Supernatural Boarding School #2 - A Touch of Red ✅

Chapter 55

When I was a little girl, my mother was my hero. When I played with barbie dolls – something I rarely did even when I was a cute little bouncing toddler – I dressed them up to look just like her. When my teachers asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always told them I wanted to be just like my mother. I didn't even know what her job was – which was a good thing, since her secretary work wasn't exactly the stuff of superheroes – but I knew that she was the most incredible person to ever walk the earth and that I'd be lucky if I grew up to be half as amazing as she was.

I'm not sure when I stopped feeling that way about her. I think it was before the whole vampire drama started, to be honest. The older I got, the more both Mom and I realized how different we were. She wore heels to work and liked to shop during the weekend while I cared more about whether my shoes were made for running and jumping. I spent my spare time reading graphic novels about superheroes and playing videogames.

When I went to high school and met Greg, Mom and I drifted apart even further. I spent all my time in his basement, playing Guitar Hero and I know she sometimes wished that I had turned out more like her, more of a girly girl.

Still, she was my mother and I loved her. And I knew, I always knew, that she loved me. And we did have our fair share of fun. We watched movies together, we sang songs in the car and while doing the dishes and we loved redecorating our tiny two-bedroom apartment, even though it always ended up looking worse than it did before.

Me changing into a vampire had shook our relationship up for good. I remembered how miserable I'd felt when I first realized that she was scared of me. My mother, the hero of my younger years, scared of her own daughter. We were past that by now, but our relation would never be as uncomplicated as it had been all those years ago, when I wanted to be just like her.

That next weekend, I felt my view of her shift yet again. We were going to see my dad, just the two of us. Mom and I, no Eros. It was difficult for me to admit, but it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders when I could get away from him for two days in a row. That sounds horrible, but it was also the truth. With everything that had happened between us, we still weren't as strong as we had been. I guess there are only so many times of him going nuts before I started to grow a little weary. How much more was I supposed to take? Were all relationships this hard?

The drive from Mom's place – I was starting to think of it as hers instead of ours, since I hardly ever spent time there anymore – to dad's new prison was only an hour and a half, but since it was three hours from me to Mom, it was a bit much travel for one day. Since I still only had a learner's permit, Noah Lennon offered to pick me up. I only said yes because I knew Mom would get mad if I didn't. The drive over to Warrensburg was awkward, to say the least. Noah Lennon was a peculiar dad and knowing that he was both Dylan's father and my mother's boyfriend was just a bit too weird for me. What do you say to the guy that might one day become your stepdad when you're driving over to your home town so you can go see your own dad in prison? Beats me.

When Mom opened the door to let both of us in, I didn't know what to say. For the first time in years, I saw the woman that had been my hero instead of just the one that had shipped me off to boarding school. She was wearing a sexy red dress, but it was covered with a green apron, as if she'd been trying to combine looking good for her boyfriend with coming across as motherly for me. The result was pretty cute, but what really got to me was the radiant look in her eyes as she beamed at the both of us.

"Dem!" She hugged me and held me at arm's length to take a good look at me. "You look... better."

I knew what she meant: the red hair was still there, but I was no longer in all black and I didn't need sunglasses anymore now that I was drinking animal blood on a weekly or even daily basis. Even if I was far from feeling like my best self, I was more like the normal Demona than the last time we'd seen each other.