FIRE AND BLADE: ZUKO'S LOVE

CH. 2 New Friends, and an Unexpected Headache

Mai finished cleaning her knives, and stowed them away into her satchel. With that out of the way, she headed down to what her nose told her was the cafeteria. She took in all the sights at the doorway. It was not any different from her old school. There were the normal rich Moroi- an abnormally large group of them-, the jocks- more or less Damphires-, and the dregs of school society.

Mai, not narcissistic enough to believe she was part of the rich and popular crowd, but confident in the fact that she did not belong to the dregs, made her way to the Damphires after she filled her tray. There were more males than females at the table, but she found a spot between a tall blonde-haired guy with a short mustache, and a short red-haired girl. They both turned to look at Mai as she sat down, and commenced with an awkward stare. Then, Mai quirked an eyebrow at them. The girl gave a nervous smile, while the guy turned away.

"Hi, I'm Sienna. You know, like the paint color..."

"Hello. I'm Mai." She started on her apple, the only food she would consume first in the morning. Out of the corner of her eye, Mai saw someone nudge Sienna to say something. Mai made it easier on the girl as she put her food down and asked, "Do they really have... feeders here on campus?"

"Uh, yeah, of course!" Sienna gave a poorly covered up anxious smile, and continued, "Why? Do you need one, because i can totally show you where they are!"

Mai gave a sly smile, but decided to stop messing with Sienna.

"That will not be required. I am not like the others of my species, so I do not need blood to survive."

The change was instantaneous. Sienna actually gave a genuine smile, and allowed her shoulders to relax, letting go of her fear. Then the blond boy turned and asked, "So, you really don't need blood? I thought those kinds of vampires were like our Moroi."

"While my kind does not need blood to truly survive, they have a thirst for it that i do not have. I suppose that is one of the gifts my Goddess has given to the Halflings to give our two races something in common." All this was rather boring to Mai, and she started to think that maybe interacting with the other vampire race was not going to be one of the highlights of her year after all.

"Um... I like your hair. It's so dark and shiny. Oh, and I guess what they say about the marked female vampires is true. They really all do have long hair, right?" This came from a shy girl with glasses, and short black hair behind Sienna. She blushed dark pink as Mai focused on her with a light smile.

"Many of them do have long hair, but not all."

With that, Mai found herself with three new friends as they called themselves, while Mai could only call them acquaintances in her head. Once the bell rang, she stood to go to her first class. She noticed Sienna began walking the long corridors with her. Mai was about to ask if she could help the girl with something when all at once, Sienna asked a question of her own.

"May I see your schedule? You may need to know where everything is."

Mai was going to point out that it was not required because the schedule had room numbers, and she was capable of reading, however she felt an intense pain strike the left side of her face. The impact forced her to stumble against a stone pillar. Mai squinted into the dull light of the fading sun to see a football bounce repeatedly before finally coming to rest a few feet away. Mai's first inclination was to cut the assaulter's throat, but just as quickly calmed herself into rationality. She held her eye as she saw a boy with dark brown hair jog over.

"I'm really sorry that happened. Dan was supposed to throw the ball straight, not diagonally to me. He's kind of a dick that way... do you want me to take you to the nurse's office."