After our fiasco, Scott and I, unsurprisingly, became best friends. He also brought me into the world of anime (best thing that happened to me). He turned out to be the class comedian with an unbelievable amount of humor, and an awesome guy to hang out with. We had many adventures together, both were we got into trouble and when we got commended by the teachers. Basically, we became inseparable.
As time went on, I became smarter and stronger quickly, and by year 8 I had topped the entire class. Even some of my teachers who were wary of me at first acknowledged my significant growth and improvement. Most of my classmates also began warming up to me, and I made lots of friends. Except for Todd and some other guys who were jealous of my abilities. By year 10, I had become the most popular student in Crescent College. Nobody was smarter than me and stronger than I was. In all our physique tests, I defeated every single person in our class that year. I even won a fight with Henry Shackleford, the ace of year 14. My stats were smashing records like they were nothing as I recorded the most victories in duels, dumbbells pushed, fastest running time, longest throwing distance in javelin and some other awesome achievements. In all my tests, my score never dropped below 95% and I had an average of 96.73%, the highest so far which shattered the 91.58% record set by Pierce Doug, a former student in 1994. Everybody was astonished by my intelligence and strength which got me voted overall best student from year11 till my current year 14 consecutively. Some students who were envious of my feats (and charm) wrote to the school board to test me for doping actions, but that was completely absurd and wasn't even considered.
Apart from my personal progress, a lot of changes occurred in C.C. after my year 5. Sadly, Mr. Frank was transferred and we got a younger principal, Ms. Sally Judge who's a strict disciplinarian and almost never smiles. Also, she doesn't' let anyone into her office, so if you had an appointment with her, you either met her outside the building or in the school auditorium. I don't really like her but then again she's not a bad principal.
Our college also upgraded our dorms in year 12. Now all our rooms have Wi-Fi and are under 24 hours surveillance from the CCTV cameras installed in each of them. The coffee shop introduced seven new flavors in one year (year 10). As it turns out Ms. Sally is a heavy coffee drinker and so she pushed for new flavors. Now there are about nine different coffee flavors and each of them taste divine!
The last major change we got was the installing of E-boards in our classrooms. Our E-boards can connect to Wi-Fi and browse, play videos and short clips and the morning assembly routine on it.
Those were the major changes that happened over the years as time progressed. Presently, I'm a year 14 student with hopes of becoming a continental agent just like Agent Krischov and DeMontera, and I'm working hard to make it a reality. And now the story begins (finally!), the story of how I took the long journey of self-discovery (what an ordeal that was!), uncovered the dark secrets of our existence, and found myself in the middle of the age old conflict between vampires and wizards. It was late July when it all began and everybody had one thing on their minds…
***************
I woke up from sleep feeling too tired to open my eyes. The alarm clock I set yesterday night to ring by 8:00am had given up on me a long time ago.
"Get up man," I told myself sitting up with much effort. The time was 9:30am. Why the heck didn't I even… wait… 9:30!!
The general assembly for today was by 10am! And I haven't even showered, or dressed or…
***************
Before I continue, let me explain what's going on here (apart from my panic attack of course). You see, once in every decade, all the vampire colleges in North America organize a sort of competition we call the Continental Vampire Challenge. All vampire colleges in North America numbering 376 take part in this competition. Basically it's a contest to select the top college in North America. The last time it took place, I was just seven and as you already know, I had no idea I was even a vampire. The competition is split into both senior and junior categories, so every vampire gets to take part in the competition twice in their lifetime at most.
The way it works is kind of complex. First of all, a test is sent to all 376 colleges across the continent for the qualification stage. The top scoring 100 schools get selected while the other 276 are eliminated and have to wait till the next decade. The college that scores the highest average on the test (which is seriously difficult) is chosen to host the contest. So if the college is the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, Jamaica etc that's where the event takes place. The colleges will then proceed to battle it out mentally and physically after three weeks of preparations.
For the mental aspect, representatives from all 100 colleges will answer complicated questions about general knowledge. There is no particular aspect where questions are centered on, so you could expect a random question like "How many lakes are in the Vatican City?" The representatives will also answer 20 anagrams which are at least 10 letters long. It's a really tough aspect of the competition but not nearly as challenging as the physical aspect.
After calculating the scores from the mental aspect, the top 32 schools will qualify to participate in the tournament of strength while the rest are seeded out. The 32 schools will choose five of their best students to compete against other schools in a series of physique tests. It could be an endurance test, 600m race, weight lifting and so on. The last two schools standing will face off in a 15 minute duel with no weapons and only one student from each school is allowed to participate in the finals.
Like I said earlier, the entire competition is done at both junior and senior levels. Juniors are from year 4 to year 10, while seniors are from year 11 to year 18. Our juniors were pretty good when they participated in their competition two months ago. After qualifying for a spot in the 100 school team slot, they managed to qualify (with superb effort) into the round of 16 but didn't go any further.
This year for the senior level, Frostville College in Toronto, Canada was the college that got placed in first position after scoring an outstanding 98% average on the qualification test. We finished in 64th with 85% as our score. The competition was going to hold in Toronto and we were going to participate, so Ms. Sally called for a general assembly two weeks ago to officially choose the seven representatives for our school. That was today and unfortunately, the day I chose to oversleep.
***************
After 10 minutes of 'flash' preparations, I rushed out of my room with my hair still wet, uniform rumpled and of course, shoelaces untied. Hurrying down the hallway, I tried calling Scott who after the second ring answered.
"Yo what's up?"
"Has it started yet?"
"Nah. Place is pretty crowded though. Where are you?"
"I'm coming, I overslept".
"Of course you did".
"Is Thomas singing? I can hear his voice".
"Yeah he is".
"Tell him I said his voice sucks".
"Ha! Already did that man."
"See you in five".
***************
When I got to the auditorium, Ms. Sally was about three minutes into her speech. Trying to act inconspicuously, I navigated my way to the seats at the far right of the hall where I knew Scott would be. Scott kept an empty seat for me and hushed me as I was about to tell him thanks.
"Listen," he said quietly, pointing towards Ms. Sally
"…and so students," Ms. Sally said standing on the auditorium podium speaking into the microphone she held in her hand. "The senior level of the Continental Vampire Challenge begins next week, but I'm sure you all are fully aware of that already. The qualification tests were quite challenging, but we managed to scale through and book a spot in the next stage of the competition."
The hall was filed instantly with applauses and whistles as she announced our feat. Ms. Sally smiled and paused before continuing, "However, it is necessary for us to choose seven students who will represent our school at the competition. The senior category of the competition is from year 11 to year 18. For this year however, we've chosen four from year 14, two from year 15 and one from year 18. They've done exceptionally well and have displayed intellectual brilliance over the years. They will be shouldering the responsibility of taking our name to greater heights." She paused to take out a small note from her left pocket.
"Does she really have to do this?" I asked Scott nervously.
"Don't get so worked up bro. You're popular already. It's really no big deal,'' Scott replied.
"But I'm not so good with crowds," I pointed out.
"Either way, you can't avoid what's about to happen,'' Scott said turning his attention to Ms. Sally.
"From year 18," she began slowly, "Henry Shackleford!"
Henry Shackleford, the school's council president stood up from the year 18 row seats and walked towards the podium taking two stairs at a time and stood by Ms. Sally smiling and waving his hands at the crowd. He was a good choice, I thought, because he was the only person I've ever lost to when we dueled during our rematch. He wasn't too smart, but he was incredibly good in stamina stats and was a brilliant fighter. He also seemed to be born with natural leadership and charm which saw him become student council president when he was a year 16 student. The crowd of students hollered loudly while chanting his name until it gradually subsided.
"From year 15, we have…" she said pausing dramatically. "Mackenzie Hill and Marcus Hill!" The crowd applauded loudly for the twins who were notoriously known for their pranks, but had freakishly good memories. Mackenzie, the more outspoken between them, could memorize anything she heard and repeat it word for word. Marcus on the other hand could memorize anything he saw and recall every single detail no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. As a result, they had no trouble scoring 100% on most tests they took. In fact, there was a time when teachers had to give them spontaneous tests so that they wouldn't have any chance to prepare. However, they both scored 91% to the amazement of everybody. Even though they weren't very strong physically, they were no doubt, our secret weapon to acing the mental part of the competition. During our three weeks preparation, Mackenzie had teachers read to her different facts, events and everyday phenomena's so that the first phase of the test would be less challenging. Marcus on the other hand spent his time memorizing over 100,000 different anagrams and how to arrange them. Together, the both of them were unstoppable and if we had any chance of winning the competition, it would be staked on how they performed.
"Alright," Ms. Sally said after they joined her and Henry on the podium. "Lastly, from year 14. The four of them have been very impressive, so much so that it's the first time we've had four representatives from a single class. It's no wonder why they've been chosen. Scott Travers, Zoë Young, Laura Jenning and Darmian!"
I stood up nervously and walked to the podium trying not to trip from the loud applauses and cheers which echoed around the hall. Scott wore his usual wide grin and didn't look nervous at all. Zoë looked pretty confident too and Laura, who obviously was still ecstatic about beating Todd for the last slot in an intense and narrow competition ,was pretty excited.
"Crescent College, I present to you your seven contestants for this decade's edition of the Continental Vampire Challenge," she said animatedly as the ovation got louder. "Tomorrow they will be travelling to Toronto for the contest, so give them your support and cheer them on".
Even though the loudness of the crowd's applause was near deafening, my head was filled only with uneasiness and anxiety for the future.
***************
We spent the entire day going over tactics and getting set for the next day. I packed almost all my clothes into my luggage even though we would only be in Canada for a week. We also analyzed the aces of our competitors from the rep info guidebook sent to all the participating schools later that day, which contained the stats and past performances of all the representatives for the colleges in the competition. I received lots of wishes for good luck from other students who said they'd be rooting for us. At the end of it all, I was left tired and worn out but couldn't get any proper rest that night because of the excited and anxious feeling I had inside me.
The next morning, I was up before 9 am, prepared myself briskly and wore my complete uniform which I had dry cleaned at the laundry the day before. Looking at myself in the mirror while adjusting my tie, I was looking crisp and stylish (if I do say so myself). I was about to wear my socks when I heard a knock at my door.
"Come in," I said getting down on my left knee.
"Whoa," Scott and Zoë said entering my room.
Wait… Zoë is in my room?!
"Yo Darmian, looking good," Scot said clicking his tongue.
"Never thought I'd see the day you'd finally dress properly," Zoë said nearly making me blush like an idiot.
"Hey! I was dressed like this back in year 5," I pointed out.
"Mhm, and what happened after that?" she asked.
"Well," I said smiling at Scott. "Scott happened''.
He let out a long loud laugh which I joined him in as Zoë rolled her eyes and joined in.
"You look good too," I said to Zoë who sat down on the chair at my reading table while Scott with his uniform and all, plopped onto my bed.
"Thanks. I actually try to look normal."
"So, what brings you two here? I'm sure it's not to help me pack, right?"
"You wish," Scott nearly shouted. "Mr. Alphonso told us to fetch you since you're always late."
"True," Zoë chipped in.
"Ouch," I said wearing my Nike trainers. "As you can see, I'm up early this time, hah! And besides, it's not my fault I wake up late sometimes. You guys stress me out a lot".
"Right," Zoë said slowly. "Anyways, hurry up, our flight is by 11:30am".
"But it's only 9:00 am, so why the rush. It doesn't seem like we're behind schedule," I asked.
"Well it's obvious someone wasn't listening to Ms. Flores yesterday," she said accusingly.
"No comment".
She sighed before explaining, "The closest airport from here is Ashland airport, remember?"
"Oh yeah, that's true. But why don't we just go to Toronto straight from there?"
"Ashland airport doesn't have any flights going to Canada. We have to take a flight from there to Portland International Jetport. We'll get one from there to Toronto," Zoë said opening my door. "Make sure you take essential items only, and hurry up". She left the room walking quickly but quietly down the hall while I tied my shoelaces.
"Well," Scott said grinning. "That was something huh".
"Yeah," I let out glad to finally have her out of my room.
"I'm clocking out," Scott announced heading out.
I closed the door after him and gathered my luggage. I only took two pair of shoes, six T-shirts, five trousers including my sweatpants and joggers with lots of underwear. I had no idea what "essential items'' were but I took everything I felt I needed to go with.
Taking one last look at my room, I felt sad to be saying goodbye to it… even I it was only for a week.
***************
At the multi-purpose hall, I joined up with the other representatives who were waiting for our chaperones; Mr. Sebastian and Ms. Flores. From their faces I could tell they were just as nervous as I was even though some like Zoë covered it up but not entirely. Unsurprisingly, I was the last to arrive but I wasn't late. It was 9:55am.
Ms. Flores came after about six minutes later in a beautiful violet dress, apologizing for being late. Miss Flores was arguably the most beautiful female teacher in our school. There was hardly any guy—teacher or not—who didn't get racing heartbeats whenever she stood close to you, talked to you or walked past you. She had this amazing aura which completely conquers men and dominates them, turning them into fools for her. Last year, a guy she was dating (who wasn't a vampire) bought her a $75,000 Hublot wristwatch and a $53,000 set of earrings, made out of 24 carats of pure gold for her birthday. Another guy—this time a continental agent—paid for 35 custom made dresses, gowns and night wears from Gucci, Armani and Louis Vuiton. Who knows how much those would've cost.
"All right people, roll call," she said yawning exaggeratedly. "Laura Jenning".
"Here".
"Zoë Young".
"Present".
"Mackenzie Hill".
"Present".
"Darmian".
"Here".
"Henry Powell'.
"Present"
"Scott Travers".
Scott stood silently humming to himself while we looked at him.
"Scott Travers?" Ms Flores called out louder this time, looking at Scott whose face was still blank.
"It's Scott Tra—vers as in T-r-a-v-e-r-s. Emphasis on the 'a'.
"Yes I know that Scott, we all do," she replied.
"No, you're pronouncing it as T-r-i-v-e-r-s," he said as a matter-of-fact.
"Okay, Mr. Travers, did I get it this time?" Ms. Flores asked cheekily.
"Yes…present".
"Alright then, we're complete," she announced.
"Like we didn't know that already," Scott whispered to me.
"You all should know the rules by now, right?" she asked while we stared at her like she was speaking French. After sighing with much effort she said, "Okay, I'll tell you when we get there, but I have a feeling they'll be announced later. For now, my only rule is this; nothing is to be done without my permission. Unless it's something kinda obvious like brushing your teeth, 'cause I have a feeling that's what you're about to ask Scott."
Scott dropped his hand in disappointment.
"If you're gonna do anything important, I have to permit it first. Simple enough right?" she asked before we mumbled yes. "Alright, let's go".
"Where is Mr. Sebastian by the way?" Henry asked.
"Yeah, I haven't seen him since. Isn't he coming too?" Zoë asked also.
"He's busy," Ms. Flores simply answered. "He'll join up later, but for now, let's focus on catching our flight"
In no time, we were at the school entrance fully saddled up with our stuff. While Ms. Flores went to the blood identity scan, we waved at some of the security guards in their quarters who were cheering us as we left.
The walk from the forest to the road path was quick and largely uneventful. However, we were surprised to see two gleaming white Cadillacs parked at the road. In both cars, seated in the driver's seat were chauffeurs dressed in black and wearing dark shades. They said nothing even after we greeted them, but gave us a brisk nod. The drive to the airport was smooth and we joked about how good it felt to be treated like we were rich even though we were probably dirt poor.
At Ashland airport, we nearly missed our flight but we managed to check in and clear our luggage just as our fight number was called, and as planned, we took a flight straight to Toronto after we dropped off at Portland International Jetport.
Throughout the entire flight, I was pretty tense thinking about how the entire competition would turn out to be. Scott however was preoccupied binging on Netflix anime series while Henry and Marcus kept on trying unsuccessfully to flirt with the cute air hostess and get her number during the two hour flight. It was really pathetic and sad to watch.
By 1:35pm, we had touched down at the Toronto International Airport which was full of people bustling with activity. After we retrieved our luggage and exchanged our money to Canadian dollars, we stepped outside into the fresh and exciting scene of Toronto. It was astounding viewing the high-rise buildings and skyscrapers from where we stood. Everybody was filled with amazement and wonder as we breathed in the salty tang of the air and took in the amazing view. Ms. Flores yawn however jolted us out of our astonishment.
"Before we get to the hotel, we need to register ourselves in Frostville," she said turning up the collars of her jacket.
"That's great and all," Scott began, "But how exactly do we get there?"
"Don't worry, our escort should be arriving soon," she answered checking her phone.
"Hold up, did you say escort?!" I asked incredulously.
As if to answer my doubts, an elegant black limo pulled up and stopped just in front of where we stood. While we stared dumbfoundedly, Ms. Flores simply opened the passenger's seat and got in. A moment later the black tinted glass slid down and she said lazily," Are you guys coming or am I gonna have to wait for three years before you make up your minds?"
Breathlessly, we all got in and enjoyed the ride all the way to Frostville which took about ten minutes. When the limo slowly came to a halt, we took it as our cue to leave, but on getting down, we realized that we were lost. Very, very lost… or so it seemed.
The first thing I noticed was the huge mansion facing us. It was an ultra-modern mansion three stories tall and had the most fantastic exterior design I've ever seen. That was when I took a proper survey of my surrounding and realized that all the other houses in the street where we stood were all gigantic and posh in appearance. The street was also awfully quiet and clean.
"Welcome to Nova's Estate guys," Ms. Flores said cracking the ice. "The home of Frostville College".
"You mean Frostville College is here in Nova's Estate?! This is Nova's Estate?!" Mackenzie asked skeptically.
"That's right," she answered calmly.
"I've never heard of Nova's Estate before," Zoë said innocently.
"It's not very popular. It's more like a secret estate where some of the bigwigs in the world's business markets get to relax and lay low from the media and their work. The publicity about the estate is very low and most people don't know it even exists…like you guys a moment ago. It's the perfect place to site a college," Ms. Flores explained. "How did you even know about it Mackenzie?"
"My dad told me about it while he worked as a quality control survey agent a few years ago," she answered.
"You see that red mansion a few blocks away from that golden fence?" Ms. Flores said pointing at one of the houses not too far from where we stood. "That's where Jeff Bezos spends his summer once in a while".
"Wow," we said staring at the magnificent building.
While we feasted our eyes on the houses and gardens around the estate, Ms. Flores walked over to the gates of the mansion we saw first and keyed a code into a number pad which unlocked the gate with an electrical buzz. At the same time, she bit her thumb and planted it firmly at the side of the wrought-iron fence which surrounded the spacious mansion yard. When she was done with the procedure, Ms. Flores led us up the small stairs leading to the front door and opened it gently. Instead of revealing the interior room of the house, we entered a room which was completely dark and empty. Although I could see just as clearly in the dark as in the day, I couldn't see anything, except for a middle aged man who stood a few feet away from the door.
"Good afternoon students," he said politely while we responded nervously. "Ah Ms. Flores! How nice to see you again".
"Mr. Ashleigh, you look even better than when we last saw each other," Ms. Flores said shutting the door.
"Thank you. I'm sure your students must be quite confused".
"Seems so".
"No need keeping you in the dark then…literally," he said grinning. "I'm Mr. Edward Ashleigh, the gatekeeper here at Frostville. I'm sure you've noticed that we operate a bit different from other schools. In fact, we're probably the oddest of schools! The actual school premise is where we're standing right now but you can't see it because of the high quality illusion spell in operation right now. To dispel it, you need to close your eyes".
"Why?" Henry asked.
"The flashing lights which need to be conjured to dispel the illusion are too dangerous for our sensitive eyes. So, you either close your eyes, or take your chances of getting blind".
"What are the chances?"Scott inquired curiously.
"70-30," came his reply.
"I'll pass," came his reply.
"Thought so," Mr. Ashleigh said while we shut our eyes. He whispered something and a moment or two passed before he told us it as safe to open our eyes.
Frostville College was quite stunning and refreshing. The college campus was full of different college students in their uniforms who just like us were probably trying to get registered before the opening ceremony the next day. As we walked towards the registration hall, led by Ms. Flores, I noticed how intimidating some of the other students were. There was a guy seven feet tall with the build of a weightlifter!
When we got to the registration centre, we had to wait in a long queue for our turn. Our number was No. 62 and there were at least twenty more schools ahead of us.
"Damn it, I knew we should have left earlier, "Ms Flores mumbled to herself in annoyance. "Better get comfy guys, we're gonna be here for a while".
***************
After two long hours of waiting in a slowly moving line for what seemed like an eternity, it finally got to our turn. The middle-aged lady seated at the small iron table was looking even more exhausted than we were (And the line behind us wasn't looking so good for her either).
"Name," she ordered without wasting any time.
"Darmian," I replied. She raised an eyebrow at me expectantly before I added, "No last name."
"Okay…," she said sighing. "Age."
"17 years."
"College name."
"Crescent College"
"Alright, look straight into this," she said pointing at a small circle on the back of a framed picture which was positioned on the table.
"What's that?"
"A camera."
"Really? How come it's so—"
"Eyes on the camera! And no smiling," she rudely interrupted.
After a while, she focused her attention back to her computer which she began typing furiously on. A minute later, she printed a sheet from the printer on the floor, clipped something onto it, did some other stuff (she wouldn't let me see) and finally handed to me an ID card with all my info on it.
"Anything you wish to clarify?" she asked rubbing her eyes tiredly.
"I'm gonna win this thing."
"Good to know," she said with a yawn." "Next!"
***************
By the time we had all been registered, it was 7:47pm and the campus was beginning to become virtually empty.
"Miss Flores, where exactly are we staying?" Zoё asked.
"I don't know yet, Ms Sally was supposed to send me the hotel she booked for."
"I call dibs on that bench, since its obvious we'll be sleeping outside," Scott quipped.
"Hold on," Ms Flores said suddenly after hearing a notification ring from her pone. "Let's see…well I'll be damned. Seems your principal is going all out for you guys. We're staying at the Clover Colossus Hotel and Suite".