Chapter Four- Unique

Chapter Four – Unique

         I sat on the front steps with Gin and Terry to my left and Damien on my right.  With them there, it felt like I was famous and they were my body guards.  Terry had insisted that I take a bottle of water with me, even after we explained that I had a spell on me that would keep me perfectly hydrated.  I looked down at Tonic, who was pacing back and forth furiously.  He obviously had no patience.
         “So Sapphire,” Gin said with a hint of something else in his voice, I began to take a drink of water just so I would have time to think of an answer for his impending question, “Has Damien asked you out yet?”  I quickly regretted taking a drink of water because once Gin’s question was finished, I did a spit take.  Tonic, who was still pacing, narrowly avoided being covered with the splattering water and yelled, “Watch it Comatose!”  Wonderful.  I had a nickname.
         Gin and Terry both gave him a glare and he returned to his walking.
         I was still coughing a bit when Damien decided to answer for me.
         “No, I was planning on doing that later Gin,” he shot Gin a look, “for now she’s just my donor.”  Once Terry heard that he let out a loud chirp to show how excited he was.
         “Aw, you’re his donor Sapphire!  That’s so sweet.”  Terry and Gin were both looking doe eyed at both Damien and I.
         “Drinking my blood is sweet?” I asked them and they simply nodded at me.  We then sat on the steps for a few more minutes before a thought occurred to me.
         I looked at Damien and asked, “You were going to ask me out?”
         “Yes,” he replied instantly.
         “Why?  I’m a walking warzone!  I hit you with a frying pan and then I elbowed you and practically crippled you!”
         “Hey, you can’t cripple me, I’m part vampire.”  He sounded insulted.
         “You know what I mean.  And how are you in sunlight?  Shouldn’t you be one with the dirt by now?”  I then realized that my heart was beginning to beat faster from adrenaline.  I knew Damien could hear my heart when he gave me a wicked smile.
         “I’m a kind of vampire.  I have better senses, strength, skill, but I don’t burst in the flame from sunlight or holy water.  I’m not afraid of the cross.  The only thing that can kill me is a stake through the heart.”  He jabbed his finger into his chest for emphasis.
         “Do you do anything else?” I wanted to know if he could do anything a little different.  He was, after all, only part vampire.
         “I can do a lot of things.  But I’ll only tell you one; I can turn invisible,” at that moment he disappeared into thin air.  When he did I gasped and leaned back a little onto Gin, who laughed at me.  Damien reappeared and laughed at me as well.
         I gave a nervous laugh and felt my face turn red from embarrassment.  I leaned off of Gin and stared straight forward; afraid that if I looked at anyone my face would explode from too much blood.
         “Finally,” Tonic said, “here she comes!”  I looked to the gate at the end of the driveway and saw a limo coming in.
         It stopped so that the last door was in front of Tonic, who hurried to open it.
         A small blonde girl stepped from the car.  She was dressed in what I could see as a blue tank top with a jean jacket overtop.  She wore very short shorts and simple black sandals.  I was a little surprised they were not heels. 
         She gave a small squeal and then practically tackled Tonic down.  That was the moment I understood that this girl was Rina, Tonic’s girlfriend.
         “I love when you’re a gentleman!” she was smiling so much that it hurt my face.
         “And I love when you jump on me,” Tonic was smiling too, it was an odd sight.  Damien, Gin and Terry all stood up and started walking towards the limo, leaving me to sit on the steps.
         “So what are we doing today?” Rina asked, still holding onto her boyfriend.  At that moment all the boys looked at me.  Rina followed their line of sight and gave me a very quick look over.
         “I’ll explain in the car,” Tonic said as he gestured for her to get back in.  After they were in Terry ran up to me and grabbed me by the hand.
         “C’mon, this’ll be fun!”  He then smiled and dragged me into the limo, followed by Damien and Gin.

         I stood in the change room and stared at myself in the mirror.  I was trying on a black shirt that said ‘love’ in Japanese on the bottom left corner along with a pair of dark, loose jeans.  Rina had picked out many outfits for me that I found I would never wear.  She got so fed up with me saying ‘no’ that she told me to find something for myself.  I was happy she finally let me dress myself.
         It turned out that Rina loved going shopping.  Like I did not see that coming.  In the car she was talking non stop; about both possible styles for me and what happened to me.  She was just like Kay, but older.  I found it hard to ignore the occasional thoughts I heard from her; they were usually complaints.
         Gin and Terry enjoyed helping me pick out clothes and I actually liked what they chose.  Damien and Tonic, however, were no help at all.  They said they would go their own way and meet us some café we were going to afterwards.  I was happy Damien had left; he was making me feel a little nervous.
         I walked out of the change room to show the others what I was wearing.  They all approved that it would work, but Rina thought it would only work ‘for now’.
         “Shall we go to the café then?” Terry asked.
         “Yeah, I think she has enough clothes now,” Gin gestured to the massive pile of clothing inside the change room.  I turned to go and put on my old clothes when Rina stopped me.
         “Just wear that out, Sapphire,” she really did not like my other outfit, “and let’s go pay!”
         We all walked up to the counter with armfuls of clothing.  After I placed down my pile the clerk began to scan it all.  I looked up at her and noticed that her eyes were yellow and her ears were pointed.  She had a piercing in her nose, lip and eyebrow and one going just under her eye.  Her ears were done up in small silver hoops as well.  She dressed in a very punk manner and her hair was completely black except for the yellow streaks.  Her hair was long and put up into a very loose bun on the back of her head.  I noticed she held it there with two pencils.
         “Stop staring at me human,” the clerk said without looking at me, “or I will bite you.”
         “Er…sorry,” was all I could manage.  I quickly looked down at all of the clothes and could not help but see that her nametag read ‘Benny’.  I did not think Benny liked me very much.
         After what felt like forever, Gin took out a silver card and handed it to Benny.  She scanned the last piece of clothing and swiped the card.  She handed me a medium sized bag and smiled, revealing razor sharp teeth.
         “Have a nice day,” she said cheerfully.  I looked down at the one bag I had received and then at the counter.  Where had all the clothes gone?
         “It’s a magic bag,” Gin explained, “You could fit millions of clothes in there and still have more room.  My dad invented them.”
         We swiftly left the store and got into the limo wait patiently outside.  In a matter of minutes Rina declared that we were at out next stop.
         I got out of the car first and looked around.  We were now in front of a small diner called ‘The Café’, not that creative, I thought.  It was a one story building with large glass windows in the front.  Rina quickly ran into the diner to see Tonic, who had waved to her from a booth at the front.  Gin and Terry gestured for me to follow them and I did as I was told.
         I walked in through the front door, with a bell alerting people of my presence.  Thankfully nobody looked to see who had just walked in.  I glanced to my left to see completely normal looking people around my age; I was a little disappointed none of them looked weird.  To my right was Damien, Tonic and now Rina.  Damien waved Gin, Terry and I over and we began to walk.  I could see from the door that surrounding them were people that were the exact opposite of normal; it was hard to resist a smile, but I managed.  The people, or demons, on the right side of the diner were either like Kami and Jall, or like Terry or Benny.
         I walked over to the booth.  On the right side was Tonic, Rina, Terry, while on the left side was Gin, Damien, and I guessed me.  I wondered for a moment how Gin had gotten the window seat if Damien was there first.
         “How was shopping?” Damien questioned, “You obviously found something.”
         “It was…interesting.” I replied.
         “She didn’t like anything I picked out,” Rina complained, “she doesn’t seem to like skirts or anything above the knee.”
         “That’s okay,” Terry said, “now let’s eat!  What do you want Sapphire?” 
         I wonder what her favourite food is.  It must be horrible not to know.  I could hear Terry giving me sympathy in his thoughts.  I ignored it.
         “I don’t actually need to eat, with that spell thingy from the hospital,” I said.
         “It’s okay if you eat though,” Gin said, “so you should try something to see what kinds of food you like.”  He smiled at me from over Damien.
         “I guess…I could,” I was beaten, if I did not eat, Gin and Terry would surely be disappointed.
         As if on cue, a very small, brunette waitress walked up to us with a pad and pen in hand.  She was like the clerk Benny, with pointed ears and razor teeth; she just seemed a lot happier.
         “Are you ready or do you need more time?” she questioned.
         “Just another minute,” Terry smiled and I could see the waitress blush quite a bit.  She then walked off to attend other customers.
         Terry handed me his menu then and said, “Here, I already know what I want.”  I thanked him and then opened up the menu.  I looked at it and realized that I could not read a word on it.  It was not in English, that much I knew.
         “Sapphire, you’re holding the menu upside down,” Damien said with a laugh and then corrected my mistake.  I felt my face start to turn red.
         I looked down once more at the menu but still could not read it.  I turned my head left and right, but that did not help one bit.  When I looked up at everyone they were all looking at me.
         “Sapphire,” Rina said, “can you not…read?”
         “Um,” my face was getting hotter by the second, “what language is this?”
         “It’s demon,” she replied, “all humans have to learn demon and all demons have to learn a human language.  You don’t know what it says?”
         “Well…uh…that is to say…I…no, I don’t,” I closed the menu and put it down.  My face was on fire and I felt like a complete moron.
         Suddenly I felt Rina hugging me and stroking my hair.  She was stretched across the table but nobody seemed to really care.
         “You poor baby!  You have no fashion sense and you can’t read?  Your God is a cruel one,” she stopped hugging me and went back to hugging Tonic, to my relief. 
         “That’s okay Sapphire,” Gin said, “We can help you order.”  Damien opened the menu and held it so he and Gin could read it.
         “Oh!  I have an idea!” Rina clapped her hands together.  I had a bad feeling about what was about to happen, “Let’s leave it up to fate,” she said, “Sapphire close your eyes and just point at something on the menu, and that’s what you’ll have.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Damien told me.
“It’s okay,” I managed, “there isn’t much else to do.”  Damien handed me the menu and I placed it on the table and covered my eyes with my left hand.  With my right, I spun my index finger in circles and then landed it on the menu.
“Uh, maybe you should try again,” Damien suggested.
“Why?  What did I get?”
“The spiciest item in the city,” he looked at me and I thought that spicy did not sound so bad.  When I told them I would try it, they all just looked at each other.
The blushing waitress returned and took our orders.  She obviously did not try to hide her surprise when she heard what I was getting.  After asking me three times if I was sure she went into the back to place our orders.
Ten minutes went by and she returned with all of our plates balanced perfectly on her arms.  Somehow she managed to give them each to the correct person without spilling it onto our laps.  She quickly left and came back with a jug of water and six glasses. 
I looked at what everyone else was having.  Tonic and Rina were both have turkey sandwich.  Terry was having a just a large plate of fries and Damien was eating a raw steak.  Oddly enough I did not find that disgusting in the least.  My plate yellow rice that was specked red and had some chicken on top.
I began to cut into the chicken when I noticed everyone was looking at me.  I immediately stopped cutting.
“Stop, please,” I asked them.  They all went back to their meals, but they all would glance over at me.
I scooped up some rice and chicken and began to put it into my mouth, but stopped only centimetres away.  They were looking again.  I decided to just close my eyes so I could not see them, but I knew they were still looking.
I shoved the food into my mouth and began to chew.  It was delicious.  I could feel my tongue tingle a little from the spice but it was not that bad.  I finished chewing and swallowed.
I opened my eyes to see everyone in the booth still staring at me.
“It’s uh, good,” I said quietly.
“You’re not in need of a drink of water?” Terry asked.
“No, I’m okay.”
“Sapphire,” Damien said with another heart-melting smile, “you’re one weird girl.”  I took another bite of my meal and they all started to laugh at a joke I did not think I would ever understand.