Monday morning rolled around and that could only mean one thing.
It was the start of autumn.
I walked down the hallway with an extra spring in my step and a
smile on my face. Mum looked up from her coffee when I entered the
room before realising what it was that made me so happy this early in
the morning.
“Nathaniel is going to be very happy to see you this jolly on a school
day for a change,” mum said and glanced back down at the newspaper
she had in front of her.
“It’s the first day of the season I love the most, so of course I am go-
ing to be happy and not miserable,” I replied and grabbed an apple from
the fruit bowl Bethany had brought mum for a welcoming gift.
“And it is almost your birthday and we haven’t figured out what we
are going to do,” mum happened to remind me.
“Yeah, I know. Can’t we just forget about it for one year and just
worry about it when I am eighteen?” I asked.
“Sweetheart, this will be your first birthday with a new family. It
won’t just be us, your grandparents and Rachel and Alexander. You now
have Nathaniel and his family and I am sure that they would love to
meet Rachel and my parents.”
“Who are we meeting?” Amylia asked, stepping into the kitchen with
her schoolbag hanging off her shoulder.
“No one,” I replied and walked back up to my bedroom.
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I was alone for five minutes until Amylia made her way up. She
didn’t say anything, and just only watched me get ready for school.
“I guess mum has told you about my birthday in two weeks?” I
asked.
Amylia nodded before crossing her arms. “Brianna, why are you so
against celebrating it for?”
“It brings back memories that I would rather forget,” I said quietly.
“You mean with your father?”
“I would rather not celebrate it for that reason. Why celebrate that I
ruined my mum’s life and her relationship?” I asked and crossed my
arms.
Amylia sighed and walked over to my closet, pulling out a thin jacket
for me to wear. I slipped it over my shoulders and turned around so I
could look at her.
“Nathaniel would love for you to do something for your birthday and
if you wanted to, we could always plan something for you. It would be
nothing to fancy or expensive, but it would make us happy, especially
Nathaniel and Bethany.”
“Fine, you can plan something, but can you all please act human on
the day? The rest of my family don’t know about you all being vampires
and I don’t want them catching onto anything. My grandparents would
have heart failure knowing that I am involved with someone who is lives
on blood and is basically dead.”
“That is easily done. We don’t want other people knowing anything.
Now come on, we have a bus to catch,” Amylia announced and grabbed
my school bag from off the floor.
“The bus?” I asked, confused.
Why did they want to do something like that when each of them had
expensive cars they all loved driving and showing off to everyone?
“Nathaniel wants to become more human, so he decided today that
we are all going to catch the bus with you,” Amylia explained.
I knew that was something Nathaniel would do. But the more I
thought about it, the more I realised that everyone would be looking at
us and no doubt making up rumours to spread around the school.
“Have a good day at school girls,” mum said as we walked past the
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lounge room.
“Well, we will try to,” Amylia replied and opened up the front door.
It was quiet between Amylia and me as we walked to where the bus
picks some of the kids up. Nathaniel, Chase and James were already
waiting when we turned the corner. All three of them were looking
down at the ground and ignoring everyone around them.
“This is a sight to see,” I said, catching their attention.
“You can blame Nate for this idea,” Chase said and crossed his arms,
glaring at his adopted brother.
“What is wrong with catching the bus?” Nate asked, narrowing his
eyes at Chase.
“Just some of the people that go to our school who happen to like
spreading rumours about people. Do you not remember everything that
was said about us when we first arrived in town?” James asked and
tapped his foot on the ground.
“Suck it up,” Amylia said, glaring at Chase and James. “You both
want to support Nathaniel’s happiness and that means you will do this
without complaints. Do I make myself clear?”
“We all know who it was spreading those rumours about us and that
person hasn’t given up on making everyone else’s life a living hell,”
Chase said.
I rested my head on Nathaniel’s arm and sighed, looking around at
everything and being on the lookout from the one person I didn’t want
to see. Everyone was looking at us with shock. I guess the Pryor’s had
never caught the bus to school and everyone was wondering why the
change of heart. They would never know the real reason.
“What time does the bus get here?” James asked, pulling me out of
my thoughts.
“Any time between now and eight,” I replied.
“Devil approaching and no one shall escape the scorn she shall in-
flict,” Chase announced, making us all look over to where he was look-
ing.
Nathaniel snarled and only stopped when I placed my hand on his
chest. He looked down at my and tried to smile, but it didn’t reach his
eyes. Augusta stopped in front of us, and looked between each of us.
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Chase crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at her while James
grabbed Amylia’s hand, playing with her engagement ring.
“What is going on here?” she asked, glaring straight at me but not at
anyone else
“We are waiting for the school bus,” Amylia said, her voice cold.
“Why though? Only people who can’t afford cars take the bus and
you can afford everything like me.”
“Maybe because we wanted to be different for a change,” Nathaniel
spoke up.
“Nate, you can always come to school with me in my car,” Augusta
purred.
“Thanks but no thanks. I am happy taking the bus with my girlfriend
and family.”
“Have fun then. I will see you at school,” she said and walked away.
Chase uncrossed his arms and clenched his hands. Amylia said some-
thing that I couldn’t understand, but Chase nodded. The bus pulled to a
stop and everyone scrambled to get on. We waited until everyone had
gotten on and made our way inside. As we walked to the back of the
bus, everyone had their eyes on us. Nathaniel swung his arm around my
shoulder as I looked down at the floor.
“At least we don’t have to fight for a parking space this morning,”
Chase said as he sat in a seat and placed his school bag on the floor.
“That is a bonus,” Amylia replied and sat next to James.
“I have to talk to Hudson during lunch,” I said to Nathaniel, making
him look concerned.
“Why?”
“I feel our friendship is growing apart for some reason and I don’t
want to lose her as a friend since she accepted me straight away when I
first moved here. She is basically the only person I’ve got besides your
family and mine,” I admitted.
“Then I will distract Brandon so you can talk to her in peace. I will
take him down to the basketball courts and show him what coach has
been making us learn for the game,” Nate said and grabbed his phone
out of his pocket as it beeped.
“Thank you.”
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“We don’t need to worry about me taking Brandon away from you
and Hudson,” Nathaniel suddenly said.
“Why is that?” I asked, confused.
“Brandon wants me to ask you if you will talk to Hudson during lunch
as she is acting strange and won’t tell him what is going on,” he said and
looked at me.
“And what makes him think that I will be able to get her to tell me
what is wrong? She might not want anyone knowing.”
“Because you are her friend and you are human. Hudson might feel
more comfortable telling you what is wrong,” he whispered. “You can’t
get wrapped up in your anger like we can and accidently harm some-
one.”
I nodded, knowing that he was right. If Hudson was going to tell
someone what was bothering her, it would most likely be me.
As I stepped off the bus, I spotted Hudson standing near the lunch
room, biting her lip and looking concerned over something.
“Maybe you should go and talk to her now and see what is going on,”
Nathaniel whispered into my ear.
“Okay,” I replied and walked over to her.
Hudson looked up as I approached her and tried to smile, even
though it didn’t reach her eyes. She kept on looking around her for
some reason.
“Hey,” I said and stopped in front of her.
“Hi Brianna,” she replied in a shaky voice.
“Is everything alright?” I asked.
“Yeah everything is perfect,” she replied, forcing a smile.
I raised my eyebrows, making her sigh. Hudson opened the door to
the lunch room and walked inside. I followed her and sat down at the
table she gestured to.
“Okay, what is going on? Nate got a message from Brandon this
morning and said that you were acting strange but you wouldn’t tell him
what was going on,” I said after she sat in front of me.
“Something is wrong, and I don’t really know how Brandon will take
it once I know for sure,” Hudson said and looked down.
Once she looked back up, the look on her face was one of uncertainty
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and sadness. Something was really wrong.
“You can tell me what is wrong. You know that I won’t tell Brandon a
thing. It’s not like we really get along anyway.”
“I think I’m pregnant,” she said very quietly.
“What?” I asked, not sure if I had heard her correctly.
“I’m late and three days ago, I started throwing up which started the
alarm bells in my head. What am I going to do? I haven’t even finished
school and I am not even ready to be a mother, let alone a teenage
one.”
“Have you found out for sure?”
“I’m too scared to go and buy a test on my own. Will you come with
me during lunch?”
“Yeah, I will. Now come on, we are going to be late for class and
knowing Nathaniel, he will worry and start looking for us,” I said and got
up.
We walked to class without saying anything. I opened the door and
walked inside, making Nathaniel look up at me.
“I’ll see you at lunch,” Hudson said and walked over to her seat.
“Everything good?” Nathaniel asked as I sat down.
“Yeah,” I said, but didn’t sound convincing.
“Are you sure about that?” he asked, frowning.
“We had a talk and are going to meet at lunch,” I said, not adding in
where we were going.
“Why is Hudson blocking her thoughts?”
Before I could reply, Mrs. Franklin walked into the room with a stack
of papers. She started handing them out one by one, but didn’t say any-
thing. I could feel Nathaniel’s eyes burning holes into the side of my
head, but I didn’t look at him. The last thing I needed was to blurt out
what Hudson had told me. I didn’t know how he would take that as I
knew he wanted a child of his own. I didn’t want to make him livid.
Looking over my shoulder at Hudson, I saw that she had her hand on
her stomach and sighed. She looked up at me and had a grim look on
her face.
“Are you okay?” I mouthed.
“I will be,” she mouthed back.
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Mrs. Franklin decided that we had to fill in a questionnaire for some
reason. I kept my eyes glued down to the paper, ignoring Nathaniel,
which was hard to do when he was still staring holes into the side of my
head.
“Why do I get the feeling that you are hiding something from me?”
he asked suddenly.
“I’m not hiding anything from you. I don’t know where you are get-
ting that from,” I lied, looking down at the paper.
“You know that I can see through your lies Brianna. You aren’t even
making eye contact with me.”
“Nate, leave it alone.”
“If this involves Brandon, don’t you think he and I have the right to
know what is going on? When something is wrong with Hudson, Bran-
don is a nightmare to be around,” Nathaniel hissed.
“Hudson is my friend and it will be up to her to tell Brandon what is
bothering her. I am just her moral support.”
“Moral support over what?”
I looked over at Nathaniel with a hard stare. “Something that you
would break you.”
Nothing else was spoken between us. I looked up at the clock on the
wall and saw that it was almost lunch time. Had we been in this class for
almost 4 hours? I heard footsteps and looked over my shoulder, seeing
Hudson approaching where we were sitting.
“Nathaniel,” she said, catching his attention. “Tell Brandon not to
worry about me and please don’t be mad at Brianna. This isn’t her fault
that she won’t say anything.”
“How can Brianna know what is wrong and Brandon can’t?” Na-
thaniel asked.
“Because it is girl related.”
Nathaniel looked over at me for conformation. I nodded, making Na-
thaniel close his eyes.
“Why do I always overreact to everything?”
“Because it is in your nature,” Hudson whispered and crouched down
next to me, staring straight into my eyes. “Are you still coming with me
at lunch?”
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“Yes,” I replied and placed my school bag in my lap.
“Where are you going?” Nathaniel asked.
“Brianna is coming with me to get a few things,” Hudson said in a
calm voice.
The bell finally rang, making everyone scramble out of the room. Na-
thaniel looked at both of us and left without saying a word.
“What do you girls have planned for your lunch break?” Mrs. Franklin
asked, smiling at us while shuffling some papers.
“Not a lot,” Hudson said before looking down at the floor.
“Is everything alright?” Mrs. Franklin asked, sounding concerned and
leaning on her desk.
“She would be the best one to tell, Hudson. Mrs. Franklin would nev-
er judge any of us for anything that we did. She is the good vampire, not
the enemy,” I said, reassuringly.
Hudson looked at me and nodded, realising that I was right. “I’m go-
ing to the chemist to get a pregnancy test,” she admitted.
Mrs. Franklin’s eyes became wide. She walked over to the door and
opened it before closing and locking it. She walked back to her desk and
pulled out two slips of some sort. After writing on them, she handed
one to Hudson and one to me.
“What is this for?” Hudson asked, looking at it.
“For you and Brianna not worrying about having to come back to
school. Go buy the test and then do whatever you have to do,” Mrs.
Franklin replied.
“What about Nate and Brandon? They will know something is up if
we don’t return after lunch and we don’t really want to deal with two
angry and concerned vampires because we vanished without a trace,”
Hudson said.
“I will deal with them if they start asking questions.”
Leaving the classroom, I stared down at the slip and tried to think of
an excuse to give Nathaniel after school, knowing that he would be the
first to ask questions. Once we had gotten outside, Brandon and Na-
thaniel had come straight over to us.
“Why do you have leaving slips?” Brandon asked.
“Because I am not feeling well so Mrs. Franklin wrote them out for
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both of us as Brianna offered to stay with me,” Hudson lied.
“And where are you off to?”
“To the chemist to see if they can help me,” Hudson said before real-
ising what she said.
I looked over at her and shook my head lightly. This wasn’t going to
turn out the way Hudson wanted.
“I’ll come,” Brandon said, making Hudson’s eyes become wide.
“No you don’t have to,” she said.
“You are sick so I will be coming with you and make sure that nothing
is seriously wrong with you.”
He grabbed Hudson’s arm and started walking. She looked over her
shoulder at me with a look of fear on her face. I shrugged my shoulders
and tried to think of a plan to get Brandon away, but nothing came to
mind.
“What was that about?” Nathaniel asked. “Hudson has never looked
like that before. Has Brandon done something to her?”
“Something happens to be wrong,” I said, hoping that he wouldn’t
ask any more questions and go to Brandon.
“Like what?” he pressed like the vampire he was.
“If I tell you, promise me that you will not tell Brandon a single thing.
This can’t come out into the open just yet,” I said, looking up to him
with pleading eyes.
“Why would I tell Brandon?” he asked, sounding confused.
“Because Hudson thinks she is pregnant and doesn’t want Brandon
knowing until she knows for sure and I don’t want him finding out from
anyone else but her.”
Nathaniel’s jaw became slack once I finished talking. He closed his
eyes and breathed through his nose.
“Were you going with her to buy the test to find out if she is preg-
nant or not?” he finally asked, opening his eyes.
“Yes I was going but as you can see that didn’t turn out well.”
“Let’s go find Brandon and I will tell him something has come up and
then you can go with Hudson and find out,” Nate said, but his tone had
changed. It had become clipped and short.
We had found them outside a chemist and walked over to them.
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Brandon looked at us confused about why we were there. I hit Na-
thaniel lightly on back, making him jump into action.
“Brandon, I just remembered that Hudson prefers to be alone when
she is sick, so what I was thinking was that we leave Brianna with her
and make sure that she gets home safe,” Nate said, glancing down at
me.
“I think I should stay with my girlfriend if she is sick,” Brandon ar-
gued.
“Just go with Nathaniel,” Hudson said her tone angry.
“Baby, why are you acting like this for?” Brandon asked, sounding
shocked.
“I want to talk to Brianna alone as she can understand what I am go-
ing through,” Hudson said, looking at me.
“It’s girl related,” I spoke up.
“Fine,” Brandon said and walked away with Nathaniel following him.
“Thank you,” she said and looked inside.
“No worries. Now, let’s go find out if you are going to be a mother or
not,” I said and wrapped my arm around her shoulder, leading her in-
side.
Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting on the edge of Hudson’s bed, wait-
ing for her to come back from the bathroom.
“What am I going to do if it is positive?” she asked as she walked into
her bedroom, holding the test in her hand.
“It could be negative.”
“I am just hoping for Nathaniel’s sake that it is negative,” Hudson said
and looked down at the test before placing it on her dresser and came
back.
“What would Nathaniel do?” I asked.
“Shut down, become angry at everything, break a few things before
breaking down,” she replied, staring straight ahead.
I knew Nathaniel’s temper would come out to play if Hudson was
pregnant, and I now feared that he would do something he would later
regret. Hudson’s alarm on her phone went off, making her jump. She
got off her bed and walked over to her dresser.
“It’s positive,” she said, grabbing the test and walking back over to
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where I was sitting.
“You have to tell Brandon right away. He has a right to know that he
is going to be a father in less than nine months,” I said and looked at
her.
“Are you crazy? He will be livid if he knew that you were the first one
to know about it and not him,” she said, her eyes filling up with tears. “I
can’t deal with an angry Brandon.”
“Then just tell him that you wanted me as support just in case it was
negative and that you didn’t want to crush his sprit even though I am
sure that he doesn’t even want kids,” I said quietly.
“He will be so angry,” Hudson sobbed. “But you are right; I have to
tell him that he is going to be a father. I can’t keep this from him. Bran-
don already knows something is wrong with me and if I keep it any
longer, he will find some sort of way to get what is wrong with me out
of you.”
She got off her bed and grabbed her mobile before dialling a number.
She spoke to the person for five minutes before hanging up.
“They are on their way. How do you think Nathaniel will take it?”
“Please, don’t tell him just yet. I don’t want to leave with a furious
vampire who is capable of murder in a blink of an eye. Just wait until
you start to show before you start telling people, including Nathaniel,
but just make sure I am not around when you do so.”
Hudson’s bedroom door opened, revealing Brandon and Nathaniel.
Sighing, I pushed myself off the bed and grabbed my school bag. Hud-
son had her hands behind her back, hiding the test from Nathaniel and
Brandon while looking afraid. I didn’t blame her. Her life was about to
change.
“I’ll see you at school,” I said and walked out of the room, gesturing
at Nathaniel to follow.
I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that he was following me.
He didn’t need to hear what Hudson planned on telling Brandon. I
would leave that job to them once they were ready to announce it.
“So, is Hudson pregnant or not?” he asked as we walked to Jack’s
chemist.
“No, she isn’t,” I lied, hoping he would believe me.
289
“Good. I don’t Brandon would be ready for a huge step like that just
yet.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yes really. Brandon has never really been the one to want a child,
but he loves Hudson that much that if she ever wanted a child, he would
try his hardest to give that to her,” he said and looked down at me.
I nodded, but didn’t say anything. I was hoping that Brandon would
be taking this well and not doing something to scare Hudson in her frag-
ile state of mind.
“Do you want to do something for the rest of the afternoon?” Na-
thaniel asked.
“What did you have planned?” I asked.
“Anything that you wanted to do,” he replied and grabbed my hand.
“I don’t really want to do anything. I just want to go home,” I replied.
“Well then, let’s go to see Jack and he might bring us home today
since he finishes in thirty minutes,” Nathaniel replied.
When we entered, Erica glared at us when we walked past her. Jack
looked up from the counter and saw us standing there.
“Why aren’t you and Brianna in class?” Jack asked.
“Aubrey let us go early,” he replied. “So can we just hang here to kill
some time before we catch the bus home?”
“Well, I finish soon, so I can take you and Brianna home. Just hang in
the staff room,” Jack said.
Nathaniel nodded and started walking, dragging me along with him.
He opened the door a