Preface

Was my happiness really worth putting Jackson Dean in danger? Even if being
alone for 80 years made me unhappy the death of Jackson Dean could never
compare. If I were the one to do that to him I could never live with myself. For, I
was in love with this fragile human. And for some unsettling reason he loved me
to. But if I had to be the one to end his life then love was not worth it at any cost.
His safety and happiness was all that mattered to me and I was the one taking
that away from him. So, it was settled. I decided I loved him more then I
hungered for his blood and leaving him is what will keep him safe and happy.

Half Liquid. Half Ice.

I shoved my poetry onto my shelves as neatly as possible as I got ready for another day of
the worst day of my life. Being a loner as a junior really wasn't much fun. Eating lunch
alone, never talking to anyone, and generally never being accepted. I pulled on my
expensive deep red blouse and jeans. I stared at my reflection in the full length mirror and
questioned my appearance. Blair, my mother, had always called me I was the most
beautiful girl in the world. Chance, my father, never disagreed. But they were my parents
it was there job to say those reassuring things to me. If I was so beautiful, why was I
never noticed? My chestnut blonde hair hung in ringlets almost to my waist and my wide
golden brown eyes only took in what they saw. I was at average height and had a slender
figure that was once again, average. I glowered and turned away from that hateful girl.

I'd never been popular. I was a very chubby rosy-cheeked child until I turned 10 and
mother sent me to a sports camp for the entire summer. Even after I had lost a good
amount of weight no one accepted me. I had no idea what I did wrong. I believe I'm very
polite and kind, is that not what people look for in a girl? My parents had always been
very old fashioned and I was raised that way, but have people's expectancies changed
with time?

I was born November 12th, 1922. Why am I a sophomore, you wonder? Simple. I'm
immortal. I don't know why or how it started, but my mother conceived me before she
was changed to a vampire. Mother always said that I'll understand once I'm old enough.
Over 80 years old seemed old enough, but when I asked she simply shook her head and
sighed. The moment I hit 16 years-old my growth halted. I was never to grow another
inch or gain another pound. For a strange reason I did not need to be bitten to become one
of them. Possibly because I doomed to this life by my ancestors. A life of writhing aches
and pains that came from my burning, thirsty throat every time I was near a human. Of
course I had to get used to it. I needed to blend in as much as possible, so the pain was
subsided by the constant loud chatter of human un-importantness. When I was...turned,
all my senses became a hundred times more keen. I could see better, hear better, smell
better, look better, even sound better. I was like a rock. Hard, cold, and threatening to
anything with a heart beat. I also became faster, but the very worse things were the thirst
and the sun. The sun, what a horrible object. The sun practically burned every inch of
skin that it touched within a second. It did not literally burn my skin, but it certainly
wasn't pleasant. Perhaps it's like a human letting their hand drift in a flaming hot pool of
lava. I wouldn't know. My skin was hard and ice cold. Anything warm to a human would
be almost hot to my kind. Other then the sun.

I shook my head of the thought and swiftly grabbed my cars keys from off my large bed.
I zipped down the stairs to the kitchen "Oh,Scarlette. Good morning dear. You look
lovely, as usual." I smiled at my mother. Her auburn hair was only to her shoulders and
her figure was the tiniest bit rounded. Her emerald eyes must have caught the
unhappiness in mine and she put her long pale arm around me. "Oh my dear Scarlette.
What's troubling you?" She always had a strange way of knowing some ones emotion the
second they knew it themselves. "Nothing. Nothing at all, Mother. Please don't worry
about me. I'll be fine." I slid out from under her arm and smiled at her. She sighed and
nodded. She was never one to pry and I really appreciated that.

"Your father brought a supply of grizzly bear. Enough for this morning at least. I'm sorry
we haven't found time to go hunting, but I promise we will this weekend. I nodded and
walked toward the fridge to get the grizzly bear blood. I poured the liquid into a glass and
sipped it absentmindedly, thinking about the geometry test that was coming up. Grizzly
bear was a favorite of mine, but today it didn't taste quite as sweet to me as it usually did.
There was a nice range of animals to choose from in Ketchikan, Alaska, but it'd been
almost a month since we had last gone hunting.

I took the last sip and placed the glass in the sink. I felt stronger and more energetic, but a
glass wouldn't last very long. My throat was still burning, but less like a fire and more
like a hot curling iron. I kissed my mother on her cheek and strode to my Aston Martin
Vanquish. I turned the key and felt the car purr to life. I switched the radio to a classic
station and slowly drove to school. Slow really wasn't for me, but time was what I
needed. I somehow still managed to get to school early. I heard low whispers around me
about a new boy as I slid out of my car. Nothing that interested me. I dully grabbed my
bag out of the passenger seat and slumped through the drizzling rain towards English
class. Lucky me, the new boy was in my class. From the loud whispers his name was
Jackson. Yes he was very handsome, but for normal vampires humans are considered
food not mates. Now, I really hate the sound of killing something I once had been and
that had done nothing worth killing for, so my family and I drink animal blood.

Jackson's short golden hair complimented his dazzling bluish-green eyes, but it meant
nothing to me. For he was just another fragile human that was among intense danger he
was blind to. But there was something about him. He was more then a simple human. No.
I couldn't let myself think that. I glided to the desk next to his and his eyes widened as he
took the sight of me in. I attempted to ignore it, but I felt unreasonably satisfied with it.
No human boy had ever seemed to find me attractive.

He leaned into Kayla, a pretty Asian girl and whispered, "Who is that girl with the
blonde-ish hair?" Kayla was obviously hoping for a better conversation. Every girl in this
school seemed to be whispering about Jackson Dean. "Scarlette Johnson. She's really
weird, so don't waste your time," Kayla mumbled. I felt Jackson's eyes studying my face
as I listened to Mrs. Bennter teach us the lesson of recognizing characterization as a mean
of expressing various ideas and ways of acting. I'd heard the lesson 100 times before, but
I didn't want to have to look into Jackson Dean's beautiful deep eyes and give him the
wrong idea. I inhaled deeply to try and clear my head. I'd known and gotten used to all
the of my classmates' blood, but Jackson's was different. It was delicious, but repulsive.
It's was bitter, but sweet. So many confusing things filled head as I inhaled his scent yet
again, it burned like hell. It sort of reminded me of when I was 8 and Kyle Drawwood
dared me to put sugar and pepper all over a spicy buffalo wing. I laughed lightly at the
memory and I heard a gasp come from my left. I looked to see Jackson staring at me with
his head cocked to one side. Oh right, my laugh. It must sound lovely to him. Although I
didn't find anything very extraordinary about my laugh I'd been told that it was like a
million beautiful church bells ringing in time with one of the most lovely piano pieces
every heard. I shook my head at the absurdity of that. A beautiful monster? Not possible.

I'd heard Kayla gasp too. It must have been her first time hearing me laugh. I'd never
done such a thing at school. I was never happy enough to. The bell rang ending first hour
and I quickly piled my things together getting ready to go to French. Just as I was getting
up I felt a warm hand tap my shoulder. Even through the satin of my blouse I felt the heat
radiating from his skin before he even tapped me. I whirled around and was staring into
the eyes of Jackson Dean. He smiled and held out his inviting, warm hand. I shook it and
felt shock flow through my empty veins as I felt his pulse flow on his wrist. When we
change into a vampire we absorb our own blood for beginning strength. Human blood is
much more powerful then animal blood, so we're even stronger then a normal vampire for
the first 6 months or so. He cringed a little at my temperature, but kept a smile on his
face.

"I'm Jackson Dean." I smiled kindly and replied, "I know. I'm Scarlette Johnson." I heard
his heart beat faster with pleasure. Ugh. It seemed he was only interested in my looks. He
didn't even know me and he was already too eager and inviting. How could I have
thought that he could possibly have been a gentleman for one second?! What he did next
surprised me though. He took my books and opened the door for me. I smiled, confused
at his politeness. "Can I walk you to your next class?" He offered. I laughed again and
heard his heart stutter. "Isn't that my line? You're the new kid remember?" He smiled at
me and said, "Hmm, I guess so." "How about I walk you to your next class?" He grinned
and said, "Sounds good to me!" with a bit to much enthusiasm. Men had never acted this
way around me. Not once in my 80 plus years as a vampire, had a man ever been
interested in me. I bit my lip and argued with myself. He's a human! You can't let
yourself actually be pleasured by this boy's interest in you! I knew what I had thought
was true. Although I had never met another vampire man, humans had never drawn me as
Jackson had. Was it only because his blood was bitter-sweet and slightly mouth watering
or was it cause I was actually attracted to this human? No. No. I couldn't be. It's to much
of a risk for him.
 I left Jackson at his biology class with a big smile on his face. I shook my head in disgust
at myself. I walked to French and took my seat next to Emma, a tiny girl with platinum
blonde hair and blue eyes. She was whispering to Laura Keller. "Did you see how hot
Jackson Dean is? I can't believe he's actually interested in Scarlette though. She's nothing
but a pretty face." I felt a little offended and a little complimented by her comment. So
they actually think I'm pretty? I grinned just a tiny bit then raised my hand to answer a
question. A normal human action. "Nord, Sud, Est, et Quest." I replied flawlessly. Mrs.
Jacques smiled and answered, "Tres bon, Scarlette." I smiled back and class went by
quickly.

I humanly grabbed a disgusting red fruit and some salty gross looking yellow sticks. I sat
down at my usual table alone and pretended to nibble on my food. I pulled out a book of
poetry and began skimming the lines that somehow reminded me of my life.

Forever alone should never be the case.

Without love life is like Spring with no flowers
Happiness and love is everyone's true home base
Without love life is like Romeo without Juliet
Color, Size, Gender, Species has no meaning
Being cared for and loved is your only reason for being
Without love you''ll never find your true self
So, go and find them...

-Anilla Belcomer

Oh, how I loved her poems. If only I could make her realize that my case of heart ache is
different from any humans. Mostly because I am not human. Quite far from it, actually.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jackson walking towards me. Please. No, no, no.
Jackson set his tray next to mine and sat down.

"Hello again, Scarlette." He smiled and I noticed his smile was slightly lopsided. Kind of
cute actually. "Hello Jackson." I said. I gave him a quick grin and began nibbling on that
horrid apple. "So, how long have you been in Ketchikan?" Jackson asked, his eyes full of
curiosity. "I moved here two years ago. My dad got a job at the local hospital." Jackson
nodded while chewing a slice of pizza. "How about you? What forced you to move to this
little town?" I asked. He chuckled and answered, "No one really forced me. I lived in San
Diego before this and then my parents split and now I'm living with my mom for a
while." I inhaled his bitter sweet scent and fire scorched in my throat. That grizzly was
already wearing off. "I'm sorry." I murmured, afraid I may have made him sad. His heart
began to beat fast and I could here the wet...No! I couldn't let my thoughts get out of
control. "Nah, it's no big deal." I smiled at his casualness and his breathing became
uneven. What was I doing to him? "I, um, have to go." I said quickly, flashing him a
smile.

What was even better is that we had trig together as our next class. It went smoothly
'cause my seat was on the opposite side of the classroom from his. When the bell rang
everyone left the classroom, leaving only Jackson and me. He quietly gathered his books
and exited the room with a sad expression. His toe caught on the door jam and he was
heading down toward the linoleum. Right beneath him was a broken tile. At the speed he
was falling at he was sure to break and cut open his right arm. I knew that if the blood
will gushed out of his arm I was sure to kill him. My thirst was on top of everything else
on my mind...except for Jackson's safety. My thoughts moved so quickly that he was only
half way through his fall. I darted under him and caught him in my lap. Idiot! I screamed
at myself.. Jackson's face was stunned and scared. Just as it should be. I carefully helped
Jackson up and he smiled that crooked grin again. "Thanks. But how did...?" He said,
flushing a light pink. The blood under that thin, smooth skin. My mouth watered and I
muttered, interrupting him, "Any time."

I quickly strode away, but he managed to catch up. His hand was on my shoulder and
pleasure flooded my silent heart. His body heat was like a fire place on a harsh winter
night. So inviting. "Scarlette, would you like to go to dinner with me?" Jackson asked.
My breathing staggered and I considered that. If I was alone with him and thirsty there
was a very good chance I would kill him. I'll definitely have to go hunting to make it
through that. "How about a movie instead?" I suggested. He smiled widely and said, "Ok.
Tomorrow at 7?" I nodded. Jackson's hot fingertips skimmed my jaw line and he walked
away. I smiled and scowled to myself. I flitted back to my car and headed for the forest.