner?"
