Luka sat languidly in the chair across from Mr. Samuel, completely unbothered by the glare the dean shot him as he rested his long legs on his desk.
"Please get your feet off my table, young man," Mr. Samuel scolded, earning a soft chuckle from the boy. Crossing his feet on the desk instead, Luka smirked smugly.
"Long time no see, Bowers. Did you miss me?"
The older man cringed at the use of his last name, but chose to ignore the disrespectful behaviour. "Hardly."
"Too bad," Luka pouted, "I thought you and me had something special."
Mr. Samuel scoffed as the badly behaved boy winked at him. "Stop being inappropriate, Luka."
"Inappropriate?" he raised a questioning brow. "Isn't that what you were doing with that girl in here?"
"What?"
"I must say, I always thought you were a goody two shoes, Bowers. Who'd have ever thought you'd be banging your students?"
"That's not what happened!" Mr. Samuel's face turned red in embarrassment. "I wasn't doing anything sexual. She's just a kid."
"Oh really? Then what were you doing standing so close to her?"
"That's none of your business, Luka," the dean tried to end the discussion, feeling uncomfortable under Luka's curious gaze. "I didn't ask you to come here so you could meddle in my affairs."
Chuckling sardonically, the boy shook his head. "Don't tell me you were actually about to drink from the girl?"
Mr. Samuel averted his gaze, his silence already giving Luka an answer. The younger vampire burst into laughter, clapping his hands as he hunched over.
"Oh, you fucked up, Bowers. You fucked up big time!"
Irritated, Mr. Samuel slammed the desk abruptly, causing the boy's amused gaze to fall on him. Tossing a folder toward him, the dean cleared his throat.
"Let's get to the reason I called you here, Luka. It's only the first week and I've gotten three violence reports involving you."
Luka shrugged casually. "They were pissing me off."
"Let's pretend like that's reason enough to physically assault your classmates. What about your attendance? You've only been in three classes all week."
"There's no point in going. If I wanted to nap, I'd stay in my room."
The dean sighed deeply, muttering under his breath. What was he going to do with the delinquent before him?
"Luka, why do you do this?" his voice was serious, concern evident in his tone. "What do you gain from behaving like this?"
When the younger vampire yawned absentmindedly - even letting his fangs peek through - Mr. Samuel shook his head in disapproval.
"You know, this lackadaisical attitude of yours is only going to hurt you. You may think this whole 'bad boy' persona is cool, but in the end, you're just selling yourself short. You can't keep running away from responsibility."
Luka stared directly into the eyes of the dean, his black irises locked on the brown ones of the man before him, and he yawned again.
"Are you even listening to me? You have the potential to be so much more than a college delinquent. You're a smart guy, so why don't you apply yourself?"
"Because I don't want to."
"Why? Is it because you're still living in the past? Because you can't move on? You know, I felt bad for you before but at this point you need to let it go. It's been years! Grow up, Luka! You're not the only person going through issues so get over it."
Luka slowly took his legs off the desk, his jaw clenching as he shot the dean a glare. "I'm not in the mood to sit through another fucking lecture, Bowers."
"This isn't another lecture, Haydes. I'm actually worried about you."
"Don't be," Luka spat, standing up to leave. "I can take care of my own shit"
Shooting the dean one last glare, he turned to leave. He was about to open the door when Mr. Samuel spoke.
"You're going to be expelled."
Luka froze in his tracks, hand hovering over the door handle. Turning round, he scowled at Mr. Samuel.
"You're bluffing."
"I'm not kidding, Luka. I already sent a letter to the Council. They are going to expel you."
"You fucking piece of shit!"
Luka couldn't hide his anger as he cursed at Mr. Samuel. How could he expel him when he knew what the consequences for expulsion were?
"I'm not done yet, Luka. If you want to stay in Henderickson, you're going to have to do as I say. The Council values my opinion and will listen to me, so I can stop the expulsion."
Narrowing his eyes at the dean, Luka crossed his arms. He knew exactly what Mr. Samuel would make him do and the thought of it made him sick. He was probably going to make him attend all his classes and pass them with high grades.
Expulsion seemed more and more attractive as he considered the deal.
Sighing in defeat, Luka shot daggers at the dean. "You're going to turn me into a fucking nerd, aren't you?"
"On the contrary, no," Mr. Samuel grinned smugly. "I am going to turn you into a better version of yourself though. All you have to do is obey what I say and the expulsion disappears. Do we have a deal?"
The way Mr. Samuel smiled irked Luka, who wanted nothing more than to slap the grin off his face. However, he knew he was cornered and didn't have much of a choice.
It was either being Mr. Samuel's pawn or being expelled.
The latter option meant being at the mercy of the Supreme Assembly, a fate no vampire wanted. Begrudgingly he made a choice.
"Deal."
-
Sunday mornings were usually quiet on campus, as most students used it as a chance to sleep in. Keisha however, was wide awake, frantically pacing about her room.
The events of the previous day were still fresh in her memory, not letting her get a wink of sleep.
Her mind wandered back to Mr. Samuel's terrifying transformation, chills running down her spine at the memory. The image of his haunting golden eyes and deathly pale skin were still fresh in Keisha's mind, and she wondered what kind of man he was to be able to change so drastically in mere seconds.
She'd been so terrified last night that she locked the doors and windows, afraid that Mr. Samuel might show up to finish her off. Even worse, she was all alone in her dorm room as Steph was yet to return from her boyfriend's place.
Keisha wondered if Steph knew anything about Mr. Samuel's scary behaviour. She doubted it, as Steph would've definitely told her about it.
Who then could she ask about the strange incident?
The sound of a notification from her laptop startled her, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Feeling silly, she walked over to her laptop and checked what it could be. It was an email and Keisha's heart nearly stopped when she saw who it was from.
It was from Mr. Samuel.
Terrified, she backed away from the laptop, rushing to make sure her door was locked. She didn't want him entering her room while she was distracted. After spending a few minutes boarding up the door, Keisha returned to her desk.
Looking at the laptop, she wondered why Mr. Samuel was emailing her. Could he be trying to threaten her? Or worse still, what if he was a psychotic murderer who wanted to drive her crazy before killing her?
Keisha shook her head at that thought, not wanting to scare herself any further.
Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she opened the email. She held her breath as she read through it.
'Hello Keisha,
How are you doing? I couldn't get to tell you the class I assigned for your club earlier because you left in such a hurry. It's Class 36A in the Science Block, not too far from the library. It's an old class that hasn't really been used in a while so feel free to clear it out and use it as you see fit.
Good luck on founding your club. I hope you make plenty of friends.
Mr. Samuel.'
Confused, Keisha read through the email again. Why was he acting like nothing ever happened? Wasn't he going to address the creepy situation?
Keisha felt tempted to write a response demanding an explanation but decided against it. What exactly was she going to say? She wasn't in a position to force an answer out of him. For all she knew he could kill her if she crossed him so she'd rather not push her luck.
Glancing at the email, she couldn't help but feel disappointed. She was expecting something more threatening and terrifying, yet here he was wishing her good luck. It almost made her feel bad for thinking so lowly of him.
Perhaps she was overreacting?
Thinking back to the previous day's incident, she wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her. It didn't make any logical sense that Mr. Samuel could transform like that in the blink of an eye. What if she was just seeing things?
She remembered reading once in an article online that people often hallucinate to cope with uncomfortable situations. Was she hallucinating because she felt embarrassed of hugging Mr. Samuel?
Keisha cringed at that, remembering how she threw herself at her dean. He probably thinks she is one of those loose girls who chases after older guys.
Facepalming, Keisha felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. What was she thinking hugging a staff like that? It was so inappropriate of her and it could get him in trouble.
A gasp of realization left her lips as she was instantly filled with regret. She didn't want to cause any problems for Mr. Samuel after he'd been so nice to her.
Why did she have to hug him? If only he hadn't smiled at her with his big doe eyes, she wouldn't have done it. If he didn't laugh and joke with her, perhaps she'd never have made such a silly mistake.
Yes, it was all his fault for being such a cute, friendly man.
Realizing she just called her dean cute, a wave of butterflies fluttered in Keisha's belly.
Butterflies? Oh no, Keisha thought, horrified.
Mr. Samuel was a school administrator; she couldn't have a crush on him!
Shaking her head in a bid to calm down, she looked back on the email he sent and decided to reread it to test herself. To her utter horror, another wave of butterflies erupted in her tummy and she let out a frustrated groan.
It was official; she had a crush on Mr. Samuel.