In Plain Sight (A Hunted Rose)

Chapter Nineteen

Something was burning.  Late last night when I had crashed in my bed, Liam had stayed up, doing random stuff around the house.  I knew that much.  What I didn’t know, was why there was the smell of burnt coffee beans permeating the air of my house.  I ran as fast as I could into the kitchen, gripping the counter to stop from running into something when my socks slid on the tile.

I didn’t have one of those fancy one-cup coffee makers that were really popular; no, I had one of the earlier models that made it by the pot.  And it wasn’t a new machine either, it was old.  As a human, I had been like most others and could barely get by without my caffeine in the morning.  Now that I was a vampire I didn’t need the caffeine, but I did like the taste.  Apparently Liam did too, because he was standing in front of the coffee maker looking frazzled and annoyed.

“What the hell?” I exclaimed to the irate vampire fanning some smoke away from the machine on the counter by the sink.  “What are you trying to do?”

“I,” Liam sniffed haughtily, “am trying to make coffee.  It isn’t my fault that your coffee maker is old and decrepit and stupid.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” I said.  “Don’t diss the coffee maker.”  I looked closer at the slightly smoking object.  “How do you burn coffee?  It isn’t that hard to make.”

“I don’t know!”

“You put water in it, right?”  I asked him.  “It doesn’t work without water.”

“Of course I put water in it!”

“Okay, okay,” I held up my hands to try and calm him.  It wasn’t just humans who were grumpy in the mornings.  Liam had his days too – I should know, there were more than a few that occurred when I was living with him.

While he was still glaring at the coffee pot as if he wanted to throw it into a corn field, I went back into my bedroom, calling out “I have to get ready for school” as I went. 

¥¥¥¥

Ms. Cooper was lying when she said that most of what we did was writing in our journals or reading.  That or she changed the lesson plans after I arrived and didn’t tell me.  In my head, I realized that she was the teacher and didn’t have to, but I wanted to be an illogical bitch at the moment.  Not that I was going to say anything to her about it. 

Despite the fact that we didn’t do as I was told, I did enjoy her class a lot.  Even though Ryder was in my class, it was probably my favorite.  And, Ryder was starting to be nicer to me.  Although, after dealing with Liam this morning, I wasn’t feeling very nice, so he might start to not like me again. 

Ms. Cooper stood at the front of the classroom with a stack of small papers in her hands.  She went to the first row of desks and counted out a number and passed them down.  As she did that, she spoke to the students.

“On each of these papers is a word.  Each word is different.  You are not allowed to switch papers with someone else.  What I want you to do is write a definition to the word on the paper.  It doesn’t have to be a dictionary type definition, but more along the lines of what the word means in your point of view.  Okay?”

I looked at the sheet of paper that was on my desk in front of me.  The word on it was simple, common.

Unique.

I thought about it for a few moments before I started writing.

Non-conformity.  Being unique is when a person or thing almost… refuses to do something that is “right” or “stereotypical”.  The person stands up for what they believe, and refuses to be ignored, or stepped on.  They are different from everyone else, because they choose to be.