It was the following evening over dinner that Jonathan was cornered.

“I saw you last night with that girl.”
“What girl?” Jonathan wasn’t sure what Virgil was getting at, so decided to play the lovable idiot card.
“The Countess… you know she’s a vamp, don’t you?”
“Countess? Her name’s Kellie. And what do you mean, vamp?”
“Vamp-IRE. She sucks blood, man. You don’t wanna get involved with her; she’ll have you for dinner one day.”
Jonathan was incredulous. Kellie Peterson, vampire? Was Virgil serious or just pulling his leg? Though the look on the guy’s face suggested he wasn’t joking.
“Look, I’ve been out with her a few times, mate. If she’s really this ‘vampire’ why hasn’t she tried to bite me yet?”
“I don’t know, maybe she’s waiting for the right moment. You better be careful though.”
Jonathan nodded, raised his bowl to his face and carried on eating. Messily.

Virgil’s words swam in Jonathan’s head for days afterwards. Yes, he’d noticed the dusky cast to Kellie’s skin, and the glint of red in her eyes, but he’d always put both down to a trick of the light. He’d never noticed fangs, nor had she ever attempted to bite anyone. In the end, he dismissed the whole thing as nonsense. Kellie wasn’t dangerous; Virgil had just been trying to scare him.


It was just after Jonathan made it to his third year when all hell broke loose in the dorm. The llama mascot, who was constantly getting in the way, turned on Virgil, who had dared to laugh hysterically at the school cheer. Jonathan couldn’t ignore the commotion.

‘Mr Llama’ as most of the students referred to him, won the fight, but Virgil swore he’d get even one day.

Fighting wasn’t the only aspect that livened up the students’ lives that year. Another was Frank playing pranks with the sprinklers.

Unfortunately for Jonathan, pranks meant time away from studying or painting. None of the dormies EVER cleaned up after themselves! And THAT meant desperate measures were called for…

Leroy…” Jon had pulled the cow mascot over to one side. “You’re an awesome guy and so fast when it comes to typing… if I gave you my notes, would you type up my term paper for me?”
Amazingly, Jonathan’s cheeky request worked. Leroy Underwood aka “The Evil Cow” obediently sat down at the computer and started typing. Influence sure had its rewards!

Now Jonathan could get ready for his date that evening. Kellie was coming over to the dorm, and he had something very important to do.


“You made it!”
“So, what was so important you HAD to invite me over?”
“Well…”

With the most likely heir now engaged, Sy and Jeremiah felt the need to ‘inspect’ this future bride. One evening in early December, they invited Kellie over.

They too thought that she looked a little strange, but she seemed pleasant enough. If Jonathan was happy, then they weren’t going to stand in his way!


The final year came all too quickly. Even with top grades for the last two semesters there was little chance of Jonathan graduating with Honours, but as far as he was concerned, just getting a degree was achievement enough. To celebrate, he cranked the volume up on the stereo, but he wasn’t the only one dancing:

Kellie joined him later on, as was customary with them by this time. After some alone time in the lounge, Jonathan was dead on his feet and was about to wish her goodnight, but then events took a sinister turn.

“Now you’re one of us.” Kellie declared with an amused smirk. “And you may want to replace that bed with something a little more light-resistant.”
So he did.

Jonathan would soon learn there were downsides to being a creature of the night, especially when you had class at 11am!

Nevertheless, despite the challenges associated with avoiding the sun, Jonathan came away from University with a well-earned Drama Degree. Now to go back to Coventry Rhoades, get married and pursue his dream.