Vampire Kisses (gxg)

Chapter 7

The next day, Heidi didn't appear before school. That wasn't strange, as she was often in the library, checking out books.

It was overcast, so Victoria joined her in the courtyard. There was still tension between her and Chris.

But the thing was, Victoria seemed more confident and assured today. She stood taller, and her breathing was more regular. Perhaps it was the conversation she had with me or Heidi, Penelope noted.

Chris, on the other hand, seemed to tense up as she approached. His golden hair seemed to stand on end, his greenish eyes narrowed slightly. He gripped his phone tightly enough that his hand came together in a fist, sending the phone slipping out of his hand.

Victoria caught it with her foot, and then transferred it to her hand. "Want this?" She asked, holding it in her hand at a high angle, as if she would strike Chris with it. She then lowered it and handed it over. Chris glowered.

Victoria frowned, and then faced Penelope. "I baked you something," she said. She took out a container of two cupcakes from her bag, and cracked it open. She slid her hand in, and took out one, handing it to Penelope.

"I made another one. You can have it if you want it," she said. "I'm not hungry."

"Sure," Chris said. Despite how mad he was with Victoria, Penelope knew that he could never deny a homecooked good.

Victoria gave him the second one, a red velvet. Penelope noticed she hadn't brought a third one from Heidi. Perhaps their conversation had not gone well after all.

Victoria sat down beside Penelope. They were sitting in the outside amphitheater, which was a terraced bowl set into the grass with stones used at the edge of each grass terrace. There was a stage, a stone semicircle extending into the semicircle of the amphitheater. On warm days, students would eat lunch on the stage, sunning themselves like lizards or cats. On rare occasions, teachers would teach class outside, themselves sitting on stage and their students on the terraces.

Victoria and Penelope had met here. It was the first day of school. Penelope was nervous. She sat on the stage, her legs dangling over the side and not touching the grass down below. She was drawing in her black sketchbook.

Victoria came up to her and sat down. Penelope hadn't even noticed she was approaching, but as soon as she sat down, she slammed her sketchbook shut.

"Hi, I'm Victoria," she had said. "What you were drawing looks cool."

"Really? Everyone else thinks it's weird," Penelope said. She opened up to the page again. It was a eye, with a skull in the middle. Later, Penelope would look back on the drawing and cringe at how edgy it was trying to be. But for now, she was satisfied with it.

"Well, of course I like it. Everyone thinks I'm weird," Victoria said.

"Why? You seem normal to me."

"My mom works with corpses."

"That's not weird. That's cool," Penelope told her.

"Umm.. thanks." Penelope thought she had said something wrong until she looked up from her drawing and realized she was smiling.

"You're welcome, I guess."

"What's your name?"

"Penelope."

Since then, the two of them had been steadfast friends. They had an affinity for the dark and a love of the creepy and even the occult. They had a Wiccan phase together when they were in seventh grade where they tried to summon the ghosts that supposedly haunted the school. They didn't care if other students thought they were weird or ostracized them - they had each other and that was enough.