Valkyrie - the Vampire Princess (4 page)

CHAPTER 6

The following day, I arrived in my classroom before everybody else. It was only me, the board and the desks...

I thought that if I arrived early, at least I would not run the risk of being humiliated again.

I opened my notebook to verify my school schedule. I was staring down at the white leaf, when I heard someone’s footsteps arriving into the classroom.    Automatically, I cast an investigative look at the classroom door to see who was entering.  At that instant I thought that this was some teacher.

Raising my head up, I saw a boy, standing, looking for a place to sit down. I remained still, ashamed for being alone with him in that room. I buried my face into my notebook with the intention of not being noticed by him.

He took a seat at the desk furthest to the back very distant from me. I could not see him. I just listened to his impatient movements as he was beating his pen onto his desk over and over and over. It seemed it was tiresome for him to be there.

I felt suffocated and was begging for someone to come into the room and break the tense atmosphere. I did not know why I felt troubled by his presence. It seemed almost as if he was guarding me.I felt something strange, as if he was there to protect me or something like that. 

I rubbed my neck on my right side into a nervous crescent. I felt that he observed all my movements. Then I ran my hand down on my notebook and turned over the page as I pretended to be reading in silence.

No less than two minutes later, Mirta arrived in the classroom and she looked beautiful, as usual. Her hair was loose and her make-up enhanced her fair face.

“Upon my soul! You got up early this morning!” she exclaimed while she placed her pink knapsack onto her desk.

I just saluted her with a humble smile, avoiding talking as the strange boy would hear my timid voice.

“We have a new schoolmate,”Mirta commented into my ear when she saw the young boy seated in the corner of the classroom.

I remained mute. I could not really say anything as I was thinking that there was a stranger in my classroom.

“Why are you silent today?” Mirta insisted.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” I murmured while I rose from my chair and went to my destination in a hurry.

Mirta realised she and the boy was alone in the classroom, so she took the initiative to go in his direction and try to start a conversation. This was something I would never have the courage to do.

“Welcome to the classroom!” she said as she put out her hand to him. However, he remained motionless, that is, he was serious and mute and he did not greet her, making her feel uncomfortable.

“Sorry!” she said and her cheeks became red. Then she turned her back to him, walked back to her place and sat down in her chair. She was angry at the boy’s indifference.

I remained in the bathroom for a long time where I washed my face, numerous times in the hope of alleviating my tension.

The boy’s image hammered my neurons.

He was tall, his skin was pale and his hair was dark and on his face was the presence of deep shadows around his eyes
. He was dressed in dark clothes.

When I achieved some sense of calm, I came back to my classroom. The said room was now filled with students. I had no courage to glance at the corner of my classroom.

I entered into the room with my gaze down at the ground as I was avoiding seeing anything around me.

Timidity had always been one of my weak points. I hardly leaned my bum against my chair when Mirta came around making complaints about the strange boy’s conduct.

“He is ill-mannered!” she said low. “I greeted him and he made no move.”

“Who are you talking about?” I asked, not knowing exactly who she was referring to.

“Our new schoolmate,” she said.

Have you gone to talk to him?” I asked, dubious as I thought I would never have that courage.

“Yes, I have. I always seek to make friends,” she said and I went silent again.

At the end of the final class, I was the first person that left my classroom. Not even I understood why I was in a hurry, for at my home I would not have anything interesting to do.

As I walked by the school gangway I slowed my steps, Mirta was at my side and both of us walked in silence.

After a few minutes, I stopped, paralyzed, listening to a different and strange voice trying to talk to me.

“Hey! Wait!”

I turned around, trying to see who the voice’s owner was. Mirta had the same reaction to mine, that is, we stopped motionless.

It was the strange boy from my classroom.

“I think you lost this,” he said while he put out his hand to me, trying to give me back my brooch.

It was the brooch that my grandmother gave me when I was child. I always kept that brooch in my things.

I held the object as I was amazed at it, avoiding the boy’s face. He began to walk on, moving like lightning, eliminating my chances to thank him.

“He talked to you!” Mirta said surprised.

“How does he know that this brooch belongs to me?” I asked looking at my brooch. I was shocked. 

“He might have seen it falling out of your purse,” she deduced, shaking her shoulders at me.

“That has never happened. I always leave it inside my purse,” I confessed as I could not believe what had happened.

As soon as I arrived home, I noticed that my mother was not there. Her car was not in the garage.

“She might have gone to the supermarket,” I murmured to myself as I put my things on the couch in the living room.

I went into my room and sat down on my bed, looking down at the brooch in my hand. I carressed it with my fingers,  fearing I might  lose it again.

It crossed my mind that the strange boy had touched it. There were his vestiges on my brooch. Then I thought that if he was not an honest person it is likely he would not have returned my jewel. But he was concerned enough to return it to me without asking anything in exchange, not even my gratitude. 

I rose from my bed as I was uneasy. I felt badly at myself all because I had no opportunity to thank him.  The word ‘THANKS...!’ remained lodged in my throat, the whole day and the whole night,
interrupting my sleep.

The next day, I went to school in the hope of having an opportunity to thank him and try to take away my aguish. This sensation seemed to feel even worse than if I had really lost my brooch.

In school, I spent all the time trying to imagine a manner of approaching the strange boy and thanking him for everything that he had done for me. It seemed, however, that I had bad luck. Between classes I had no chance to approach him. It all seemed so hard, even though he was just adjacent to me.

Every time I tried to approach, I was prevented by my own fear as I was thinking I was doing the wrong thing. Maybe I was behaving like an idiot.

I broke out in a cold sweat, accompanied by constant pangs inside me. That had been a reflex caused by my nerves.

Before returning home, I had decided to go to the school library to try to look for an interesting book to read.

Reading has always been part of my life. It’s all thanks to my mother who always influenced me to read ever since I was a child.

She always said, ‘Those who read, speak and write very well.’

The library had several divisions, with enormous bookshelves that were filled up with books. I walked slowly and looked up at every one of them, trying to find something interesting to read, without needing to remove them from their places.

Then I walked to the third corridor and I stopped walking when I saw something unexpected.

He was in front of me. His back was to me, while he was standing and distractedly browsing through a book. I was not able to take a step ahead, but I was able to just say to his back, “Thanks!”

This was the only word I could think of.

He turned to face me, with the book still in his hands. He looked me directly  in the eyes.

That was the first time I could see his gaze. It was penetrating and fugacious at the same time. I felt a cold running through my spine and a big frightfulness came over me. My heart inside me thumped hard.

TUM... TUM... TUM...

“Are you talking to me?” he questioned seriously, still gazing into my eyes.

“... I... eheh,” I stuttered. “... I tried to tell you this yesterday, but... you were... so fast... I had no time to...”

I did not know how I was able to say those things to him.

“It’s nothing.” His voice sounded friendly and that caused me to feel relieved.

He turned his back to me and placed the book back in its place. Then he went away thereupon, without saying anything and without even looking at me again. He simply acted as if I did not exist.

I stood,, looking at him as he was going away and after that I ran to check the book he had held minutes before. I got confused when I looked at the book title.

  ‘PLANET NEPTUNE’

I decided to take that book home and try to read it soon. I was sure I would have as much time as necessary for it. Even if I had no time for it, I would ensure I would get to it in some way. 

My curiosity was intense. My interest in him was immediate. 

As I began to move on, I stepped on something and then lowered my head to better see what it was. I saw a student card. He had lost it there and on it was his name, a pretty name.

‘EROS’

CHAPTER 7

In the school courtyard, I saw my girlfriend Mirta. She was standing, planted like a tree, waiting for me so we could go into our classroom together.

I walked anxiously towards her, with the  expectation of telling her about my fascinating discovery.

“I know his name,” I said approaching her.

“Has he said his name to you?” She asked.

“No, he has not. I saw it on his student card.”

“How did you get to see it?”

“He lost it in the school library yesterday.”

“And did you find it?”

“Yes, I did.”

“What is his name?” Mirta asked as she gesticulated anxiously.

“Eros.” I pronounced his name suavely on my tongue.

“Wow, it is a strong name!” she exclaimed enchanted.

***

I saw Eros on the gangway. He looked solitary, as always. Some girls looked at him shamelessly, but he did not pay attention to any of them.

Then I speed up my pace to meet up with him.

“Eros!”  I shouted out anxiously.

That had been the first time I called him by his own name.

He interrupted his own steps when he heard my voice. Then he cast his cold glance over my hand still holding his student card. It seemed he already knew that his student card was with me.

However, he didn’t stare at my face at any given moment.

“You let it fall in the library,” I said, giving him back his identification.

“How do you know that this belongs to me?” he asked looking at it.

“You were the one and only who was there yesterday.”

“Now we are even,” he said, exultant. “I found your brooch and you found my student card.”

Immediately, I agreed with him and gave him a shy smile.

“You know my name and I don’t know yours,” he commented while he put his student card into his dark jeans’ left pocket.

“VALKYRIE.”

I pronounced my name so fast that I could barely hear it.

“Valkyrie... It is a beautiful name!” He confessed.

“Thanks!”

My cheeks turned red but I was happy at his praise at the same time. My happiness seemed like fireworks in the sky.

“How long have you been studying here?” he asked, staring at me with a sexy smirk.

“In fact, it has only been four days. I just moved here.”

“Me too.” His eyes met my unquiet fingers, but he continued talking. “Today is my third day in this school. I came from another town.”

“I think we look a little like each other... I mean, in the way of living.” 

I immediately sped up my speech to correct what I had said to him. I feared he might not like the comparison. I felt like an idiot every time I was near him.

“Yeah,” he asserted and nodded his head. “We’ll become good friends... That is if you want my friendship,
of course.”

His penetrating gaze inspected my fragile face.

“Yes, I want your friendship.” I didn’t hesitate to say to him then.

“Well..., see you tomorrow.”

He said goodbye, giving me an educated smile. My gaze focused on his white teeth.

“Bye-bye...” I was not able to take my eyes away from him, while he walked away with his back to me. A force incited me to stay there, as I was admiring him from his back.

In Eros’s absence, I went running to tell everything to my only girlfriend Mirta. I was bursting with happiness at my new friendship that had been proposed by Eros.

When I finished saying everything to her, Mirta had a precipitate and absurd conclusion.

“Are you in love with him?” she immediately asked me.

“Me, in love? I don’t even know him well.” My eyes searched the other direction.

“You don’t stop talking about him, and I tell you it is not necessary to know a person well to fall in love with him. You must have fallen in love with him the first time you saw him,” she deduced again.

“What a creative mind you have!” I didn’t believe the nonsense she said.

“I fell in love with Christian this way.  The first time I saw him in the school courtyard.”

“Christian?” I asked as I frowned at her, not knowing who she referred to.

“Christian is a boy from the third year. He is considered the most beautiful and coveted boy in this school.”

She made a point of projecting his fame and exalting her own ego.

“Does he know you are in love with him?”

“He doesn’t. In fact, I have never had the courage to approach him. He lives encircled by girls and...”

“And...?”

I felt a block in my girlfriend when she talked about that boy.

“I think I have no chance...” she confessed.

“Why not? You are pretty... and intelligent...”

“I have many rival girls.”

I walked Mirta to the sports court. The third year schoolboys were training for a regional basketball championship. Several students were around the court as they were looking at the training.

Mirta was not there to watch the game but who was taking part in the game. She was excited to show me who Christian was, that is, the boy she was in love with.

He really looked very beautiful - tall, athletic physique, his honey hair was thin and his eyes were a luminous chestnut.

Along with his beauty, however, he carried in himself an arrogance which caused me nausea. He looked like a pretentious and spoiled boy, as if he was the owner of the place and also the game at the same time.

I confess he was the best player on the court. He had already scored many times and he was very much applauded by his
followers, who screamed his name all the time.

“He’s awesome!” Mirta exclaimed, excited.

I kept watching the match, with my ugly-face, dissipating my repulsion for Christian. But for all I knew about games, he wasn’t thrilling the crowd with amazing shots, he was someone in the court who wished to attract people’s attention.