AUBREY SEEMED TO shrink into herself. She kept her arms folded across her chest and her shoulders hunched. "It's really not that hard at first," she said softly. "It's like any skill; it gets better the more you work at it."

Sophie followed her down the hall. She couldn't help but watch Aubrey. The once Victoria's-Secret-worthy model was now a shell of her former self.

"My favorite class was always hacking," she continued to babble on. Her gaze seemed focused on something far in the distance. "I've always been good with computers. I programmed most of the equipment that the Headmaster uses. He has this whole lab set up in the basement of this old castle. It's where most of the transformations from human to vampire take place. I programmed those pods that inject the venom into your bloodstream. The pods made the process much less painful and reduce the amount of damage that can be done to your body."

"You're just a fountain of information, aren't you?" Sophie mumbled under her breath.

Aubrey didn't seem to pay her any mind. She kept muttering about programming and the pods, and turned down another unfamiliar hallway. Aubrey pointed to an unmarked door at the end of the hallway and said, "There. That's the classroom. We have to change first though, so follow me."

She pulled Sophie through a different door. As she entered the room, Sophie's body tensed. An abundance of heat, diluted blood, and soft murmurs flooded her senses. Sophie's nose curled. Something metallic mingled with the floral scents around her.

The room opened into a collection of navy colored metal lockers. Several girls were clustered around different lockers, chatting and changing into sleek black outfits. Sophie avoided their curious gazes and followed Aubrey to a locker tucked away in the corner. As they passed the other girls, Sophie realized that she could make sense of the distant chatter. It was forced; mild comments about unimportant details, like the weather and homework.

Aubrey stopped. She reached out and popped open a locker, revealing an abundance of folded black outfits. A mirror clung to the back of the door, and Aubrey seemed to recoil at her own reflection. She pulled out an outfit and then turned to Sophie.

"Pick a locker. It doesn't really matter which one, because they are all the same," she said.

Sophie examined the locker in front of her. It didn't have a lock. She reached out and popped it open. Inside, a small stack of black cloth sat on a metal shelf. She pulled them out and sorted through them. The outfits resembled the black shirt and leggings that she had worn during the Games.

"The fabric is special," Aubrey said as she pulled her regular shirt over her head. "It's meant to act as a second skin, and improve our range of movement. I can't really tell a difference."

Sophie watched the blonde yank a black t-shirt over her head. Once the shirt had settled over her torso, it seemed to almost shrink. Like Aubrey had mentioned, it seemed to cling to her curves like a second skin. Aubrey wiggled into a matching pair of leggings and then slammed the locker door shut.

Her gaze flickered toward Sophie, and an eyebrow arched. "Well? Are you going to change?"

Sophie almost smiled. The old Aubrey seemed to vanish again, as the blonde turned toward a floor to ceiling mirror. The color in her cheeks faded, leaving her with the complexion of a wax doll. Aubrey pulled her hair into a ponytail and adjusted her outfit.

Moving quickly, Sophie changed into the outfit. It freaked her out a bit at first. She could feel the fabric against her skin, morphing to her shape and size. It was weightless too. If it weren't for the ever-present sensation of cloth against her skin, Sophie would have felt like she was parading around in her birthday suit.

She followed Aubrey out the door and back down the hallway, toward the other door. A small stream of girls flooded the hallway around them. It was so strange to Sophie, to be surrounded by these girls. Their hearts were still, like the dead, and yet the sound of air rushing through their lungs filled the air.

"Hi Sophie," a familiar voice said quietly.

Sophie turned, and managed a small smile. The familiar voice belonged to Evangeline. It startled her just how different the girl looked in Sophie's new (and improved) eyes. Her eyes had lost their vibrancy, and invisible scars dotted her face and arms. "Hello, Evangeline," she greeted.

Evangeline smiled warmly and glanced at Aubrey. Her gaze seemed cautious. "Hello, Aubrey," she greeted kindly.

Aubrey nodded. She regarded Evangeline with an impassive expression and pulled open the door to the classroom. Sophie followed Aubrey, and Evangeline seemed to become lost within the small pond of students around them. Her gaze flickered around the room as they entered. It looked like a giant metal gym.

"What's with all the metal?" Sophie asked. Her lips curled with disgust, and she lifted a hand to rub at her nose. The metallic smell burned the insides of her nostrils.

Aubrey sniffled. "It's meant to help us build up a resistance to harsher smells. You get used to it after a while."

"I don't like it," Sophie grumbled.

Aubrey flashed her a smile. "It smells a lot worse to you because you are still a newborn. You are still getting used to your advanced senses."

Sophie shrugged. She followed Aubrey toward the rest of the students, who clustered around the edges of the room. The group seemed to wait patiently for their instructor, chatting amiably among themselves. When the class started, Sophie realized that there was no bell. The instructor simply appeared in the center of the room, like a ninja. His expression was stern, his skin riddled with entangled webs of scars. He eyed Sophie with a beady look but did not address her.

Instead, he started to bark out different orders. The Night Students scrambled to respond. The first assignment was several laps around the room.

It seemed so much like a normal gym class to Sophie that she began to question whether Aubrey had been delirious earlier.

Then her senses screamed.

The rounded edge of a wooden pole sliced through the air, aimed at her legs. Sophie heard it, and attempted to react before it touched her. But it was too fast. It smacked her shins so hard that her knees almost buckled out from beneath her.

"Ouch!" she gasped and looked around.

A blur of black moved through the room, almost blending in with the metal walls. She squinted. It was the instructor, wielding the painted wooden pole. He swung at different students like a professional swordsman, or an extremely experienced child after a piñata. The students ducked and dodged the wooden pole. Some struggled and, like Sophie, were smacked hard in the shins. Others, like Aubrey, excelled and seemed to attempt to steal the pole from him.

Sophie started to run again. She kept her attention focused on her senses, on all the different fluctuations that flooded the room. The metallic scents mingled with the rusty smell of blood, diluted with floral perfumes and deodorants. The light above their head did little to illuminate the room; different shadows crept along the walls like a hunter closing in for the kill. Her body seemed to change as well. Instead of the heat and sweaty mess that Sophie had grown accustomed to, her body felt cool. It was as if she had just stepped outside on a cold winter day.

When the pole came for her again, Sophie thought she was prepared. It rained down upon her like a tornado of pain. She heard it first; the sound of the slender object whooshing through the air immediately caught her attention. But she realized that she had a hard time placing the sound and its distance from her body.

The attacks seemed to taint all the different exercises that the class had to perform. The instructor showcased several different forms of martial arts, instructing each student on how to perform them. Then two students were paired together and expected to implement the new form --all while being randomly attacked by the stupid pole.

And it only took Sophie several large and painful bruises to realize that she still sucked horribly at athletics.