Chapter 1
Mickayla opened her eyes to the sound of her twin siblings arguing with their mother, Veronica. This seemed to be happening a lot, they could never agree on anything.
“No, you guys are going to the new school and that is final!” Their mother was yelling. Mickayla cautiously stepped out of her coffin and looked around the empty chambers. She let out a loud sigh.
All the room contained was her coffin for sleeping and a desk for her homework. She didn’t need light, she could see perfectly fine in the dark. She also didn’t need a vanity, she couldn’t see her reflection in the mirror anyhow.
She walked over to the desk, grabbing her hairbrush and untangling her long blonde hair. There was a blood red streak that Veronica called a gift. It didn’t do anything special, or give Mickayla any powers. It didn’t even mean anything, it was just there.
She pulled on her favorite black lace dress and corset before heading downstairs for a breakfast of cow blood. Her family wasn’t fasting, but they were trying to avoid tampering with the humans. A “Monster in the Area” warning had been put up everywhere recently, encouraging people to be on the lookout for any kind of monster who drank blood.
Thankfully the chupacabra had people caught up in a myth. Everybody knows they don’t exist. The evidence is all a bunch of blasphemy, and it almost always captured some sort of hog in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Mickayla took her seat at the table and the twins glanced over at her. Victoria and Victor. Both had really dark black hair, and Victoria’s was wavy. Their amber eyes glowed in rage from the argument, cooling as they saw their younger sister.
“Hello, sis,” Victoria states, always proper. Always prim.
“Hello,” Mickayla takes a bite out of the cooked cow leg that lay in front of her. It definitely wasn’t as good as human, but it would do. A goblet of blood sat beside the plate, begging to be drank.
“Hello, daughter,” Veronica adds, smiling. “It’s nice to see you joined us for breakfast.” As if Mickayla ever skipped breakfast. She used to always crave blood, always looking forward to the next meal. She had only been a vampire for two years, and she was still learning how to control herself and the hunger.
Mickayla nods. “Good morning. I was just wondering, what was your guys’ fight about? I heard something about a new school?” She raises an eyebrow as Veronica smiles.
Veronica was delighted to hear Mickayla’s interest in a new school. Perhaps she would be a good example for the elder twins. “Oh, yes, of course! I am sending you three to a new school, called Monster Academy.”
The twins shook their heads in disagreement, looking at Mickayla to gauge her reaction. Monster Academy? It seems like a trap. Unless she’s just thinking that way because she is a “monster”.
“Well,” Mickayla announces slowly, after much deliberation. “I suppose it wouldn’t be too bad, except for the fact that the name gives away so many things. Monster Academy? Really? Is it some sort of joke?”
“No, sweetie.” Veronica shakes her head, clearing the table. Mickayla finishes her blood before setting the goblet down for her mother to take. “It’s something totally different. You see, the name I found it under is Lakemoore High. Isn’t that cool? Everyone thinks it’s a regular high school, but it’s really a safe spot for monsters to go to school!”
Mickayla nods. A new school does sound kind of nice, and the school year just ended. She would be entering her Sophomore year, and she didn’t want to look like a Freshman much longer. Though she would be continuously repeating those two years over and over and over.
“Well, I don’t know. If it’s under a fake name, couldn’t anyone get in?”
Veronica shakes her head as she sets the dishes in the sink, turning on the water. “Nope. I was going to register you guys to go there anyways, but then it asked me to select what monster I would most like to identify myself and my kids as. Then it took me to a thing where I had to fill in the information, the headmaster reviewed it and I got a confirmation email that you guys were accepted and I got the attachments that showed what the school was all about.”
Mickayla nods thoughtfully. It sounded like there was a bit more to it than just stumbling across the new school, but she would let it slide. After all, Veronica was always open and honest with the kids. “I think we should go.” Mickayla looks over at the twins, who look disappointed. They’ll get over it.
“But-” Victor sputters, but he is silenced by a glare from both Mickayla and Veronica.
“There are no ‘buts’, Victor Bloodmouth.” Veronica smiles, showing her small fangs. “You will go, and you will have a great time. It’s an all-year boarding school, private school, whatever humans call them, and you will go and have fun! You finally have somewhere safe to go, please don’t try to push that away, you should be grateful.”
“I don’t want to go.” Victor mumbles, scooting away from the table and heading upstairs. When he doesn’t return, Victoria goes, too, leaving Mickayla alone with their mother.
Veronica smiles at her youngest daughter. “Well, I think you kids will enjoy it. It’s a good spot to get the rest of your education without people questioning the delay of your growth.”
Mickayla nods. That is probably the best thing about going to a monster-safe school. She would be leaving a few friends behind, but they weren’t her friends for her. They only ever wanted to go shopping and hang out for the money she had. They always wanted to do girl things and shop, and they usually excluded her unless money was needed. Not like she wanted to go to their sleepovers and stalk boys around town anyway.
A new start actually sounds quite nice. Mickayla finishes her breakfast, thanking Veronica and going back to her room. She sits at her desk, pulling down a journal and opening it. She clicks a pen and starts doodling.
Mickayla enjoys drawing and writing things in her freetime. Sometimes she writes short stories about her life, sometimes books, sometimes poetry. Sometimes she’ll write whatever comes to her mind, allowing her wrist to follow her direct train of thought.
Victor was arguing with Victoria in the room across the hall, about the pros and cons of a new school. The acceptance rates must be low. Mickayla figured. There weren’t many monsters in the area. Unless they were hidden, like she was.
Of course, it’s an all-year school, so there could be monsters from different parts of the region, maybe even the globe! That would be so much fun!
Mickayla wrote those things down, circling back to add a few afterthoughts. She jumped when her door busted open. Victoria had come in, and she smiled at her younger sibling.
“Yes, Victoria?” Mickayla spun around on her stool to face her sister.
“You think we should go to the new school?” Victoria demands, crossing her arms. Why was she so against it? Has she not worked out the pros of this new school?
“Of course,” Mickayla turned back to her work, gesturing for Victoria to come all the way in. Victoria hesitantly made her way deeper into the room.
“Right, then,” Victoria sat on the chair beside the desk, facing her sister. “Do you think it’s a trap?” She whispers after some time. Mickayla could sense the fear in her tone.
“It could be.” Mickayla finally decides. “But we could always pull being human off, and we could transfer immediately. That’s what we did these past few years, remember?”
Victoria nods. “I’m tired of being a Junior over and over again, though. I want to graduate somewhere. I’m physically eighteen, you know. I could have an aging disease.” She sighs. “Who knows.”
Mickayla agrees. Who knew? Was there a Being out there who would one day end their fatal immortality? Or would they be forever doomed to walk the land humans called Earth?
“I get it,” Mickayla smiles, looking at her sister. “I hope one day we will finally see an end. Not to the world, but to ourselves. We make all these friends and then we watch while they grow old and die. Or we constantly move away from them because we’re forever teenagers.”
Victor scoffs from the doorway, having been listening to their conversation. “Please, you haven’t even seen anything, little sis.”
Mickayla rolls her eyes, Victoria soon after. Victor continues in his rant.
“I’ve seen at least three of my friends die, and a lover once, too. It sucks being like this. I want to die one day, too. I don’t want to see humans advance anymore. I’ve been a vampire for what feels like forever.”
“I know. Didn’t you guys turn back in the 1900s?” Mickayla asks.
Victoria nods. “It was 1921. Victor was deathly ill with the flu, and he couldn’t be saved. One day, I woke up to him moaning in pain. We had never believed in vampires or any of the folklore tales they tell children to keep them well-behaved, but Victor had the mark to prove it was a vampire.
“His skin was cooling, and he told me he was bit. I cried for a few days, and then he sat up, hungry for blood. He was going to kill me, but I convinced him not to.” Victoria smirks. “So instead he changed me into a vampire, too. Now here we are, with you.”
Victor snorts. “Now I’m the older twin.”
Victoria rolls her eyes. Victor adds, “But, yeah. You don’t know what it’s like to watch the people you love die. You haven’t seen the worst of it yet. You will, one day.”
Mickayla sighs, tired of always hearing about how young she is for a vampire. “I know I’m still new to this ‘being a vampire’ thing, but I’ll learn.” She already was learning, it was just a matter of time.
The twins nod. “We know.”
Eventually they sit in silence, thinking about what the new school will be like. Victor had come into the room and was sitting on the other chair, watching the girls. They were all thinking the same thing. Who’s the headmaster of the school? Who will they dorm with? What will the school be like? They didn’t have any friends there, not yet, and it’s likely that you can’t room with the opposite sex.
All these questions, but not enough answers. There’s almost never enough answers.
When autumn rolled around, Mickayla was pulling dresses out of her closet and tucking them neatly into her bag. She threw some school supplies into another suitcase before zipping everything up and brushing loose hair out of her face.
She took a last glance around her bare room. She was never one to make her room look like she lived in it. Posters were rare, so she almost always lived with the paint on the walls and whatever furniture was in the room.
She sighed. Soon she was going to be a student at Monster Academy. She would be gone from her mother for a year. Well, her adoptive mother. Veronica had adopted Mickayla at the ripe age of sixteen. Mickayla was now nearing eighteen, but it would never show. At least she could drive. In most scenarios.
She went downstairs to find her siblings near the door, Veronica in the corner. Veronica smiled at Mickayla, tears in her eyes. “I’m going to miss you guys.” She pulls Mickayla in, her scent wafting over Mickayla. “You’re going to do great.” She whispers.
“Thanks, mom.” Mickayla smiles, a fang peeking out. “I’ll see you around, okay?”
“Okay,” Veronica gives the trio one more hug before they open the door, stepping out into the night and finding the nearest shadow to get to the school.
The breeze was cool as the small group walked through the shadows, finally emerging into the artificial sunlight in front of an old mangled building. Sunny? At this time of night? Must be a time difference.
Mickayla’s crimson eyes quickly scanned the area, observing everything. A courtyard out back, trees surrounding the property, picnic tables scattered about, a pool- or is that a lake?, and a podium set up on the front steps.
