The Week I Was A Vampire (18 page)

             
Jude frowned at this statement, but quickly recovered and shrugged off her blue blazer.

             
“Here,” she said, holding the jacket up, “put this on.”

             
Jemima did as told, allowing Jude to help her into the blazer before doing up the button in the middle. 

             
Jude turned the young girl around and pointed towards a floor length mirror propped up against the wall.

             
“Just an idea of what you can do,” Jude said and watched Jemima step closer to the mirror to get a better look at herself.

             
With her hair up, her flawless facial features were put on display, Jude having emphasized the younger girl’s eyes and lips in a way that was not only mature, but still appropriate for a girl forever trapped in the body of a sixteen year old.  The blazer gave Jemima a polished look and helped cover up the revealing minidress the girl was sporting.

             
“I look... mature,” Jemima finally settled on.  She stared at Jude in the mirror for a moment before a grin spread across her face.

             
Jude stepped up and placed her hands on Jemima’s shoulders, taking a minute to look beyond the glamour.  There was Jemima, sickly and on the verge of death, but she could see in the girl’s eyes the same vitality Daphne had seen all those years ago.

             
“Now you’re beautiful,” Jude said.  “No glamour required.”

•§•

“Are you girls doing alright?” Daniel asked as he entered Jemima’s room after being granted permission to enter. 

             
Jude and Jemima were in the process of sorting through the blonde vampire’s wardrobe in search of clothing that suited her new look, while tossing clothes that were, as Jemima had decided, “tacky and tasteless.”

             
“Actually, Daniel,” Jude said, “I need to talk to you.  You are, after all, Jemima’s older brother and I’m going to need you to sign as her guardian, assuming Jemima agrees.”

             
The young vampire’s ears perked up at the mention of her name and she emerged from scouring her wardrobe, looking between Jude and Daniel, who looked confused as well.

             
“Agree to what?” Jemima said and Jude smiled.

             
“I was wondering,” she said, “if you’d like to go to prom with me?”

             
Jemima gawked at Jude for a moment before hurtling herself in the girl’s arms and screaming with delight.

             
“I’d love to!” she said and hugged Jude tight, a warning from Daniel keeping her from squeezing too hard.

             
“Oh Daniel,” Jemima said, “please say yes.  Please say I can go.”

             
Daniel hesitated, glancing between his sister and Jude and not looking at all convinced.

             
“If you want,” Jude said, “I’m sure the school could always use another chaperone.  They might let you, and maybe Daphne.  Would that make you feel better?”

             
“Much better,” Daniel said and then smiled down at his eager younger sister.

             
“Is that a yes?” Jemima dared, staring up at her brother.

             
Daniel nodded and caught his sister as she jumped up to hug him.

             
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said before zooming out of sight, no doubt to tell Mafe and Daphne the good news.

             
“You didn’t have to do that,” Daniel said, turning his attention back to Jude who looked out of place in her sweater in jeans as she stood amid the colorful, glittery realm that was Jemima’s room.

             
“I wanted to,” Jude said.  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but Jemima didn’t have a happy childhood, did she?”

             
Daniel closed the bedroom door before coming to lean against one of the bed posts.  He frowned and shook his head.

             
“Our mother died giving birth to Jem,” he said.  “She’d always been the compassion to our father’s cruelty and with her out of the picture, Jem suffered.  I was our father’s firstborn and a son, which gave me more favor in his eyes.  Jem also looked just like our mother, which didn’t help matters.  She was raised by nannies just as mean as our father.  I wanted to help her, but there was nothing I could do.  In a way, it’s a good thing Daphne turned her so young, because I don’t think Jem could’ve handled the harshness of her life much longer.  At the same time, though, she is stuck in the body of a child and never really had a childhood.”

             
He paused in his telling and took in Jude’s calm demeanor as she mimicked his posture, leaning against the post opposite from him.

             
“What gave it away?” he said and watched as Jude swept an arm around to encompass the expanse of the room.

             
“I remember my room looking a bit like this when I was eight,” Jude said, “but there are knickknacks here and there that say Jemima wants to grow up.  She’s sort of stuck in the middle of childhood and adulthood, and that’s a difficult place to be, even if you’re just human.  I can’t imagine being stuck there forever.”

             
“So is that what the hair and jacket were about?” Daniel said, gesturing in the direction his sister had disappeared.  “Are you trying to make her feel older?”

             
Jude shook her head.

             
“I’m trying to make her feel good about herself,” she said.  “I want her to know she doesn’t have to flaunt her body and hurt people just to feel something.  I want her to feel capable and in control.  At the same time, I’d like her to have the childhood she never had, hence asking her to prom.  What do you think?”

             
Daniel pushed off the post and strode over to Jude, catching her face between his hands.

             
“I think,” he said, “that if I didn’t love you before, I certainly do now.”

             
Jude shook her head, dislodging his hands and stepped back.

             
“What if you’re wrong about me?” she said. 

             
When Daniel tried to argue, she cut him off.

             
“Jemima told me why she really attacked me.  It wasn’t because she was jealous, it was because she was afraid.  It wasn’t that she thought I was going to change your life, it was that she knew I was going to change hers.  What if what you felt when you first saw me, wasn’t the effect I was going to have on you, but the effect I was going to have on Jem?”

             
Daniel looked down at his feet as he sighed.  He took a moment to regain his composure before looking at Jude.

             
“Why are you so against me loving you?” he said.

             
Jude shook her head.

             
“I’m not,” she said.  “I’m just not about to give up my life for someone I don’t know.  I don’t mean to sound cruel, but your love doesn’t mean anything to me, Daniel.  Yes, I’m flattered, but when it comes to the argument of me being a human or a vampire, your love isn’t a valid reason.  I’m not the kind of girl who falls madly in love in a heartbeat and then uproots her life to be with that person forever.  I’m sorry if that’s what you want-”

             
“It’s not,” Daniel said, cutting her off.  “I don’t want you to be anyone but yourself, but I wish you’d accept what I’m saying as true.”

             
“Give me time, then,” Jude said and laughed when Daniel looked surprised.  “I’ve got a few years before I’ll start looking older than you; stick around and get to know me.  Maybe you’ll see that I’m right, or perhaps I’ll come to accept that vampires really do know the love of their life when she walks into a room.”

             
“Or a lake house,” Daniel said and smiled at Jude.  “You’d really do that?”

             
Jude shrugged.

             
“I don’t see why not,” she said.  “You obviously have feelings for me and while I don’t fully understand what I feel for you, I know there is something there.  While there is the possibility I may never be willing to give up my human life, I’d at least like more than a week to decide.”

             
“Fair enough,” Daniel said and took Jude’s hand.  “But just in case things don’t go right in the next twenty-four hours, please know I’ll look out for you.  I would like to get to know you, Jude, be it as a human or a vampire.”

             
Jude nodded and gave Daniel’s hand a squeeze before dropping it.  Seconds later, the bedroom door burst open and Jemima appeared, Jude’s cellphone in her hand.

             
“Your mother called,” Jemima said and handed over the phone.  Sure enough, Jude had a missed call and a text from her mother wondering where she was.

             
“I should get going,” Jude said and smiled at Daniel and Jemima before walking towards the door.

             
“Hey Jude?”

             
She turned back to see Jemima looking impossibly small next to her older brother.  She smiled at the picture the pair of them made, Jemima with her blonde hair and party girl clothes, juxtaposed next to Daniel’s dark looks and conservative dress.

             
“Are your parents good?” Jemima asked and Jude nodded enthusiastically.

             
“They’re the best,” she said and then extended an invitation.  “You’re more than welcome to come over anytime.  I’m sure they’d love to meet you.”

             
Jemima beamed before wrapping her arms around her body and hugging herself.

             
“Bye, Jude,” she said.

             
Jude smiled.

             
“Bye, Jem.”

•§•

Jude slipped in the front door of her home and shucked her jacket, leaving it hanging as she wandered into the living room where her parents were sitting up watching a movie.  Simon’s music could be heard playing dimly and if the thumping upstairs was any indicator, Jude would say he was practicing new dance moves.

             
“Where were you?” Meredith Carstairs said, standing to embrace her daughter who’d had enough foresight to drop her glamour in case her parents noticed her heightened physicality.  Simon hadn’t aside from her eyes, but then again, she hadn’t seen much of him and he’d been half asleep in those moments.

             
“I was at a going away party,” Jude said and then faked a yawn.  “I need to hit the hay.  We’re going to church tomorrow, right?”

             
Meredith nodded before giving her daughter a kiss on the cheek.  Jude leaned across the couch to hug her dad who wished her a happy belated birthday.

             
“Goodnight,” she called down the stairs before disappearing into her room.  She had to stifle a scream when she caught sight of Daniel sitting in her window seat.

             
“Great,” she muttered, “you’ve upgraded to breaking and entering.  Am I going to get creepy love poems next or something?”

             
Daniel feigned innocence as he stood.

             
“Are you accusing me of stalking?” he said before handing over Jude’s blazer.  “You left this with Jem.  I don’t know what you did to her, but she seems like a completely new person.”

             
“Good or bad?” Jude asked as she hung up the blazer in her closet.  She turned around to see Daniel smiling at her.

             
“Good,” he said and Jude smiled.

             
They stood there in silence for a moment, both staring at each other before Daniel caved and spoke.

             
“So church?” he said and Jude groaned.

             
“If you tell me I’m going to burst into flames,” she said as she dug a pair of pajamas from her dresser, “I may have to kill you.”

             
“No,” Daniel said, stepping up to help her undo the clasp on her necklace, “you’ll be fine.  Technically, you’re not a real vampire, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”  He handed her the necklace with a smile before moving back towards the window.

             
“Good luck tomorrow,” Daniel said.  “I really hope you make it through.”

             
“Me too,” Jude said and watched his smile falter just a bit.

             
“I guess I shouldn’t be secretly hoping you’ll fail,” Daniel confessed, “but it’s true.  I’d love nothing more than for you to be a vampire, especially one created by me.  I’d love to be your sire.”