Rachel took a deep breath and opened the car door. She entered the sea of kids whispering and gossiping about the fight.

“I heard they were fighting over some sophomore girl.”

“I heard this guy was like super human, bodies flying everywhere.”

Rachel listened to the words that filled the air, and it made her want to run and hide.

As she walked through the doors of the school, she felt like everyone was staring at her. She saw a group of cheerleaders standing in the corner near the cafeteria, one pointed at her as she whispered something to the others. As she turned down the hallway towards her locker, she could hear the whispers getting louder and louder.

Rachel wanted to leave, but knew once she got into her homeroom, she could sink down at her desk and hopefully go unnoticed. She knew if she left school, it would make the situation much worse and she didn’t want to get suspended for cutting. She hated this guilty feeling that was filling her up inside.

She quickly walked to her locker and into her homeroom class, where Mr. Allen sat at his desk, looking at the kids quizzically. Rachel saw him staring at her and instantly realized that everyone, even the teachers knew.

“What happened to you last night?” Emily asked, quietly. “I heard about the fight but couldn’t find you anywhere. Are you ok?”

Rachel looked at her but didn’t know how to respond. She trusted Emily, but she knew she couldn’t tell her the whole truth.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It was a little scary, but here I am,” Rachel said with a smile pointing to herself in a joking manner.

“It’s not funny— you could have been killed. I heard this Benji guy is completely crazy,” Emily said in a serious voice.

“He’s not that bad,” Rachel answered quietly, as she looked around to make sure nobody was listening. “He’s a nice guy.”

“Um, he beat up Rob and four other players, Emily replied. “He doesn’t seem that nice.”

“Well, it wasn’t his fault, they came after him,” Rachel said, sticking up for Benji.

“Geez, calm down, why are you getting so defensive?” Emily snapped back.

Rachel stopped for a moment, and then realized what she was saying. She didn’t know why she was sticking up for him, after everything that happened between them.

“Listen, I don’t want to talk about this anymore, OK,” Rachel said as she opened her notebook.

“Well, everyone’s talking about it,” Emily said. “I just want to know who this guy is? I’ve never seen him around AHS.”

“He’s a senior. I don’t know why you haven’t seen him, he’s been around,” Rachel responded.

“Well, what’s going on between you two anyway? Do you like him?” Emily asked with a questioning smile.

“Um. He’s all right. I thought I did, but now I don’t. OK. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Fine, I’ll let it go…for now. But I want to hear more about this when you’re ready to talk about it.”

Rachel hated this. She hated being interrogated by her friends and being the source of all the whispers in the school. She desperately wanted to disappear.

DING DING DING. The loud speaker began:

Good Morning AHS students, teachers and faculty. This is your principal, Dr. McNery speaking. Today is a hard day for us here at AHS, after the recent happenings of the Homecoming dance. We are still trying to get to the bottom of what exactly happened last night. Don’t feel alarmed, we have everything under control, and want each of you to know that we have arranged for a school psychologist to join us for the next few days. Her name is Dr. Joy and all students are welcome to see her at any point in the day. We know what happened can be alarming, scaring and upsetting, and we want you to know that we have someone for you to talk to if you need to.

We may be calling students out of their classes today for questioning by the police, but again, this is just standard procedure and do not be alarmed. Thank you and have a good day.

Rachel sunk down into her seat. She had never felt so mortified. She wanted to die. Her heart was thumping out of her chest as she sat there hoping that she wouldn’t be called out of class, especially for questioning by the police. Could this go on my permanent records? Rachel thought. Could this ruin my chances of getting into college? Her nerves were all over the place and she could not sit still. She was tapping her foot on the ground and moving her pencil up and down, in a rapid motion.

Rachel couldn’t believe her “almost” boyfriend could cause such a raucous that the principal needed to hire a school psychologist. And this whole fight started because of her, she thought. She couldn’t help but feel like she single-handedly traumatized the entire school body.

A moment later the principal’s secretary walked through the door and went over to Mr. Allen’s desk. She held a clipboard in front of him and pointed to a name. He read it silently, shaking his head. Mr. Allen looked up from the clipboard and directly at Rachel, motioning for her to come forward.

“They need you for questioning,” Mr. Allen whispered, pointing to the clipboard.

Rachel felt her face turn bright red with nervousness. She shook her head and looked at the principal’s secretary.

“Now?” Rachel whispered.

“Follow me,” she said in a stern voice.

Rachel was scared. She had never been this nervous or worried about anything in her entire life. She followed the secretary out of the classroom and down the empty hallways. The echo of their footsteps rang loudly in her ears as they walked towards the principal’s office. It felt like they were walking forever. Each step felt like an hour as the anticipation grew.

Rachel wondered what they were going to ask her. She wondered if it would be the same police from last night, or different policemen. As they neared the office, Rachel’s anxiety levels were through the roof. She felt her body shaking as she walked into the main office.

“Sit here,” the secretary said, pointing to an open chair just outside Dr. McNery’s office. The secretary peeked her head inside the principal’s office and said, “She’s here, whenever you’re ready.”

Rachel felt like she was on trial. She sat there waiting, tapping her foot and looking at her watch. The minutes moved slowly as she sat there and awaited her fate. She ran the fight over and over in her head trying to come up with a story that would be believable to the police.

After about fifteen minutes, the principal, Dr. McNery, came out of his office in his crisp navy blue suit with a blue and white striped tie and said in his deep authoritative voice, “Rachel Wood, we’re ready for you.”

Rachel rose to her feet and walked slowly into Dr. McNery’s office. She saw the two police officers from last night, along with another man wearing a police uniform that said Police Chief. Rachel began to panic and she could feel beads of sweat forming on her forehead. She hoped the police officers didn’t notice the state of panic she was in.

“Nice to see you again, Rachel,” one of the police officers said.

“Rachel, I know my associates spoke with you last night, but we need to ask you a few questions, as this has turned into a very serious matter,” the police chief said in a serious tone.

“Ok,” Rachel said, as she nodded her head.

The police chief unfolded the Daily Westchester newspaper that was under his arm and placed it down on the table. Rachel took one look at it and was in utter horror. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Was that really a picture of her and Benji on his motorcycle outside of Rye Playland? Rachel grabbed the paper and began to read the article.

TEEN WITH SUPER POWERS SAVES GIRL’S LIFE AT THE RYE PLAYLAND FERRIS WHEEL:

A teenage boy saved AHS sophomore, Rachel Wood’s life as she nearly fell to her death on the Rye Playland ferris wheel two days ago. The teen boy is said to be a student at AHS, although he has not been identified at this time.

Onlookers watched as one of the cars on the popular Playland ride plunged to the ground, shattering in front of their eyes. The crowd looked up to see the boy, miraculously lifting Rachel up with super natural strength into the next car. As the ride stopped, and the two got off, they seemed not to be phased by the incident. When onlookers asked the boy how he did it, and if they were OK, he didn’t respond. The two then briskly walked out of the amusement park and were spotted taking off on his motorcycle (pictured above). There have been no further details on this story.

Rachel was in shock.

“Rachel, can you tell us more about this night?” the police chief asked.

Rachel didn’t know where to begin. She tried to figure out what to say, and then said, “What do you want to know?”

“What happened that night? How did he save you?”

“Well,” Rachel took a deep breath. “He grabbed me as the car was falling to the ground and lifted me into another car. He’s a strong guy, and I think his adrenalin was pumping.”

“Yes, it must have been. That seems pretty incredible if you ask me,” the police chief said.

“Yeah, he didn’t seem to think it was a big deal,” Rachel added.

“There is something mysterious about Benji. We don’t have any record of him going to this school, yet we know you said he was a senior at AHS,” the police chief said.

“Yes, we do not have any student named Benji here at AHS,” Dr. McNery said. “I’m sorry but you seem to have the wrong information.”

Rachel was confused. She thought for a minute and then began to piece things together in her head. Benji is a vampire; of course he doesn’t go to school. But then why did he say he did? She felt conflicted with all the information she had in her head. She didn’t know what was true and what was false anymore.

“Where did you meet him?” Dr. McNery asked.

“Um, I met him when I was walking home one day. He picked me up on his motorcycle,” Rachel replied.

“Did he tell you anything about where he lives? Where his parents work? His siblings? We need to know everything you know, so we can track him down,” the police chief asked.