Rowan is frozen at the sight of the boy who helped him with his test. He doesn't know if he's frozen because he thinks he's going to start blabbing to everyone that he helped him, or if it's something else.
He doesn't think it's the other thing; he doesn't care if he had that disturbing dream this morning, the dream that made him miss his early morning training and exercise. No, Rowan does not have a crush, especially not with a vampire.
The moroi winks at Rowan as he and his sister walk past him.
"OMG!" Violet shouts, which makes Rowan jump. He looks over to Violet, wondering why she exclaimed in that manner; maybe she found out that the vampire did, in fact, help him with his test, which is going to make people think he's not the badass that he thinks he is. It's definitely going to make his haters happy.
He just hopes the vampire doesn't open his mouth.
"What is it, Violet?" Rowan asks.
"They're vampires, uh…moroi vampires," she says in excitement like she's seeing Taylor Swift who looks like a moroi vampire herself.
"Yes, I can see that, Violet."
"I've never actually seen a moroi vampire before. And they don't usually live in places like this; they usually live in Europe, especially cloudy places, but if they live in New York, they live in the city, so why are they here?"
"I don't know, Violet. I don't know." And Rowan is hell-bent on figuring out what they're doing there. And Rowan doesn't like not knowing things.
Knowing that the vampire and his family know them even proves that they must be up to something. Rowan meant to ask about the Ivanovs, but he couldn't because he had a feeling that his family would lie to him.
Well, if his aunt and uncle didn't tell him about the Lockwoods and Ivanovs having a feud, then they sure as hell aren't going to tell him how they know the Ivanovs and what they mean by not wanting to repeat history.
"They're so cool actually." Says Violet, and of course she's so nice, and she sees the best in people; she's not going to think they're up to something until Rowan convinces her that they're up to something.
Rowan doesn't say anything; he just scoffs.
"What?"
Everyone walks into the auditorium for assembly.
"You don't think they're cool? Or do you already suspect them for murder?"
"Violet, I don't just go about suspecting people for murder."
"Uh, yes you do, and most of the time your suspicions are always right."
And she's right.
Rowan has been solving mysteries since he was little.
Just because the town is romance-centred and seems to be perfect doesn't mean that evil things don't happen.
At a very young age, Rowan solved the case of a missing girl who was kidnapped by her teacher, a man who killed his wife; he found out that a bunch of fairies killed a woman's husband, but you can't tell her that, so they told her he died in a car accident, and the car exploded.
He's known amongst the human and supernatural community as someone who solves the mysteries the Sheriff can't.
Humans and the supernatural have thought that the reason he loves mysteries is that his parents were killed.
But that's far from the case. He's always loved mysteries since his parents got him the Nancy Drew book set, and then he discovered the Hardy Boys; he loves watching Inspector Gadget and Scooby Doo.
He loves solving the things that can't be solved or explained. He never wanted to solve mysteries, just read about them. But his parents' death pushed him to solve mysteries. His parents' death made him want to be a paranormal investigator.
The two best friends sit down. And once they do. Kael looks at them and waves, but he waves at Rowan specifically.
"Ooooooooh." Violet teases.
"Oh shut up, V." Rowan hides a blush.
"I'm sorry, should I give you two some room or what?"
"No, there will be no room."
"Oh come on, why don't you give him a chance?" Rowan stops listening to Violet, and he puts his focus on Damien; both he and his sister sit up front, and everyone is talking about them. Rowan understands; they are new, and they're very attractive.
Even a blind person can see this.
"Alright, everyone settle down please, please settle down." Mr Kingston says.
Mr Blaine Kingston is the principal of Cupid Hollow High. He's a very nice, enthusiastic man who's in his late thirties.
He's cool to most students; people don't even call him Principal Kingston or Mr Kingston. They call him Mr B or Mr K. That's how chill he is.
He's six feet tall, with dark short hair, neat facial hair, high cheekbones, and he's always dressed in a vest, tie and a shirt underneath.
He usually starts assemblies in a cheerful manner, but this time he's not so cheerful.
"Mr K! We missed you, sexy!" Raphael Williams shouts for the whole school to hear, and everyone erupts into laughter.
"Yes, yes, Raphael, I missed you too. Now settle down, please." he immediately does; in fact, everyone does because they know how serious this is.
"Bad news is coming," Rowan whispers to Violet.
Mr Kingston begins by welcoming everyone to school and reminding everyone why they're here and to not just take their studies seriously but to take extracurriculars seriously as well.
And in comes the bad news.
"Unfortunately, we got a report last night that one of our own, Faith Johnson, and Abdul Malik were found murdered."
Everyone starts murmuring and talking among themselves in shock.
Rowan knew that there was going to be bad news, but he didn't expect this. Not Faith and Abdul. He knew Faith and Abdul; he'd known Faith the most because she's always singing at Christmas, Carlos and other important events.
She was also nice to him.
They were supposed to be seniors, their last year in school and now they're just gone.
"What do you think? A wendigo, an ogre, troll, fairy?" Violet asks in a whisper.
"A vampire?" he says, looking at Damien and his sister.
"Oh, you don't think they did this, do you?"
Actually, he's not sure, but he's going to find out.
"There will be a candlelight vigil for them at town square tonight, and I'm hoping we all show up to say goodbye to them. Faith and Abdul were a great addition to our community." Mr Kingston's grievances look genuine because he really cares about his students.
The students walk out of the auditorium. They can't believe they're being welcomed back to school with bad news. The principal said the news should not affect their learning. But Faith was pretty popular; people are definitely going to think and talk about it.
People are talking about it right now. They all want to know what killed them. It could be a human or a monster.
"Rowan, Violet," Kael calls for both of them as he walks over.
"Here comes your boyfriend," Violet whispers to Rowan.
"He's not my boyfriend." Rowan protests in a whisper.
"I found out what happened to both Faith and Abdul." he shows them his phone. And on the screen is Cupid Hollow's reporter, Tiffany Hayden.
And according to Tiffany, both Abdul and Faith were running away from home, but they were killed before they could even make it. They were found in the middle of the road close to the welcome to cupid's hollow sign with missing hearts.
The Sheriff is currently investigating what or who could be behind this. They're questioning both their parents right now.
"Oh my God," says Violet. "Who could have done this?"
"Definitely a monster." Both Rowan and Kael say in unison. They look at each other and smile; Rowan smiles for just a second, though. Violet likes what she's seeing.
"But what monster, though?" Violet asks. And they both don't know. "Let me guess, you guys are going to be investigating."
"Oh, V, you know us so well," Kael says, and Violet sighs.
Rowan has his eyes on the moroi and his sister. He thinks he's behind it, or he wants to think he's behind it so he has an excuse to kill him.
"What are those moroi doing here anyway?" Kael asks.
"I don't know, but it is a mystery."
"A mystery we're both going to solve?"
"You got it."
"Ugh, you two leave them alone; they're innocent." Violet defends them.
"No vampire is innocent," they both say.
"Not according to the laws." Says Violet. And that's true. Moroi vampires are innocent until proven guilty. But not to Rowan and Kael. They're guilty until proven innocent. Besides, Rowan's parents weren't killed by a strigoi vampire; they were killed by a moroi vampire.
And this moroi and his family coming here is very mysterious, and their arrival might be tied to Faith and Abdul's death.