I walked from the high school, to the collage building. I walked kinda of slow, because I was very afraid of what was going on. But fast too, because I would be in extreme trouble it I took too long.

I know this was a bad situation because of one thing. Uncle Robbie rarely called me out of a core class, and even when he did, my prof would say, "Go see your Uncle Robbie." He wasn't ever Headmaster Preston. Unless something major was going down, something bad.

I tried to think of what it could possibly be. I hadn't done anything wrong at all. I never do. Okay, sometime I did, but I hadn't lately. It couldn't be about grades, because I was getting straight A's at the moment. It oculdn't be about anything like that. So what the hell? Jude…maybe. Juliet and Connelly, probably not. Vampires…fuck no. he didn't know about that.

The more I thought about it, the worse I started thinking. Like maybe Brendan somehow got killed. Or someone else on campus did, like Jarred. Oh, shit.

I ran the rest of the way there, through the hallways that were filled with collage kids. They all knew who I was too, even though I was more or less a blur as I ran past them, slipped around corners and sprinted up the stairs. I went to Uncle Robbie's office. Clutching my bag, I went inside.

Uncle Robbie was in his black suit, looking very…Headmastery. He had his hands folded together, on the desk in front of him. He seemed way different then last time I saw him. The fun-loving side was gone, masked with his authority. And it scared me deeply. I sat in the chair opposite him and put my bag at my feet.

"Uncle Robbie…" I said slowly. "What's goin on?"

"Anna. I'm sorry to pull you out of class, but there's a slight problem," he said gloomily.

"And that is…?"

"Your roommate."

Okay, so maybe it didn't have to do with Juliet.

"She is not as good and your lovely uncle made her out to be," came another voice.

I turned around and looked over the back of my chair, where Connelly was standing against the wall, arms crossed. I hadn't even noticed him when I brushed inside. My bad. He was wearing darkish jeans, a black tee shirt and black high top Converse.

"What is he doing here…?" I asked, totally confused. Wouldn't you be?

"You can stop pretending now," Connelly said. "He knows what I am."

I whipped back around to Uncle Robbie. "What?!"

Uncle Robbie watched me carefully and didn't say anything. Connelly was just as silent.

"Uh, hello? Someone mind telling me what the hell is going on here?" I looked back and forth between them again.

"Anna…" Uncle Robbie warned.

"Sorry, but honestly, we're sitting here and talking about vampires, and you care about language?" I shrugged. "I don't see how it's as bad…"

"We're not talking about vampires."

"Ugh! Yes, Headmaster, we are!"

Connelly stepped in, helping us avoid the inevitable. He stepped behind me and I could feel how cool his flash was next to mine. I really had meant to ask why he was like that, but the time just hadn't come up in conversation yet.

"Stop with the mundane arguments and think!" Connelly growled, unusually deep and scary. "Anna's in danger just being alive. What are you going to do to prevent my sister from killing her as soon as she pleases?"

Uncle Robbie looked pissed that Connelly was essentially saying he was incapable of keeping me alive. But at the same time, he knew Connelly was totally right and well, he didn't really get a choice in any matter than involved a vampire as ruthless as Connelly.

"What exactly do you have in mind, Mr. Decadimento?"

"Let me handle her."

A very wicked grin spread across his face. It was scary on its own, without the fangs that were sure to come, knowing him. But he looked ready to kill and I noticed his eyes were a little bit more…unnatural and more silvery than usual. It made me shudder just wondering if he was thirsty.

"I can't actually let you kill one of my students," Uncle Robbie said with a bitter laugh.

"She is no student. She is not here to learn, but to kill Anna. You don't want that, do you?"

Uncle Robbie's gaze shifted over to me and I pretended not to notice it and act like I was busy staring at Connelly. Not like it would be hard to believe.

"Of course I don't. But you can't kill her. Preston's gotten too much publicity because of the two others…" he said.

"The 'two others' are alive and well," Connelly countered.

"They're also vampires."

"I told you we were talking about vampires!" I added angrily, crossing my arms.

I was completely ignored. Lovely. The kept trying to figure out what was going to happen with me, but they didn't even ask me what I thought? How very nice of them.

"What exactly is the point of trying to keep Anna alive when you won't rid the school of the problem?" Connelly asked.

"Because I don't honestly think that Juliet would do anything." Uncle Robbie shrugged like it was no big deal.

Connelly's smirk reappeared, taking the place of the completely evil grin. His gaze settled on me and his smirk gained another ounce of sarcasm and total badass-ness.

"Why not show you're uncle what my lovely sister did to you, hmm?"

Confused my held up my wrist and showed Uncle Robbie the pair of scars right over my veins. They were just two little dots paler than the rest of me and a little bit cooler. They didn't seem like a big deal to me because nobody ever noticed them. Not even Brendan. Or, if they did, they never said anything.

"She bit you?" he asked, appalled now.

"Yeah…" I answered.

"She said it was because she needed to be stronger when she attacked me and she needed the fresh human blood in her system. Yet she neglected to mention she had fed a few days before."

Yet Connelly neglected to mention he had bitten me too and tried to turn me.

"Is that why she was…?" he left the question hang in the air.

"Yes. Juliet tried to turn her as well and with so little human blood and so much of two different vampire's blood, we were left with what happened. She would have been fine if it was only mine, but it wasn't."

"Okay, we all understand I was almost killed by vampires and wished it wouldn't have happened, but get over it. It'll probably happen again and I have a feeling it'll be the death of me. We're supposed to be talking about Juliet, not my near-death experiences," I said, sounding older and more defiant than usual. I liked it.

Connelly sighed and raked his fingers through his blonde hair. "This would be so much easier on everyone involved if you would allow me to turn you."

I shook me head. "No way! I'm staying human. I've gotten a taste of vampire life and I don't like it."

"Yet. You will, Anna. You have to."

I sighed and bit my lip. "Am I really needed here? Or can I go back to class?"

"Actually, it's almost lunch. I guess you can go…," Uncle Robbie said but he didn't seem all that happy.

I picked up my bag and put it over my shoulder. Of course though, the conversation didn't seem to be over just yet.

"Anna," Uncle Robbie said. "I know you don't want to be fully turned but…I think you should be regularly exchanging blood with Connelly."

"What?! Uh, no. Not again. I don't like the way it feels, the vampire senses and power that comes with it. No," I repeated firmly.

"Juliet won't be able to kill you that way."

"And what do you have against feeling like you're on top of the world?" Connelly asked smugly.

"I don't care. I'm not doing it. And I like feeling human. Vampirism is just…weird. Too detailed…perfect. I got craving for blood. I didn't like it. In fact, I hated the way it made me feel. I'm not going to live like that just so I can live at all. Juliet wants to kill me? Let have me."

I stormed away and pulled my iPod from my bag and had my headphones in before anyone could say anything more. Uncle Robbie didn't move and didn't try to come after me. Connelly seemed very pissed off and I didn't blame him, but I didn't care either. So I kept going and went back to the high school to meet my friends for lunch.

Unfortunately, Connelly was already there when I got there. He was sitting at my table with my friends. He was sitting in the chair backwards again and talking to Sean like they were actually friends. I could tell very clearly that Sean didn't like him at all, but was stupid enough to do anything about it. Jamie was sitting next to Sean with his head down on the table and his hair all messed up. Jamie wasn't ever like that. Shit.

I tossed my bag on the table where my friends stuff was and ignored Connelly. I more or less passed him without any recognition whatsoever. Then I passed a seething Sean and stood over Jamie. I stroked his silky hair away from his face and pulled him up by his shoulders.

"Jamie? Oh my god, honey what happened?" I asked.

His skin was pastier than mine and he looked like a corpse. There were huge red bags under his eyes and if it were anyone else, I would have said they were stoned. His hair was a mess. His socks didn't match. His tie was crocked. There was most definitely something wrong with him.

"I don't feel very good…" He sounded about to die. His smooth voice was raspy and not very loud. He was shaky when he spoke and I thought for sure he would just drop dead or something.

"Oh, honey," I murmured.

I sat down next to him, pulling our chairs closely together. His head drooped onto my shoulder and I stroked his hair from his face and kissed his cheek. His skin was clammy.

"You were fine this morning," I muttered.

"He started feeling off in first block," Sean answered. "But he doesn't have a temp or anything so he won't go to the infirmary."

"I'm fine…" Jamie said, almost incoherently.

"You should go see one of the Profs," I said.

"It's just a cold."

Or at that's what I think he said, because the last half of his sentence was cut off as he had a major coughing fit. He doubled over, one arm over his stomach and the other covered his mouth. His entire body rocked with every cough and when he was finished, he leaned into my side and was shaking like a dog.

"Maybe the flu?" he bargained weakly.

I almost smiled at his failed joked and stood back up. I threw my bag at Connelly and gave him a stern look.

"Watch that. And don't fuck with it," I warned.

"Wouldn't dare, Mighty Anna Preston."

I growled under my breath but ignored him. He just wasn't fucking worth it.

"You coming, Sean?"

He took one look at the poor Jamie on my side and nodded. "Yeah. Can trust him here?"

Sean spat him nastily and very obviously directed at Connelly. He violently death-glared the vampire like he wanted to kill him no matter what he happened to be.

Sean looped his arm around Jamie's waist and carried the rest of his weight for me. Even though he weighed, like, nothing, I wasn't strong enough to carry him on my own because he was bigger than me. Though not by much. Jamie attempted to push us away from him, determined that he was fine, but he wasn't nearly strong enough to walk on his own, so despite his feeble protests, Sean and I carried him.

As soon as we got out of the building though, Sean just gave up and pulled Jamie up and into his very strong arms. Sean cradled him against his chest and Jamie normally would have curled up and took a cat nap. Now he flopped back, like a corpse before rigor mortis set in. It scared me. His head lolled back, but not in a good way, and his feet and arms dangled listlessly. I swore to god he was getting worse every minute. I listened to his labored breathing and wondered what the hell could be going on in my poor Jamie's battered body.

By the time we got to the infirmary, I swore to god Jamie must have been dying or something. His eyes were closed and he was still breathing like a ninety year old chain smoker with lung caner. I was worried sick just looking at him, and felt worse for Sean.

So we went into the infirmary. Where, luckily, Uncle Robbie was. So I grabbed him and dragged him to Jamie and Sean. Uncle Robbie took him into an exam room and told us to go back to lunch. And he would let us know if anything changed.

By the time Sean and I had gotten back to the dining hall after a silent walk, there wasn't much of lunch left. We weren't hungry anyway, so I just took my bag from Connelly and waited for my next class to start.

English was torture. And I slept through it for lack of anything better to do. Kast didn't seem to care and that was the way I liked it. But seminar was the worst.

I had Uncle Robbie and he wasn't there. Another prof was covering his class, one of the ones that was by no means a doctor. That meant he was gone because of one thing. He missed class for one reason. There was someone that needed his attention more than us, and in a doctor way.

That could only mean Jamie. So as soon as the bell rang, I picked up my bag and sprinted from the room. I didn't even find Sean before running to the infirmary.

I checked in the few rooms and found Jamie in the isolation room that was only ever used when someone needed to be transferred to a city hospital. I mean, it wasn't like we had anything big here. And if Jamie was honestly that bad off, he would have to be transferred.

I stuck my head into the last room, where Uncle Robbie was busy taking blood from Jamie's already pale arm. My poor friend was still unconscious and had oxygen pumped into his nose and I could hear the soft little puffs from the tubing. I watched as his blood spurted into the syringe and noticed it looked like the right color and it wasn't carbon monoxide poisoning… (One of the few diseases I could diagnose.)

"Before you ask, I don't know," Uncle Robbie said, not looking up.

"Nothing?" I whined.

"CBC came back normal. No drugs in his system, not that I expected anything from Jamie. Everything's totally normal."

"Temp?"

"Ninety-eight-point-six."

I opened my mouth to ask something else, but I was beaten to the punch.

"I've been doing this longer than you've been alive. I've run every test possible at Preston and there's nothing. Medically, he's perfectly healthy."

"That is not healthy!" I pointed to my seemingly dying friend.

"We're trying, Anna. We might have to transfer him."

I felt my face pale. Jamie wouldn't like that at all. He hated…no he loathed city doctors. To the point he was rather die than be in a big-city hospital. I didn't want anything to happen to him, but if he woke up anywhere other than Preston, he was going to freak.

"You can talk to him, you know," Uncle Robbie said. "He can probably hear you."

"I know. You taught me that when I was what, eight?"

He smiled and left. I sighed and picked up Jamie's hand. I rubbed little circles into his palm with my thumb.

"So, uh, Jamie. I guess…well, there's not really much to talk about is there? We're all worried about you but no matter what anyone else think I know you'll be fine. I mean, you're Jamie. Uh, what else? I miss Brendan, I guess. I mean, he's not gonna be here until, like, Spring Break. I'm probably gonna hang out with Sean I guess. We never have any time together anymore, so we? I don't know. Connelly maybe. Not Juliet I don't think. In case you can actually hear me, I can't say why, but she's kind of freaking me out and I don't trust her. I'm thinking about staying in Brendan's room until he comes back, ya know? Or maybe in yours, because someone has to take care of Anouk. I totally forgot about your dog. Sorry, man. I'll tell Sean to come and see you I guess… When I have more ideas for stimulating conversation, I'll come back and talk some more. Maybe I'll come do me homework? See ya later, honey."

I kissed his clammy forehead before leaving to go…I wasn't quite sure.

I didn't really want to go back to my room and sit there all night, because Juliet was there and after finding out it was her than wanted to kill me…I didn't exactly want to be alone with her. But I didn't want to be with Connelly either. I had been seeing too much of him for my own comfort. And I did tell Jamie I would take care of his dog…

So, I headed over to the guys dorm. The wind had really stopped blowing and it was totally still. Kind of creepy. Quiet too. No one was around, even though classes were barely out and we should have been out enjoying our freedom. Yet I was alone.

I tried to shake the funny feeling that followed me like a bad dream, no pun intended. I went into the lounge and passed a shit ton of guys that I didn't like at all. I went straight up to Jamie's seventh floor room. I opened to unlocked door and nearly tripped over a little, yappy dog.

Anouk looked the same as before. Tiny and a ball of fluff. White and brown, with huge ears and just as happy and Jamie-fied. I pushed her back from the door gently with my foot and stepped inside. The door closed behind me and I picked up the tiny, wriggling body in my arms. I was immediately showered in puppy kisses. And a very high-pitched sneeze.

"Awww!" I said as I sat on the floor holding the pup in my lap.

Anouk crawled all over me and licked my face until I was covered in puppy spit. I giggled like I was five and fell backwards as she climbed up my shoulders. She sat on my chest and wriggled around like she was permanently set on vibrate. Another sneeze shot into my face and she nearly fell off of me from the force of her flying snot.

"Yuck…"

I set her on the floor and got to my feet. I looked around and found that his room was essentially dedicated to this little ball of fur. Dog toys and whatnot were scattered all over the floor, and wherever they weren't, was school stuff and clothes and random shit. I found the dog food in the corner and filled the pink and purple dish paw-printed dish with kibble. Then got a bottle of water from the fridge and filled up the matching dish. The dog snarfed up the food hungrily and I took the opportunity to sit on Jamie's bed to relax.

His bed was unmade and messy, because he never ever made it. It smelled like him, sweet and lightly of cologne. I buried my face in his down pillow and was glad to have a second in his room when there wasn't a puppy all over me.

"Enter Sandman" started playing from my bag and I picked it up.

"Hey," I answered.

"Hey, sweetheart. How was school?" Brendan asked.

"Long. Got called out of class. And something happened to Jamie."

"Oh, shit. What?"

"He was feeling bad at lunch and had a coughing attack so Sean and I brought him to the infirmary and he's been there all day. Uncle Robbie can't find anything wrong with him. Everything says he's perfectly healthy…"

"He awake?"

"No. I'm really worried, Brendan…"

"Hon…I'm sure he'll be okay. Can you wait until I get back to freak out?"

I smiled. "Sure—ah!"

Anouk jumped up on my back surprisingly and I screamed.

"What happened?!" Brendan asked urgently.

"Jamie's dog. I'm in his room. Jumped up on me, that's all."

He chuckled at me. "Wow, Anna."

"Don't laugh! Meanie… When ya coming back?"

"This weekend maybe…"

I snorted into my phone and rolled onto my stomach. Anouk fell off my back and curled up next to my side, soon asleep and snoring softly. "Just in time for Spring Break."

"Oh! That reminds me. My parents want me home for break too. I'm only coming to get Jarred."

I groaned. "You're gonna be gone all break too?!'

"They said they want you to come home with me." I could hear a very clear and happy smile.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. They want to get to know you."

I laughed. "Your crazy, physco girlfriend that's seeing weird things, has panic attacks and stole your virginity?"

"They think you're great. And they don't know about the whole, ya know, virginity thing. So don't bring it up."

"That wouldn't be weird or anything. 'Hey, Kennedy's, I fucked your son in Italy!"

"Don't even joke!" he laughed. "You would do that to me!"

I shrugged. "Maybe…"

Of course, Anouk picked that exact moment to wake up and start whining annoyingly. I shooed her away impatiently and she jumped back up on the bed and pawed at my stomach, looking so teeny and cute and lovable, that I just had to do something. I groaned and got up from my comfy spot on the bed.

"What the hell?" Brendan asked.

"Ugh. I have to take Anouk outside."

"Lucky you."

I looked around Jamie's room until I found a pink, diamond studded leash and collar. I snapped the collar around Anouk's fuzzy neck. Then I clipped the leash to the collar and tugged her out into the hall gently and closed the door behind us. We had to go out the back way, through the older stairwell that nobody ever used. While I let the dog sniff around behind the dorms, among the weeds and whatnot, I continued talking to Brendan.

"So your parents seriously want me to come home with you?" I asked.

"Yeah. Course. As long it's okay with Uncle Robbie. They invited Sean and Jamie too, but they're busy."

"Aw," I said. "That sucks. But, you'll just have to settle for me."

"Meh. I won't really be settling."

I smiled and watched Anouk romp through the weeds. "So…I'll just go with you when you get Jarred?"

"Mmm-hmm. As long as you don't mind being in a car with my little brother for thirteen hours. He's really scared of flying and it's a major hassle."

I shrugged. "It'll be fine. Anouk come on!" I yelled.

I tugged on the leash and pulled the dog back inside and went up to the room again. I took of the leash and collar and tossed it aside.

"I guess…I'll see you later?" I asked.

"Mkay. I've gotta go deal with my family."

"Ooh, have fun," I mocked him.

"Psh. Yeah, sure I will…"

Brendan hung up and I flopped down on Jamie's bed. Now what could I do? I knew one thing for sure. I really wanted Red Bull and Jell-o.