The New Girl

Chapter Seventeen

Arvon had a lot of things to say when he returned to the hospital that evening. However he had to hold them up as David insisted on leaving the hospital first. I was in his favor too. Obviously who would want to stay in hospital?

I wanted to clear David's hospital bill all by myself but Arvon wouldn't let me do that. So in the end we paid fifty-fifty of the bill amount, and discharged David. Arvon gave a red hooded jacket he had brought along to David in order to hide his face, and then we all boarded a taxi destined to return to Neon.

"Did you guys get MMS from Brooklyn?" Arvon said finally.

"Nope," I said, twisting back to the rear seat where Arvon and David were sitting. I suspected it must have some connection with Lovina since he had taken the horrible photos of her last night.

Arvon confirmed my suspicion. "He sent MMS to half of the school, and guess what it showed. Pictures of Lovina feeding on the dog. I have them in my phone."

"Don't show me," I said, turning to the windshield. "I saw her doing that live last night."

"Yuck!" David said, and I knew without looking that Arvon had shown the pictures to him. "How heartless. How did we become friends with her?"

"Well, thanks to you and Brooklyn, we knew her secret," Arvon told David. "Otherwise she would have finished us too one by one."

"So now everybody knows she's a vampire?" I asked, gawking at passing streetlights and blurred colors outside the window.

"No," Arvon said. "The message in the MMS labeled her as psycho killer, and that's what everybody believes she is. I wonder why he didn't tell the truth."

The driver honked a horn at the racing motorbike in front of our taxi, and spoke to us for the second time. The first time was when he had asked us where we wanted to go after getting in his cab.

"Young lads, this is not my business," he said in his gravel voice. "But I want to say something. If that girl you're talking about was your friend and now known as a killer, don't you think you guys are in trouble too? If the cops came to investigate, they would question you lads first."

"She isn't just a killer, old man," Arvon said. "She's a vampire. And we aren't vampires. Which human being do you think would drink a dog's blood?"

The driver cocked one grey brow, eyes focused on the road ahead. He wasn't buying Arvon's talk. "Are you high or something, kid? There's no such thing called a vampire." Shaking his capped head, he ridiculed almost in a whisper, "Teenagers."

"You aren't so getting a tip, old man," Arvon said cheekily.

But the old driver laughed, slapping the steering wheel. "I have never heard of anyone giving a tip to a driver before."

I imagined Arvon's face turning furiously scarlet.

"If we'll be in trouble, we should take steps to stop it," David said sheepishly. "You guys should go to police and tell them the truth. We should get Lovina arrested before she kills more people or animals. Is she still at school?"

"Na," Arvon said. "She packed her things and left before the class started, which was shortly after the MMS incident."

"How were the school's staff reactions?" David said.

"I think they don't know anything," Arvon said. "They were in their usual teaching mood today, well, except for the new librarian."

"Misty took the job?" David said. There was a little excitement in his voice.

"It's Professor Misty, David," I reminded him.

"I have never seen a teacher like her before," Arvon said in a bluffing tone. "You should see her, C. She drives Porsche and is hot."

"I'm sure you guys are exaggerating her," I said, shutting my mind before it started drawing a figure of a so called hot teacher. I had a lot on my plate to deal with right now. Having hots for a teacher won't help anything.

"I'm not," Arvon said. "So what we do? Lovina left the school, but she could come back anytime."

"Alert the cops, lads, alert the cops," the driver advised.

Five minutes later, we pulled up in Neon's parking lot. As I paid ten dollars to the driver, Arvon said to David, "I've something to cover your face up."

"No thanks," David said. "This hood is enough for me."

But in the end, he stepped out of the taxi in the light, wearing a black mask and sunglasses looking a lot like faceless man under the red hood.

"You're sleeping on Chuck's bed until your face recovers (and he will sleep in yours)," Arvon told David as we hustled toward Block C. "Now keep your head low."

Those whoever were hanging out in the corridor didn't bother to look at us twice, which was just what we needed. Once we were inside Arvon's dorm, the door safely closed behind us, David threw back the hood and took off black glasses and the masks.

"Man, this was suffocating," he said, inhaling a deep breathe.

"Welcome back David," Chuck said, closing the Playboy magazine he was checking out (because I don't think he bought it to actually read it) and getting up from the study chair at the same time.

David responded his greeting with a wave of his hand.

"Time for me to move out," Chuck said, and began assembling his pajamas and few necessary items in a small cartoon box. "David, my bed is yours for some time. Sleep well." He started for the door.

"Thanks Chuck," David said, breathing normally now. "And you don't do anything stupid undercover on my bed, dude."

"Haha," said Chuck, opening the door. "I'm a guy, anything can happen." And he disappeared behind the door.

I checked the time. Half-past eight.

"We should go to dinner now," I decided.

Arvon whirled toward David. "Stay in the room, okay? Take rest. I'll bring you food."

David made face but then winced. As we shut him in the room, he commented loudly, "I'm beginning to feel like a prisoner, man."