Meeting My Vampire Prince

Chapter 2: Emily

After our one and a half hour math class, Cheyenne and I moved on to world history. We are studying the ancient Egyptian world and the pyramids. In this class, we were assigned a project. It is the first one of the year and we were partnered up, thank goodness, but something strange happened. “Alright class,” our teacher stands in front of us with a stern look on his face. He is from the vampire race, so he is actually really good at this stuff because he was there all those years ago. “We have an extra student that needs a group. Who is going to be willing to accept this student into their group?” He looks around the room. Several people lower their heads. I sigh and look at Cheyenne. She sighs too and nods her head. I raise my hand and the teacher looks over at us. “Emily! Are you and Cheyenne willing to accept an extra person?”

I nod my head. “Yes sir. We don’t mind. It will help us out in the long run, I’m sure.”

He nods his head firmly. “Excellent! Demitri, you have your group then! Don’t forget that I expect everyone to have their subject topic picked out by the end of class. I do have to approve it, but as long as you pick from the provided list, everything should be okay.”

I turn and look at Cheyenne. “I didn’t realize it was Demitri, I’m sorry.”

She lowers her head and shakes it. “It’s okay. Just as long as he doesn’t try to hypnotize me, we will be okay.”

I nod my head firmly as he makes his way over to us. He gives a polite nod of his head before he sits down. “Emily… Cheyenne… I want to thank you both for allowing me to join your group. I know it is difficult to let an outsider in when you are so used to working alone.”

I nod my head. “You’re welcome, Demitri. We do need to lay out some ground rules though. FIrst, there will be no hypnotizing us. We don’t appreciate it and we don’t want to have to deal with it.”

He nods his head. “That is a fair rule. What else do I need to know?”

I look at Cheyenne who nods her head. “Alright, next rule, when we establish a meeting time and place to work on this project outside of class, you need to be there. Barring other school activities or medical emergencies, there is no good reason you shouldn’t be there.”

He nods his head again and gives a kind of smirk. “Alright, anything else I should know?”

Cheyenne sits up straight and looks him in the eye. “Yes… We typically take turns buying the food for our meetings. If you would like us to buy you something, you should be willing to participate in our routine.”

He nods his head once again and looks back at me. “These all seem like fair ground rules to me. I will accept them so long as I can set a couple of my own.”

I look at Cheyenne who shrugs her shoulders and I turn back to him. “What are the rules you want to implement?”

He sighs and looks down at his hands. “I want us to meet up at Vampire friendly and safe locations only. They can be neutral as well, but I know that the locations run by vampires will be safest for me.”

Cheyenne snorts. “What..? Are you afraid someone is going to try and kill you? You’re the Prince of the Vampires! No one would be that stupid.”

Demitri looks up at her and I see his eyes darken slightly. “There are a few people out there who would be that stupid. They are the other future leaders of their kind. They would be the ones who would want to step in and make my life so much worse.”

I put up a placating hand. I can already feel this conversation going sideways. “That is an acceptable term of agreement. I won’t say that we will not go to those locations to get food, because we both like the werebear food and werewolf food here on campus, but we will meet in a vampire friendly or neutral space. The library and the quad are typically where we meet. We understand that we can’t meet outside unless it is overcast or at night, but we can work around the times.”

Demitri gives a small laugh. “So, are you both okay with accepting me into your group for this project?”

I look at Cheyenne who nods her head. I turn back to Demitri and smile. “We are. Welcome to the group!”

He nods his head and then looks at the two of us. “So… Which topic of ancient Egypt are you two wanting to do our project on?”

Cheyenne clears her throat. “Well, I was wanting to do it on Cleopatra. She is my favorite pharaoh out of all of the pharaohs in Egypt.”

Demitri snickers and shakes his head. “Okay, if you say so. I’m sure the class is going to love that idea.”

I c**k my head to the side and look at him strangely. “Why do you say it like that? What is so wrong with Cleopatra?”

Demitri scoffs and shakes his head. “Look around. Have you two not been paying attention to the rest of the class? Literally every other girl group in this class is doing their project on Cleopatra. All that is going to happen is the groups are going to do the exact same project on the exact same person and no one is going to learn anything new.”

I do as he suggests and he is right. About ninety-five percent of the class is doing their project on Cleopatra. The other five percent are doing it on Ramses the Great. I look at him and I feel my eyes starting to plead. “Well… What do you think we should do the project on?”

Demitri smirks and motions us forward. He looks between the two of us and then smiles. “I think we should do it on Tutankhamun.”

“King Tut? Are you sure?” I look at him skeptically as he nods his head firmly.

“Yes… No one else seems to be wanting to do him as their subject. He is the most famous around the world and has the most information about him found in text and science. He is going to be perfect for our project. I also happen to have some connections with one of the lead Egyptologists who studied him. We are sure to get an A on this project.”

I look at Cheyenne and smile. “I’m in if you are.”

She ponders for a moment, then sighs. “Alright, fine. But if things start going south, I vote to revert back to Cleopatra.”

Demitri raises his hands. “By all means. I will not stop us from going back to her if we can’t get the project where we want it to be in time.”

I smile between the two of them and nod my head. “Alright, so where do we start with the project?”

Demitri smiles and nods his head. “Well, it would be wise to go through his lifespan. Before he became the pharaoh, during his reign, and then his burial would probably be the best way to do this.”

I nod my head. “Alright, what does your connection know about him the best?”

Demitri smiles. “He knows everything about him. His burial and his reign are going to be the most common information online. I will have the two of you look at those. I will work on his early life and then we can go from there.”

I nod my head and turn to Cheyenne. “Are you ready to get some research done?”

She smiles and nods her head. “Of course! We have an hour left of class, it shouldn’t be too hard to get some of the information knocked out with reputable sources.”

I smile and nod my head. Before I dig into the research, I pause. “Hey, Demitri… This may seem a bit forward, and if it is, I’m sorry. Would you like to get lunch with us after this? That way we can still work on the project and maybe just hang out? We do like to know who we are working with.”

Demitri gives a soft smile and nods his head. “I would be okay with that as long as you both are okay with it.”

I turn to Cheyenne who seems to think on it for a second. She sighs and nods her head. “I’m okay with it… I just don’t want any girlfriends trying to bully us again.”

I sigh and nod my head. Demitri c***s his head to the side. “Girlfriend? I don’t have a girlfriend.”

I laugh and shake my head. “You might want to tell Anya that when you see her next time.” He looks at me quizzically before we dive head first into researching our project.