Letters to Romeo

Mr. Helm, the teacher for Julie's class, now stood in the headmistress' room with the two girls from Junior year who had gotten into a fight. The room held the same quietness as the first visit when Julie had been dragged in here because of Roman and Mateo's fight.

Ms. Dante stared at them with a grim expression on her face, and there was a frown on her face, and her lips were set in a thin line while watching the two young girls.

The male teacher cleared his throat and said, "Ms. Dante, Ms. Winters and Ms. Obson were involved in a fight for no actual reason. Not only that, they even broke the rule of not listening to me when I told them to stop. Look at this," he showed his arms that had angry red lines on his skin. "They didn't even spare me!"

"Why didn't you stop the fight when your teacher clearly told you to stop?" questioned Ms. Dante, leaning back against the black chair. The woman appeared poised with the black suit and pants that she wore, and her blonde hair combed back. Her eyebrows raised as if wanting the two girls to start speaking.

The other girl was the first one to speak, "Ms. Dante, it was Julianne who first started the fight by pulling my hair."

"I did it only after Gabriella pulled my hair. It wasn't I but her, who started the fight, Ms. Dante. She went as far as to call me names and then-"

"You said me and my friends had nothing to do but gossip, while behaving like you are the only righteous one. It isn't like you don't take tutoring and get close to him," complained Julie's classmate. Gabriella looked back at Ms. Dante and said, "I didn't do anything, and it was her who started it. It was also her who scratched Mr. Helm's arm," she pointed out at Julie's nails.

But when the headmistress' eyes fell on both the girl's hands. She noticed that Gabriella had longer nails compared to Julie, who had short ones.

"I am extremely disappointed by this behaviour shown by both of you. This kind of behavior shall not be tolerated in Veteris. Ms. Obson, you should cut those nails before pointing fingers at someone-"

"But-" Gabriella started to speak and ended up receiving a cold glare from Ms. Dante, and she immediately closed her mouth.

"I am not done speaking. It seems like students from the Junior year are in need of learning discipline as they fail to follow not just basic rules but also manners," remarked Ms. Dante, and Gabriella turned confused. Though she was the one to start the fight, she wasn't the one to scratch the teacher. It was Julie!

But Julie stayed quiet.

Ms. Dante's gaze then shifted to look at Julie, "Ms. Winters. You were admitted this year in Veteris, wasn't it?" Julie nodded her head. "This is the second time you have entered my office, for causing trouble."

"The last time I came here it was a mistake-" Julie was quick with her words, knowing Ms. Dante wouldn't allow her to speak.

"I didn't ask for an explanation, Ms. Winters," Ms. Dante placed both her hands on the surface of the table, holding them, she said, "I cannot look over your actions and the little feuds that took place with your behaviour, all of those will be noted down and sent to both of your family so that they know what you are doing here, instead of concentrating on your studies."

On hearing this, Julie's face turned pale.

"Make sure to see that you don't repeat this in the future and visit the infirmary now to fix those scratches or any wound," Ms. Dante picked up the glass of water that was placed on the table. She took a sip and cleared her throat. Turning around as if to pick a file, she said, "I have something to talk to your coach to implement rules and the behaviour. You can now go," the headmistress dismissed both the girls.

When Julie and her classmate stepped out of the headmistress' room, closing the door behind them, Ms. Dante finally turned back with a handkerchief in her hand. Her hazel eyes had turned red.

"Ms. Dante, are you alright?" Mr. Helm asked in concern, noticing her lips had turned red. "Shall I call Isolde?"

The woman raised her hand as if to stop the man. Mr. Helm was a lower level vampire. A kind where he didn't have the vampire's attributes but only had vampire blood running in his veins. It was why he was in charge of physical training and other games on the field.

Ms. Dante coughed some more blood into her handkerchief and then turned her gaze to look at the glass of water.

The headmistress stood up, walking to one of the many cupboards and pulled out a wooden box. Opening it, she picked up one of the red pills and dropped it in the glass of water. When the pill started to dissolve, the water turned completely black.

"Get Borrell, Evans and the other staff to inform all the night creatures, not to consume any blood from the humans or drink or eat anything until we announce it. Someone has mixed silver water. Tell it is a signal yellow, and to take countermeasures to make sure the memories are erased when needed. Right now," ordered the headmistress.

Mr. Helm quickly bowed his head and left the room to convey the information to others.

Ms. Dante poured the water in the nearby pot of the office room, and she then stepped out of the room, locking the room from outside. On her way, she met Ms. Piper.

"Is everything alright?" asked Ms. Piper, noticing Ms. Dante's facial expression had subtly turned tense.

"Come with me to the underground tanks, Piper," said the headmistress, her shoes sharp against the floor, and Ms. Piper didn't question and instead followed her with one of the helper men. They left the main building, making their way towards the forest area where the tanks had been built to supply water to all the buildings that were inside Veteris. "Open the lid and fetch the water," she ordered the helper.

With no one around, the helper man climbed the ladder, and he got the water out in a glass before handing it to Ms. Dante. She pulled the red pill from her pocket.

"Is this effective?" asked Ms. Piper, already having a hint of what the headmistress was suspecting about.

"If the water stays red, it should be fine," said Ms. Dante, and she dropped the pill right into the glass. They waited for a while, and the liquid slowly started to turn black. "And this confirms the person who has infiltrated here has decided to attack us directly. We still have no answers as to who is causing this."

"All the students seem normal and it is hard to distinguish which one is actually trying to cause trouble and expose us," stated Ms. Piper with her eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't think it is about exposing. Veteris has a tight security and nobody can enter and get out that easily. Only people of our kind are aware of the exits and only a handful of them from the lot. Something tells me, that the person wants to disrupt the awakening that we are working on," remarked Ms. Dante, "I don't think compelling will work right now, but have the humans sent to their dorms. If it doesn't, get the humans to the dungeons so that the word doesn't spread. Firstly, get the water restored as quickly as possible. I want this place completely secured so that the contamination doesn't happen again. Have people be on guard here."

Back in the football field where the practice was going on, Mr. Helm called the football coach, who had been supervising the game. Roman passed the ball to someone and tried to listen to what Mr. Helm had to say as he seemed slightly tense.

"What is the matter, Helm?" questioned the football coach.

"There is a code yellow and the headmistress wants our kind to be alert and not to consume anything until further notice," whispered Mr. Helm so that the human students wouldn't hear it.

Roman heard everything that had happened and looked around the field, noticing that the junior class students had finished their time here and had probably returned to the locker room.

When the football coach returned to where the game was still ongoing, he looked left and right before asking, "Where is Moltenore?" The other students shrugged their shoulders as they had no clue when and where he disappeared to.

Roman walked through the corridors, his eyes searching for the troublemaker. His ears picked up some of the vampires trying to compel and two human students who had caught note of the fangs. He already knew that they were being dragged to the dungeon until the Silverwater would pass through their body. And after that, they would be compelled to forget what they saw.

He didn't want Julie to be caught in this crossfire because if she saw something that she was not supposed to, and with her ability of not being compelled, there was no telling what Dante would do to Julie. Not just her, but also him, because he had hidden this knowledge from them.

Julie wasn't in the girl's locker room, and he wondered if she had already gone to her dorm. If she was in the dorm, it would save his breath from having to save her. When he stepped out of the building, he heard Simon call him.

"Rome!" Simon walked to where he stood. "You disappeared from the game. Did you hear about the code?"

"Yeah, I did," replied Roman, his eyes scanning through the crowd of the students.

"Thankfully it isn't the time of lunch or dinner, and is somewhere in between," commented Simon in a low voice. "Else there would be a shortage of dungeons. Let's go check if Olivia needs any help tying people in the infirmary," Simon chuckled at the idea.

Roman went to the locker room, changing his clothes back to his usual ripped jeans and T-shirt. Picking up his bag with one of the books, they made their way to the infirmary building when they came to pass the troublemaker and her friend. There were small marks on her face, and it glistened because of the ointment.

When Julie stepped out of the building with Melanie, her eyes fell right on Roman, who was walking in the opposite direction. Earlier, she had gone to defend Roman's team, which had somehow landed her in the headmistresses' office.

The evening rays of the sun fell on him, holding a little warmth. They stared at each other until they came near and finally walked past each other without a word.

Roman and Simon entered the infirmary building as if they were in a hurry, and Julie and Melanie continued to walk. But before Julie could get too far, she heard Roman call her from behind, "Winters."

Turning around, Julie saw Roman standing at the front side of the infirmary with a book in his hand. "Notes for Rubix' next chapter. I have written some of the problems for you to work on today."

It seemed like he was busy because they were supposed to have their study session together in the library. Taking it from him, she said, "Thank you."

Without sparing another word, Roman turned around and walked back inside the infirmary. When Julie returned to where Melanie was, her friend said, "I am sure if you get tutored for the rest of the subjects, by the end of this year you will fall in the top five students."

Julie smiled, staring at the book and opened it, noticing his handwriting.

"Even his handwriting is pretty," murmured Melanie, and Julie nodded her head. Roman had fooled her into making her believe that he had bad handwriting until she came face to face with the letter thief.

Seemed like this evening, she would be spending her time in her dorm, thought Julie, walking away from there with Melanie.