Chapter 2

I haven't talked about my home much yet. I had bought about 50 acres, 20 of orange groves and the rest was ponds and saw grass, down by Frostpruf, FL(I think it was named for a plant that had made refrigerators. I guess they thought misspelling the name was cutesy). I had cleared about four acres and leased the orange groves back to a local grower. I had built a copy of an old plantation house. It was three stories and enough square footage for a small army. But unlike old plantation houses, the servants quarters were very nice and part of the main house. Also very few plantation house were air conditioned and had a half Olympic sized pool. I also had a service building away from the main house where we kept most of the vehicles and the rest of the equipment to keep up a place like this. I am pretty sure it was the biggest place in the county and damn sure the nicest.

Theoretically, this all belonged to my "Dad" who was "in Europe on business" and nobody ever meet. I had a governess that we will talk about later and a damn good lawyer. The governess lived in the house and the lawyer was in town. Most of the rest of the servants were temps until I found some good people locally.

Day two at school. I arrived a little early. I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen and just inside the main doors it did. I got hit with a small, dark haired cruise missile.

"What did you do to me?" she demanded. "I went to put my glasses on this morning and I couldn't see a thing. I took them off and could see perfectly."

"Isn't that what you wanted?" I replied. "I told you that I would fix your eyes."

"What do you mean you fixed my eyes? No one can do that, it's impossible."

"Well, if it's impossible then I guess it didn't happen. So have a nice day." I said, starting to walk away.

"Wait, please don't go! I just don't understand, can't you just explain." she begged, grabbing my arm.

"Look, this isn't good place to talk. Meet me at lunch again and I will set up a time and place that is a little safer and more secure, okay" I said, walking away. I felt her staring at me from behind but I knew that the old "leave 'em wanting more" was a viable plan for making someone interested. And right now I definitely wanted little Lana interested in more.

I knew she was still watching me in class but I didn't acknowledge her. Making her wait and wonder was also part of the plan.

Lunch finally. I was getting anxious about our little talk and I was sure Lana was too. I spotted her sitting in the back corner of the cafeteria again. For once her head wasn't down and she looked alert, not happy but alert (happy I was hoping to work on). Now that I was hoping to get closer to her, I notice a few more things. She was still wearing what I thought of as small town Goth but I noticed that none of it was new and several things showed tell tale signs of having been dyed by an inexperienced hand.

"Hey. Is it okay if I sit here" I asked.

"Yes. Please sit down, just tell me what's going on. How can you do what you did? I mean you healed my eyes. I have worn glasses since I was in kindergarten."

She said all in rush.

Sitting down, "HOW will have to wait for a little while. I think you can understand that it could be worth a lot of money but more importantly it could be worth my and maybe your life. WHY, now that is the discussion for today. Why did I help you. Oh and What comes into play. As in what do I want in return." I replied. I opened my lunch of chilled veggies and dipping sauce. I can eat just about anything but certain things are helpful.

"Okay" she said, stealing one of my carrots. "I'll bite. What do you want?"

"Well, I am a fourteen year old boy. Boys are not very complex. Girls, now girls are complicated. Boys want fun, food and excitement. Oh, and friends. Everybody that is not crazy wants friends, right. But mainly right now I want companionship. I want a GIRLFRIEND. But because I am a little different what I want in a girlfriend is different. But what I have to offer is a lot more, too."

"So you want me to be your girlfriend in exchange for what you're offering. Isn't that prostitution?" she asked, continuing to eat my lunch. "Maybe I'm not that kind of girl. Then what?"

"We started this yesterday, talking about vampires. In most stories, vampires have a hierarchy of sorts. You are beholden to the ones above you and in control of the ones underneath you. Again I am not offering to turn you into a vampire but the situations are similar. Look, lunch is almost over and you have eaten most of my food. It's Friday night tonight, how about you going on a date with me? I promise nothing more will happen without your consent and we will have more time to talk about things."