I wake up from the sound of loud banging coming from outside my door. I sit up, rubbing my eyes and look down to the bed. I was still on top of all the blankets, my skin cold from never covering myself with a blanket last night. I must've fallen asleep at some point.

Another bang. I stare at the door in fear, my first thought thinking they've come to kill me. I don't ask who's at the door and stay siting on the bed, trying not to make a sound.

"Miss Thornhale it's time for class." Lady Moore from yesterday spoke from behind the door. Her voice was normal and by the sound of it, she was the only one at the door.

I'm still safe? Did the prince keep it to myself? If he did I'll have to thank him. I jump up switching on the light before looking up at the clock that was placed on the wall right above the door. 7:45 in the morning.

I grab the schedule Sera brought me yesterday and quickly scan through it in a hurry. Morning class starts at 8 am. Oh no. She's here to show me to class and I haven't got dressed yet.

Another bang.

I run, swinging the door open and Lady Moore turns to look at me. Her eyes widen and her mouth open slightly. Behind her, girls were walking around already in their academy uniforms getting ready to go to class.

"Why aren't you dressed yet? Class starts in 15 minutes." she asks, sounding upset and angry.

"I'm sorry. I think I might have overslept." I start apologizing.

"Let me guess. You were one of the few who partied till late this morning?" she raises an eyebrow. "You have 10 minutes to get ready. I'll be waiting." She says frowning.

"I'll be quick I promise." I shut the door and pick up my school uniform. I tear open the plastic bag and lay the uniform on my bed. The thought never once dawned to me that I might be wearing a skirt. Another risk by having my skin exposed. But I can't dwell on it now,

I slip into my uniform, put on the white knee socks and tied my shoes. I glance up at the clock, 4 minutes left. I look at my curly and messy hair deciding to leave it loose because tying it into a ponytail will take too long. Why didn't I just dry my hair last night. I didn't have curly hair like my mother, mine was pretty straight most of the time. The only time it curls is when I leave it wet. I take a hair tie and put it on my wrist to use for later.

I quickly brush through my black hair, just enough for it to look decent. I put on mascara and use a bit of lip gloss on my lips. I pull out my mother's spell book, grab my sketchbook, the schedule from my desk and throw it into my bag. I haven't even read through the rules and schedule properly; I'll have to do it in my free time.

Lastly I slip on the necklace I always wear for comfort and go back to my bed to smooth out the wrinkles when I see two roses laying on my window ledge. A red and a black one, the same one's I stared at last night when I was leaving the party. But these didn't have any thorns, almost like they were removed. I look up at my window, it was only slightly open for fresh air. So how did they get here?

Remembering I was running out of time I pull the door open and close it behind me, locking it. Lady Moore give me a look of approval and starts walking and I follow her. Students were everywhere, girls and boys mixed up together in groups walking towards the Academy. My mind drifts to Sera and Aster, I wonder if they're already in their classes. Now thinking about it. In which class were they? I never even asked what they studied.

This my first day of attending class, I feel nervous as I unconsciously fidget with the end of my sleeve. I don't know what to expect or how it things work here. My sister was the one who taught me all the things I needed to know. And it's not like I can ask her for any help now, she wants me gone. We step out of the dormitory and take the corner on the other side, another stone building coming into view. This was one was a bit smaller, but looked more polished, professional and pleasing to look at then the dormitory.

The Academy was busy, the building filled with voices and students walking to their classes. Until eventually Lady Moore stops at an open door and turns to me.

"This is your morning class. A bunch of students are put together and there's normally 10 in a class. Every morning your teacher will ask you about your performance which will then be carried over to the royals. Since it's your first day don't be afraid to ask questions. We want you to get familiar as quick as possible so that you can focus om your studies." she gives me a gentle smile before disappearing down the stairs.

I exhale slowly and peek into the classroom that Lady Moore said was mine. The lights were on and the room had large windows on the other side that let red glow of the moonlight pour in. Students are sitting at their individual desks and a female teacher was standing in the front of the classroom going through a stack of pages. She looks young and beautiful with hair that reached her lower back. She catches me looking and motions with her hand for me to come inside.

"Thornhale?" she asks and I give her a small nod.

"You can sit down at any desk." she says. I look at the class, some students were talking to each other or either writing stuff down on a notebook. While others looked at me skeptically, glancing me up and down while smiling to each other secretly. Ignoring their stares, I take a seat at one of the desks in the front row, away from all of them. I pull out the paper with the rules and schedule from my bag and start reading.

The Rules of the Royal Assistance Academy:

1. Attend classes regularly.

2. No phones.

3. Stay out of trouble and don't cause harm to other students.

4. Avoid direct eye contact with royals and bow when seeing them.

5. Obey the royals!

I don't really use my phone. The mention of the direct eye contact again. Is it really that disrespectful to look into their eyes? If so will I be punished for making eye contact with the royal prince last night? What if the punished is physical and I start bleeding? Wait that's not the worse part, the prince may think I'm human. What if he ends up using me as his feeding puppet? I don't know why he didn't punished or killed me last night. Not knowing is killing me.

Taking a deep breath, I trace my finger down the schedule. Morning class starts from 8 till 10 am. academic class from 10 to 2 pm. Then lastly practical class from 2pm to 4pm. I stare at the timetable in shock. That's almost the entire day. I'll have to be around vampires for so many hours. I'm going to be exhausted at the end of each day. How am I going to get through this?

"As you all can see you we have a new student at the Academy. Since she's new I'll be spending this period with her. Keep yourselves busy but keep noise to a minimum." The teacher says.

She makes her way over to my desk. "Nadeline, how much do you know about healing spells?"

"I've only read a few pages from my mother's book." I admit. To be honest, I don't know anything about magic in general. My mother didn't think I needed to know and neither did I.

Her eyes widen. "Does that mean you never learned how to do them? That's going to be a problem." she taps her fingers onto my table. "All first years already knows the basis, both academic and practical before they come to Academy. Here they go more in depth and perfect their skills." she spoke and I listen to her without saying anything. Will they send me home now that I admitted to not knowing anything about magic. Even if I wanted to learn, my mother wouldn't have taught me and would've said I didn't have a reason to learn healing spells.

"If I were you I'd get started on the basics as soon as possible. You should ask your sister for help, she's one of the top students of the second years. You wouldn't want to give your family a bad name right?"

I can't possible ask Kate, she doesn't even want me here. I'll just have to figure it out and study by myself.

"I'll make sure to ask her." I lie.

She nods, goes to back her desk and picks up a notebook giving it to me. "Use this to take notes in class." She says and leave me alone to do her own stuff.

For the next hour she ignores my presence and goes through all the student's performances of yesterday, writing them down in a book. I pull out my sketchbook to try and keep myself entertained, sketching the two roses I found in my window ledge. Just from listening to her talk I've learn that the Academy consists of 4 main courses. Combat and defense, history, blood harvesting and lastly healing.

The bell rings for our next class and everyone stands up, leaving the classroom one after another. I stay seated remembering that I didn't even know where my next class was.

"Jacelynn. Can you show Nadeline to Healing Academic class?" the teacher ask one of the girls still sitting in the back of the class. She looks at me with a smile and then approach me.

"Come. I'll show you the way." she leads me out of the class and to the next one. I follow right behind her as she walks through the halls confidently.

"A word of advice Nadeline. Don't sit on the left side of the class like you did this morning. That's where the commoners sit. You know those who don't come from a well-known family like us. They're losers and if you sit with them you'll be seen as one too." She smirks, her words sounding like a warning. Before leaving to get to her own class she qickly explains where practical class is for the healing course so they I don't get lost later.

When she's gone I step into the next classroom, this time the teacher was a man and this class was much fuller than morning class. I sit down at a desk on the right side next to the windows, remembering Jacelynn's words. I can't believe commoners are seen as losers. It's not their fault they don't come from a well-known family. With sigh I pull out my mother's spell book, reading and listening to the teacher preaching about magic. Throughout the lesson he explains that magic comes out the body and exits only by strength of the mind. Your mind can either prevent or let it come out. The stronger the mindset, the stronger the magic.

As the lesson continues I slowly feel a headache starting to form. The teacher never stops talking and neither did the students in the class. I wasn't used to be around so many people and never heard so many people talk at once. I couldn't focus on the lesson like I'm supposed to. Sometime later the second bell rings indicating it was time for a break.

I pack away my mother's spell book and throw the bag over my shoulders. Almost bumping into Sera, who was standing outside the classroom, looking like she was waiting for me.

She looks at my uniform. "You look amazing in the school uniform. You would've definitely got the royals attention if you just worn something similar last night." she pouts.

If only she knew that I did caught a royal's attention last night but not for the right reason.

"I need a break from all these teachers." Sera groans and I follow her into a big room, filled with students drinking blood and sitting in groups at tables. Some arriving with us and looking for an open seat. Sera buys a plastic cup of blood and pay the person behind the counter. She turns towards me and waits for me to buy one as well.

"Are you not hungry?" she asks, taking a sip from her cup.

"I don't have money." I tell her not even knowing you had to pay for a meal here.

"I'll pay." A boy behind says, grinning at me and Sera pushes to the front.

"I'll pay for her." She stops him with her hand, wrinkling her nose disgust and pays for mine. "You owe me." she winks playfully and glares at the boy. Her eyes scan the area and we walk towards Aster sitting by himself. He looks up from the table and sees me.

"You missed all the fun last night." he smirks and I sit down with Sera, looking down at the table.

"You mean she missed the moment that girl kicked your ass and pushed you into the table for touching her. That was definitely fun to watch." Sera chuckles.

"Shut up. That never happened." he says clearly annoyed.

"Yes it did and don't have an attitude with me. You should be thanking us for sitting here with your lonely ass. No one wanted to sit with you and we were kind enough to keep you company." She smirks.

"Lonely?" he scoffed. "You mean relaxing by myself."

Suddenly the break room goes really quiet and I hear footsteps. I look behind me, following Aster's gaze. My body tense up and my grip tightens on the chair. That red hair. It's him, he walks in with purpose and at first I thought he was here for me but then he grabs a boy by the collar.

"You must have a death wish." The prince growls and everyone hears him. "No they're lying. It wasn't me." The boy protest, shaking his head. The prince drags him out by the shirt and we see him wrapping his hand around the student's throat outside, choking him. He whispers something I couldn't hear before slamming his fist into the boy's stomach. Black blood drips down his shirt and onto the prince's hand. Eventually the boy falls to the ground and the prince leaves without looking back.

"What did he do?" Sera gasp.

"He probably made eye contact with the prince. The prince is knowing for getting violent when someone disrespects him." Aster says and I look at him. If he did that to the boy what will he do to me?I swallow anxiously.

"But what was the prince doing here? I thought the royals spend most of their times in the palace." Sera ask.

"Not the prince. He visits the Academy more often than his sister. But we don't see him every day, most of the time he sits on the roof, lost in his own thoughts." Aster explains.

A movement at the window caught my attention, it was a small bat. I've seen many bat's flying around before, especially in our street but none of them had red eyes. The bell rings indicating that break time is over and I tear my gaze away from the window. The three of us stand up, I finish my cup in one go and throw it into the trash can. Aster leaves without a word and Sera turns towards me.

"Good luck with practical." Sera waves and walks out of the room to her next class. Everyone part their own ways and I start walking through the halls, searching for practical class thinking about Jacelynn's instructions. It becomes quieter and emptier with each minute that I search and I still haven't find the class.

Starting to worry I pick up my pace, not looking where I was going and almost trip. I catch myself, steadying my weight against the wall when I feel my palm burning. I look down at my hand and see some blood from where I rubbed my hand against the stone wall. I turn around when I'm forcefully pushed back and I look up at the prince gazing down at me with irritation.