toy to show off anymore. I’ve been doing a nightly tour. Vampire sight, strength, and speed are no match for the rubbish collectors.”
“I hate that you don’t need more than an hour’s sleep.” Roman yawned after speaking. Roman was a Satyr which meant that in his true form he had the horns and legs of a goat. On maturity he was likely to become a wild womaniser. Right now, him being horny was just his natural virginal, biological state.
He was right. I was lucky. The development of medication meant that my species could now be out in sunlight whenever we liked, and an hour’s power nap was all we needed to re-set ourselves at some point during the dawn. It also meant it was not so easy to recognise vampires anymore, something else that was of huge value seeing as being awake all night and sleeping all day was a bit of a giveaway to any enemy. All they needed was a piece of wood to finish you off and a vacuum cleaner for the dust of the undead and it'd be like you'd never existed. Thank goodness there was a huge 'save the trees' and recycling initiative at the moment meaning wood was a hot commodity in London.
“So what is the actual plan?” Zak picked up a microphone and even moved the hair out of his face to look at it more closely.
“We’re going to work out, and we’re going to form a band. Completely in secret. Then we’ll book ourselves in with a hair stylist and a clothes stylist and relaunch ourselves on the world. It’ll take us some time, and we’ll need part-time jobs to save up for the hair and clothes, but we’re no longer going to be the victims, we’re going to be the victors. Who’s with me?”
"You don't need to work out or have a makeover. You just look like that anyway. It's not fair." Rex moaned. "I have to run about in the woods all the time to work off all my energy. I'll probably break these machines if I try to use them."
"Okay, they're for Roman and Zak then. You go jogging."
Rex growled and I laughed.
“What are we going to call ourselves?” Roman asked.
We debated different ideas for a while but nothing good surfaced as a potential winner. And then Zak said. "How about an in-joke? We're all paranormals; well, all of us except me. So how about The Para-not-normals? I'm the 'not'."
"I love that." I said.
"Me too." Said Roman.
Rex held up a drumstick. "Me three."
We high-fived his drumstick.
So The Para-not-normals were formed. Rex on drums, Zak with the microphone, me on bass guitar, and Roman on lead guitar. The rest of us could hold a tune and provide backing or occasional lead vocals.
Of course, my vamp speed meant I learned to play the bass guitar in super quick time. Rex was growly enough that banging on drums came naturally to him; and Roman had been forced into guitar lessons at a young age, by a father who believed all children should learn an instrument. Roman was keen to learn how to use an instrument all right, but one that laid between his legs, not against them.
Zak would later lose his 'not' status, but the band name remained for a long time.
Stacey
Seven-and-a-half years earlier
It had been six months. Six long months where I'd cried enough to fill several rivers. But the six-month anniversary was the day I drew a line through Noah and Stacey, literally, on my wooden maths desk. Scored it out with the pointy end of my compass.
"You want to go shopping after school?" My classmate Fiona asked. We'd ended up hanging together over the last month or so. We didn't particularly have anything in common bar loneliness, but it beat being on my own. She helped take my mind off things given she was a chatterbox and rarely needed an answer to her incessant spewing of words.
"Sure." I answered. I'd been saving my pocket and birthday money and finally had enough to buy what I wanted for my newly decorated bedroom. I'd seen a beautiful blue and green dreamcatcher in a small store hidden down a side street in the city centre, and some gorgeous cushion covers in the same hues.
My parents had decorated my bedroom. No doubt in the hope of bringing me out of my lovesick gloom. To an extent it had worked, as they'd let me choose the colour scheme of blues and teals, something that