Vampire's Holliday

Vampire’s Holliday

S.K. Eyre

Published by S.K. Eyre / SJPSPWPJPJ at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 S.K. Eyre / SJPSPWPJPJ

Cover Art Copyright 2011 Morg / S.K. Eyre

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this story are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

To view all available titles by this author please go to:

www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SKEyre

For-

My mother who is proof angels do live on earth not just in heaven.

My sister for giving me a love of reading and for just being, well you.

My husband who without, nothing would be possible.

Morgan Holliday, Christian Gage, Katy Taylor, and Jeremy Michael who inspired me each day to be better, wiser, and cooler than I was yesterday.

And lastly Granny and Grandma for teaching us all not only how to be strong but to love

Some liberty was taken with geographical landmarks – okay only one, there is not a movie theater in Mountain View. Yes, there is a drive-in but it didn’t work for the scene.

Chapter 1 – I love Drama…Class

I rushed through the door trying to beat everyone else to class. If I hurried I’d be able to claim one of the more comfortable couches for my best friend and myself. Yes, I’m sure most normal high schools had desks in all their classrooms, but my school was definitely not normal and it wasn’t just that a portion of the student body was secretly vampires. In drama class, instead of desks we enjoyed bean bags, couches and love seats - props left over from our various plays.

Relieved to be the first person in the room, I dropped my book bag in front of the overstuffed cream couch. Just as I flopped down, my best friend Katy fluttered into the room. She was over excited and in full animation.

Oh my GOD he is totally hot! Her fingers ran through her shoulder length auburn hair. Please. Please tell me my hair looks good. How embarrassing would it be for me to look horrible right now? Turning her attention to me she asked, Have you seen the new Hunka Bunka?

No. But Jaime told me all about him when I got here. I’d unfortunately had appointments that morning and had missed all but the last two classes of the day. I take it he really is THAT hot? If Katy was using the term Hunka Bunka, the new kid had to have some serious hot factor. Hunka Bunka was the shortened form of the highest hot factor we gave: Hunka Bunka Burnin Love. (You have to put an Elvis drawl on the burnin part)

Serious hotness going on around here, Jaime added as she claimed a bean bag. I don’t remember where he said he was from, but if he is average, I so want to move there.

Slowly the rest of the class shuffled in and settled down in their own spots. Katy or I usually made it in before anyone else and didn’t have to share our couch with anyone. We weren’t nerds or dorks or anything, not that there is anything wrong with nerds or dorks, but we weren’t the queens of popularity either. I liked my arrangement with popularity: cute boys to date but none of the peer pressure that came along with being one of the cool kids. Unfortunately for me, my family tree sort of made me popular sometimes, even if I didn’t want to be. Staying in the middle wasn’t always so easy.

When class began I felt the knot in my stomach tighten. We were going to be assigned our duet partners and scenes for our big semester grade. I hated being the center of attention. Honestly, I preferred working back stage, but Mrs. Davis, my drama teacher, was bent on pulling me out of my shell. Last semester we’d been assigned year one drama students to coach. I’d been given Mark, the captain of our football team. He was a senior, who also happened to be the hottest guy in the whole school. Thankfully, we weren’t up to the kissing scenes yet. I probably would have died right then at the beginning of my junior year. Instead we’d been given a very romantic scene, which I blame for my lame relationship with said jock. I was still recovering from a very nasty, very public, break up with him.

Since the class is an odd number, we have two choices: someone could volunteer for a monologue or we could have a trio instead of a duet. Mrs. Davis began class.

Lucky break for me. My hand shot into the air. I mean how could a monologue backfire?

I’d be happy to do a monologue.

Would anyone else like a chance? When no one else volunteered, again luck was with me. Mrs. Davis continued, Alright then, Holliday.

That’s me, Holliday St. John.

When I call your names, please come up to the front and get your scene. Holliday, we’ll look for a monologue after I’m done. Mrs. Davis then began calling the names for duet partners. Katy was paired up with Monica, a girl that none of us particularly liked, and Jaime was assigned to Logan, a total geek, but a great actor. She was assured an A with him.

After everyone had received their assignments, the class broke off into their groups to begin. I accompanied Mrs. Davis to her desk and we began shuffling through her files of school-approved monologues. She had funnier and better monologues, but unfortunately not all of them were fit to perform in front of a group of teenagers. We would probably be okay with them, but our parents wouldn’t be.

I was so engrossed in the script I was reading that I didn’t notice when the classroom door opened and someone came in. I was oblivious to his presence until he was standing directly in front of Mrs. Davis’ desk, his scent tickling my nose. His voice was deep, husky and very scrumptious.

Hello. My name is Ryan. I’m new.

Startled, I knocked an entire stack of papers right over the side of the desk, scattering them on the floor. Embarrassed, I looked up automatically, and I swear my heart literally stopped beating in my chest. Standing in front of Mrs. Davis’ desk had to be the new Hunka Bunka Burnin Love (don’t forget the Elvis drawl); Sir Hottie McHottie himself, the cutest, sexiest, most breath-taking vampire I’d ever had the fortune to lay eyes on. Coming from a Familiar, raised in a family of vampires, that was saying a lot.

He was tall, even for a vampire, six foot 6 inches, with dark brown hair cut very short. His eyes were an intense blue. The blue was like a spring day, calm and serene. Not perfect, but perfectly not perfect. His face gave the impression of masculinity while retaining the look of youth. Lean muscles were visible even under his tight t-shirt. In other words, he was a lot more than nice looking.

Starting to beat again, my heart hit overdrive. My face grew hot and I knew it had to be ten different shades of red. So, I did the only thing I could think to do. I slide to the floor and spent an exceedingly long time gathering the papers I’d dropped.

Have you taken drama classes before? Mrs. Davis, who could actually breathe in his presence, inquired.

Yes, I took it at my old school. If he didn’t stop talking I’d never be able to stop hiding on the floor.

We were just beginning preparations for duets this afternoon. Mrs. Davis gave one of her happy little claps. Holliday isn’t this wonderful! With Ryan joining the class he can be your duet partner.

I looked up and met his eyes - mistake number one, causing my heart to take off again. Oh great, just my luck to be the partnerless one and stuck with the Cutie Batutie, Sir Hottie from Hotness Land.

Ryan this is Holliday. She’ll be your duet partner. Just drop your stuff off and get settled in. Do you mind giving him the tour and introducing him to everyone? I’ll need to find a duet for the two of you. She was way too happy about that last bit in my opinion.

I’d taken as much time as I could gathering the scripts without openly looking like I was avoiding him, so I stood up. Hi, I said a little breathless. Stupid hormones.

Hi. He smiled at me. Ohmygod. I was going to faint.

Hi. I said yet again. Hi? Again? What was I thinking? Seriously, did I want him to think I was a complete idiot? I’m sure he was beginning to question exactly why I hadn’t had a partner. I could just hear his thoughts thanks to my over active imagination, Gee she is sure stupid I wonder if I can get a different partner? It didn’t help that my imagination captured that sultry voice of his exactly, causing my breath to stop halfway into my lungs.

Why don’t you show him where he can put his stuff down? Mrs. Davis, oh thank you what a wonderful woman you are, chimed in.

Looking around the room, trying to avoid looking directly at him, I noticed Katy staring. She had craned her neck and was twisted in a very unnatural looking position. Concerned that she might snap her neck trying to ogle him, I decided my first move.

Want to do the introductions first? I tried to smile at him, while still not looking directly at him. My face didn’t feel like it moved correctly, I was positive it had come off looking more like a lopsided sneer. Mistake number 2: I looked into his face, frantic. Then his smile widened. Whoa! What a smile he had. ‘Smile’ just doesn’t explain it correctly. It was more like a shining beacon from heaven that cut straight to my heart.

Um. I stuttered. What was I doing? His smile had wiped all coherent thought from my mind. Introduction! I led the way to the front of the class, and he followed. I could feel him behind me.

Self consciously I wondered if he was looking at my butt. Was I wiggling it enough? I’d previously been told my butt looking smashing when I walked. Was I wiggling it too much? Trying to will my butt to sashay without looking like I was trying to sashay, was extremely difficult. Once you thought about it, it was hard not to consciously interfere with your body’s natural movement. I just hoped that my butt wasn’t pinging to and fro. How unattractive would that be?

I didn’t have to get anyone’s attention because all eyes were already focused on us as we stood in the front of the room. The girls needed bibs to catch all their drool and the guys were defiantly sizing up their new competition. To be fair, Mountain View, Arkansas didn’t get many new kids that moved there. Tourists traveling with their families every now and again, but the last new kid had been Katy two years before. Even though I knew it was a mistake, I took a deep breath and risked a quick glance at him. Mistake number 3. Nervous tension rolled off of him. In that moment I felt a little sorry for him. I’d been the new kid several times before we’d moved to Mountain View. Introducing yourself to a class always made me very uncomfortable.

Acting without thinking I addressed the class, Class this is Ryan, a new student. Ryan this is the class. Everyone be nice and please. Don’t scare him. Looking pointedly at my best friend I continued. No one got a kissing scene, so no asking him to help you practice those.

I hoped somehow I’d managed to come off cute and funny with that last bit. Or perhaps I came off a bit psycho. Silently I began praying in my head Please don’t let him think I’m a dork!

I led the way back to the couch where my belongings sat. Since the rest of the class had split off into their tiny groups, it was just me and the stud muffin, alone. I ran my fingers nervously through my long blonde hair, remembering Katy’s words from earlier. Then I remembered what I was wearing.

I’d been running late that morning, which was par for the course, but I’d been running late even for my late. I’d had no time to pretty myself up and as a consequence had thrown on a pair of jeans, one of my older brother’s t-shirts and my hiking boots. Well at least the shirt had cool tribals on it. Could I have screamed ‘tom boy’ a little more? No, I doubted it.

I flopped ever so gracefully, like a cow, onto the couch. Have a seat. I tried, unsuccessfully, to sound nonchalant.

Um. No desks? Ryan eyed the room.

The school doesn’t have enough room to store our props, so we improvise and use them instead of desks in here.

Cool. He glided down onto the couch next to me. How was it that he was a foot taller than me, yet he didn’t flop like a farm animal on the furniture? Thanks for the intro by the way. I was worried you were going to make me say something personal about myself.

A topic I could hold a conversation about, yeah! Well, as long as I didn’t look at him.

Nah. I’ve been the new kid plenty of times and I hate it when teachers make you do that. Then a thought occurred to me: what if he’d wanted to talk about himself? He wasn’t necessarily like me. Unless you wanted to? I said.

No, it really sucks when they make you do that. I’m never exactly sure what to say. Deepening his voice he went on, My name is Ryan, I like long walks on the beach and love to sing ballads of love to my girlfriends. I couldn’t help but note the plural was used. Not girlfriend but girlfriends. Well, Mr. Hottie apparently knew he was hot. I hated guys like that.

Finding a flaw made talking to him a little easier. My turn offs included girls drooling over me half the female class members were staring openly in our direction and bad kissers.

We both chuckled a little.

So you were doing a monologue? Clearly he was still concerned with my capabilities as his partner.

The class size was uneven so I volunteered. After last semester’s debacle, I felt it was safer.

Debacle?

Just wonderful, my big mouth couldn’t stay shut. I had two options: tell him the truth or ignore it and hope he didn’t think my acting had been the debacle. I went with the truth.

Last semester she made me do this romantic scene with my ex-boyfriend. My ex-boyfriend I sort of, kind of missed and was slowly getting over my infatuation with, even though he was a jerk.

Ouch. Was he an ex before or after? Before might be a bit more than a debacle. He looked genuinely interested.

Yeah that would have totally sucked. He sort of became boyfriend during and earned his ex status, let’s see it’s Wednesday so, exactly 3 days ago.

Three? So you are counting? Could I have made myself look more like the stalker ex-girlfriend? I was either going to have to shut up or figure out how to talk to him without rambling.

So, obviously I said the worst thing I could have. I just know how many days I’ve been in detention. I rolled my eyes. My voice was fake over cheerful and I clapped my hands quietly together. I have my final one after school.

The breakup got you detention? Must have been interesting. Clearly he was wondering where my straight jacket was and why I was allowed to be in class with normal kids.

Not really. He forgot that having two girlfriends isn’t generally socially acceptable. One thing led to another at lunch Monday and I ended up in detention. My stepmother thought I was completely justified and tried to argue my case. At least she got it down to three days. Originally I had two weeks.

Well your parents must be pretty cool then.

Nah. Just parents. I already knew I had the coolest parents in the world. I found it rude to brag. The truth was my stepmother was so proud that I hadn’t punched him, she’d taken me shopping that day after detention. My dad, on the other hand, seemed secretly upset that I had not hit him.

Ryan, could you come here for a moment? I have a few questions for you about your experience. Mrs. Davis called from her desk.

I’d never really been into guy’s butts before. They weren’t something my eyes tended to check out. Yet, I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off his as he walked away from me. Sitting alone, I found myself mentally re-examining his physical attributes. Admittedly, somewhere in that time there may have been a small fantasy in which he swept me off my feet and we rode off into the sunset. You may now shake your head disapprovingly at me and laugh.

I was so engrossed in my mental fantasies that I barely noticed when he returned. A sly smile crept onto his face. So, would you say you’re a good kisser or a bad kisser?

I was completely struck silent by the question. Was that a pick up line? Yes, he’d officially taken over the title of the hottest guy in school, but had he never heard of romancing a girl? Was he so accustomed to girls falling all over themselves for him that he