The Keeper's Vow (9 page)

“It’s alright. Let’s get to the front office
before classes start. Can’t be late on your first day, right?”
Lucinda said, doing her routine check on Tristan. He raised his
eyes brows at her and shoved his hands in his pockets.

Katie couldn’t help notice that some of his
facial expression sparked an instant spike of
dislike…paranoia…shock.

He scowled at her, which meant one thing. It
was true, he could read her mind.

Katie hated going to the front office.
Myrtle, the front desk lady, gave her the creeps. She was kind of
spacey.

They walked to the front desk with Lucinda.
Myrtle waved, wearing a bright blue frilly shirt, her frizzy
straw-yellow hair in its usual beehive location, and her usual
strange smile.

Lucinda and Myrtle talked for what was
achingly, too long while Katie and Allison sat in waiting chairs.
Myrtle took Tristan’s picture for his new school ID card and waved
Katie over. Her eyes sparkled when she asked to take Katie’s
picture for a school ID card.

“It’s me Katie. Katie Watts. I go here.”

“Sure. Sure you do.” Myrtle said, still
smiling. “I’ve been waiting for you. I have your new schedule. You
weren’t on the active list since birth, so you’ll have to take an
evaluation with Mr. Carver before winter break. If you pass, you’ll
be a permanent member of the program.” She handed Katie a piece of
paper: a new schedule.

Her schedule wasn’t as new as she’d thought
it would be. The first half of the day she had regular classes:
English, Math, Chemistry—except she’d been moved into Brian’s
chemistry class—and Study Hall (normally that was her seventh
period class where she napped). The second half the day was what
she didn’t recognize: Natural History, Field Study, and Practical
Application. Last on the list made her cringe, but she knew it was
coming: After School Activities. For three years, Katie had counted
herself lucky that she got to go home to her comfy bed after
seventh period, while Brian and Allison went to their after school
activities four days out of the week.

She already worked hard at being average.
How was she going to get the little bit of homework she
did
do done? Now Myrtle talked of an extra midterm test.

“What if I fail?” Katie asked.

“What?” Myrtle smiled.

“The test. What if I fail the test.”

“Well, Sweetheart. We’ll cross that bridge
if we get there. Won’t we?” she said, her eyes sparkling and
glazed. “Oh! I almost forgot!” Myrtle said, shaking her head as she
fumbled through papers on her desk. “Ms. Tisdall will be your study
hall tutor. Oh, here it is.” Myrtle handed Katie a stack of papers.
“This is the material you’ll need to go over by winter break—oh no
need to look through it now, Ms. Tisdall will go over that—oh you
dropped a paper right there. Should I staple those for you?”

Katie shook her head as dread filled her
soul. This was a mistake. If they had told her she’d have this much
more homework to do she would have jumped into Glock’s arms.

Tristan had only one sheet of paper in his
hand and, without a single word, he put it on top of her stack. It
was an exact replica of her new schedule.
Why doesn’t he have a
stack of homework papers?
Annoyed, she looked from Tristan to
Lucinda and to Myrtle’s smile.

The bell rang.

“You kids better be off to class then,”
Lucinda sang. She moved to straighten Tristan’s shirt, like Katie
had seen her do a dozen times to Brian, but stopped. He turned as
if he didn’t notice.

They said their goodbyes to Lucinda and left
her to talk with Myrtle.

Katie handed Tristan back his schedule as
she left the office dragging Allison with her.

“Aren’t you going to show me around,
Katalina?” he called behind her. She turned around to his easy
simile and tripped over her own feet. Why did seeing that smile
creep her out?

“Don’t call me that here.”

“But that’s your name.”

“People call me Katie.”

“Katalina sounds better.”

Allison snorted and stopped at her
locker.

“Tristan,” Katie said.

“Katalina?”

She sighed and turned away from his mocking
smile. How could she ever think he was menacing? The only thing he
was capable of being was irritating…annoying…pesky…
and there’s
probably a hint of self-centered there somewhere.

“You want to let up on the compliments?”
Even though she wanted to slam his face into a locker, she couldn’t
help but stare in awe. He really heard what she was just thinking.
She let out a short laugh. It was absurd. Pure insanity.

A new type of doom and gloom hung over Katie
as she realized she didn’t do her English homework. She needed to
do the short journal entry on the first Act of Othello. That would
have given her enough points to skip out on the paper. Out of the
corner of her eye she could see Tristan shake his head.

Mr. Rhineheart introduced himself to Tristan
and told him to take a seat wherever he’d like. Tristan picked the
seat on the other side of Katie. Brian’s seat. It didn’t escape
Katie that he wasn’t there.

She pulled out her copy of,
Othello,
from her book-bag. Still, it was impossible to think of Mr.
Rhineheart as a guardian, he was a high school English teacher.
Stranger, was knowing some of the kids in her class were guardians,
just sprinkled in with normal kids. Had she really spent the last
two years of high school with kids who believed in monsters?

“Katie? Katie—come in, Ms. Watts. Over.” Mr
Rhineheart said, doing his walkie-talkie impression. “Do you mind
sharing with Tristan? We’re out of Othellos.” he asked.

“Sure,” she said, realizing she had been
staring at him the whole time. He looked at her a little longer
than usual, no doubt contemplating if he should move her to the
slower-paced class.

“I’m pretty sure I know this play by heart,”
Tristan said.

“Did you read it a lot at other
schools?”

“No. How many times do you think I’ve been
in the eleventh grade?”

She stared at him.

“When I was a kid—
how old do you think I
am?
”

Katie looked away. She couldn’t help it if
she thought he was a kid in the 1800’s he
said
he was a
vampire.

Tristan opened his mouth but changed his
mind.

Mr. Rhineheart put on a theatrical reading
like he did every class, and Katie relaxed. She expected everything
to be different, but English was still Mr. Rhineheart’s chance at
being a Shakespearean actor.

She paid attention more than usual as
Tristan pointed out his favorite parts. He marveled at the way Iago
manipulated Othello. “Genius,” he said. “Genius.”

The next two periods (math and chemistry)
passed the same way: Tristan sat next to Katie, and he made her
look incredibly stupid. He was good at everything. It was
disgusting. He sat in class, took notes, answered questions…what
was he doing? Wasn’t this a hoax? Why was he trying so hard.

Katie almost died when her Math teacher, Mr.
Right, walked over to their desk and told them to exchange numbers.
“If Tristan has questions about the school he can ask you, and if
you have questions about Math, you can ask him.”

“I see, my only talent lies in knowing where
the classrooms are?” Katie said, eyeing Mr. Right.

“Katie, Your talents go farther than spacial
recognition. I’ve seen you in the lunchroom haggling with the lunch
ladies, maybe you can get him a cheap lunch.”

Katie smacked her head against the desk as
they laughed. “Aren’t teachers supposed to
encourage
students and
build
their self-esteem?”

“Aren’t students supposed to have a hunger
for knowledge and a thirst for learning? —By the look on your face
I think you know what I’m getting at. Exchange numbers.” When Mr.
Right left Tristan was still laughing.

“It wasn’t
that
funny.” Katie
said.

“No, I’m laughing because he’s under the
impression that I’d ever give you my number.” Tristan laughed
harder while jotting down more problems.

When the bell rang Katie was glad to go to
study hall. She left the class so fast she forgot to wait for
Allison to pack-up her things. They always walked from Math
together, in fact they usually sat next to each other in math, but
Allison forsaked her to Tristan to sit next to her newest crush.
Typical.

Katie slowed her pace to the library. She
was suppose to be meeting her new tutor. A tutor. It wasn’t that
she cared how it looked. She worked hard at not caring what other
people thought of her. But she couldn’t help hating the idea. It
didn’t matter that the subject was paranormal. A tutor was a tutor.
She’d be subject to a speech about trying harder, and living up to
her full potential.

Sigh.
Today was proving more normal
than she thought. Troublesome, but normal.

As soon as she walked into the library she
spotted her. Her new tutor. It was obvious. The lady was the
dorkiest looking thing in the library, and waving like she was
manic. Katie took a deep breath and inched her way over,
periodically looking over her should to make sure the lady wasn’t
waving at someone else.

“Hi, Ms. Tis—”

“No, Call me Traci!” Traci said, blinking
behind the biggest bifocals Katie had ever seen. They made her eyes
look bigger and rounder than they should have been.

“Hi Traci, I’m Katie.” They shook hands.
Traci’s hands were so small Katie felt like she could break them if
she squeezed. Traci couldn’t have been that much older than her.
Yet, everything about her pea-green sweater and binoculars for
glasses, made her look like she belonged in a nursing home.

Katie looked away trying not to stare or
judge. It would be just her luck that Traci could read minds too.
Her eyes drifted to the door as Tristan, Allison and a few other
students piled into the Library. It looked as if Allison invited
Tristan over to a table, but whether he heard her or not Katie
couldn’t tell. He sat in the far side of the Library with his back
to her.

“I’m very excited, you’re my first
student—but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing or
anything. It’s just, this is the first time they’ve let me do
anything, really. They think because I’m not good at hunting things
or giving life advice that I’m not much use for anything, but of
course that’s not all people are good for, right? Oh—sorry. I
didn’t mean to go on like that—you’re new right? This is your first
day? That’s different.”

Katie blinked. Was that a question or
statement? The way Traci stared behind her large frames indicated
that she was looking for an answer. “Yeah, I guess I’m new.” Katie
said, diverting her eyes. Traci smiled anyway and pointed to the
stack of papers Katie still had in her hand.

“Is that a study plan?”

Katie handed her the papers with a shrug.
Study plan? Fuel for fire? It was all the same to her.

“Oh yes. Indeed.
Oh, look
. We even
get to cover the Lycan Empire! That’s my favorite really. Lycans
really don’t get the respect they deserve amongst the lore. It’s
not like they
choose
to be big and hairy—you know there’s
something about having a tail that really makes them fascinating.”
Traci shifted through the papers smiling to herself as her finger
found more topics she liked. Katie tried to look interested, for
the first minute or two she even felt sincere, but the more Traci
talked the more Katie was weighed down by her decision. She tried
to swallow down the anxiety from the morning. Every time, it rose
higher and higher.

Just when her hands began to shake Traci
stopped talking and turned to her.

“You know, I know it looks like a lot of
work, but I’ve got an idea—” Traci bent over in her chair and
rummaged through a bag Katie didn’t know was there. Katie peeked
over and was not surprised to find a large flower-print rucksack.
Traci surfaced again with a brown leather notebook. There was a
pink flower in the center. It was hideous, and seemed like
something Traci would like. “I hope you don’t mind, I bought you
this as a sort of good luck token.”

“I—Thank you,” Katie said as Traci handed it
to her. Katie blushed as guilt welted in her. She was never good at
getting gifts, she didn’t know what to say. What was the proper
protocol? Squeal and say something nice about it? Instead she felt
the cover. It was soft. She tried to think nice things about it as
she forced a smile. She felt like an ass.

“Oh no, you don’t have to thank me. I just
want to help you as much as possible. I know what it’s like to be
behind—and—well I just want it to be kind of a reminder that you
won’t be for long. Also it’s a planner so it’ll help organize your
time.” Traci smiled big obviously proud of herself. Katie felt
worst for thinking it was the most ugliest thing ever. She felt
even worst for doing nothing but judging Traci since she sat down.
Traci was nice.

Katie reached into her book-bag and pulled
out a pen. She opened up the planner—cringing a little at the
flower print paper—and asked, “So how do I use this thing.” Traci
laughed. It was the cutest thing Katie had ever heard, until Traci
snorted.

It was the longest fifty-minutes of Katie’s
life. Traci planned out nearly ever hour of Katie’s day along with
her new sleep time, for the next ten months. Guilt or not, she was
going to take that little book of hell and stuff it into the
darkest depths of her locker. Just before the bell rang she caught
of glimpse of Tristan hovering over a book. His back was still and
he was the only one wearing the jacket to the school uniform. It
made Katie angry that even then he looked more in his element than
Katie felt listening to Traci mumble on about “The Vampire
Dynasty”. This was her school, not his. Her life.