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"Yes, but I am happy that I met you at all."
"Me too!" I leaned in and gave him a juicy kiss. "I bet you were so hot when you were twelve." I stroked his face. "But you didn't go to middle school, did you?" I asked.
"I never went to school."
"Did you go to dances?"
"No, there was not a school to dance in. Just my house."
"You mean mansion."
"Uh... I guess."
"So how did you meet girls?"
"When I went out with Sebastian, when we traveled, and when we hung out with other vampire families."
"And Stormy? How does she make friends and meet boys?"
"She has friends. But this is really a big deal to her. She is isolated, like I was. But she likes to be out with people."
"And you don't?"
"Well, certain people," he said, giving my hand a squeeze. "But I can spend my nights painting. She'd rather be out dancing. That's why I think it's good that she's getting out here. She has such a passion for life."
"And guys," I said with a grin. Then my mood changed. "What if she really likes Billy?" I asked.
I imagined my brother as a vampire: spending his long nights holed up on the computer instead of running around a cemetery, and sleeping in a remote-controlled coffin with more gadgets than a souped-up car.
"I think that's something we don't have to worry about now. It's just one night. And you don't want him to be a vampire, do you?" he asked.
"Vampires are sexy. Not nerds."
Alexander laughed, his face lighting up in the night sky.
"Besides, I'm the one in the Madison family that will be turned."
"Oh," he said. "And when will that happen?"
"Sooner than later, please," I pleaded. I pulled my hair away from my neck and nuzzled up to him. "How about now?" Just then we heard a girl's scream. We both sat up.
Stormy was walking away from Billy and Henry and heading toward us.
"What's going on?" I asked as Alexander and I rose.
"Nothing," Stormy said with a huff. "But I think we should go."
"What happened?" Alexander asked.
"Did they hurt you?" I asked. "I'll - "
"No, of course not," she said sweetly.
"Then what happened?" Alexander asked.
"It's nothing, really. I just think it's time to go."
I marched down to my brother and his nerdmate. I knew I'd get answers from him.
By this time Billy and Henry were putting pieces back in his telescope.
"What did you do?" I charged.
"Nothing," Billy said, perplexed.
"We were just fixing the telescope," Henry said.
"Something must have happened," I insisted. "I heard her scream."
"I don't know," Billy said. "We were just fixing the telescope and wiping down the mirror. Henry flashed it at her as a joke, and she freaked out!" Oh, I thought. Not that.
"What's the big deal?" Billy asked.
"I don't know," I said.
"It didn't even touch her," Henry said sincerely.
"I know," I reassured him. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"I know," I reassured him. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"We were just going to look at the stars," Billy said, shaking his head. "You goth girls ! I think I'll stick to hanging out with the girls in Math Club. They aren't so weird."
"It's okay," I said.
"What girl is afraid of mirrors?" Billy asked.
"A vampire, I suppose," Henry said.
Billy looked back at me. He gazed at Stormy and Alexander for a bit. Then he took the mirror from Henry and slipped it into his pants pocket.
"Hey," Henry said. "I need that."
I glared at my brother. "It's time we go," I said, and shook my head as they packed up their belongings.
"Do you think Stormy will be okay?" I asked Alexander outside my house after we dropped the boys off at Henry's.
"She's fine. It's just one of the tricky parts of hanging out with mortals," Alexander said with a cute grin.
I glanced back to check on Stormy, but this time she wasn't watching us from the car. Instead she was fiddling with the car radio.
"I feel awful," I said. "I didn't know they'd do that."
"There wasn't any way to know. And she could have shrugged it off. Instead she had to act all medieval."
"I guess I would have done the same."
"Well, if you are to become one of us, you will have to kwils off at Hget used to such things," he said, guiding my hair back off my shoulder. "And by acting crazy, you just draw attention to it. Now we have to think of something to say to your brother." Alexander was right. If I were a vampire, things would happen in the normal world to expose my true identity. I wasn't sure if I'd be as calm and cool as Alexander or more emotional like Stormy. For some reason, I feared I was more like the vampire girl sitting in the Mercedes.
But for now, I didn't have to worry about my reactions, only Stormy's. I guess it could have been anything that set her off. And maybe it was better that something happened now rather than later. Before our siblings got any closer.
Alexander and I decided it might be a good idea to keep Billy and Stormy apart from each other for a few days. But that didn't stop Billy from asking about her.
He'd pass me in our upstairs hallway and ask how she was doing. I knew my brother truly felt bad. He'd taken her to a dance and they both had a great time, and now he felt he'd ruined her stay in Dullsville.
"She's not mad," I said to him one night at dinner. "Maybe she has a fear of mirrors."
"Well, she shouldn't. You'd think someone as pretty as her would be looking in them all the time." It was one of Billy's first experiences with girls, and I didn't want him to be soured by them just because one was a vampire. But there was no way I could have told him or even avoided the situation, because I hadn't known that they'd be retooling the telescope. In fact, I didn't even know there was a mirror inside it.
The following night, I was waiting for the sun to set outside the Mansion when I came upon an object lying at the top of the front stairs. On closer inspection, it appeared to be a bouquet of flowers. I held the flowers and smelled them as the sun set behind me. When it was dusk, I rapped on the serpent knocker. Jameson opened the door, and I handed him the bouquet. "They were lying here on the steps," I said.
