It was finally Sunday, the night of the Halloween party. All day I was as nervous as a cat and couldn’t focus on anything. To take my mind off of things I went to the forest, but alone instead of with my siblings. I climbed up my favorite tree’s coffee brown trunk. When I finally got to the highest climbing point, I jumped on to the branch of another tree. I continued doing this till I lost my balance and crashed through the trees until I hit the ground. I stood, dusted myself off and looked up. Sometimes I still can’t believe that falling from fifty feet in the air doesn’t even leave a scratch on us. I decided to go back to the house and start getting ready. Scarrlet had already washed our costumes and gotten them ready for the Halloween party. I put on the red and black crushed velvet dress, it looked like something a princess might have worn. The costume matched my black hair with red highlights perfectly. “Scarrlet we need to complete our costumes.” I said with a slight smile on my face. “I’ll go first,” She replied. I watched her as she let her fangs come out to show her true nature. “It’s your turn.” She smiled. Actually I thought that Scarrlet looked better as her true self. I stopped holding them back and let my fangs grow out. “Nice ash you are finally done growing your fangs.” Scarrlet said. I could feel that they were longer now than last Halloween. “So do you think Kevin will get here soon Scarr?” I asked looking worried. “First of all stop worrying and second of all you know I hate it when you call me Scarr, because its Scarrlet.” She replied irritated.

8:30, still no Kevin. “Wes maybe you were right about this whole Kevin and Mary J’s party thing.” I said. “Come on Ash, how about I take you to the party and we find out what the heck is going on here. Okay.” I laughed. “Okay Wes.” And so we walked two blocks to get to the party, me in my elegant costume and Wes in his cargo shorts, t-shirt and tennis shoes. It seemed like we walked forever. Even though Wes and I fought constantly we had a bond that no one could ever break. When we arrived we weren’t at all surprised by what we saw. That of course would be a mess in the front yard and a whole lot of dressed up teenagers. But when everyone saw me they stopped, froze, until I saw Kevin who took one look at me and laughed. “I can’t believe you were stupid enough to fall for that. I mean come on it’s like the oldest trick in the book Ashley.” He said with a smile. At that moment I could have killed him. I could have sunk my teeth in to his neck right then and there. But I didn’t have to, because my brother was already beating him up. Now it’s not fair when a sixteen year old beats up a fourteen year old, but it’s really not fair when a vampire who’s got some serious strength beats up a fourteen year old human. In the flash of an eye it seemed like what was the whole football team was trying to pull Wes off of Kevin. Wes decided to let them pull him away from the boy who was now covered in bruises and crying. Kevin got up and went inside with his friends. We, of course got kicked out of the party. “Wes what in the world was that?” I asked with a questioned look on my face. “Sorry Ash I just can’t stand that guy!” I laughed and hugged my big brother, and when I say big I mean it considering that he was 6 ft., 3 in.

As we walked the two blocks home I could sense that there was something different. It was something different between Wes and I. I had a feeling that we weren’t going to be enemies anymore. As we turned the corner I saw something I hadn’t seem a very long time. It was a red and white, Americas moving guys, moving truck. The truck sat in front of the old Garway place that no one had lived in since the murder that happened there. I couldn’t imagine who would want to live in the dark and rusty old house. You could tell right away that it had been abandoned for a while.

A man and a woman were unloading the moving truck. They looked as if they were in their early forties. A teenage boy stepped out of the truck. He had eyes like day and hair as dark as night. There was one dimple on each cheek. I stared at him like he was from a different plant. He looked at me, smiled, and waved. I waved back. Wes laughed, “Come on Ash keep moving.” We were finally to the hug gate that opened to our driveway. I looked up at the giant house that five vampires lived in. Scarrlet came running up to me, “How’d it go?” She asked looking worried. “Well I don’t think that anyone will be messing with us again because Wes,” I smiled at him barely able to believe my own words. “He beat up Kevin because it turned out that it was a set-up Scarrlet.” Then I realized what had happened. Wesley had beat up Kevin but Kevin had stood me up. “I am going to bed guys I’ll see you in the morning.” I said. I dragged my feet upstairs sighing the whole way. When I got into my room I flopped down on the bed as three little tears rolled down my cheek. It was like a thunder storm being created by my eyes. I wiped away the tears on my face. I was sick of this crap tomorrow I wasn’t going to put up with this anymore. Tomorrow I wasn’t going to be Ashley the girl with the “different” family who lets people walk all over her. I was going to be Ash the girl with exotic, long, black hair with red highlights. Ash the rebel.

I woke up staring at the Victorian wallpaper on the right side of the room A.K.A my half of the room. It was funny, I had never thought about it but our room was spilt right down the middle. Two different wall papers collided around the window seal. One of them baby blue with white (Victorian) and the other Black and blood red (Scarrlet’s wallpaper). I suddenly remembered the whole rebel thing and jumped out of my fluffy bed with lace all around the edges. I knew exactly what I was going to wear. I was going to wear a pair of skinny jeans, a light blue t-shirt, my black leather jacket and my new pair of puma brand tennis shoes. I walked down stairs after I had gotten dressed. “Bye mom, bye dad, love you.” I ran out the door and down the drive way with my long hair flowing behind me. The dark woods that surrounded my house and driveway flew back as I raced past them. The bus was sitting on the corner of castle rose. I was early for the bus but to excited to walk like a civilized person.

Mr. Carson, the bus driver, laughed as I jumped on the yellow school bus. “What?” I asked him with one eye brow raised and my head tilted at a forty-five degree angle to my shoulder. “Some one seems super-duper happy today.” He smiled as he talked. “I’ve got a plan Mr. Carson you just wait and see,” I exclaimed. “Alright Ashley, good luck with that plan of yours,” he replied. “Actually it’s Ash not Ashley.” I said, already beginning to start my plan. I walked to the back of the bus where the popular kids usually sat. I was going to make them notice me today. By the time everyone had gotten on the bus there was a huge crowd of kids surrounding and staring at me. The whole time I just pretended like they weren’t there. Eventually they just sat down next to me and they pretended like I wasn’t there. So now I had entered a whole new kind of invisible. During the time that all of this was going on Wes and Scarrlet had gotten on the bus and taken their usual seats in the front.

They, of course, had not realized that I was the center of all this commotion. Once everyone had sat down Scarrlet turned around and my gaze met hers. She gasped not believing that I had been that reason for all of this nonsense. She winked at me, which in Scarrlet language meant ‘good job’. I giggled and winked back at her, she laughed out loud, considering that I had a terrible wink. After sitting on the bus for what felt like forever we pulled up into the parking lot of the school. I was the first person off the bus. Scarrlet and Wes got stuck in the stampede of students trying to get off of the bus. I waited by the lamppost in the corner of the parking lot as they found their way off of the bus. They caught up to me and we walked up to the doors of the large school.

Morning classes went by as usual except for everybody kept staring at me. I just smiled because I knew things were already as bad as possible so they could only get better right? Wrong. I walked into the cafeteria full of bright posters and announcements on the walls. They said things like; “Got milk?” or “A vote for Mee is a vote for you. Vote Mee Eng for class president.” I looked at the short lunch line and went to the back of it.

Today’s food was pepperoni pizza with salad and fruit punch. I picked up my lunch tray and handed the grey haired lady two dollars and seventy five cents. As I started walking I realized that I had no clue about where to sit. I looked around and soon saw Scarrlet and Wes waving for me to go and sit with them. I walked towards the table but, SMACK, I ran into some one and my tray full of food splattered all over my blue T-shirt

“Hey watch where you’re going. Great, you ruined my favorite shirt.” I exclaimed. “Oh my Gosh I am so sorry.” I looked up to see the boy who was helping to unload the moving trucks in front of the Garway place last night but now something was different about him, he had a terrible haircut. “Hey are you the new kid who moved into the Garway place,” I asked him. “Yeah my grandpa, who owned the house, died a couple of months ago. So we got the house in his will and we decided to move into it.” He replied. “Oh, well I live right down the street at 4635.” I said. “My names Adam by the way but you can call me A.J,” he said with a friendly smile on his face. “My names Ashley but I go by Ash.” I replied. “Cool name, can I sit at your table because it’s my first day here and I don’t really know anyone,” he asked me with a face full of hope. “Sure.” I said. A.J and I walked over to Wes and Scarrlet. “Hi what’s your name,” asked Scarrlet. “It’s A.J. What about you?” He replied. “Scarrlet and this is Wes my little brother.” She smirked at Wes. “Hey there’s nothing little about a vampi…” He stopped as Scarrlet and I glared at him. “I meant 16 year old football player.” Nice save I thought to myself. “How old are you A.J,” I asked. “I just turned 15 about 3 months ago. How old are you,” he asked back. “I just had my birthday a week ago, so now I’m 14.” I replied. I swallowed my last bit of pizza not realizing that I had ever even started eating.

Lunch soon ended and I now knew that A.J had an older brother, Sam, and a goat who lived in a dog house in their back yard. Mrs. McKinley, my world cultures teacher, handed out papers at the beginning of class right after lunch. “We will be starting a partner project today. You will be given time in class but, you must also work outside of class if you want enough time to finish it. Okay the partners are Emily Elizdo and James Cutler, Helen Johansen and Alex Tibby, Ashley Downs and Adam Garway…” Oh my gosh, a partner project with A.J, this was going to be great except for the ‘vampire stuff inside my house’ part. Well we could always work at his house. My mind raced with ideas. Wait a minute I didn’t even know that A.J was in my class. I looked around the classroom, I found A.J quickly; he was sitting in the very back of the class room. I waved to him, catching his attention and he waved back. He smiled and both of his dimples showed. A.J had an amazing smile. Every time he showed it, all of the girls in the room fell into a daze.

Over the period of the next week A.J became super popular and more distant from me. He began asking me strange questions like, ‘Why doesn’t anyone ever go into your house.’ and ‘where’d you get your vampire costume from, I heard it looked very real.’ Or ‘Can we work on the project at your place?’ All of my answers were the same, ‘I think someone’s calling me. See you later.’ At the end of the week I decided to walk home instead of riding the bus. I knew that there was someone or something fallowing me, I could sense it but, I just kept walking. By the time I reached the drive way I had decided that I was pretty sure no one would have the guts to travel through the dark woods covering the driveway to get to my house. I was the first one home and I had the house all to myself. The stairs that led to the third floor were cold as ice and they creaked with every step I took. I dropped my bag on my bed and got out my homework. I soon fell asleep from the exhaustion of a week of school. I was awakened by yelling. “If you don’t get out of this house right now I’ll call the police and have you arrested for trespassing.” It sounded like Wes talking. “I’m going to find out what’s going on here and tell everyone.” Was the second person A.J? I got up and stormed downstairs to find A.J and Wesley. “I’m going to figure out what’s going on here and Ash, just when I thought I was making a real friend….” A.J shook his head and stormed out the door but, it was almost like he was scared, scared of a house full of vampires. “Does he know Wes,” I asked. “I think he might know a little but not enough to put the pieces together.” He answered.

They all just stared at me, the kids at school I mean. No one said anything and I wasn’t sure how much they knew or if A.J just told them a bunch of lies. “I hope your happy,’ I said to A.J from behind him. He turned around looking startled. “Well the truth is, I’m not. Because I... You know what never mind,” he walked away. In world Cultures there was a lot of mumbling and staring, at me of course. Then I saw the source of commotion, it was a little piece of paper. Every student opened it, read it, looked at me and giggled. Emily Elizdo had the note now and handed it to me. My heart raced. Was it a threat or maybe he wanted to beat me up in the parking lot after school? I was surprised by what I saw. It was a big heart with words inside it that said ‘A.J Garway and Ashley Downs always’. I turned around to see A.J with red cheeks and no smile. He looked like was going to cry. Everyone was laughing. I guessed that no one else was supposed to read it. A.J liked me, I couldn’t believe it. But what was I going to do now. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if he knew my secret. “Settle down class,” Mrs. McKinley commanded us. I liked A.J and I had known that for a while but I wasn’t ready to admit it until now. Under the heart I wrote ‘I like you to’, it wasn’t much but hey I was only a freshman. I got up and walked to the back of the class room and portended to use the pencil sharpener. The minute Mrs. McKinley put her back to us I dropped the note on A.J’s desk. I walked back to my place and turned around to see his reaction. He smiled once again showing his dimples. The rest of the day was a blur all I could think about was A.J. We passed notes in the hall way and made jokes about teachers, we even sat together at lunch. “Can I walk you home,” A.J asked me at the end of the day. “Sure,” I said smiling. As we walked home we talked about all rumors going around and if we thought they were true or not. He took my hand while we were walking and I smiled. “I heard that A.J Garway and Ashley Downs are together. Do you think that’s true,” I asked. “Actually I do,” He replied. I laughed.

We kept walking until I stopped at my driveways beginning. “Well I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” I said. “Wait, can’t I walk you up to the door,” he asked. “No, because you’ll probably get lost on your way back.” I joked. “I won’t get lost.” He replied. “I just don’t want you to come up to my house anymore. Okay,” I exclaimed. I turned around and started walking up the driveway to my house. Different colored leaves fell from the trees that surrounded my driveway. It was already getting cold and bits of frost lay on grass. The woods around my house were not from a scary book but, from a magical book where they were somehow a piece of perfection. I smiled I had everything anyone could ever possibly want, with the exception of fangs. When I got inside i went straight to the fridge and got a piece of leftover pizza to heat up in the microwave. I stood in front of the microwave watching the circular table turn around and around. When the 30 seconds was over I took out the pizza and sat down on the couch. I grabbed the remote and turned on the T.V to Fox, the Simpsons was on. I quickly finished my pizza and started to do my homework. The T.V was no distraction because there were only reruns on today. Scarrlet walked in the door not to long after I started my homework. “Hey I heard about A.J,” said Scarrlet. “I don't know about him Scarrlet, I think he's catching on to us.” I replied. “You’re not going to tell him about our secret though, right,” Scarrlet asked with a worried look. “No, we can’t risk it.” I replied. It wasn't entirely true though, because I hadn't decided if I was going to or not.

As the weeks passed I could sense that there was something wrong with him and he acted almost afraid of me. On a certain November morning it was exceptionally sunny. I saw A.J coming towards me. He approached me the way a cat would approach a mouse, he was ready to attack if I moved a muscle. He shoved a piece of paper, a.k.a a note, into my warm hand. I could see the fear in his eyes and the sadness that sank his heart into his stomach as he passed me. I slowly unfolded the paper and whispered the words that it read, “I know what you are.” My stomach twisted into a mess of knots. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, not that I needed to. I turned back to look at him but he kept his head down and didn’t turn back. How could he have found out? I had to tell Wes and Scarrlet. As I ran to the cafeteria I passed A.J who practically jumped back into a row of lockers when he saw me. “Ash, hey can I talk to you real quick?” It was Kevin. “I don’t have time to talk right now.” I replied in a hoarse voice as I realized I was about to start crying. “Are you okay,” Kevin asked me with a concerned look on his face. I could tell that he cared, but I couldn’t tell him what was going on. That was one of the Cons. of being a vampire, you can’t tell anyone anything. Now my face was covered in a blanket of tears as I sobbed. “No, I’m not okay Kevin, but I can’t tell you. I wish I could, but I can’t.” The words barely made it out of my mouth. Then Kevin did something I never would have expected. He lifted up my chin and kissed me. I had been confused before but, now I was super confused. “I’ll see you later Ash. Oh and by the way you want to go grab so ice cream from Tizzy’s Ice.” asked Kevin “Sure Kevin. But I really have to go right now.” I replied. Then he ran away with cheeks as red as a tomato. Who would have thought that my first kiss would have been with a guy that had made fun of me since elementary school? Oh, right Wes and Scarrlet. I kept running I reached the table where we usually sat and of course Wes and Scarrlet were there. “Scarrlet, read this.” I looked at her with a worried face. “Oh my god Ash,” her eyes were full of fear and sadness. “I’m so sorry. I swear I didn’t say anything.” I replied. Wes had read the note and looked ready to do something about it, “We all know what we have to do.” I couldn’t bear to think of it. “I can’t, we can’t do that to A.J,” I replied. The day passed slowly and I couldn’t stop thinking about what Wes had said before. I had made my decision and I could handle this myself.

“8:00 at my house.” I stood behind an opened locker and listened to him whisper the words to himself in terror. I had written the note to A.J and put it in his hand as we passed in the hallway. 8:00 came quicker than I had expected. The door creaked as the boy with hair like night and eyes like day walked in my house. One hand was held behind his back. I guessed it was probably a knife or gun or some other silly human toy that couldn’t leave a single scratch on me. Wrong, again. “So, are you going to try to kill me or what?” he asked. I made my move and jumped at him. A.J fell back and landed on the floor but quickly jumped back up. I grabbed him, threw him and he crashed into the bookshelf. He wasn’t going to last much longer and soon it would all be over. He stood up and ran at me, pulling out a wooden stake from behind his back, the one thing that could hurt us. In a flash Scarrlet was there. “Noooo...” I screamed at the top of my lungs and fell to my knees. I caught her head in my lap.

It had all happened so quickly and in the blink of an eye my sister, my best friend, the person who made life worth living was gone. I sat there with her head in my lap brushing my fingers through her hair until Wes walked in the door. “’Wes...” My tears made it hard to talk as I stood up and ran to him. He held me in his arms until my mom and dad got home.

When your fourteen you can’t even imagine that anything bad could happen to your family and it seems like all of those murder kids on the news aren’t real but, they are. The funeral was small but nice. We put lily’s every where since they were Scarrlets favorite flower. As they lowered Scarrlet’s casket into the ground. I dropped a small bottle of blood in the hole in the ground and it landed on top of her coffin. It was A.J’s blood, so that if she ever woke up she would remember what happened and get revenge. For the next several weeks I thought I might die from grief. I stayed in bed all day and didn’t go to school. When I needed a shoulder to cry on I no longer had Scarrlet but, Kevin was always there. He had become my friend or maybe we were more than friends. As for A.J he was nowhere to be found or so I thought.
World cultures class was the same as always. There was note passing, staring, giggling and pretty much everything else besides learning. But then I realized that there was one thing different, A.J. I turned around to see why there was more commotion than usual and I found the one thing hadn’t expected, A.J was sitting in his desk. I gasped as he turned around and saw me. I couldn’t believe that he was back and I wondered where he had been all of this time. He for sure wasn’t off mourning like me. He hadn’t even come to the funeral or told anyone the truth. I so badly wanted to tell the police that he had killed Scarrlet and not that she tripped and fell on a stake that was just randomly laying on the floor. I wanted A.J to be punished for what he had done but I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

“So are you going to tell me how Scarrlet really died,” he asked me with a curios face. The subject hurt but I couldn’t just act like nothing had ever happened. “Why do you care so much Kevin,” I asked him. “I knew what you told the police was a lie Ash.” He replied. “Trust me you don’t want to know.” I told Kevin. “Yes I do,” he replied with a smile. “I can’t tell you, okay Kevin.” I said. I wondered why Kevin was getting suspicious and why he didn’t believe me. Even Kevin was starting to get on my nerves. It was weird; ever since Scarrlet had died I couldn’t stand to be around any other people or ‘things’ in my case.

I held a small bottle of my lab partner’s blood in my hand and stared at it. We were in chemistry class testing each other’s blood to see what type your partner had. I had never tasted human blood before and I hadn’t planned on it but I couldn’t help thinking of it. “Are you going to test it or not?” It was my lab partner, Emily Elizdo, asking the question. I looked around and realized that almost everyone was already done. “Oh, yeah.” I replied as I realized Emily was already done testing mine. “Huh, that’s weird it doesn’t say that you have a type,” she said looking confused. “Let me see, maybe you did it wrong.” I replied taking the bottle from her hands. I poured the fake blood in to the tester. “Look it says I have type A,” I told her. Emily leaned over to look but, I pushed the tester off the side of the table and in to the trash can. I tested Emily’s blood quickly and wrote down all of my answers to my lab questions on the paper. The smell of human blood burned the inside of my nostrils. It was hard to sit there in the room full of blood that I had never tasted before. I felt like I was a cat sitting in a room full of mice that weren’t going to room if I tried to eat them. I was over joyed when I got out of the class room and realized that chemistry class was the last class of the day.

RING RING RING! At first I thought A.J might never come and open the door but, he did. “Hi A.J,” I said not knowing why I even came here in first place. “Oh, hi Ashley um I’m kind of eating dinner. Bye.” He shut the door before he even finished saying good bye. Was A.J really that scared of me? I wondered if he knew that I had come to his house in the middle of the night and gotten his blood sample to put on Scarrlet’s coffin. I hoped he hadn’t seen me that night because if I were him I would be scared to death. A.J probably wouldn’t have opened the door at all if he had seen me though, I thought to myself as I began to walk back to my house. As I walked back to my house the icy cold wind blew through my long dark exotic hair. I would have been freezing if I was a human, but I wasn’t. When I reached the driveway I sat down next to the broken mailbox that had finally given in to the wind. Tears trickled down my cheeks and for the first time I realized that Scarrlet was never going to walk me to the house from the bus, we were never going to play together in the woods again and I was never going to have such a true friend and sister. Wes and Kevin could never take Scarrlets place and I knew I had to accept things as they were.
The next day on Thursday morning when I woke up I decided to wear my boot cut jeans and Scarrlet’s favorite T-shirt. I ate breakfast slowly, not in a rush to get to school. As I walked down the long dark driveway I wondered what A.J was doing and if he was going to tell everyone about my secret. But then again would people actually believe him or just think he was plain out crazy? When I reached the end of the drive way I saw a truck in front of A.J’s house. It was a red and white, Americas moving guys, moving truck. I laughed thinking that this couldn’t possibly be really, but then I saw the for sale sign in his yard. A.J, his parents and his brother were all packing up their things into the moving truck. A.J looked up and saw me, but didn’t say anything. A.J and his family were gone by Friday and I knew I was never going to see him again. No one ever moved into the Garway place again.

“Hey Ash, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you.” It was Kevin’s sweet voice coming from behind. I turned around to see him and smiled. “What is it,” I asked him. “Well we’ve kind of gone on a couple of dates and……” Kevin stopped and followed his “and” by a bunch of um’s. “Well do you want to be my girlfriend,” he asked with a scared and embarrassed look on his face. “Sure Kevin.” I replied with my face as bright as a light bulb. “Really?” He asked with a surprised look on his face. I nodded my head yes which in Scarrlet language would have been “Duh, why didn’t you ask me eight months ago.”

My first date with Kevin was at Club Rio, a club for 13-17 year olds. We drank Shirley temples and ate peanuts. At first we were kind embarrassed to dance but then a slow song came on. “Want to dance,” asked Kevin. “Sure,” I replied nervously. I put my hands on kevins shoulders and he put his hands on my waist. Oh my gosh what am I going to do I’ve never slow danced before, I thought to myself. I could feel the sweat running through the creases on my forehead. He smiled as he looked down at me. I realized how tense I was and tried to relax. I slid my hands to where they were resting on the back of his neck. The song soon ended and I couldn’t believe that I was on my first date with Kevin! For about 10 seconds I was really happy and then it all came crashing down and the nightmares started.
They would all start the same way with Scarrlet and I having a picnic in the woods having a great time. But all of my nightmares ended differently for example I might pull a stake out of the picnic basket and stab her or we would climb of a tree, she would lose her balance, fall out of it and not wake up when she hit the ground. They all ended with her dying and in every dream it was somehow my fault. Every night I had the nightmares and I would wake up in a cold sweat. I started to think that maybe it was my fault that she was dead. If I hadn’t been stupid enough to try to fight A.J she would still be alive probably. Every time I had one of the nightmares I would wake up crying and either Wes, mom or dad would come in my room and try to convince me that Scarrlet’s death wasn’t my fault, but I still thought it was.

It was Friday night and I was getting ready for the winter formal, but my thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking on the door. It was probably Kevin and he was ten minutes early. I opened the door to find Kevin in a black tuxedo holding out a corsage for me. “Thanks Kevin its beautiful,” I said looking down at the lily. “Well are you going to let me freeze to death out here or are you going to invite me in,” he asked. “Oh sorry,” I said as I stepped out of the door way. “Here have a seat and I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” I said to him pointing to the chair. I ran upstairs and grabbed my blue hand bag that matched my silky dress. I ran back down the icy cold stairs but it was too late. My mom had gotten to him first. “So do you guys want to take pictures before you go,” my mom asked us. “Sure Mrs. Do….” I cut off Kevin before he could finish. “No thanks mom we’ll probably take lots of pictures at the dance. Bye.” I grabbed Kevin’s hand and pulled him out of the door before he could say anything else. “Wow, it looks like someone really wanted out of there.” Kevin said with a surprised look on his face. “Sorry, but my mom’s camera crazy.” I replied and we both laughed. The whole night I had the time of my life. When I was with Kevin I forgot about all of the terrible things going on in my life and only remembered the good. We danced and everyone stared at us, because before no one had believed that I was Kevin’s girlfriend. When everyone realized that he wasn’t kidding about me being his girlfriend people started talking to me, popular people, and they were actually pretty nice. People even started talking to Wes too! We made a lot of friends and I couldn’t help but wish Scarrlet could have been there so she could have friends too.

At lunch I didn’t have to ask people to sit next to them because they were all asking me. I now had 38 friends and I know it seems weird that I was counting, but before my list was 1 and then that 1 friend died. My mom even decided to let me have a party. Pretty much a summary of a high school party would be food, swimming, punch, spin the bottle and anything else that could possibly trash your house.

I invited everyone, literally, everyone. I didn’t expect a whole lot of people to show up, but they did. Kevin came to my house early to help Wes and I set up everything. There was food and a whole bunch of decorations. “Remember when I said my mom was camera crazy. Well, she’s party crazy too.” I told Kevin. People slowly started to arrive. Everyone came with their swimsuits on under their clothes. I put up sign’s all over the house so people wouldn’t get lost and we made the third floor off limits even though later we caught people going up to the third floor which turned into make out central. Overall the party was worth having to clean up everything up after it. Everyone thought that my house was absolutely amazing. The party ended up going pretty good and I became pretty popular.

Elections for student council came up soon and I decided to run for freshman class president. Wes and Kevin helped me on my campaign. We made a ton of posters and flyers. Mom even had buttons with my slogan on them made. The buttons read “Vote 4 Ash and follow the flame.” I got Wes to help me write my speech. I was running against Allison Heffery, Jeremy Trever and Talia Rodriser. In the end I won by a land slide and I couldn’t believe it. I was class president. After the elections Kevin, Wesley and I went out to celebrate with a movie and ice cream from Tizzy’s Ice. With all of this new stuff to worry about I started to not think about Scarrlet so much which was good because I stand to think it was my fault she was dead. Soon after I was elected for class president I stopped having the dreams about Scarrlet. I wasn’t sure if Scarrlet was trying to tell me something or they were just nightmares.

Every day after school before I got home I would leave a letter about what was going on at home and at school on Scarrlets grave. The first letter I wrote said this:
“I miss you so much and I can’t believe you’ve been gone for a month already. Mom, dad and Wes are doing well. I don’t think A.J’s ever coming back, he moved out a couple of weeks ago. I got elected freshman class president, it’s really fun getting to help out with everything and it helps take my mind off of you. Mom let us throw a party, it went really well. And guess what, Kevin’s my boyfriend. Who would have thought that would ever happen? I’ve made a lot of friends and I just wish you could be here you would have loved being popular. I always thought everyone was mean but their actually pretty nice. We are going on a skiing trip in Colorado with Kevins family for winter break. Oh Scarrlet, I miss you so much that every time I think about you I start to cry. In fact I cried while I was writing this letter. That’s pretty much everything I had to tell you. So, I guess there’s just one more thing to say, Good bye Scarrlet.
P.S. I’m going to tell Kevin the truth.”

All of my letters ended with “Good bye Scarrlet”. She was buried in our family graveyard about a mile or so from our house. Our family graveyard only had about five people in it, including Scarrlet.

For winter vacation Kevin’s family and my family went on a trip to go skiing. At first I was scared that someone in Kevin’s family might get hurt but it turned out that we were all really good at skiing. We stayed in a skiing resort in Wyoming, Colorado. “Hey Wes.” I said as he walked in the hotel room. “Hey,” he replied. “I miss scarlet. She would be having so much fun right now.” I told Wes. “Well it’s your fault she’s not here. You might as well have killed her yourself Ash. So stop whining like a baby.” Wes stormed out of the room right as Kevin walked in the room. By the time Kevin came up to me my face was covered in tears. “Do you want some hot chocolate? I’m going down to the lobby.” Kevin said to me. “Sure.” I replied trying to stop crying as I wiped the tears off my wet face. I didn’t know how all of the humans weren’t freezing to death, because if I was cold and I was a vampire I knew they must have been super cold. “I wish Scarrlet could be here with us,” I said to Kevin when he got back to my room. “I have to tell you something, Kevin. Well actually there are two things.” I said. “What,” he asked. I couldn’t believe I was going to tell him! “The first thing is I think I love you.” I stopped. A strange and confused look came over his face and I knew he was curios about what else I could possibly say to him. “And the other thing is I’m a vampire.” I told Kevin as his mouth hung wide open.

My second letter to Scarrlet said this:
“I told him Scarrlet! You should have seen the look on his face at first he looked surprised, but then he said it all made sense now. Kevin promised he wouldn’t tell anyone and he said he loved me too. I f you were here I know exactly what you would have said. You would have sighed and said “Young love.” I miss you Scarrlet you would have had so mush fun on the skiing trip in Colorado. I’m so glad I told Kevin the truth, it feels like all of these lies were keeping me from being around other people and now all of that stuff is gone Scarrlet. I still can’t believe you’ve been gone for so long and now it’s been almost two months since you died. Your birthday is coming up soon Scarrlet and your turning eighteen. In only two weeks you would have been an adult. Why did you do this to me Scarrlet? Why didn’t you let me die? Now I’m writing letters to my dead sister. I wish you would have let me die instead. This is terrible being here everyday knowing it was my fault that you died, but then again I wouldn’t want you to have to live like this Scarrlet. I told Wes he should write a letter to you, but he said that its stupid ever since you died he’s been kind of mean to me. Wes even yelled at me saying it was my fault that you were dead and I might as well have killed you myself. Death does crazy things to people Scarrlet. I guess I shouldn’t think of this like I got you killed, but instead like you saved my life.
Yours truly, Ash
P.S. Good Bye Scarrlet.”

Scarrlet hadn’t woken up and gotten revenge on A.J yet so I guessed all of those legends about vampires coming back and getting revenge were all fake. Wrong again.