Decisions Ch. 05

"That's great, Elena!" Stasi exclaimed, still slightly irked, but pleased with her younger sister nonetheless. The mattress shifted from Stasi sitting up and brushing her hair out of the way. I nodded, in agreement. "Proud of you, squirt." I added. "But that's not a nice thing to call someone."

"Thanks, Anna, Chris." Elena said, her chest swelling up in pride. "It means alot to me." She turned to me, making a face. "She deserved it. She talks so much behind my back, it feels good to finally be on top of her. Anyways, when's the next time we're going to tutor, big bro?"

"Erm..." I looked at Stasi, who shrugged. Elena's grades in history have been improving by a mile, but she still wanted to be tutored so she didn't slip up. I was happy to agree. More time to spend with this family. "Not sure. I haven't been able to have an opening this week because of the planning for the fall carnival."

"The fall carnival? Oh, I'm so excited for that! Viktor is planning to take Abby. They're so cute together, not as cute as you two, mind you." She said, with a devilish glint in her eyes. "But, still very, very cute. Who would've known that Viktor could've gotten a girlfriend?"

Abigail MacDonald was a mermaid that Viktor had pined after for the whole month of September. I had pushed him to go start talking to her about a month or two ago, and the two had really hit it off at the homecoming dance, even if they couldn't actually do any real dancing (Abby was confined to a wheelchair). She was a great person, if not a bit of a wallflower. She was nice, very smart, and painfully shy. She was also a star swimmer on the swim team (duh). Despite all her accolades, Viktor told me that she was lonely. Abby didn't have any friends at her previous school and no friends at this school, something that Viktor quickly remedied.

I shrugged. "I dunno, but he always seems to go to me for relationship advice. But I mean, what do I know? I only had one girlfriend in my entire life and she's sitting next to me."

"I heard that!" Viktor yelled from his room, making everybody laugh. My hearing was good, but his was even better. As a matter of fact, the entire Sokolov Family had great hearing. Vampires biologically had impeccable hearing, being natural predators.

"See, Elena? He didn't even deny it." Stasi cupped her hand around her mouth. "Ya lyublyu tebya, Viktor!" Stasi called out towards the hallway.

"Kak i ya, Anna." He shouted back. I heard his door open as he walked into the hallway and entered Stasi's room. I sat up, leaning back on the headboard and letting Stasi snuggle her soft body into mine.

"Hey, Vik." I greeted him as he walked in.

"Hey, Chris. Thought I heard you here. You ready for dead period to end?" He asked, leaning against the wall.

"Yeah, I'm tired of all the conditioning."

Dead period for high school sports was always abysmal. Organized practices were banned, but weight lifting, workouts, and conditioning were allowed. I wanted to start flying around on the ice as soon as possible, not run on a treadmill for an hour straight. I was even pushing it with the sneaking into the hockey rink with Stasi. If we were caught by an official with something against monsters, he could easily twist it to get me banned for a few games, or at worst, my entire season.

"You guys and your hockey." Stasi mumbled, shaking her head. I didn't even need to see the smile to know she was joking. She loved watching hockey.

I laughed, bumping her with my shoulder. "It's the sport of Russia." I turned back to Viktor. "So, Viktor, a little bird told me that you're taking Abby MacDonald to the Fall Carnival. When did that come about?"

Viktor blanched. "Who told you that?"

Maybe his hearing wasn't as good as I thought it was if he didn't hear Elena's loud voice. I smiled at his sudden shyness. Despite his growing confidence in what he did, he was the same kid I knew all my life who liked to cruise under the radar. He wasn't out to improve himself, but others. That kind of person is rare and I never wanted him to change.

I shrugged. "I have my ways of knowing things, my young padawan. But you didn't answer my question. Are you?" I tried to ignore Elena suddenly becoming very interested on Stasi's blank computer screen. Totally inconspicuous.

"Well, I mean... yeah, I'm taking her. She's my girlfriend. You're supposed to take your girlfriend to these things." Viktor said defensively. "Aren't you taking Anna, you know, your girlfriend?"

I turned to look at Stasi. "I'm actually not sure. Weren't you going to help me run the event?"

"Volunteer at the Carnival? Oooh, that sounds fun. Can I help?" Elena blurted before Stasi could say anything.

"Don't you want to have fun with your friends?" Stasi asked. Elena shook her head. "Well, lyubov, I was going to be helping you, but now I'm not so sure because I'll have to keep my eye on this girl." I knew she said it as a joke, but Elena didn't see it that way.

"Come on, Anna." She whined. "I want to spend time with you two."

I was touched that someone actually wanted to spend time with us. Instead of third wheeling with Viktor and Abby. she was going to third wheel with us. Just kidding, Stasi and I would probably be too busy to actually do some stuff that normal couples would do, so it wouldn't even be third wheeling. Besides, Elena was fun to be around and could kick ass if someone got belligerent. She could give a 6'6'' bouncer a run for his money.

I looked at Stasi. "Well? She did say she wants to spend time with us."

Stasi sighed, scrunching up her face, something she did while she was thinking really hard... or pretending to think really hard. "Fine." She said after a moment. She gave Elena a big radiant smile. "You can come and help us." I gave her a kiss on the cheek, making her pale skin tinge pink.

Elena gave a cheer and we continued our conversations with each other until Yulia finally called us down for dinner. Elena and Viktor left, leaving Stasi and I still on her bed. I hopped up. "Come on, Ms. Sokolov, I am absolutely starving."

Stasi grabbed my arm, holding me in place. "Wait... one more minute, Chris. I just want to lay here and relax." She rested her head on my chest, listening to my heartbeat. It was anything like Stasi's, seeing as vampires had extremely slow heart rates. "I could listen to this all day, you know." Stasi murmured.

"What? My heartbeat?" I don't know about her, but listening to a heartbeat all day didn't sound like a very fun thing to do.

She nodded. "Yes, your heartbeat. Your human heartbeat. Every tha-thump I hear is a testament to how lucky I am that you're alive and here in my life, and I'm thankful that we're together." She looked up at me, her crystal blue eyes slightly watery with blood-tinged tears. "Even though I'm a vampire and you're a human." She whispered.

Stasi was always ashamed of two things: what she was or what she could do. She was a perpetual blood drinker, always hungry for a drop of blood. She once told me it took all the fiber of her being to not succumb to bloodlust whenever she fed. Her self control was good, but it wasn't perfect. It was only good when she was 100% focused on something, like me, and not on feeding. There was always the chance that she'd go nuts.

I didn't care.

I kissed Stasi on the head. "Just because you're a vampire and I'm not, doesn't mean we can't be together. I'm thankful to have you in my life, too. I'm thankful for everybody in my life, but you have the prime seat. Sometimes I wonder how my life would've changed had I never met you or had I not realized my feelings for you. All I can say is, I'm glad I did. Because, I mean... who else gives those great massages?"

Stasi bopped me on the head with the palm of her hand, giving a throaty laugh. "Way to take advantage of the dynamics of our relationship, Chris... but me too, lyubov. Me too." Stasi smiled, before patting my thigh and sitting up off of me. "Alright, that was one minute. Now, let's go get you fed so you're not so hangry anymore." She swung her legs over me and grinded on me before rolling over my body, and coming to her feet acrobatically. I chuckled, sitting up as well and swinging my legs off of the bed.

"I'm right after you. Let's go find the cure to hangriness."

In the Sokolov household, there were two dining rooms. One was in the kitchen. It was a small table that the entire family of five could comfortably sit around. The second one had it's own room attached to the kitchen, had a bigger table, and accommodated that much more. I instantly knew which dining room we were going to be in because I could smell the food before I could even see it.

I gasped when I walked into the dining room. I, personally, have seen heaven. It was Stasi naked and in my bed with me, but if there was ever a step below that, it was probably this. I have never seen so much of my favorite foods all at one table. My mom and Yulia worked together to make the best of both worlds. Yulia brought out the borscht, pancakes, salad, smoked salmon, and wine glasses full of synthetic blood packs. My mom had made the roast chicken, potatoes, beef, and lamb chops.

Everyone was waiting for us and Stasi and I took our spots at the table, sitting next to each other. With all present at the dinner table, we all began our little traditional family gathering. I helped myself to a little bit of everything. It was all so delicious.

"So, Chris.." My mom began as she was delicately prying the meat away from the bone in her chicken. "Your report card came home the other day."

I looked up the steak I was chopping at like a madman. "Oh... how was it?" I asked. Even though Stasi had promised we wouldn't talk about school, I was a bit worried. The report cards were supposed to be delivered about a week ago and I neglected to check the mail to intercept them.

My mom looked over at Yulia. Anton piped up. "You did the same as Anastasia, Christopher."

I turned to look at Stasi. "How'd you do?"

Stasi poked at her potatoes. "Oh, you know... a couple D's, a C, and an F. Not too bad." I gave her a look. "I'm kidding! Sheesh. We had all A's, doorachka. Good job." She said, giving me a kiss on the cheek, making my mother, Yulia, and Elena go 'awww'.

My dad cupped his hand around his ear. "Is that UCLA I hear a calling? The same UCLA that wants to offer you and Anna a full ride so we don't have to pay a dime? The same UCLA that wants you to play football to crush Cal?" He wondered, making the entire table laugh, although it was a bit hollow.

The University of California, Los Angeles, was one of the most premier schools in California, second only to Berkeley. Stasi and I had toured the campus our junior year and absolutely fell in love with it, planning to apply together, along with a myriad of other schools.

We had the qualifications to get in, but there was just one problem; UCLA was a public universities. It was infinitely harder for a monster to get into a public university. Private universities were a bit easier to get into if you were a monster, but they were damn expensive. Families like Stasi's could play, but what about families like Lucy's, who had whip smart kids but no material way of cultivating it?

Whatever happened, I knew that it'd end up working out. It always does in the end. I realized that it was a nice feeling. Despite all the controversy and trouble that was brewing all around the country in regards to the monster race, we still had the time to sit down and be a family. Sure, some people were missing, like Ricky, Jazz, and Lucy, but that was for Thanksgiving.

Chapter 3:

"Hey Chris...?"

"What's up?" I turned my head to Viktor.

"Do you think Abby would ever eat this?" Viktor held up a packaged fish, salmon by the looks of it. The frozen fish stared back at me with a unseeing gaze in it's unmoving eye. I was about to reply and tell him off for asking a dumb question, but I was actually curious. Would Abby ever eat that? She was a mermaid, so wouldn't it be considered immoral to eat something of your own kind? But then again, mermaids came from the sea... it wasn't like there were cows in the water they could eat... right?

"I actually... do not know. Why don't you ask her if she's into cannibalism... if they even consider it cannibalism."

Viktor nodded. "Right?! I mean like, I love seafood but I never told Abby that. Do you think she would break up with me if she found out I ate seafood?"

"You drink blood and you have me as a friend." I pointed out. "I'm even dating your sister."

"Touche." He tossed the fish back onto the ice, earning a stone-cold glare from the goblin-butcher who was filleting a tuna.

"You breakee', you buyee!" The goblin cried, waving his large knife from his stool.

"Sorry, sir." Viktor apologized, holding up his hands and attempting to calm down the goblin. I snorted, which I promptly turned into a cough to avoid having the goblin turn his blade on me.

You might ask why there was a goblin butcher waving his knife around like a lunatic. Well, have you ever seen a button that said don't press, but you wanted to press it anyway, because that's pretty much how you rolled? If you answered yes, you were Viktor and I right now.

It was the first day of Thanksgiving Break. The carnival was set to begin at three in the afternoon, and it was currently one. One of the booths was panicking because they neglected to buy cheese for nachos and Principal Finch sent me and the closest person standing to go buy some at the local supermarket, with the promise of reimbursement 'and a tip'.

As we were driving to the nearest supermarket, we caught eyes of a sign displaying large blocky hateful words in blood-red paint: DON'T BUY FROM MONSTERS.

So that's exactly what Viktor and I did.

We drove all the way across the city to an establishment that Viktor knew was monster-owned to buy all the cheese we could carry. Sure, the prices were a bit higher than normal because of the mark up the store had to do to compensate for the fees, but we were promised reimbursement. It'd be on the pocket of those fairies running the drama booth, not us. Besides, I think they'd rather have us go here than at the local racist Safeway.

I opened the glass refrigerator door, pulling out a few slabs of cheese and tossing it into our cart. Viktor, having calmed down the knife-waving lunatic, came over. He peered into our cart. "How much cheese do you think we need?"

"I dunno. They didn't give me a set amount." I tossed in another brick of cheddar cheese. "Probably enough to send a lactose intolerant kid to the hospital."

Viktor peeked into the cart once more, before rubbing his chin. "Enough to send a lactose intolerant kid to the hospital? I think we have enough. It's only for one booth, right?"

"Yeah." I said, nodding. "That's probably enough. There'll be like a gazillion other booths serving nachos." I began pushing the cart away from the dairy section to pay for all our stuff. Just as we rolled up to check out, Viktor tossed in a packaged container of dried seaweed into the cart that he had been holding on to. I gave him a questioning look.

"Why do you need seaweed? Can vampires even eat seaweed?"

"Hasn't Anna taught you about vampire biology? We can technically eat everything as long as we get our nutrients from blood." He explained. "But, this isn't for me." His pale cheeks turned slightly pink. Had he had a normal human blood flow, he probably would've turned straight up red. I caught on and nodded, amused.

"Abby?"

"Abby." He confirmed. "It's her favorite."

"Whipped." I muttered, noting the irony that I just said that.

I pushed the cart forward and Viktor set down the divider on the checkout counter. He began loading the slabs of cheese onto the conveyer belt. The cashier, a young slime girl, looked at our purchase interestedly, but didn't say anything. I drummed my fingers on the counter as she scanned every item, putting it in plastic bags. My eyes bugged out at the total.

"$32.34?! For that much cheese? Wicked!" Viktor said.

I wasn't disagreeing with him. We had purchased a lot of cheddar. I opened up my wallet, handing over the money and making sure to put the receipt away for safekeeping. It'd be my only proof for reimbursement.

"Thanksgiving discount." The slime girl said, laughing. "What do you need all this cheese for?"

"We're from Belcourt High School and one of the booths needed it for nachos." I replied, sliding my wallet back into my back pocket.

"Oh, you two are from the Belcourt? How fun! What grades are you two in?"

"I'm a junior." Viktor gestured to me. "He's a senior."

"You two look like college students, I swear!" She finished bagging all of our merchandise. "Belcourt looks like a great place to learn. It's also nice that there's a school away from all those fucking humans, am I right?" She laughed, making the both of us freeze.

"Yeah... uh... right." Vik said, weakly.

The cashier nodded. "All humans are the same and I can't stand them. Monster this, monster that. If I could have my way, I'd have all humans put in concentration camps. See how they'd like a taste of their own medicine." She wistfully looked out the window. "Anyways, have a nice day now." She gave us a wave as we bid her a hasty goodbye, pushing our purchases outside to cram them into my already jampacked trunk. While I was tossing bags filled with cheese into the trunk, I firmly decided that I'd do all my grocery shopping online or at the farmer's market from now on.

As soon as we loaded everything, we parked the cart, hopped into my car, and drove back to Belcourt. We were supposed to be back by two and it was only 1:30. As I was concentrating on the road, Viktor turned down the music that was softly resonating out of the radio. He looked at me from behind his dark sunglasses.

"So... that slime girl..." Vik began.

"Let's not even talk about that." I said dismissively. "People can say what they want to say. It's what they do that matters."

"Sure." Viktor sighed, relieved. "What's Elena doing at the Carnival?"

"Uh... I think she's doing parking for the first half, then she's going to help patrol."

"Elena doing parking? Oh god, I have to see that." Viktor laughed. "I'm not even sure if she has the patience."

"Only for the first half. Hell, I'll probably relieve her after fifteen minutes." I chuckled. "Now be quiet, I gotta' focus on driving. I'm not sure what I'll tell Stasi if she finds out you got killed because I got the car t-boned by a truck."

Driving took a bit of time, seeing that we had to drive a ways across the city, but before the digital clock read 1:54, the administration building of Belcourt loomed over us. Numerous tents dotted the campus, the many different booths provided by the school's clubs and community applicants.

I stopped at the Monster checkpoint and got waved through by the bored police officer as soon as he examined my student identification card that had my species on it. Unfortunately, I got stopped again before I could park my car, this time by an overzealous blonde in a white ballcap and a royal blue jacket with 'Belcourt High School Event Staff' emblazoned on the back.

She held up her hand, signaling for us to stop. I stopped, against Viktor's advice to run her over and to "turn her into roadkill". She walked up to the side of my car with a swagger. Stifling laughter, I rolled down my window.

"License and registration, please." Elena said, in her best impression of a police officer. She tilted her aviators down, staring down at me mirthfully with her pretty green eyes. Her look would've been intimidating had her face not been splotchy with sunscreen.

I patted my pockets. "I don't seem to have my wallet on me, officer."

"Tsk. How do you drive without a license?" She turned around to her table and picked up an walkie talkie and a folded royal blue Belcourt High School Event Staff jacket. She held it out to me, which I took happily. I wasn't volunteering because I was the president of the student body or because I was a good person. I was doing it because I'd get a sweet jacket and a walkie talkie to play with.