“Wait, Ifinallyfigured out Facebook and you’re telling me it’s already uncool with the kids?”
Brennan grabbed his phone and started to pull up the long-abandoned Facebook app with 99+ notifications on it. Clearly, they weren’t going to give him answers, so Facebook it was.
“I told you we should have DM’d him on Insta,” Sunny was telling Binder Girl. “I have a checkmark, he’d listen to me.”
He scrolled past useless notifications from friends he hadn’t spoken to since high school until finally, he saw what they must have been referring to. He gripped his phone so tight that a crack split down theglass screen, catching himself just before his vampiric strength fully crushed it.
bloodsucking memes for immortal non-teens (new england clan)
Brennan put his fingers to his temples while staring at the newly cracked screen, the name alone giving him a headache. This was, apparently and unfortunately, his life now.
“If he didn’t RSVP then he didn’t get the welcome pack, Nel,” said Sunny.
“Oh, gosh, you must have had one heck of a confusing week,” Binder Girl (Nel?) was saying, digging through her backpack under the table and pulling out a thick folder. She pushed it toward Brennan, obstructing his view of his phone. “I have physical copies on hand for this very reason!”
He sank into one of the open seats and cautiously took the folder. It was bright red and had a neat label in the upper corner that saidVAMPIRE ORIENTATION.
“That’s not the reason,” Sunny corrected with a wry smile. To Brennan, she added, “Physical copies are all she knows how to do. Nellie’s still figuring out how the internet works. She just learned what a PDF was two weeks ago.”
“It’s the moving picture one,” Nellie said with such pride that Brennan hated to burst her bubble, but Sunny had no such hesitations.
“That’s a GIF, sweetheart.”
Nellie huffed in frustration. “I don’t get why it matters.”
“So, making sure I have this straight, you guys arevampires?” Brennan said, his heart picking up speed with something like hope. “Vampire Orientation” meant they were here tohelp,right? His headache deepened, temples throbbing.
Sunny and Nellie looked at him then and it was like a university stock image with purposefully diverse models, both girls perfectly put-together and beautiful with twin smiles and amused eyes, like they were charmed by his disbelief. They didn’tlookscary, or dangerous. They just seemed like people.
“I’m Nellie. I do community outreach,” said Nellie. “Sunny doessurveillance, which is a fancy way of saying she stalks people on social media.”
“I’m very good at it,” Sunny added.
Before Brennan could respond or really process either of those introductions, a new figure approached and loomed over the table.
The newcomer was short and plump, white with a round face. Her arms were crossed in front of her stomach like she was trying to make herself smaller. She was wearing winged eyeliner and a frumpy sweater.
And, more important: she was, without a doubt, the person he had seen at the place he had died. Driving a car that had possibly killed him. Her hair was darker now, an inky black straight from a box, but it was her, he was sure of it. Brennan shot up from his seat, alarm bells going off in his head, but he managed to bite his tongue while she scanned the table, eyes flickering over Sunny, Nellie, and finally Brennan. When they locked eyes, he could tell there were complex calculations going on behind hers. Whatever it added up to, she didn’t seem satisfied.
“You must be Dominique!” Nellie said, springing up to give her an enthusiastic handshake.
Dominique crossed toward the table with slow, small steps, casing the room like she was looking for exits.
“It’s just Dom,” she said.
It was so pretentiously mysterious that Brennan couldn’t help it. He snorted. Nellie shot Brennan a dirty look, but Dom’s mouth curved into an amused closed-lip smile.
And somehow, her smiling like they shared some secret was what pissed him off enough to say, “We’ve met, I think. You were driving the car that killed me.”
Dom arched an eyebrow. “And you were the idiot standing in the middle of the road that made me crash into a tree.”
“Come on, guys,” Nellie cut in. “I totally want you guys to get to know each other, but we do have an agenda I’d love to stick to.”
Brennan narrowed his eyes at Dom and she stared back, unperturbed. Reluctantly, Brennan took his seat at the table. Dom followed suit.
Nellie clapped her hands together in the universal camp-counselor signal to begin a meeting. “Great, now we’re all here, let’s get started.”
She launched into an impassioned speech that somehow sounded exactly like the speech Brennan’s RAs and orientation leaders had given in his freshman year of college. Lots of stuff abouta scary time of transitionandstepping out of your comfort zoneandcommunityandwe’re here as a resource.Sunny sat silently next to her, sipping her iced coffee while scrolling one-handed through her phone.
