Anastasia sat in the office across from the principal, Mr. Boyd. She finished summarizing what happened during recess. AJ, in a spare t shirt with his soiled shirt resting in a plastic bag, was slouched down in the other seat, looking away from them. When the principal asked if he agreed with her story, he just made a sound that could be a "uh huh".

"My parents can't come get me. They work nights. They need to sleep," she implored Mr. Boyd fearing the consequences of disturbing her nocturnal family.

"My dad can't either," AJ added.

"It's okay, you two. Neither of you are going home today, but I am giving both of you an hour of after school detention tomorrow. You just need to get your parents' signatures tonight."

"I didn't do anything wrong," AJ argued.

"You used a curse word."

AJ rolled his eyes, mumbling something incomprehensible in Spanish.

"We have a zero-bully tolerance policy that prohibits the use of degrading language and physical violence. I trust you two can put aside your differences and this won't happen again, right? If it does, we will have to take away recess time for you both. Is that understood?"

Mumbling an agreement, they took their respective slips before being dismissed. They walked back to the classroom together, their class having returned from recess by then. The hallway seemed bigger with the absence of students. AJ stopped short after they got up the steps and asked her if she had a pen in her purse. She said yes hesitantly.

"Well, can I borrow it?" He asked impatient.

"No."

"No?"

"You called me a bitch," she reminded him through gritted teeth.

"I didn't mean it. You hit me!"

"Why do you want a pen anyway?"

He lifted his chin with arrogance. "You'll see."

Curiosity won over contempt, and she gave it to him. He took his slip and signed where the parent's signature was supposed to go with a "JR".

"That is not going to work," she scoffed.

"It's worked before. I write better than my dad on most days anyway. Besides they don't really care. You should learn to copy your parent's signature. It'll save you lots of trouble."

"I am not a liar," she said starting down the hall.

"Neither am I," he shot back defensive as he fell in step beside her.

She looked at his slip with a yeah right expression.

"That doesn't count as a lie."

"What do you call it?"

He scoffed and studied her for a moment. "You wouldn't understand."

"No, I don't. So, explain."

"Forget it."

They paused by their classroom door. She could already hear Mrs. O'Bryan going over yesterday's math homework. As she placed a hand on the doorknob, she felt him grab onto her arm. She glared icily at it until it dropped to his side as if he had gotten stinging frostbite from her eyes. He offered the pen back. "Sorry about calling you a bitch. Really. I didn't mean it."

"It's fine... I guess. As long as you don't do it again. It is stupid you got detention for that. Why not just let your dad sign your slip? He is going to know you're staying after school tomorrow."

He shrugged. "Nah. He don't care."

His dad probably lets him get away with everything. An undisciplined household would explain an arrogant brat.

As expected, her parents were not pleased with Anastasia's "delinquent" behavior. They were even more upset that now they had to provide transportation after her detention. Why were parents punished for their kid's crimes? Why wasn't there a bus to take bad children home?

Anastasia had fallen asleep during their discussion. They didn't leave written instructions for her, so when she got on the bus the next morning, she still didn't know who was going to pick her up.

The school day passed by uneventful. It must have been an uneventful week altogether because AJ and Anastasia were the only ones in the library for detention. The librarian, whose name Anastasia didn't care to learn, was on the computer. They were supposed to just sit in silence and do homework.

She finished her work swiftly and saw AJ was still hunched over his math sheet. Feeling bored out of her mind or that is at least what she told herself, she asked if he needed help.

He stuffed the papers into his folder and shoved it down into his backpack. "Nah. It's these stupid word problems. I'll just copy Jason's answers on the morning bus. So don't worry about it."

Catching a peek into his backpack, she said, "You know studies say that cleaning and organizing your stuff can improve your performance in school and help you concentrate better."

"So can minding your own business," he said, giving her a snarky smile. Her eyebrows dipped and he laughed. "Don't get mad. I'm just playing with you. You're so serious all the time. What do your studies say 'bout that? Aligerar. Lighten up."

After that brief exchnage, the bot opted on taking a nap while she read, neither one interested in conversing further with the other. When their hour was up, they were escorted by the librarian towards the parent pick up to await their rides. Anastasia wondered who she was waiting for or if she would be able to walk home... or ask a teacher to bring her home. That may raise questions though.

She whispered over to AJ, who carried his jacket not bothering to put it on. "Can we just walk home if we live close enough?"

"Uh, I hope so?"

"Haven't you had detention before?"

"No," he said lifting an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Wow. Yes, really!"

"Okay. I think I have Pam's number here somewhere. Maybe her mom can take us both home."

"Sounds good. Thanks."

Just when she was about to dig in her backpack, a green SUV pulled up and a brunette woman stepped out. She looked familiar...

"Hi. I'm Rachel." She handed a note to the librarian. "I am here to pick up Anastasia Turgenev."

Recognition hit the girl. Rachel Hardin was their next-door neighbor. She saw her and her family, along with their barking husky, outside playing in the yard from time to time. An unfamiliar feeling of envy clawed at her stomach every time she saw them.

But she never spoke to them, and she doubted her parents or brother made the effort either.

Something in the way the woman smiled and spoke told Anastasia her parents didn't ask their neighbor to do this. She was compelled. Compulsion was a technique used by vampires to manipulate the minds of their prey. It made feeding from humans and concealing their own existence possible. She wouldn't be surprised if Mrs. Hardin had a fresh bite mark on her somewhere.

"Come on, Anastasia." Rachel began to turn when she grabbed the woman's hand remembering.

"Wait. Can you take AJ home, too?" This was a lost cause. Rachel was compelled by a full vampire but maybe the order wasn't too direct.

"I am here to take Anastasia Turgenev home."

Or not.

Summoning all her will, she made eye contact with the doe eyed Rachel.

"And AJ Reed. You came here to pick up AJ Reed, too." Saying every word with a deep conviction that would sound like just a child begging to anyone else.

To Anastasia's surprise, Rachel blinked a couple of times. Her face twisted in confusion.

Oh no... I shouldn't have messed with it.

But luckily, the compulsion held its grip over her mind. "I am here to pick up Anastasia Turgenev... and AJ Reed."

It worked??! Anastasia did not think it would. The powers of compulsion would normally only manifest after a vampire awakens, or so her parents had always told her.

Seizing the opportunity, she looked over and inclined her head for AJ to come along. If he thought something was off, he didn't comment. They both climbed into the back of the SUV.

"Thanks, Mrs. Hardin," AJ said.

"You know her?" Anastasia whispered after Rachel Hardin gave a cheery 'You're welcome'.

"Yeah. I was in the same basketball camp as her son last summer. His dad coaches."

"Oh." That does explain why AJ did not find it weird Rachel would offer to take him home.

It wasn't long before they pulled up to a trailer park. AJ tried to ask Rachel to just drop him off at the entrance, but she had already turned in. Plus, the vampire was sure the order contradicted the modified compulsion.

They pulled up to a dirty white trailer with a wooden porch. AJ jumped out of the vehicle slinging his backpack over his shoulder.
"Thanks for the ride. Bye, Ana."

The SUV was stopped at the exit to the park and waiting to join traffic on the road when Anastasia saw AJ had left his jacket. She tried to tell Rachel to turn around but without making eye contact with the human, Anastasia had no chance of swaying the compulsion. She didn't even know she could sway a compulsion before today!

Giving up, she opened the door and jumped out onto the gravel. The autumn breeze whipped her cheeks as soon as she left the warm interior of the van behind. She heard Rachel shout but didn't bother explain herself, instead heading back to AJ's trailer on foot.

Once there, she bounded up the warped wood steps past a 'beware dog's sign with suspicious bullet-size holes. The doorbell was torn down, the wires dangling like a marionette. The glass in the screen door was the battered victim of an attempted break in. She pulled the screen door aside carefully to knock on the paint-chipped main door.

A balding man with an unkempt, scruffy face answered the door. He peered down at her from an impressive height through bloodshot eyes.

"We don't want any fuckin' girl scout cookies," he said, perfuming the air with Jim Beam.

"I am not a girl scout!" She said hastily, stopping the door from shutting in her face. "I just came to return AJ's jacket."

For a moment, she wondered if she got the wrong trailer. But she was sure AJ had gone into this mobile home. The man, on closer inspection, also had a duller version of AJ's green eyes. That was really the only thing he had in common with him though.

"Oh." The man, presumably AJ's dad, placed a cigarette between his lips. "Come in."

"Um... I have someone waiting." She looked back and Rachel was smiling over at her from the SUV, but her eyebrows were knitted together comically.

"Come on in! AJ never has friends over! I'll take you home later," the man bellowed, and Anastasia took an involuntary step back.

"I just came to give back his jacket," she said firmly, holding out the jacket for him to take.

"Well... okay." He sidestepped away from the door to grant her entry, staggering uneven, one leg of his seemed shorter than the other. "Well, he is in his room. Down that way to the left."

Seeing as he would not just take his son's jacket and there was a lack of suitable coat racks, she had no choice but to go deeper into the double-wide trailer. It seemed dark and cluttered. A large one-eared mutt slept next to the cracked TV, twitching and sneezing.

She came into the indicated room where AJ was sitting on his bed eating a pop tart and watching a very small TV. He had already changed out of his blue jeans into a more comfortable pair of black and red basketball shorts. When she was about to announce herself, AJ's dad who she didn't realize followed behind her hollered out, "Your little girlfriend came to visit you!"

AJ jumped up off the bed in surprise. "What are you-- she is not my girlfriend!"

"No? You could do worse, I think. Still not into girls? Or are you going to be swinging for the other team, son?" He gave a throaty chuckle and blew out a puff of smoke that haloed Anastasia. She brought her sleeve up to her mouth.

"Cállate..." AJ hissed, his green eyes briefly met her blue ones, but then he avoided her gaze completely focusing on his father. "And I told you not to smoke in my room, Dad! I don't want to smell like you."

"Who the hell do you think you're talking to? Talking back to me like that. You better watch that mouth before I pop you!" His thunderous voice in the confines of the small space made Ana's head hurt.

Reddened by the secondhand embarrassment and smoke, she handed AJ his jacket and said, "I'll see you at school."

Fleet-footed, she maneuvered around the man who took up the whole doorway. She came to a stop in the hall, blood turning cold. The growling mutt was on his feet, awoken by his master's voice. He charged and she would've been mauled if Mr. Reed hadn't grabbed him by the collar. "Dumb dog is going senile! Calm down, Hunter! She ain't prey." The dog choked himself on his collar trying to nip at the shaking girl as she flushed herself against the wall. Once she had shuffled far enough away from the canine's reach, she ran out of the trailer as fast as she could.

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