Walking down the hall, I come across Anastasia coming out of the room closest to me. As she closes her door, she looks up and her eyes land on me. "Hello, Anastasia. How was unpacking? Any trouble?" I try to make conversation.

I start walking again and she joins me. "Oh, you can call me Ana, seriously; you are my cousin, even if we don't know each other. My full first name is kind of a mouth full," she pushed, "And the only trouble I had in setting up my room was my computer and tech stuff on the desk. Thank goodness it was huge though! I only took up half the table; compared to my desk back home, that's impressive." Then a sudden thought seemed to cross her mind as her questioning face turned towards me, "What about you? You don't look like a technology girl. What could you have possibly used all that space for?" Ana queried with genuine curiosity in her eyes.

"Oh. You see, my room doesn't have a big desk, just one for homework so it's not that big. I have a ton of bookshelves though. If I did have a gigantic desk, though, I would stack books on it." I responded, sighing in content about having bookshelves instead; it makes things so much easier.

Ana stopped suddenly. I turned to question her, thinking it was about the difference between rooms. Though, as soon as I saw her eyes looking down at my feet with utter shock and speechlessness, I started getting confused. Looking down as well, all I saw was my toes which I wiggled, causing a small, quiet giggle to escape my calm façade. Looking back up, I saw Ana again with a shocked face, but this time it was directed towards my face. With a friendly smile and a tilt of my head, I voiced my confusion, "What is so suprising to upset you?" When she finally cleared her throat and shook her head, her composure came back.

"I'll answer that with a question: why aren't you wearing shoes? Also, when you introduced youself, I got the impression that you didn't have many feelings strong enough to show. Like it would take an amazingly witty joke or spectalur feat to gain any attention," she explained. I replayed my introduction and I guess you could retain I was too reserved and untouchable to let simple emotions control me. Darn.

I responded with a resigned sigh, "I guess I did come off as disconnected but that was not my intent. The other statement about extravagant, unexpected events seeming to be the only thing good enough for my emotions is way off, too. Practically the opposite, in fact. I'm not a material girl. I don't like showing emotions around strangers, it makes me uncomfortable. I only let myself be free around family and close friends," I stated, then smirked, "As for my feet, this is so I don't kill anyone stupid enough to annoy me before tomorrow. What can I say? The freedom is exceptionally splendid," I winked. "Why-," she started, but I stopped her with a finger gesture and she leaned in to hear me whisper, "I'm on my period."

She leaned back with her third suprised face of the evening taking over her features. "Damn! Wait, what type are you?" She looked worried when I continued, "Believe me, someone is going to feel my wrath; you will know what type I am when I snap. I just wish my brother was here to distract me and turn my attention towards him. I wouldn't feel bad for him, he and my family have always been there to stop me from hurting anyone -except for them, of course," a weary look crossed my features for a short second before stealing and continuing the story. "My mother is as bad as me -well that's what my father and brother tell me. I don't think I'm that bad, though. Then again it depends on the force of the emotions. It doesn't feel like it will be a bad month this time, thank goodness." My next statement made both of us grimace, "My mother's type is overdramatic. It's terrible! We walk on egg shells around her. One comment could turn her into a raging hormonal teenager. When thinking about it, I really hope I'm not that bad."

"Yeah, my father says I'm pretty bad. My mother, though, goes scary quiet during hers. She walks around like a zombie and when anyone gets a few feet away from her, she gives you the coldest glare you could ever imagine. The devil would probably be shivering in a corner, traumatized." After saying that she had a far away look, probably reminiscing a memory, "She did it to me once. I remember when I was little coming within three feet of her and asking if she knew where my crayons were. She turned to me and... I can't even describe it," she shivered. "For one week after she became normal again, I refused to go near her. Mom tried to find out what happened, but I never told her. Horror movies don't really scare me anymore. In fact, they're comical in a way."

Looking forward, I realized we had been walking during our weird conversation and ended up in front of the dining hall doors. Ana stepped up first as a guard opened the large door for us. Looking towards the middle aged man holding the door I offered a gentle smile and thanked the guard, I moved into the room with subtlety. Not many people looked up at my quiet, stealthy enterance (partly because of my bare feet not making much noise to que in on my arrival), not that I minded. Seeing half the girls seated, I moved to find the place with my name written on a card on top of a plate. I took note that I was to the right of the head of the table and that no name card was anywhere on the plate.

As I got situated, the door I just came through opened rather loudly and Elizabeth walked through, followed by Isabella shortly after. They strode over confidently and found their seats. I hide my eyes as my temper spiked. I just know one of these two will be the unlucky victim of my uncontrollable emotions. Forcing a blank expression, I looked up and saw Isabella sit to my right and Elizabeth two seats away from her.

"Are we really going to stoop to the cliché level? Yeah, snap on the werewolves. Your judgy today. I thought your motto was to not judge a book by its cover or whatever," Lilac taunted. "Well, as Stephen King once said, 'you want to remember that while your judging the book, the book is also judging you.' Judging isn't something you can stop either, it a natural instinct and used for surviv-" Lilac interrupted, "Stop your rambling! If you need to tell someone off, annoy your brother!" I huffed, "You want to snap, too, and we both know it," she was at the brim of snapping while adding, "I don't want to! I need to! Stupid period, stupid Lace, stupid everything! This pent up anger is going to kill anyone in the same room as us, especially people who don't know how to control the situation." I expired every idea of getting to Christopher now (at this point, screw the rules), but all excuses would inconvenience others. With a resigned sigh, I instructed, "Look Lilac, we have to make it through this dinner, then we can go get Chris to help us get rid of some of this anger. That's all that can work at this moment." Hissing, she got to work on holding in all of the pent up anger boiling inside me.

Coming back to the present, I lifted my head to see the other girls had all made it during my spacing out. I forced my eyes back to blue right as the attention settled on me. I was confused, but didn't let it show. I caught Ana's stare and she nodded to the left of me.

Turning to the head of the table, I spotted Aunty waiting expectantly. Realising I had been asked something, I blushed slightly and politely asked,"I'm terribly sorry, my inner vampire and I were conversing. May you please repeat the question?" Aunty sent me an endearing smile and let out a hearty laugh that resounded throughout the large room. "Kallie, I asked if something was wrong. I can see now that you are completely fine. So, how was moving in, everyone?" There was a chorus of various "great", "fine", and "okay"s that went around the room. The banter started up once again, and I decided to join until the meal came out.

Looking around, I saw Scarlette sitting across from me with her arms wrapping around herself as she shrunk into her chair. She looked a little shy and intimidated by the age difference, so I decided to talk with her. Something about her made Lilac and me relax and be able to hold in the raging emotions causing turmoil in my brain.

"Hey there, it's Scarlette, right? It's a pleasure to meet you" Her gaze snapped to mine as I said her name. Though still a little timid, she responded, "Yes, but I like to be called by my middle name, Nahla. It's nice to meet you, too. Where are you from? I love your accent!" Scarlett seemed to slowly open up the more she continued her sentence, getting more animated as she went along.

"I have an accent? Well, now that I think about it, everyone does sound different. I'm from England," I said as a small smile graced my lips. "So, you're from Vladland, huh? What is that like?"

"Oh, it's really cool! The weather is awesome. It's a breezy warm most of the year, but gets chilly in winter. But it snows! What about Fangoria, I always wanted to visit!" Nahla explains with an eager smile in place.

"That sounds lovely. Fangoria mainly rotates between cloudy, rainy, or snowing. I love the cool weather, but I have always wanted to live in a place with balanced seasons, kind of like where you live. Also, I have never been to the beach." I explained.

"Omg! You've never been to the beach?! Can't your dad like have someone build you a man-made one of something? My daddy would do anything for me. Same with my brother. Wait, so you have siblings or..." she exclaimed in a rush.

I gave Nahla some insight mixed with a little morality, "I have an older brother. Him and my father are so overprotective of my mother and me, it gets to a point where it is ridiculous. And I don't ask for much from my family; they have their own problems."

Nahla pouted,"When you put it that way, it sounds like I'm the bad guy." I let loose a small laugh -I can't keep in everything, especially containing all my rage- and gave an amused, "Sorry," before the servants came carrying trays of various foods. Thanking the servant before he left, I turned and took note of how the vampires and I got fresh blood in an expensive wine glass, while everyone else had chosen from the menu.

Savoring my drink, I sipped slowly, matching the pace of the people with food. I noticed Nahla's self-control was weary, like she was struggling not to down it and take the girl's next to her. She looked my way at my calculating gaze, then shrugged sheepishly. I sent her a reassuring smile.

To Nahla's left was the other girl I had that weird connection with. I believe her name is Stella. She was focused on a conversation with Nahla, giving me time to take her profile in. With the way she acted and her rejection of compliments she came off as encouraging, humble, and one of those girls you go to so that you can settle an argument with someone.

Dinner was finished, and as I was about to engage in their conversation and say hello, Aunty cut me off by grabbing everyone's attention. "I hope you all enjoyed your supper. Uncle and I have decided to let you visit your siblings if you have any. Each of you will be lead to a certain place to ensure that you don't run into your soul mate along the way. Thank you, again, for coming to Royal Academy! It's means so much to the faculty and staff here keeping it running. You are dismissed."

"Heehee. Oh, Christopher, we're coming!" Lilac sang. I smirked.

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*Quote*
"I am thankful for the difficult people I've met. They have shown me exactly who I don't want to be."