Damien and his sister are seated, waiting for the orders for them to meet the principal. It seems like he's talking to people in there, and the twins have to wait for him to finish conversing with the people who are in the same room with him.
But in the meantime, they get stares from Martha, the secretary. The twins guess she hasn't seen people with silver eyes before.
Cece leans closer to whisper something to her brother.
"She's so weird," she says.
"I know, but try not to look at her," he says, smiling at Martha. Cece does the same, but the smile is fake as hell.
Finally, the door opens up, revealing two people. A white man and woman, and from the pain Damien can feel from them, it's evident that the two are going through grief. It doesn't even take an empath to know that they're depressed as hell.
These are Faith's parents.
"Let me know if there's anything I can do." Mr Kingston says to them, and Faith's father nods his head, and they both walk away with swollen eyes, the wife most especially. Damien bets the man isn't crying because he believes it's weak for men to cry. All he knows is if he lost a family member, he's going to be sobbing for months.
Faith's father's eyes land on Damien, and Damien immediately speaks. "I'm sorry for your loss."
The man is confused as hell because it is a small town after all and he knows everyone, but he's never seen both he and Cece before, so he knows they must be new. And also, he's the pastor.
The pastor nods. "Thank you, son." Then he walks away.
Damien has always felt iffy about pastors, religious people in general. They're always so judgy, especially when it comes to gay people.
"Cecelia and Damien Ivanov, please, right this way," the principal finally says, and the twins get up and walk past Martha, who is still staring.
They strut into the principal's office, which is not what they were expecting.
Both twins have been in their headmaster's office for trouble-making in their old school, but this doesn't look like a principal's office at all. It just looks like an office for the head of a summer camp.
It's all so colourful: the desk, the chair, the couch is filled with stuffed animals, there are dozens of mugs which say Best Principal Ever on them, and there are loads of pens in the mugs and a rainbow flag.
Damien is beginning to love the guy; he's nothing like Headmaster Goldberg…at all.
"Please have a seat, feel free, have some candy," the principal says.
"No, thanks," Cece says, but his brother packs a handful of candy and puts it in his pocket.
"Haa, well, I'm Mr Blaine Kingston, but please feel free to call me Mr B or Mr K as the kids do. Welcome to not just Cupid Hollow High but Cupid Hollow. You are going to love it in this town; we all love each other here. It is the town of love after all."
"Yep, we can see that," Cece says sarcastically.
"Cool, cool. Well, I saw your past results and you two are very smart. But the American educational system is different from the UK. Here we take education seriously and extracurricular activities very, very seriously, so you two must pick something you're skilled and passionate about."
"I'm going to try out for the cheerleading squad." Says Cece happily because she's always wanted to do that because of the high school movies she's watched since she was a child.
"Okay, okay, that's great, Cecelia. What about you, Damien?"
Damien immediately chews the candy that's been in his mouth, and it dissolves.
"I'm joining the school paper."
"Okay, that's amazing. Why did I even call you two in here? It seems like you've already got it covered." he giggles, and so do the twins. "Oh, oh, actually I did bring you here for a reason, uh…" A knock on the door. "Ah, just in time. Come in, Brandon!"
So the door opens up, and the person who opened the door falls to the ground, but he doesn't stay there; he picks himself up as soon as possible.
"Sorry, Mr K," He says awkwardly. His cheeks are flushed; he's a little embarrassed.
"It's okay, Brandon. Guys, this is Brandon Siwa, your classmate who will be showing you around school. Brandon, these are Damien and Cecelia all the way from London." Mr K says excitedly, like London is some magical place.
"Nice to meet-" he freezes when he sees Cecelia. He is in awe of her. But why wouldn't he be? She is beautiful after all.
Brandon is a nerdy skater boy. He has short auburn hair and freckles all over his face. He has jade green eyes, a round face, skinny legs, and a beige skin tone.
He's dressed in a baggy grey hoodie, pants, a skateboard by his side, and a Spider-Man watch around his wrist and an Iron Man earphone case.
"Bloody hell. You're a Marvel nerd, bro." Damien asks, and Brandon snaps out of his trance.
"Uh, yeah. Marvel's the best."
"You think it's better than DC, right?"
"Hell yeah!"
Damien turns to his twin sister. "You see another person with common sense."
"You- you don't like Marvel?" Brandon asks her.
She shrugs. "Catwoman isn't in Marvel, is she?"
"No, she's not. Catwoman is one of the best characters in DC, though. I don't hate DC; I just prefer Marvel."
"Well, I think both are amazing." Mr K says. "Now you kids run along now." So they do just that. The three walk out of the office. Damien wraps his arm around Brandon like they've been best friends forever.
"What's your favourite Marvel character… Spider-Man."
They both say in unison. Damien laughs.
"Favourite villain… Doom."
They say.
"Whoa, okay, favourite team? X-men. I think I love you."
Brandon shrugs. "They have the coolest powers."
"Hey nerds, we have to hurry it up before class starts," Cecelia says, annoyed.
"You must have a favourite Marvel character, Cecelia. Come on." Says Brandon.
"Hmm," she thinks. "I do love Wanda."
"Ah, the most powerful person in the MCU."
"Hey." Damien slightly hits Brandon. "I thought it was Thor."
"It's Wanda," both Brandon and Cecelia say.
"Oh, whatever."
And so Brandon shows them around before classes start, with Damien asking him more comic book questions and Brandon trying to include Cecelia and trying to get to know her.
The whole school is still talking about Faith and Abdul's death, bringing up theories on who could have killed them. Some have even jumped into the arms of racism, claiming Abdul's parents killed them because, to them, in their religion, they do this a lot, especially to kids who disobey their parents and want to run away with the person they forbade them to be with.
Rowan so badly wanted to jump them and tear them apart with his claws, but what would be the point? Also, he would not only get in trouble with the law but with the council for hurting a human.
So he chooses not to harm them, for now.
He is wondering if both Faith and Abdul were killed by a human or a supernatural creature. They've never heard of people being killed and getting their hearts stolen before. This is a first, and it feels like some serial killer thing. But Rowan isn't going to jump into that theory soon. All he has to do now is act like a normal teenager and get to class.
He's having English Lit first.
"I always thought Faith would be immortal," Violet says.
"Why? Because she was a Christian?" Rowan asks.
"No, because she looked so put together, and she never did anything reckless. But then I forgot we have real-life predators in this world, even in this romantic town of ours."
Rowan nods his head. No one is really immortal, he thinks. He also thought his parents would be immortal, but they're not here; they're dead. The only ones who are immortal would be strigoi vampires.
But he gets why Violet would think that way. She probably thinks her parents are immortal too, and there's no way they're going to die. He would never say that to her face because that would be insensitive, but her parents are in fact going to die soon, despite them being skilled, powerful witches who have fought monsters for years.
Both Rowan and Violet walk into class. Violet goes to take her seat, but Rowan stops when he sees him. The moroi is sitting next to an empty seat. Everyone has their seats, and Rowan usually sits next to Violet; she's also seated next to the empty seat.