Dark Valentine (Monster High; Book 1 of the DV Duology)

Chapter 3: Ready or Not

Kieran:

I couldn't sleep that night. At first I didn't feel like there was a reason, figuring I was just really wired. I'd been used to my current sleeping schedule for a couple years now, so I knew for sure it wasn't that. You see, most of my unlife I'd done the traditional vampire thing – sleeping during the day, attending school and such at night – until I started attending Monster High. Then I'd had to switch it around, which was weird at first, but it hadn't taken me long to adjust.

Then it hit me – the news report about the blood bank I'd stumbled across after school. I had been on edge ever since then. I knew it had to be a vampire's doing, and since I had a strong suspicion about who it was, the whole thing filled me with dread.

There's nothing I can do about it yet. Just let me rest, I pleaded with my own brain. Alas, it didn't work.

I tossed and turned in my coffin a little while longer before climbing out, walking over to my desk, and opening my laptop. I grabbed a pair of ear buds from the desk drawer and popped them in, then opened Fright-Tube. After selecting a playlist of music, I lined down the Fright-Tube window and opened a new document in Microsoft Word. I planned on writing a story or journaling or something to pass the time until I got tired, but nothing came to me. So, after a few moments of silent pondering, I just closed the document without saving and watched a movie on Fearflix instead.

Eventually, I did manage to get a bit of poor-quality sleep that left me exhausted the next morning. When I walked into class and took my seat, I immediately put my head down. Not two seconds later, I heard Holt Hyde loudly enter the classroom.

"Hey, Frankie Fine!" He greeted her enthusiastically as he strode over to his usual seat.

"Hey, Holt," Frankie returned his greeting with a giggle. Once Holt started talking quieter -somewhat, anyway - I put my head back down and tuned them out. I'd almost fallen asleep on the desk when someone decided to poke me. "Val?" I ignored them as I did my best not to scowl at the stupid nickname. I'd always disliked it.

"Sleeping," I muttered without raising my head.

"Looks like someone didn't get enough—aw, come on!" Holt yelled as Heath sprinted through the door and tapped him on the arm. "When did Deuce tag you?"

"Just now in the hall as I passed him," answered Heath, "I'm surprised he didn't tag Cleo."

"I wouldn't be after what you did to him and Jackson's house," said Holt, snickering.

Okay, now I was curious. I lifted my head up off the desk and looked over at the pair with a quizzical expression on my face. "What are you guys talking about?" I asked sleepily.

"Well, good morning, Sleeping Beauty," joked Heath, "Me, Holt, Jackson and a bunch of others are playing a game of tag, that's all. Nothing to worry about. Oh, and I accidentally burned their Minecraft house down yesterday." The bell rang. "Oh, well. See you after class, Holt."

"See ya!" Holt took off his headphones and transformed into Jackson. He raised his eyebrows when he saw Heath. "What happened?" he asked Heath.

"Holt's it," Heath said, "Don't know why he didn't tag Frankie before letting you back out, but whatever. Game's paused 'till he comes back. Bye!"

"Maybe because he knew I'd just turn around and tag Jackson," answered Frankie, even though Heath was already gone. "Wow, Valentine, you look super tired," she added to me upon seeing my expression.

'Thanks, Captain Obvious,' I thought, but instead of voicing that I said, "Bad sleep. I'm fine."

"Settle down, class," Mr. Rotter called for everyone's attention and started the lesson. Since it was all presentations today - and I already did mine a couple days ago - I chose to sleep. This time, without interruption from Holt, I managed it. Later, though, I was woken by someone shaking me. I lifted my head to see Jackson looking down at me. "Class is over," he explained, "How late did you stay up, exactly?"

"Oh, until 2:30 AM," I answered, "Fearflix kept me occupied until then since I was really wired and couldn't sleep. Figured I'd tire myself out that way. I did find an interesting movie, though, remind me to tell you about it after."

"I will, for sure. For now, though, I'm going to have to let Holt out," said Jackson, "I'll see you around."

I nodded. "Bye."

In my opinion, there were a few highlights of the day other than what was just covered. One was when Heath started a fire in Mad Science and pissed off Mr. Hack, which was definitely...Heath-like. The others all had to do with that tag game Heath mentioned. Basically, there were a fair few instances where the players would tag others in the most humorous of ways. By the time music rolled around - a nighttime-only class that took place once a week - Holt was it again, from the sound of it. That made for the most interesting tag out of all of them.

The monsters in this class included me, Holt, Operetta, Toralei, Catty and a genie named Gigi, who happened to be Whisp's sister. The teacher was Operetta's father.

Just as the bell rang and Mr. Phantom was about to start talking, Holt rolled into the classroom on a Segway while singing exuberantly, and immediately made his way to Gigi to tag her. "You're it, yeah!" He exclaimed, singing the word 'it'. Gigi was laughing too hard to protest being tagged.

I honestly had no idea how he managed to get the thing into Monster High, but whatever, it was still funny. Especially when he started doing laps around Mr. Phantom on it.

"How the heck did you get a Segway in here?" Operetta inquired in amusement.

"Better Question: Where did he get a Segway?" asked Mr. Phantom.

"Bought it on Z-Bay," Holt answered proudly, continuing to roll around the room on it.

"Alright, you're making me dizzy, Holt. Enough," Mr. Phantom instructed, "That's not exactly safe to be using in a classroom in the first place, mind you."

Holt got off the Segway and put it near the wall to the left of the door before taking a seat in between Operetta and I, attempting to start a conversation with her. He didn't get far since Mr. Phantom started the lesson, but he did manage to give me a brief nod in greeting. He didn't trust me, either, but that wasn't much of a shock. I didn't dislike Holt, but I did find him a little on the obnoxious side at times. But he certainly had a sense of humour, and a pretty good one at that. And he wasn't a bad guy overall from what I understood.

Music went fine, and once the bell rang, Holt made a beeline for his Segway and rolled out of the room on it, singing enthusiastically. I recognized the song as 'Shut up & Dance' since it played over the radio so much, and I shook my head in mild amusement before leaving to go home.

When I got there, Mom had already gone to bed, so I went up to my room and did the same, wondering who would be in control tomorrow—Jackson or Holt?

Unlike last night, I managed to get to sleep no problem and felt well-rested when I climbed out of my coffin the next morning. I got my stuff ready the instant I did so that I would be on time, and dressed in a pair of black leather pants, my usual boots, and a dark red dress shirt. Per usual, I left my glasses at home. I never used them anymore anyway. I had zero reason to.

My question from last night was answered when I strolled into class to find Jackson sitting in his seat and Frankie next to him like always, but something was off. Normally, they'd be talking casually and joking, but they both seemed a little upset, or irritated, or...something. It ended when Frankie got up and went to sit with Clawdeen. Seeing this, I decided to take her usual seat.

"Hey," I said to Jackson when I sat down, noticing his expression. He looked a little hurt, to be honest, along with the irritation I mentioned. "Are you okay?" I asked hesitantly; the last thing I wanted to do was to make things worse.

Thankfully, I didn't. "I'm—I'm fine," Jackson responded, "I don't want to talk about it right now."

"Alright," I respected his answer and let it drop, instead asking, "Is Gigi still it? You know, in your game of tag?"

"No, Frankie is," he said, "Gigi tagged her the first chance she got."

"I see," I said. Even though he was doing his best to act like nothing was wrong, I could still tell something was bothering him. I wouldn't force it out of him, obviously, but I still wished I could help.