Confidence

I peeked around the doorway and scanned the room.

~Luca is not here yet.~

"Hey new girl!" Travis, the skinny boy, called out to me. "What are you doing?"

~That's a good question... What am I doing? creepily peaking into a room and searching to see if Luca is here... as if I could somehow avoid him...~

"Nothing!" I smiled and entered the room, pretending like I wasn't still scared out of my wits about the conversation Luca and I had had earlier.

"Then you should come play with me!" the girl named Candace said.

I looked over to find her smiling at me and waving a ping-pong paddle. For a short moment I wondered why the people here seemed so nice.

And so nice to me... It felt weird.

It's not like all vampires were mean to me, although there were a few who liked to make me the subject of gossip and bullying. Usually, vampires just ignored me.

"Yeah," Zen was suddenly beside me and I wasn't sure when she had got there, she nudged me toward Candace, "You need lots of practice."

~Maybe they aren't ignoring me because they really need more ping pong members~

I shrugged at this thought.

~At least, to some extent, that means I belong here~

And that was a good thing. Because 'belonging' was a feeling I hadn't had before in this school.

Candace played ping pong well. she wasn't nearly as aggressive of a player as Luca had been. And she didn't seem to mind nearly at all if she lost a point. To her, it was like it was just a game. And it made practicing with her so nice.

~Jeez, why couldn't Candace have been assigned as my teacher?~

"Why don't you try holding your paddle like this." Candace said and demonstrated a new way to hole the paddle. "A lot of beginners start this way."

I followed her directions and immediately found it easier to hit the ball.

"Wow!" I smiled. "You're such a good teacher, Candace!"

Candace feigned a blush, as Zen approached our table. She watched us hit the ball back and forth a few times and said, "nice" each time I hit it, effectively boosting my confidence with each comment. When I finally missed the ball and it bounced across the room I took a moment to breath. Again, I found myself surprised at the physical exertion required for this sport as I fanned at the sweat on my forehead.

"Aren't you hot?" Zen asked she watched me fan my face.

"I was about to ask the same thing." Candace added, "Why don't you take your scarf off?"

My eyes widened at the question. I had never been asked to take off my scarf before, especially by a group of vampires. "Erm.. I-" I wasn't sure how to answer. Honestly, it would be nice to take it off, but my father had instilled in me a deep fear of ever removing it.

"What are you so worried about?" Zen asked as if understanding my worry. "We are all girls here except that guy." She pointed a thumb over her shoulder at Travis in his baggy pants, "And he wouldn't hurt a fly, isn't that right, Travis?" she called to him.

Travis looked up from a ball he was dribbling on a ping pong paddle, "What?... Uh... sure."

I was pretty sure he had no idea what he was responding to.

"Uhh" I responded still not totally comfortable.

"Or..." Zen gave me a suspicious look, "Are you trying to hide some bite marks from us?"

"No!" I answered and pulled my scarf off, the cool air rushed to meet the slightly sweaty skin of my neck and I was immediately thankful that I had been pressured into taking it off. The room silenced for a moment after it was off and I saw the eyes of Zen, Charlie, Candace, and Travis on me and how their gaze lingered on my neck.

I swallowed at the silence. Was my neck really that much to look at?

Zen broke the silence and patted me on the back, "I see why you always wear it." she said, and took my scarf from my hand and tossed it on the bleachers, "But while you're here with us, you don't need to."

"She's right." Charlie gave me a bright smile, "You can be yourself when you're with us."