A week passed.

Ari did his best to alter my conviction, but I held fast, and at last he agreed to grant my wish: we would visit 'school' that I might see it for myself.

The nearest school was an hour's journey hence. It was still 'summer,' and there were no classes yet, but there were many formalities to observe and rituals to perform before I could attend — like the signing of forms and registrations. And before any of that, there was the shopping.

I needed 'school clothes.'

Riding in the back of Soren's car, with Ari's hand clasped in mine, I shivered with excitement as we neared the edge of town. In the meantime, Ari tried again to change my mind.

"I'm just not sure you understand, Fenn," he said. "It's not like it is in the movies. In real high school, people don't sing and dance in the hallways, and the nerds rarely win. Some people have a good time, I guess, but for a lot of us it's a mean, boring, lonely, restrictive place, and we're glad to escape and forget it as soon as we can."

"I take it your own experience was less than ideal?" Soren remarked.

Ari laughed, but he did not sound amused. "You could say that. I was already a shy little nerd before my parents died between my second and third year. Afterwards, I was a shy little morbidly depressed nerd. Not exactly the kid everyone wanted to sit with at lunch. Did you enjoy high school?" he asked.

"Yes, actually; I suppose I did. I went to a boarding school in France. It was the first time I felt truly free of my father and my heritage. You could say I made the most of it."

"Hmm," Ari mused. "I have a feeling you and I wouldn't have liked each other much, had we met back then."

"Well, technically, that would have been impossible. I don't think you were born yet. I suppose I might have been your teacher, though. I would have liked you then."

"Now you just sound like a creep." Ari rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to me. "The point is, high school isn't a musical. It's a strange place full of strange people you don't know. You'll have a strict schedule, and you'll have to do what you're told, and follow a bunch of rules. Most of all, I can't go with you. You'd be on your own."

"But everyone goes, do they not?" I asked. I'd made a special study of it, and not all the films I'd watched had singing in them.

"More or less," Ari agreed with a gentle smile, "but you're not everyone, Fenn."

"But I wish to be," I whispered, wanting badly for him to understand. "I wish to be like everyone else. And will it not be strange and new for the others, as well? Will we not be learning of the world together?"

He smiled again and gave my fingers a light squeeze. "Let's just see how it goes today, okay? And remember, you can always change your mind."

"That is my ambition," I agreed with great sincerity. "To change my mind, so that I may be less different, and more like everybody else."

Ari looked quite sad at this. But then he reached over to wipe something — a bit of chocolate, probably — from the corner of my mouth, and smiled. "Alright, Fenn," he said. "Whatever you wish."

~ ❀ ~

For most of my life, I had lived as a prisoner. Not of physical bonds, but of fear. I feared people, and places, and things — everything beyond the bounds of my safe, familiar home: my little sanctuary by the sea.

Then I met Ari, and I was much better now, and free. I had been to town several times, and even to the theatre once, though it had taken me several days to recover afterwards.

It had been terribly exciting.

This, too, was exciting, and I trembled with each step as we neared the great doors of the 'Shopping Mall.'

There were many people, and I stayed close to Ari's side, holding tight to his arm. I understood the other people were 'shopping,' too, and that they would pay me no heed, if I paid them none. Still, there were a lot of them, and some of them stared at me.

Ari had explained that this was normal, too, and not to mind it, but I had noticed that they did not stare at one another quite as much as they stared at us. Ari and Soren were indeed pleasant to look at, but I did not understand why they looked at me.

Once through the doors, though, I forgot my trepidation. There were so many things to see — far more than the most exotic marketplace I might have seen in my mortal life — and I could hardly contain my wonder.

"Let's start with the clothes," Ari said, consulting a handwritten list. "That will take the longest, I think."

In the past, father Volkir bought all my clothes for me. He would show me 'catalogues' and ask which pictures I liked. Then he would disappear, often for several days, and return with packages, watching with pleasure as I opened them to reveal beautiful, soft garments in the colors that I loved.

This was much more exciting.

As we passed from store to store, though, and our collection of pretty bags grew, I noticed Ari looked concerned. Perhaps I had been greedy and chosen too many things.

"Have we... shopped enough?" I asked, as we paused before a display of brightly colored sweaters that had caught my eye.

"Let's try one more store," Ari said, smoothing my long hair with his hand. "Maybe... pick some things you'd like to wear to class, Fenn."

"Oh! Yes, something nice!" I agreed and went to look. I had grown quite bold and wandered some distance from the others while absorbed in my search. I browsed through shirts and trousers, and blouses, and then I turned and spotted a treasure: the most lovely soft sweater, in a pale pink, emblazoned with delicately embroidered butterflies.

I took it down and ran my fingers over the exquisite design. Ari had explained to me that machines made most of these clothes. They must have been very small machines to have made such perfect tiny stitches.

I went to show Ari and Soren my prize. As I neared, though, I heard them speaking, and paused to listen.

"You told him to choose what he liked," Soren said. "You can't complain."

"I know, but..." Ari lowered his voice. "Everything he's chosen is pink or purple, or pastel. They're girl's clothes, Soren — or androgynous, at least."

"It's what he always wears. You're the one who doesn't want him to change, remember?"

Ari sighed. "I'm just worried, is all. He'll be bullied."

"So? He wants to experience 'school.' Let him. He'll be upset, give up the idea, and forget about it in a week. It will be good for him."

"Soren..."

"Ari — you've told me he knows his mind, and that he's stronger than he seems. I know it. After everything he's lived through, I think he can survive a few days of high school. He's not human, you know."

"I suppose you're right," Ari agreed. "After ancient, evil vampires, what's a few hours of study hall?"

"Don't worry so much. Now, why don't we pick out something for you? I'll help."

"Monster," Ari laughed. "Put that back. As if I'd wear lace."

"Not even for me?"

"In your dreams."

"Is that a promise? I shall have to ask Fenn to help me visit you there sometime."

"You know I can destroy you, right?"

They continued to tease one another as they moved away, and I stood a moment in thought. There was a mirror at the end of the aisle, and I walked over to it and looked in.

Soren had told me that some humans believed vampires couldn't be seen in mirrors. That was silly. Light bounced off us just as well as it did anything else.

I studied the person in the mirror with care. He had large, clear gray eyes in a rather small face, a slim body — I'd been slightly malnourished at the end of my mortal life — and shoulder-length black hair.

I turned my attention next to the art on the walls. The pictures were as large as tapestries, but looked very real. They showed women and men, boys and girls, dressed in the sort of clothes sold in the store. All the men's clothes were drab and bulky. All the women's were lovely and fine.

Mine fell somewhere in between. Ari was right, though; the store was divided between one style and the other, and I had found most of what I'd liked on the 'wrong' side.

I studied a picture of a boy who seemed to be about my age — or the age I appeared to be — and picked out the same black sweatshirt and rugged black trousers he wore. Then, with a feeling of immense sorrow, I put back the lovely sweater with the butterflies, and went to show Ari my purchases.

He saw the ugly clothes and frowned. "This is what you want, Fenn?" he asked.

"Yes." I nodded firmly. "It is what I want. And I am done shopping, now."