Vampire 01 - Daughter of Darkness

of course. Enjoy the remainder of your lunch,” he added, and walked away.
    I knew I was smiling now, and I also knew Ava would be furious. I stuffed his list of references into my book bag and left the cafeteria a little before the bell rang. I didn’t look back at him, either, nor did I glance at any other students. I felt their eyes on me, however. Curiosity only grew stronger and more intense about me the remainder of the day. Everywhere I looked, every time I turned, some girls and some boys were talking and looking my way. Mark Daniels was true to his word, too. He was always nearby, smiling, shrugging. I triedto concentrate on the schoolwork and get him out of my mind, but it seemed impossible. His smile and his sexy eyes were frozen across my vision.
    He tapped me on the shoulder at the end of science class and handed me another slip of paper. “I forgot these two.”
    I looked at what he had written: “Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi.”
    “But no pressure, no pressure,” he added, holding up his hands and backing away.
    I laughed. Maybe I shouldn’t have. Maybe it was wrong, but I couldn’t help it. He was funny, handsome, charming, and certainly what Ava would have described as original. Even she would have had trouble rejecting him out of hand, I thought.
    By the time I reached Mr. Burns’s class, I sensed that everyone was talking about me and Mark. I thought even Mr. Burns was looking at me with greater interest. Whether it was my imagination or not, the effect was the same. I felt myself blushing and tried to keep my eyes down. We were studying Shakespeare’s sonnets, and suddenly, after a discussion of one, he had us turn to Sonnet 18 and then moved down the aisle as he read, stopping right before my desk. He liked to be the one to read them completely before we talked about them. I felt his gaze on me and looked up.
    “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” he began. It did seem as if he was speaking only to me. I felt like getting up and running out of the room. “Thou art more lovely and more temperate… But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thouowest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest…”
    When he finished the sonnet, he held his gaze on me. I held my breath. What was he doing? He was drawing all the attention to me. I thought it wasn’t only embarrassing for me but also for him. He was a grown man. Why didn’t he realize this?
    “So,” he said, finally pulling his eyes from me, “who wants to try to explain this in more modern terms?”
    Mark raised his hand quickly. Mr. Burns looked surprised.
    “You’re inspired, Mr. Daniels. What could have made our most recent new student more inspired than my old crows?”
    “Such is the power of real beauty on me and you,” Mark replied. I glanced at him and saw he was staring right at me. The other girls in the class looked as if they would chorus in a deep, heartfelt sigh. Some of the boys were grinning from ear to ear. Mr. Burns seemed lost for words for a moment but quickly regained his composure and started to ask his usual questions about the imagery and meter.
    Never since I had begun in this school had the sound of the bell ending class been more welcome. I practically leaped up to lunge for the door before anyone could say anything to me. Mr. Burns shouted out the assignment. I barely heard him. I didn’t look back.
    Marla was waiting for me at the entrance to the parking lot. Even my little sister, unsophisticated, still more boyish than girlish, looked up with surprise at what she saw in my face.
    “Something wrong?” she asked. “Some boy say something sexy to you?” She looked hopeful that it was true.
    I shook my head. “No, c’mon.”
    “Oh,” she said with disappointment, and followed me out.
    Ava was waiting in the car. I moved as quickly as I could toward it, but heard Mark shout out, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade.”
    “Huh?” Marla said, looking back. “That boy is talking to you, Lorelei.”
    “Forget about him,” I said, and turned her toward the car. I had hoped somehow to escape Ava’s scrutiny, but she was already gaping at me through the passenger-side window, her face a portrait of disgust and disappointment.
    “It’s not my fault,” I said, getting in quickly.
    She hesitated, continued to look toward the school entrance at Mark Daniels and some other boys who had joined him,