Okay, well, this is the fanfic that started it all. I know what you're thinking. "Vanessa…really? Can't you be more original?" I could, but since this is the first one I've actually ever thought of, I have to preserve it, and that means keeping her name…sorry!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Darren Shan Saga, as much as I wish it were so, Darren Shan does! Enjoy.

"Vanessa, wake up." a voice shouted. I screamed and jumped up, dagger in my hand. I then realized who it was. I sighed in relief and put my knife back on the hammock. "Goodness, Larten, you scared me…why am I up so early?" I asked him, looking out through the tent entrance, seeing it was daylight. He scratched the scar that ran along his jaw and replied.

"Vanessa, I was not fooling around when Mr. Tall and I told you that you would be attending school here." He said, pulling out a neon green backpack with random dinosaurs on it. I glared at him and groaned. "Why now? Why here?" I never had to go to school in any of the other places, so this really ticked me off. He frowned. "I will not question Mr. Tall, Vanessa. He has his reasons." I groaned and shoved him out of my tent. "Fine" I grumbled. He patted me on the head and then was gone in a flash.

I sighed and went to my bag. I pulled out a pair of skinny jeans and a black shirt that said 'bite me, I'm Romanian.' Then I combed through my hair and straightened it. Evra walked in then and started laughing. "You loser, you have to go to public school…how did you get electricity?" he said. I rolled my eyes. "You're just jealous because you have to be schooled here at the Cirque and I really don't know, Mr. Tall arranged it for me so that I could make myself more dramatic for the show." I said. He nodded.

He held out something. I looked at it. It was one of his yellowy-green scales. I grinned and took it. "For good luck." He said. I hugged him. "Thanks bubba!" I said. He rolled his eyes. I hurriedly finished my hair and slung my pack on. I walked out the tent, talking to Evra, when I almost tripped over a Little Person. I flushed. "Sorry!" I exclaimed. They shook their fist and walked away. I walked towards the outside of camp to find Mr. Tall waiting for me.

I smiled, putting my aviators on. "You taking me, Shorty?" I asked. He rolled his eyes but nodded. I climbed into the taxi waiting outside of the abandoned theatre where we would be performing in a few nights and sat with Mr. Tall in silence as we headed towards the school. Then we pulled up. I took a deep breath in and looked at Mr. Tall. "Here I go." I muttered. He smiled. "You'll do fine." He encouraged. He patted me on the head and climbed out of the taxi.

I took out my schedule and looked at it as I walked up to the stairs when I ran into a boy. I stumbled backwards as one of his friends caught me by the wrist and pulled me up. I flushed. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" I cried. He laughed and looked at me. I froze. God, he's so cute… he grinned. "Don't sweat it." he extended his hand and shook it. "My name's Steve Leonard, you?" he asked. I smiled. "Vanessa Crepsley." I said, using my usual fake name. One of the guys cleared his throat. "Hey, Steve, we gotta go, Mr. Dalton is going to kill us." He said. I grinned. "Can I sit with you guys? I'm new here and he's my first class." I said. The guys snickered. Steve smiled. "Yeah, sure." He put his arm around my shoulders. "We'll be your guides." He said, plucking my schedule from my hands.

I followed them all to Mr. Dalton's class. They were sitting in groups of six and with me sitting with Steve and his friends, we filled the group set up. When I thought no one was looking, I took out the scale Evra had given me, kissed it, and rubbed it between my hands for good luck. "What are you doing?" one of the guys asked. I flushed. "It's a thing I do for good luck." I said quickly. He shrugged then smiled. "Name's Darren Shan, by the way." He said. I smiled as he introduced me to Alan, Tommy, and Tony.

Mr. Dalton came in then and started taking role. I slumped in my seat. "We have a new student who will be joining us for a short while, a transfer student from Romania." He said. He looked at me. "That means introduce yourself." He hinted. Everyone laughed as I stood up.

"Um, my name is Vanessa Crepsley." I said. A lot of the guys were still staring at me when I sat down. Then, I noticed a neon green piece of paper in Tommy's hand that in bold letters at the top said Cirque Du Freak. Then Mr. Dalton snapped it up and chastised them about how wrong it was. He kept trash talking it and it pissed me off. I was relieved when he finally got off the topic and started passing out papers, telling us what we were going to be doing.

After our group got our papers, Darren laughed. "What's up with you, Vann?" he teased. I shook my head. "I don't want to talk about it." I paused and looked at them all. "You guys aren't going are you?" I asked. They shrugged. I rolled my eyes. "You shouldn't, I went once in my old town…it sucked." I lied. In reality, it was the best thing in the world, but I couldn't let them see me there…

Steve gave me back my schedule and told me where my classes were and if I had them with anyone from our group, which thankfully I did. We also all had the same lunch. Steve laughed. "You're a little stalker, you have a lot of classes with me." he said. I laughed. Tony grinned, "So, do you like soccer, Vann?" he asked. I shrugged. "I guess." I looked around at them all. "I'm guessing you guys play soccer at lunch." They grinned. I grinned too. "Looks like I got a lot of butt to kick then." I laughed. They roared with laughter.

The rest of my classes flew by pretty fast until it was my lunch period. I followed Darren from science to where they played soccer. We sat down on the grass and started taking out our lunch when Steve came up and plopped down in between us. I smiled then took out my cupcake. My mouth watered and I could feel my teeth sharpening into fangs for this wasn't any ordinary cupcake, it was a juicy, blood filled one made to fit my special diet. I saw the guys eyeing it and I quickly wolfed it down. Steve kept staring at me.

By then, the rest of the group and other guys came up, all ready to play soccer. I grinned. "Okay, what are the teams?" I asked. Steve counted everyone up. "Okay, there are twelve of us so I guess Vann can be on our team and then you six will be a team." He said. Everyone nodded and we began to play.

At first, everyone was going easy on me…then they realized that the short, five foot two chick was good at soccer. In the end, my team won 26 to 7. Steve was laughing as we walked down the hallway to our next class. "You're pretty good." He said. I shrugged. "I try." I said. He rolled his eyes. "Hey, want to come over after school today?" he asked when we sat down in math class. I blushed. A cute boy just asked me to come over. "Sure, if it's okay with my dad." I replied.

He grinned. "cool." He looked at my shirt. "So, you like vampires?" he asked. I smiled. How ironic. He was asking a vampire if they liked vampires. I nodded. We were half way through class when a voice came over the intercom. "Vanessa Crepsley, please come to the office, you are being sent home." A nasty woman's voice said. I frowned and looked at Steve. "Where is that?" I asked as I put my stuff in my backpack. He stood up. "I'll show you." He said. I picked up my bag and followed him out the door and down the halls.

I think we were almost to the front of the school when he suddenly stopped. I stopped too and looked at him. "What?" I asked him. He looked at me strange then said. "I usually don't say this but I really enjoyed getting to know you." He said. I blushed. "Yeah, same here." I said. He grinned. "So, doing anything Friday?" he asked. I nodded. "Family commitment." I said, starting to walk down the hall again. Suddenly, he grabbed my arm, yanked me towards him and kissed me, full on the mouth. My already fast beating heart pounded faster and harder. I kissed him back. I could tell he had family issues because there was anger leaking into the kiss some, along with passion.

Then we parted. His eyes were wild. I flushed. I never thought that my first kiss would be with a human… he grinned and took my hand, leading me down to the office where a tall man was waiting for me. He rose and raised an eyebrow when he noticed my hand in Steve's. I casually took it away and hugged him. "Bye Steve, I'll see you later." I said. He nodded. "Yeah, um, here." He took a piece of paper off the desk and wrote down an address then handed me the paper. "It's my address, you can still come by if you want." He said. I smiled. "Thanks." I said. He smiled, then turned and left. I looked at Mr. Tall.

"Why am I being signed out?" I asked him, curious. He sighed. "Evra's snake got out and bit Larten and the Wolf Man and we need you to suck out the venom." He said, rolling his eyes. I laughed. "Of course you do if the Wolf Man is involved." I said as I walked out the office. He shrugged. I stretched, seeing that there was no taxi. He sighed. "You don't have to." He said. I grinned at him. "First one back gets the other's chocolate cake!" I cried. He grinned. Then I sped off, going faster than any human could imagine. Flitting was one of the best feelings in the world. It was nice to feel the wind rush through my hair. I stopped in the middle of camp to find Mr. Tall looking down at me, smiling. I groaned as he laughed and took me to the tent where Mr. Crepsley was laying in his coffin, face rigid with pain.

Then he scratched the scar running across his face. I rolled my eyes at the red haired mad man. "Where's the bite? You told me it was better to suck from the point of entry." I said. He opened his eyes and sat up some so I could see the snake bites in his neck…it wasn't pretty. I laughed. "Ooh, now I can be a real vampire." He glared at me. "Vanessa Anne, just suck it out already, I am growing weary of this pain, I must begin your training soon." He reminded me. I sighed and walked over, placing one hand on his shoulder, the other on the side of his head. I inhaled deeply and then bit his neck and sucked out the venom. When all I could taste was the blood of himself and his assaulted victims, I stopped. The blood was thick and warm and tasted so good. Mr. Crepsley looked at me.

"Do not swallow that, Vanessa, it still has the venom." He said. I frowned and went outside to spit the blood out on the ground, narrowly avoiding spitting on Evra's feet. He laughed. "Tainted?" he asked. I frowned and nodded. "The blood with the venom." I said sadly. He put his arm around me, laughing. "S'okay runt, you can suck mine anytime." He said with a teasing wink. We cracked up laughing. Then Mr. Crepsley came out and led me to the Wolf Man's cage. I could hear his breathing from across the camp, with my vampire senses, and he did not sound happy. When the cage was in sight, I stole a piece of meat from a passing Little Person and ran to the cage, giving it to the Wolf Man. He ate it quickly, tearing it to shreds in the process. I laughed.

"It's okay, buddy. I'll make it better." I stepped aside and let Mr. Crepsley unlock the cage, then I slowly walked in, as to not scare him. He froze when I came in, but then relaxed when he recognized my scent. It was hard to find the entry site of the venom, left arm was swollen in one particular place. I lifted his arm to my mouth, bit, and sucked just as I had with Mr. Crepsley.

I soon finished and was able to go back to my tent. I threw my backpack on the floor and sat on my hammock, looking at the address Steve had given me. Mr. Crepsley walked in then. "Are you ready for your lesson?" he asked. I looked up at him. "Not really…can I skip today and go to Steve's house? He invited me to hang out with him and Darren." I asked him. His brows furrowed. "And why should I permit you to do so?" he asked. I shrugged, not wanting to admit that I secretly liked a human. "They were talking about the Cirque today and I think they plan on going Friday." I said.

He looked thoughtful as he scratched his scar, as always. He sighed. "You will have a lot to make up tomorrow, do you understand that?" he said. I squealed and glomped him. (A/N: for those of you that don't know, a glomp is like when you run towards someone, practically jumps on them and hug/cling to them out of excitement.) "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I cried. He rolled his eyes.

I went to my foot locker under my hammock and pulled out my plush skelanimal backpack and threw in my phone, iPod, and the book I was currently reading, Alice in Wonderland. I threw it on my back and was about to leave when Mr. Crepsley stopped me in the doorway of my tent. I frowned. "What?" I asked. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "Vanessa, your clothes are covered in blood." He informed me.

I looked down and, sure enough, I was wearing blood soaked clothes. I pushed him out of my tent and changed into a black, layered ruffle skirt that went to the middle of my thigh, my black and white death bat t-shirt, and my blood red cloak…what can I say, Mr. Crepsley rubbed off on me. I quickly pulled on a pair of jet black, knee high converse with neon green laces.

I walked out and met Mr. Tall outside of camp. I smiled. "I'm walking." I said, knowing that he already knew what my plans would be. He smiled and continued walking into camp. I took out my iPod and listened to Break the Ice as I jogged to Steve's house.