Exploding Heart Disorder (Fearless Vampire Killers Fanfic)

Chapter One

[Alyx's P.O.V.]

"Alyx, for God's sake, hurry up! We haven't got all day to finish this experiment!"

I jump slightly, looking towards my assigned partner in chemistry, Austin something-or-other. Her green eyes are filled with frustration as she dumps spatula- after spatula-full of magnesium powder into a beaker filled with what could well be just water, before she dumps it onto a tripod stand and waits for it to, oh I don't know, explode or something. I frown deeply; this isn't at all how the teacher did it, I don't think we're really doing this right.

Austin, I don't think we-"

"Shush!" She barks at me; I sigh, slipping onto my stool at my desk, doodling aimlessly over my still-empty green chemistry jotter, scribbling over the place on the cover where it says, in my own messy, scribbled font: ALYXANDREA BARNES - ADVANCED HIGHER CHEMISTRY. My head is pounding, my stomach is growling in protest of my skipping breakfast this morning and my being too lazy to pick up enough money for lunch, and on top of all that I'm in a new school were I know no one, no one will accept me and everyone thinks I'm a freak. I've been here for one day, and not one person has bothered to say hello to me. All in all, I can't be bothered with life, let alone a silly chemistry investigation of the "effects of magnesium powder under different temperatures".

Besides, I'm being watched.

I glance up and look across the class to see a sandy-brown-haired, brown-eyed boy looking silently at me, his elbow propped on the desk and his hand resting against his cheek. I look back down at my jotter, my cheeks flushing slightly red as I scribble band logos and song lyrics across the pen-covered jotter's cover. I can't be bothered at all. So I'm leaving my lab partner - who seems, to me, to be a complete cow, to screw up our experiment by herself.

I glance up towards the clock on the wall above the whiteboard; three minutes. Three minutes, and then I have the easiest class ever to attend: study. All I have to do is sit in a class I've never been in before, with a bunch of people I've never met before, and stare at some books I've never seen before, and hope that I look like I care.

The only reason I'm in this school is because my aunt travels a lot. My parents were hippy-types before I was born, the kind that always used too preach "make love, not war" and all the rest of that crap. When I was born they decided they wanted to keep being complete idiots and live in tents with other hippies in random festivals, like it's still the 60s, and leave me with my aunt, who constantly travels around the country doing her job as a weird-ass editor. I don't even know what she edits, she just does it.

The bell rings, and I sigh in relief, grabbing my stuff and dumping it in my black shoulder bag, quickly leaving the stuffy, overheated classroom. I bring out my class timetable from my bag, checking to see what room I'm in, and wondering to myself if I'll need anything other than a notebook and pen. I decide I don't, and fold over the A4 sheet of paper, proceeding to slip it back into my bag.

The piece of paper, however, is quickly pulled out of my grasp by some unknown entity, and I frown, looking up to see who on earth it could be.

A reasonably tall, dark-brown-haired girl of around my own age, with shining brown eyes and a thin, pointed face smiles down at me, waving the piece of paper in my face.

"So that's how you get the new girl's attention; steal her timetable and leave her stranded and defenseless. I'm Mitch."

I frown deeply, taking my timetable back as she offers me it.

"I'm-"

"Alyxandrea Barnes. Sure, the new girl. Noticed no one was really speaking to you, so I thought I'd come up and say hi. So...hi!" She waves slightly, and the corners of my mouth twitch up in a small smile.