Gemstone Academy: Diamond Class

Chapter 7

      After finding out that Dario was going to marry Adrijana, my week went to shit. The rest of Spells class I was grumpy and Victoria kept asking me if I was okay, which just pissed me off more because then I had to convince her that I didn't care. Of course that was a lie, yes I did care because I didn't want Dario marrying Adrijana, he deserves better.
      The next night during English we had to write an essay and I'm pretty sure I bombed it. I wasn't in the mood to write an essay. I wanted to go beat up Dario because he didn't tell me he was marrying bitch face.
    During lunch I made sure to not look over at Dario so I didn't have to see him with Adrijana. Also, I didn't want him to come talk to me because I couldn't chew him out in front of everyone. Well, I could, it just wasn't the smartest idea.
    Then in Tracking class we were supposed to be testing our agility. But I wasn't in the mood so I did the worst on all of the tests. Whatever. Like it really mattered.
      The next day in swimming my mood had not changed. So when Professor Lines told us to do our warm up laps I groaned and got into the water with everyone else. All of the mer people took off at their top speed while I just slowly swam behind them. By the way, it was cold as fuck outside so the water was freezing, and I wanted to be anywhere but in here.
     I got to the other end of the lake and paused. I looked up at the bank to see someone standing there watching me.
    "Dario? What are you doing?" I asked.
   "Are you avoiding me?" He asked instead of answering my question.
      Yes. "No," I said.
      "Oh. I haven't talked to you in a couple days so I thought you may be avoiding me."
     "I'm not avoiding you now. What are you doing out of class?"
     "I'm hungry, I haven't fed yet today."
     "Oh."
     "Yes, so I should probably go do that." Dario turned to go into the woods.
     "Can I come with you?" I blurted without really thinking.  
     Dario turned back to me with a complete look of shock on his face. "What?"
      I looked behind me to see what the rest of the class was doing. The lake was large, so I could barely see our Professor. It looked like she was chewing out one of the mermaids. Would she really notice if I was gone? Nah. I dragged myself out of the water so my tail disappeared. Then I stood up so I was facing Dario.
      "Can I come with you? I want to see how you hunt. In tracking we will have to do actual hunting soon. Maybe it'll be good if I had some experience," I said. I wasn't really lying. We were going to be hunting in Tracking class soon. But what I really wanted was to just spend time with Dario. And sadly ask about Adrijana.
     "Okay sure," Dario said. "You're gonna skip class?"
    "I hate this class."
    "Fair enough." Dario's eyes drifted over me and that's when I realized I was only wearing a bikini. I wrapped my arms around myself now suddenly freezing to death.
     "Oh, I don't have any clothes though," I said.
     Dario shrugged off the coat he was  wearing and handed it to me.
     "Won't you be cold?" I asked.
     "I'll be fine, especially after I've fed," Dario said giving me a hellish smile. "Blood really warms a person up."
      "You don't say," I said putting on Dario's coat. It was way too big. The sleeves were way too long and it went past my knees. Which was actually good because I didn't have any pants. "Shall we go then?"
      I followed Dario into the woods. The trees looked really pretty because their leaves had stared to change colors. Smells I didn't recognize wafted around me. They must have been smells I could have never noticed when I was human.
    "How are you doing at tracking?" Dario asked.
     "Um, I'm okay. I'm really good at tracking certain things, but things in general? Not so much," I said.
     "Okay well let me help you," Dario said. "Close your eyes."
      I stopped walking. "Why?"
     Dario stopped and faced me. "Just do it."
      I sighed and closed my eyes. "Now what?"
      "What do you sense?"
       "The wind."
     "No. That's obvious. What else?"
      "Movement. Over there, with an animal smell."
      "Good, but?"
     "But the movement is small. So, it probably wouldn't be a good meal for you. There's also movement over there. The steps are larger. Maybe a deer?"
      I opened my eyes to see Dario smiling at me. "See, you can track. You just can't think about it too much.  Let's go."
      Dario slipped through the woods noiselessly. Me, on the other hand, was having a harder time with that. I tried to be as quiet as possible so I wouldn't scare Dario's meal away.
      Sure enough on the other side of the bush there was a deer eating. Wow. I really was right.
     "If you have a weak stomach, you might not want to watch this," Dario whispered.
      Dario didn't give me time to respond. Like lightning he attacked the deer. If I would've blinked I would've missed it. I saw blood leaking out of the side of Dario's mouth as he drank the deer's blood. A few minutes later, he lifted his head to look at me. I could still see his fangs.
     Dario stood and walked over to me. I was no longer looking at him, but at the deer lying dead on the forrest floor. I had just witnessed one of the most disturbing but fascinating things ever.
      "Are you okay?" Dario asked sounding concerned.
      "I'm fine," I said still looking at the deer.
      Dario looked at the deer then back to me. "I told you not to watch. Come on let's get back to the lake."
     Back at the lake Dario dropped to his knees at the bank's edge to wash the blood off of his face. I sat next to him and tucked my legs up so his coat completely covered them.
     "Where'd your class go?" Dario asked.
     "They're probably underwater doing who knows what," I said. And before I could think properly about what I was going to say the next, words just tumbled out of my mouth. "So you're getting married?"
     Dario went rigid then quickly relaxed. "Who told you that?" He asked sitting back next to me.
    "Faye," I said. "She said you are going to marry Adrijana in December, so that's why you had all of those guests over this past summer. So when were you going to tell me?"
     Dario groaned and covered his face with his hands. "Stupid fairy can't keep her mouth shut," He mumbled.
      "So you weren't going to tell me? What you were just gonna come back after Christmas with a ring on your finger and think I wouldn't notice?"
      "Of course I was going to tell you. I just didn't know how. It seemed kind of random for me to be like 'oh I'm marrying Adrijana.'"
     "I would've been fine with that."
     "Well sorry, you're invited by the way."
     Oh goody. I got to go to a wedding I didn't agree with. Should be a fun time.
       "I thought you said you may not have to marry her," I said.
      "Well. Now I do."
      "Why?"
      Dario turned to me and snapped.  "Why? Are you jealous?"
      "No," I said defiantly crossing my arms. "I just don't like it when people have to marry when they don't want to."
    "I'll marry Adrijana to keep peace. I don't mind marrying her."
     Sadness washed over me and I turned away from him. "Oh," Was all I could say. It's not like Dario was mine or anything, but it still made me upset that he was getting married. Oh well, it didn't really matter to me I guess. I had Lazarus.
      "We should get you inside," Dario said standing up. "You look like you're freezing to death."
    I actually was shivering pretty violently. Dario reached out his hand to help me up and I took it. And for a split second, just for a split second, I thought about how Adrijana was going to get to hold his hand everyday. And how lucky that bitch really was. And it really made me want to break both of her hands.