Decisions Ch. 05

It was always the little things that Stasi did that had the biggest impact on my day. It was one of the many reasons why I loved her. She always loved to leave these little sticky notes for me to find and enjoy. She actually got pretty creative with them, such as when I found a sticky note under my mattress and in the glove compartment in my car. I wasn't sure how she got them there, but I always seemed to find them when I was feeling abysmal. They were always the highlight of my day. There was just something about the "Your Vampire" that was signed at the bottom that made my heart flutter.

Stasi was mine and no one else's.

"Even if you didn't feel that bad to begin with?" She asked with a loving gaze fixed on her face.

"Especially because I didn't feel that bad to begin with. Oh! Which reminds me.." I reached into my locker. Like Stasi, I liked to do the spontaneous gifts of appreciation. I unzipped my backpack, pulling out a gold-wrapped candy bar. "Present for you." I declared, handing it over to her.

Stasi gasped and snatched it. "How'd you know I was craving these?" She squealed. Using her razor sharp fangs, she carefully ripped open the wrapper, extracting a Twix Bar inside.

I shrugged, a smile on my face. "I have my ways."

Because vampires had different taste buds than humans, they always had these weird cravings when it came to foods, Stasi being no exception. They ranged from normal things like fried chicken or her favorite Russian stew, or they could pertain to Stasi's sweet tooth. Before I came to school, my source had told me how her older sister was searching through the pantry for any leftover candy.

She bit down on the chocolate, moaning at the delectable taste. Yep. She had definitely been craving it. Fun fact. Stasi could make anything look sexy.

Extracting the second bar, she offered it to me, still munching on the first one. I shook my head, declining it. "It's all yours." I said. Stasi swallowed the remainder of the Twix bar and latched her hand onto my face, guiding me down for one last kiss. Swallowing, she latched her hand onto my face, guiding me down.

"Thanks, Chris. That really made me feel better."

"Even if you didn't feel that bad to begin with?" I grinned, our faces only inches apart.

"Especially because I didn't feel that bad to begin with." She replied perfectly, closing the gap. "You're the best."

"I know."

We would've probably kissed had the bell not gone off, making me jump twelve feet in the air and hit my head on the locker room door with a huge bang. As students began flooding in, they were met with a sight; Stasi howling in laughter and me clutching the back of my head in pain.

Chapter 1.5:

The shot I took to the back of the head wasn't enough to warrant a quick trip to the nurse's office for a concussion check, but it was enough to warrant a tender and painful spot that was beginning to swell. I was gingerly poking and prodding at it as I walked into AP Biology. Stasi was right behind me, snickering.

I made my way to our table, sitting down and glaring at Stasi. Our table was in the back of the class against the wall.

"It's not even that funny." I complained. "I don't know why you're still laughing."

"I'm not laughing, what makes you think I'm laughing? Nobody's laughing. I don't hear any laughing." Stasi breathed, trying to hold in her adorable cackling. I poked at a fairly sensitive area, wincing. She saw me my reaction, her face suddenly becoming concerned. "Is the back of your head ok, though, lyubov?"

"Yeah... thanks for asking." I had taken much worse playing sports. The actual hurt wasn't from the locker door, it was actually from the embarrassment. My pride was much more dented than my head. It was like the time I accidently hit my bed frame with my foot in my haste to get in bed with Stasi. Sure, it hurt, but having Stasi laugh at me while I was hopping around her room on one foot hurt far more than the actual act of kicking the bed frame.

Stasi pouted cutely. "Are you mad at me?"

"I'm more mad at the locker." I muttered under my breath.

"As am I, Chris. As am I." She said, stroking my cheek. Her chilled fingers were a pleasant shock against my warm skin. "It absolutely ruined the mood."

"Totally." I grunted.

"Not too worried about getting the mood back when we get home, though." Stasi giggled, patting my cheek softly.

In private, Stasi and I adored each other with a playful touchy-feeliness. We could never quite keep our hands to ourselves. In public, it was an entirely different breed. Hand holding, the odd sexual innuendo, kiss, and touch was about as affectionate as we got, especially in school. Nobody likes to see a whole lot of PDA, especially with such a controversial relationship between a human and a vampire.

Who am I kidding? It was only controversial to everyone who wasn't a monster. The students and faculty at the high school could care less about interspecies relationships. As a matter of fact, they were actively encouraging it. Everybody knew about, supported, and rooted for Stasi and I's relationship at this school. We were always together and whenever one of us showed up somewhere without the other, people noticed.

Stasi withdrew her hand away from my cheek when the classroom door opened, Jazz entering in. She was soon followed thereafter by Lucy, who was walking behind her.

"Hullo, love birds!" Jazz called as she slithered into the room, making Stasi and I cringe at how loudly her voice carried across the steadily filling biology lab. The class grew silent as they all looked at her, smiles on their faces. Despite her good intentions to do well in school, there was no avoiding a single fact; Ricky and Jazz were the class clowns, always goofing off with each other in the back of every class. With only Jazz here, she always had to take it up a notch to compensate for the loss of her partner in crime.

As she came to sit at her custom-made table next to mine, I heard a dull thud next to me. It was Stasi's forehead connecting with the table as she slammed it down in embarrassment. Fortunately, Mr. Carson was pretty strict and on extremely good terms with the both of us.

"I know you just got back from lunch and are in such a big haste to see Mr. Williams and Ms. Sokolov, but please settle down, Ms. Coutu." Mr. Carson said tersely from behind his desk, saving us from further embarrassment.

"Sorry." Jazz said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.

"Thank you, Mr. Carson." I called out, making the class giggle. He held up the peace sign with one hand and continued to type up his email with the other. I turned to face Lucy and Jazz as they sat down at their custom made table. Well, it was hardly custom made. They just didn't have chairs. Lucy sat down on her carapace and Jazz made her own seat out of her tail. Her extremely long tail coiled around her, making a makeshift chair. It looked far more comfortable than the dinky plastic that Stasi and I were issued.

"Hey Lucy. Hey Jazz." I greeted warmly as they sat down, setting their bags on the floor.

"Hey Anna, hey Chris." Jazz replied brightly. "I hope the two of you had fun makin' love in the hockey rink. I'm kidding!" She laughed, seeing my quickly reddening face. She couldn't see Stasi's, because she brought her head down on the desktop once more, muttering something under her breath about about needing to find a new friend. I was inclined to agree.

"Well, we skated at the rink for the entirety of lunch, so unless you consider snow as love, then I guess it was... fun... and loving." I leaned my head forward to make eye contact with Lucy. "On a more serious topic, are we still on for after school, Lucy?"

Lucy nodded. "Yeah, we are. Are you sure you don't want to do it somewhere else? We could always go to your house or the library."

I shook my head. "All the libraries nearby are Humans-Only and I think my parents are going to have guests over so they'll just boot me out or embarrass me until I voluntarily boot myself out. Besides, we've been friends for what? Four years? I've never been to your house, like ever."

She curtly nodded and turned to pull her stuff out of her backpack. "Ok. I'll see you at six." She said weakly.

Just as Mr. Carsons began his lecture for the day, talking about the review project we were going to be assigned over Thanksgiving Break, Stasi slid over a sheet of binder paper, a hastily written note scribbled on it.

What are you and Lucy doing after school? X

I clicked my pen, writing down a reply. I had neglected to tell her that I'd be working with Lucy on our AP Government project as well as to put the final touches on an event that the school was planning to host, the Fall Carnival.

Fall carnival planning. Want to come? :) X

Her reply came back not even a second later. In fact, I saw her write it in real time.

No, I have to take Elena to practice, but I'm jealous of all the paperwork and planning you two will have to do. super jealous. so jealous. very jealous. extremely jealous. extraordinarily jealous! infinitely jealous!! :( Have fun though. <3333 I'll see you later tonight! X

My family was supposed to go to her's for dinner. We hadn't had a family gathering in a long while and I was already looking forward to it.

Chapter 2:

The bus pulled to a stop, Lucy and I discretely booking out through the back. When we had boarded, the people up front gave the two of us dirty looks. I was wondering why until I remembered that the front of buses were Humans-Only, and the back was delegated to Monsters.

I had ridden the bus with Lucy because she didn't want to call home for a ride from her parents and my car wasn't modified to fit her massive carapace. As a matter of fact, it wasn't modified enough to fit any more than Stasi and I. It was only a coupe. Instead of leaving it at the school and getting a ride from my parents the day after, Stasi said she'd take care of it by driving it to her house and returning it tomorrow, 'without a scratch.'

I was holding her to it. Even though my car was beat up and old, it still ran like a charm and had sentimental value. I knew there'd be a day that I'd have to get rid of it and that'd be a sad day indeed.

"Thanks for taking the bus with me, Chris." Lucy gave me a shy glance.

"No problem." I replied. We started down the sidewalk heading towards a direction that I had never been before in the city. I prided myself on knowing San Francisco like the back of my hand. You could put me anywhere in the city and I'd be able to find myself home eventually, but this was a part of the city I had never seen before.

As we were walking, my eyes trailed to the side of a store, black graffiti adorning the khaki wall. 'Ban Monsters and support the DTOSA!' I stared at the words, feeling as if I had just been punched in the gut by an ogre. It wasn't just the words that got to me. It was the fact that Lucy was nonchalantly walking past. What got to me even more is that I didn't even bat an eye at the writing. What kind of country allowed such ugly, hateful words to be written on a public wall and have no one bat an eye?

It took about five minutes to make it to Lucy's apartment building, and I was shocked to see that it was rather dilapidated. Lucy shot me a glance, gauging my reaction.

"It's not much, but it's home." She said softly, her voice tinged in embarrassment.

"Trust me when I say this. You have nothing to be ashamed about." I responded.

She looked away and nodded, her cheeks reddening, setting off for the stairs and leading me inside. We took the elevator up to the fifth floor and she led me to her home, unlocking the front door.

It wasn't as bad as it looked on the outside. Her apartment wasn't too small, but it wasn't too grand, either. It was nice and cozy. The living room was clean and orderly, save for a few cobwebs here and there. I decided that I liked it. "Come on, Chris." Lucy said quietly, gesturing to the hallway for me to follow her quickly.

"Lucy, is that you?" A woman called out from the kitchen. Lucy froze.

"Damn." She muttered under her breath.

A female arachne that looked uncannily like an older version of Lucy skittered into the living room with a wide smile. "Hey, honey! How was your day at school?" She caught sight of me, blinking. "Oh... you brought a boy home! Who's this?"

"A friend from school, mom." Lucy said rapidly, quickly turning red and making the woman's smile widen. Despite the awkward tension radiating out of the room, I extended my hand, walking towards the arachne.

"Hi, Mrs. Bohannon. I'm Chris." I said.

"Please, it's just Ms. Bohannon and do call me Stephanie." She said, warmly. Up close, I saw that she was just a bit shorter than Lucy's normal height, but still tall nonetheless. "And Chris? As in Chris Williams?" All eight of her eyes widened.

"Yes, mom. Chris Williams. You know, my friend." Lucy said before I could reply. "Can we go to our room, please? We have a lot of work to do."

"Alright then, honey." Ms. Bohannon said, her smile still wide. "I can see when I'm dusting your cobweb." She ended up turning around and skittering back to the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready at six."

"Thank you." Lucy mumbled. "Come on, Chris. Let's go."

I looked at Lucy, then back at the retreating back of Stephanie. Ms. Bohannon? Did that mean her parents were divorced? Even though I knew her since she came over here in the eighth grade, I was ashamed to admit that I didn't know her well enough about her home life. I never asked her about it, Stasi and Jazz never told me. I just assumed it was the kind of stereotypical two parents, loving family kind of thing.

"Who was that?" I asked, nonchalantly as we made her way into her room.

"Who do you think?" Lucy replied stiffly. "That was my embarrassing mom."

"I thought she was nice."

"You should see my dad." Lucy muttered.

"But she said to call her Ms. Bohannon."

"Yes, she did." She snapped, rising to her full height and turning on all eight heels. "My parents are divorced. Good observation, Chris."

I held up my hands. "Woah, relax! I didn't mean to make you mad. I'm sorry."

Lucy sighed, lowering her head just as we came to a door marked as 'Lucy's Room' in Sharpie. "You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm supposed to be sorry for snapping at you when you didn't know. I thought maybe Anna or Jazz would've told you or something. I guess they didn't."

"They did not, but that's not an excuse for not knowing. I'm your best friend." I said guiltily. "I should've known or at least asked. I've never even been to your house before until now."

"I never told you for a reason." Lucy admitted, opening the door and skittering inside. "When I moved here to California from New Hampshire, I had zero friends except you guys. I didn't want you guys to judge me, that's all."

Would Stasi and I had held Lucy in the same regard had I known she had divorced parents? The answer is 'hell yes'. Why would something that Lucy had no control over affect my friendship with her?

"We'd never judge you for something like that."

"Thanks Chris." Lucy gave me a hug before shrugging off her backpack and depositing it on her bed. "Anna's a really lucky person to have you in her life. Matter of fact, I'm lucky to have you both in my life. You guys were godsends."

Lucy had been bullied pretty bad in the eighth grade when she migrated from New Hampshire to California and from what she told me, the stuff she went through here was better than in the East Coast. They weren't as receptive of monsters as they were here in San Francisco, which was saying something.

"Yeah well..." I said awkwardly, slipping my backpack off my shoulder and setting it on the floor. "I'm lucky to have you in my life as well."

I looked around the room. It looked uncannily like mines in terms of dimensions. Aside from that, posters of rock bands were taped to the wall and the furniture was sparse, but comfortable. The room was neat, orderly, and clean... aside from the odd oversized cobweb here and there. The room just screamed out "Lucy Bohannon". "

So this is your room..." I mused.

"Yes, indeed it is." Lucy sat down on the bed, looking around. "What do you think of it?"

"I think it looks way more better than my room, that's for sure." I laughed, sitting down on her desk chair and nearly falling backwards. The chair didn't have a back rest... neither did the sofa in the living room, or the dining chairs in the kitchen. It was because of the massive carapace of an arachne. They'd never be able to sit down on normal chairs. Instead, they used what resembled wide stools.

"It's like what Anna and I have always said. You just need to decorate your room better." Lucy zipped open her backpack, pulling out her notebook. "Alright, shall we get started, Mr. President?"

I grinned and nodded. "We shall. What's first on the agenda?"

Lucy flipped through her color-coded notebook, peering at her tiny writing. "Let's see what we're working with... ok, first up for the Carnival... changes in the lineup for booths. Let's see... we have the Gaming Club, Key Club, and Chess Club looking to share a single one..."

The Fall Carnival was the brainchild of Stasi, the leadership teacher, Ms. Euthixie, and I. It was going to be the first major community event for Belcourt High School, with a lot of monster people expected to attend. When I say a lot, I mean a lot. Think of most of the student body, their families, and the friends of those families, along with those friends' families. Yes, that many people were expected to go. There was going to be plenty of games, food, shows, and an supposedly an abundance of fun.

A nice distraction from all the trouble that was brewing all across the country; the attacks, the demonstrations, the activism. Just everything.

It was going to be held at the start of Thanksgiving Break, November 20th to be exact, only about a week away. Lucy, Stasi (whenever she found the time to help), and I had already finalized much of the details, but there were still some last minute adjustments we had to make and some issues we put off to address. We spent the next hour making minute changes to the eventlist before a problem that I had put off for a month finally arose.

"So... Chris." Lucy began. "Have you reached a decision on the... you know..."

"No, I haven't." I admitted. "You would've thought that Principal Finch would've made it for us already."

Lucy shrugged. "She did tell us that it was your decision since the event was your idea."

The decision in question was small, but important, and it had yet to be decided. Since the local precinct of the San Francisco Police Department were going to be providing volunteers for security, they asked whether or not the event was going to be strictly Monsters-Only. The DTOSA never formally stated that events had to be segregated, only public institutions and services. It was more of an unspoken rule, something that had been happening before the DTOSA had even been ratified.

Everybody assumed I would've said no, welcoming everybody to the event being human myself, but because the security were going to be strictly volunteers, we couldn't count on a lot of officers showing up to support us, us being the monsters in general. Even then, most of the security were going to be making sure the protestors that were bound to show up didn't do any funny business.

With that in mind, I didn't want to put all my faith in the lackluster and strained security to keep the event from turning violent. Racial and interspecies tensions were at an all-time high across the country with recent attacks being all the media could seem to report on.

If somebody got hurt, or at worse, killed because of a choice I made, I would never, ever forgive myself. But then again, if I said yes to making the event monsters-only, I'd just be reinforcing the fact that humans and monsters should always be considered separate and different from each other, which was totally against what I believed. For those reasons, I was firmly on the fence.