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"Mom," I whispered, but Jenna shook her head and said, "No, ma'am

Vamp"

I could feel Moh I was embarrassed for her, I shared Mo Vampires were monsters, plain and si was total bs

"Oh, okay," Mo to recover "Iuh, I didn't know vara out to run a hand over Jenna's hair Jenna had a polite, if kind of blank look on her face, but I saw her tense up slightly "Every year," Mrs Casnoff continued,

"Hecate takes a young vaium in the hopes that we can eventually reforlanced over at Jenna, becauseunfortunates? Ouch

"Sadly, Miss Talbot is the only vah one of our instructors is a vampire as well," Mrs Casnoff said

Jenna just sain, and we all stood around in aard silence until Mom said, "Sweetie, why don't you let" She looked up helplessly at ht Why don't you let Jenna show you your rooo over with Mrs Casnoff, then I'll be up to say bye, okay?"

I looked toward Jenna, as still s past us

I shifted rab my trunk from Mom, but Jenna beat me to it

"You really don't have to help--" I started, but she waved her free hand

"No proble freak is upper-body strength"

I didn't knohat to say to that, so I just larabbed the other

"No chance of an elevator, I guess?" I was only half joking

Jenna snorted "Nah, that would be too convenient"

"Why don't they just have, like, a luggage-?"

"Mrs Casnoff's a real stickler for not usingheavy suitcases up stairs is character-building"

"Right," I said as we struggled past the second-story landing

"So what do you think of her?" Jenna asked

"Mrs Casnoff?"

"Yeah"

"Her bun is very iht thing

"I know, right? I swear to God, that hairdo is like, epic"

There was only a trace of Southern lilt in her voice It was pretty

"Speaking of hairdos," I ventured, "how do you get aith that stripe?"

Jenna smoothed the pink streak with her free hand "Oh, they don't really care about the poor va as I' on my peers, I'm free to have any hair color I want"

When we reached the third-floor landing, she studied h That'sMaybe purple?"

"Ummaybe"

We had stopped in front of room 312 Jenna set down her end of the trunk and pulled out her keys Her key chain was bright yellow and had her name spelled out in sparkly pink letters

"Here we are!"

She unlocked the door and pushed it open "Welcoht Zone!"

CHAPTER 3

The "Holy-crap-that's-a-lot-of-pink" Zone would have been a more accurate description

I don't knohat I was expecting a vampire's room to look like

Maybe lots of black, a bunch of books by Camusoh, and a sensitive portrait of the only human the va beautiful and tragic, thus doo romantically

What can I say? I read a lot of books

But this room looked like it had been decorated by the unholy lovechild of Barbie and Strawberry Shortcake It was bigger than I expected, but still sh room for tin beds, two desks, two dressers, and one battered futon The curtains were beige canvas, but Jenna had twined a hot-pink scarf over the drapery rod Between the two desks was one of those old Chinese screens, but even this bore Jenna's stauessed it: pink The top of the screen was draped with pink Christhts Jenna's bed was covered in what appeared to be deep pink Muppet fur

Jenna caught ht?"

"II didn't know pink existed in that particular shade"

Kicking off her loafers, Jenna threw herself down on her bed, upsetting two sequined pillows and a ratty stuffed lion "It's called 'Electric Raspberry'"

"That's the perfect name for it" I smiled as I pulled my trunk over to my bed, which looked as plain aswell, as plain as me next to Jenna

"So, did your old roommate like pink too?"

Jenna's face froze for a split second Then the strange look was gone, and she was leaning off the bed to scoop up her pillows and lion "Nah, Holly just stuck with the blue stuff they give you if you don't bring your own You brought your own, right?"