The Challenge (5 page)

Think it's working?

I smirked, and wrote down a reply.

Do you have to ask?

At lunch we sat with my friends. After a minute of whispered arguing, we wound up with Henry sitting on the bench and me sitting on his lap. He had his arm around my waist, a move that made him look protective and possessive, but we knew the real story behind that.

"Hey, Kris," Lena said, leaning closer so that only I could hear. "Is he going to be at the party tomorrow?"

"Yeah," I answered. "Today is basically practice, or dress rehearsal, if you want to be dramatic." We both laughed, and I leaned back against Henry. His grip on my waist tightened, which took me by surprise. I noticed his eyes were determined and angry, so I followed his burning gaze to see none other than David and Lauren, walking into the cafeteria. I leaned my head back on Henry's shoulder and nuzzled his neck. "Hey, what do you think about vampires?"

"Love 'em, they're brilliant," Henry said, putting his other arm around me too.

"Good," I said, "because I just thought of the perfect idea." I put my hand next to my mouth. "We're gonna dress as vampires for tomorrow, so I think we should go shopping after school."

"Works for me, pet," Henry said. I only then realized his hands were moving on my hips. I also realized that, and I would never admit it to him, that it was actually a nice feeling. What was I thinking?

"Hey, Lukas," I said. "I gotta borrow your sister after school, so don't wait up for her."

"She's joining us then?" Henry asked.

"Yeah," I admitted.

Lena agreed and we went back to eating lunch. Drama was last period every day, so there was no need to tell her to meet after that class.

A few minutes later he bell rang and I sighed, "Cafeteria duty awaits."

"Indeed," Henry said.

We watched everyone leave and we sulked into the back where, again, we were supposed to clean the trays and dishes, as well as the sinks.

"So far, so good," Henry said with a smile.

"Yeah," I said. "By tomorrow night the whole school should know."

"That fast, huh?" Henry asked, smiling.

"Yeah, nothing really stays secret around here anymore." I grabbed a hose, and started cleaning out the pots.

Drama was the same as always. I struggled to pay attention to anything. One minute I was reading lines and the next I was sitting in Henry's car on our way to the mall. Lena was going on in the back seat about what we should get, while Henry was trying not to laugh.

Once we arrived, Lena led us into some gothic-looking men's clothing store. We three went through the racks trying to find something nice for Henry to wear. It took a while, but we eventually settled on a black dress shirt with white pinstripes, black jeans, and a black trench coat. I paid for the coat because it was my idea to get it. Henry paid for the rest of the clothes, and we left the store.

"So what are you guys gonna do?" Lena asked. "I mean...you can't just sit next to each other and talk, if you want to make people think you're together."

"We figured that out on our own," I said. Then Lena led us into another store. "Umm...Le...this is lingerie."

"Yeah," Lena said.

I raised an eyebrow and looked at Henry. He was looking at the floor and I just had to smile because he looked kind of cute.

"Kris, what size are you again?" asked Lena.

"You know damn well what size I am," I replied, frowning.

Lena pulled me and Henry to the back of the store. I was trying to figure out what she was looking for, when I saw them...corsets. I smiled. Corsets were fun to wear; unless they got tied too tightly...then they were evil.

I looked at several different corsets, until Lena shoved one under my face. It was black with jeweled orange and yellow flames up the sides and along the bottom.

"Lena, I have this one already," I said, handing it back.

"Really?" Lena asked.

"Yes. You bought it for me for my last birthday," I said.

"What about this?" Henry suddenly spoke out. He was standing next to a mannequin that had a blood red corset on it with black and gold patterns. I almost laughed when he started petting the fabric.

"Nice," Lena said. "The man has a good eye, Kris."

"Yeah, I guess," I muttered.

Henry gave the mannequin's boobs a big grin. Lena bought the corset.

Next we went to a women's store called Envy, or something ridiculous like that, if I remember correctly. Here, we found a black, mid-thigh length skirt and knee high boots.

"I'm gonna look like a vampire whore," I said from the dressing room.

"Isn't that the point?" Lena asked.

"You're just going to piss David off even more," Henry warned.

"Oh...good point," I admitted.

I bought the skirt and boots, as well as a temporary dark red hair coloring kit. We stopped at a novelty store to get the fangs, fake blood and makeup. I found a couple of cuff bracelets that looked like my corset, so I bought them, too. We also picked up some stuff for Lena's genie costume. Poor James would be the only one not in costume.

After about $300 spent between all of us, Henry dropped Lena off at home and we went to my place where, yet again, no one was home. In the driveway I thought about the plans for tomorrow. Lena was going to distract James while we set everything up after school. Then she was going to change when they got to my place so he wouldn't get suspicious. Henry helped me carry the bags up to my room.

"God, I want this coat!" I said, sliding the trench coat on, and looking in the full length mirror next to my dresser.

"Well, at least let me wear it tomorrow, then you can keep it," Henry offered.

"Nah...it's yours," I said.

"You bought it."

"Yeah..." I said. I took it off and put it over Henry's shoulders. "It's yours, though. Think of it as a souvenir from all this."

Henry grinned and looked around my room. "I'm actually surprised. I thought it would be...well...different in here," Henry said.

I looked around my room, too. The walls were pale blue, and I had red curtains over my window. Everything was bathed in a tint of red light, since the lampshades were red as well. My bed was a mess. The pillows were on the floor next to the bed and my blanket lay at the foot of the bed, having been kicked off during the night. The only thing that seemed to be in order was the dresser. At least...all the drawers were closed for once.

"How different did you expect it?" I asked.

"Well, I didn't think it would be like this," Henry admitted. His eyes wandered over to the corner, where I had five bean bag chairs and little bean-filled pillows. "Although I did think there would be a bathroom connected and look...I was right."

"Yeah, so what?" I said, putting my hands on my hips and tilting my head slightly. Henry looked down at me. God, he had to be at least six inches taller than me.

"We're kissing tomorrow night?" Henry asked.

"Yeah," I said, slowly. I knew what was coming next.

"Maybe you need to get over your gag reaction to it," Henry suggested.

"Well, if you didn't smoke," I said.

"Didn't today now, did I?" Henry gloated. "I was with you all bloody day.

Dammit! He just had to be right. "Good," I shot back.

"Good?" Henry asked. "I don't think you get it. I've been smoking for the last two years. One whole day without a smoke is killing me."

"Oh, please. Like you didn't have one before picking me up," I said. Henry didn't say anything. "If you need one so bad, then go out back and smoke."

"Fine...I'm going," Henry grunted.

"Fine," I responded.

Henry left the room and not five seconds later he was back. "How do you get out to the back?" he asked.

I tried not to laugh. "Go to the living room, then through the kitchen from there, and out the door," I said as angrily as I could. Henry nodded and left again. I shook my head. "God..." I fell onto my bed.

After a few minutes, I got up and went downstairs just as Henry came in from the backyard.

"You have a pool
and
a hot tub?" he asked.

"Yeah. My uncle owns a club that's really, really popular. That's why we have a house with six bedrooms. Two of them are guest rooms, one's mine, one's Megan's, and one's my uncle's. The other one is a music room. He even soundproofed it."

"Also explains why there are about a hundred bathrooms?" Henry asked.

"Three and a half," I said. "One connected to my room, one connected to my uncle's room, one in the hall upstairs, and the half one is over there." I waved at a closed door near the kitchen. "Do we actually have to do the kissing practice stuff?" I asked when I remembered why he was here.

"Gotta make it convincing...I suppose," Henry muttered.

"God this sucks," I complained. "Why did I agree to do this?"

"Because you wanted to drive ol' Davy boy mental," Henry said.

"I'm only doing this because you asked me to..." I started, "...and because you looked so pathetic," I confessed.

"I looked
pathetic
?" Henry said.

"Yeah...standing there with them all..." I paused. "Lovey-dovey or some crap like that. And it was just so..."Before I could finish my thought he had grabbed me around the waist and pulled me against him. He forced his soft lips against mine and my eyes went wide before my arms went around his neck. He nipped at my lip and that brought me back to reality. I pulled away and stared at him, upset yet intrigued by his forcefulness.

THE LAST BELL rang and everyone ran to their lockers. The gang and I grabbed our stuff and met out to the parking lot. Seeing as how Lukas and James were the only ones in the group who had cars, a few of them came with Henry and me in his car. Sam laughed as Henry, whether on purpose or just to joke around, tried showing me how to drive. She had told me earlier that she loved his accent.

"Now, this is called a manual car, or a 'stick' as you bloody Americans like to call it."

When we arrived everyone got changed into their costumes and Darla helped me with the hair dye stuff. I took a while to figure out what I was going to do with my hair and decided to put it in a half ponytail, leaving a bit down on one side of my face. When I went out of the bathroom, I saw Henry lying on my bed, hands under his head, staring at the ceiling.

"You take a ruddy long time," Henry said, looking at me. "Not complaining, though." I glared at him as he continued. "Amanda told me to come up here and...help. I think she was implying something else."

"That's Amanda for you!" I walked over to my closet, one hand holding the towel to my body. My eyes never left Henry, and his never left me. I felt uncomfortable with him watching me that way, and I thought about last night. The first kiss came unexpectedly. The second and longest kiss was all my doing because after I stared at him for a few seconds, I just grabbed his head and kissed him. I had no clue what came over me, or why I did it, but I did.

We could pass as a new couple, no problem. Every time Lauren saw us together, she would look away really quickly. Henry and I stuck to the basic stuff, hand holding, hugging, me sitting on his lap. That was about it, though.

"Kris..." I spun around to see Henry standing right behind me.

"Huh?" I asked. He had a grin on his face, and looked like he wanted to kiss me. "I need to get changed still," I reminded him.

"Oh...right," Henry said.

I went to my dresser and looked through my underwear drawer, choosing a black pair of panties that would match the skirt. After making sure the towel was still tied securely, I slid into the panties then turned to face into the closet. I took the towel off and pulled the corset on. This was when I began wishing one of the girls was here. I pulled the skirt on and turned around, one hand pressing into the middle of my chest. I sighed and tapped Henry on the shoulder. He turned around and looked at me.

"I need you to help with the strings, please." I moved my hair over my shoulder. "Just tighten them a little so that it stays up."

"Got it," Henry said. I looked at my now practically burgundy-colored hair, twirling a bit of it around my finger as Henry pulled on the strings. He was actually doing pretty well. Normally, when some others were doing this, they'd hit a spot where they tightened it too much. But Henry never hit that spot.

I let my hair fall back over my shoulder before I looked at Henry. "Okay, makeup time."

"I don't do makeup," Henry said flatly.

"You have to. You don't look pale enough to pass as a vampire. L.A. has been good to you," I said with a smile. Henry glared at me and I pouted. "Please?" Henry glared even more, before sighing and sitting on my bed. I knew I had won. It was so easy to manipulate boys. I did his makeup quickly. Despite what I said, I didn't need to do much to make him pass off as a vampire.

"What is this stuff?" Henry asked, taking the tube of fake blood from me.

"Candy." I said, smiling. I took it back, and squeezed some onto my tongue.

My makeup only took ten minutes to do. I had on black eye shadow, which made my eyes stand out more. My lips were a bit redder than my hair, and had a velvety look to them.