Forced to Be a Traitor

By Jennifer Gitler

In the small town of Westboro, Massachusetts lives high school senior Julia Walters, your average eighteen year old girl. She has fun-loving and loyal friends, a school transcript full of A's and B's, and a caring, supportive, and romantic boyfriend. Having lived in Westboro her whole life, Julia thinks she knows all of the secrets of the town and surrounding area, but the woods turn out to hide more than just squirrels. While out stargazing one night, Julia is surprised to run into Charles, a vampire. Charles introduces Julia to a world that she previously never believed existed. If dealing with vampires wasn't enough, Julia also finds out that her longtime boyfriend is hiding a very big secret.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483519562

Book preview

One

Bye Mom! I called over my shoulder.

Bye cutie! Have a good day, she called back. My dad and brother had already left so I didn’t have to say goodbye to them.

I grabbed my car keys and headed outside. Closing the front door behind me I walked across the lawn to the driveway.

Morning Pop Rocks, I said to my car. Originally it had been my mom’s car. She gave it to me for my eighteenth birthday and she got a new one. It really wasn’t a car that I would have picked out myself, but it beat taking the bus to school. The name ‘Pop Rocks’ came from a date I had been on with my boyfriend.

Once I was settled in the car I pulled out of the driveway and drove to school. I kept the fifteen minute drive interesting by listening to my favorite songs.

Soon enough I pulled into a space in the student parking lot. I turned off the car, grabbed my bag, and walked into school. I wasn’t a big fan of school but I couldn’t wait to see my friends and especially my boyfriend Alex.

Hey beautiful, I heard someone behind me say. I turned around with a huge smile on my face.

Hi Alex, I said, throwing my arms around him. His green eyes were smiling back at me as he leaned down to plant a kiss on my lips.

It’s good to see you Julia, he said, running a hand through my straight brown hair. I missed you.

I missed you too, I replied, tousling his blond mane. Sorry again for not going to the game last night. You guys won, right?

Yeah we did! I even managed to score two touchdowns!

Congrats! I knew you guys would do great.

Guess what else I did last night.

Bought a blue monkey from Kalamazoo?

Nope, he said with a laugh. Do they even have monkeys in Kalamazoo?

How should I know? I replied, laughing. Alright, I give up. What else did you do last night?

I got you a little something.

Aww! You didn’t have to do that Alex.

He reached into the front pocket of his backpack.

Okay, now close your eyes.

I shut my eyes tight and wondered what he had gotten me, and what the occasion was. My birthday had passed and Christmas was still nine months away.

Julia Walters, will you go to prom with me? I opened my eyes and saw Alex holding out two Prom tickets. I gasped with surprise. Tickets had just gone on sale and I hadn’t expected Alex to ask me so quickly.

Of course I will Alexander Wagner, I said with a big smile on my face. He kissed me on the lips again and handed me one of the tickets.

I’m glad you said yes.

Did you really think I wouldn’t?

No. But I was still worried. I put the ticket in my bag and slipped my hand into his as we headed to our lockers.

I’m so glad that it’s Friday, I said. I don’t know what I would do if it wasn’t.

Tell me about it, he agreed. Oh, Coach canceled our Sunday practice. That means I can spend more time with you.

Great. I was thinking maybe tonight we could just chill at your house and watch a movie or something. What do you think?

I’m cool with that. I’m busy Saturday but I thought that on Sunday we could go to the fair that’s in town. It’s supposed to be a lot of fun. Just then the warning bell rang. Everyone had five minutes to get to class.

Sounds good to me. Well, I’ll see you at lunch.

Yup, see you at lunch. We hugged and then went our separate ways. I was going to my first and favorite class, English.

Good morning Julia, my teacher said, as I walked into the room and took my seat.

Morning Mr. Barrett, I replied with a smile. I took out my notebook and Crime and Punishment, our current in-class reading book. Within the next few minutes everyone was in their seats and ready when the bell rang for classes to start.

Good morning everyone. I know you’re all looking forward to the weekend but right now you’re still in school, Mr. Barrett teased. "Since you have to be done Crime and Punishment by Monday I thought I’d let you have a free period today to read. If you’ve already finished the book then you can start working on your essay or do something else quietly at your desk. Any questions?" A guy named Jack raised his hand.

Yes Jack?

How long does the essay have to be? It doesn’t say on the rubric.

However long you feel it needs to be to get your point across, but I think five to seven paragraphs should probably cover it. Anything shorter and you’re probably lacking information. Anything longer and you’re probably rambling. No one had any more questions so Mr. Barrett sat down at his desk and everyone got to work.

I had been keeping up on my reading and only had about fifty pages left to read which I was easily able to finish by the end of class, giving me one less thing to worry about over the weekend. I finished reading with about five minutes left in class which I took to look over the rubric for the essay. We were supposed to write an essay about something we thought was most important from the book. I liked essays much better when we were specifically told what to write about. How was I supposed to decide what was most important from a five hundred and fifty or so page book? I sighed. The essay was due in two weeks though, so I had plenty of time to figure out what to write about.

When the bell rang I quickly packed up my bag and said goodbye to Mr. Barrett on my way out of the room. I took the stairs down to lower H-wing to get to my second period class, Physics. I wasn’t a big fan of science but I got through class because I was in it with my best friend Rebecca.

When I got to class Rebecca was already there waiting for me. Not only were we in the same class, but our seats were right next to each other.

Hey Julia! Rebecca said cheerfully.

Hey! What’s up?

Nothing much. I was up all night studying for this test today.

Tell me about it. I’m so nervous. Oh, how’s Jackson? Did you guys end up going out last night?

He’s good. We went out to dinner last night. Then we just walked around town a little. It was really nice. How’s Alex?

Great. Tonight we’re going to relax at his house and watch a movie. Then on Sunday we’re going to the town fair.

Sounds like a lot of fun.

I would have liked to spend the whole period talking but once the bell rang we had to get to work.

Good morning class, our teacher Mr. Trevino said. I hope you all studied for this test because there’s no make-up exam if you fail. You have the entire period to work. No talking or you will get a zero. With that Mr. Trevino passed out the tests.

I took a deep breath to try and calm down before starting the test. I was nervous about possibly failing. If I didn’t do well enough I would be in danger of failing for the marking period. I was lucky, though, because the test was on thermal physics. Of all the concepts we had learned so far this was one of my favorites. I had studied hard and when I turned in my test at the end of class I was sure that I had passed. Maybe not by much, but definitely by enough.

How do you think you did? I asked Rebecca as we walked to upper D-wing for Calculus.

Pretty good. I think I got a high C or low B. What about you?

About the same. I’m expecting a low to mid B.

And now we enter the scariest place in school, the Calculus room, Rebecca said, and we both laughed. We made it to class just as the bell rang. Sadly, we didn’t sit anywhere near each other in this class.

Good morning, our teacher said.

Good morning Mr. Martinez, a few students answered back. Not many people liked Calculus or Mr. Martinez.

By now you all know the drill. Notebooks and pencils out. It’s time to learn something.

Mr. Martinez’s idea of a fun class period was forty-five minutes of straight note taking.

When class was over my hand hurt so much I could have sworn I had been writing for two hours. Not only that, but I was totally confused about the lesson we had just learned.

Your homework is numbers one through twenty on page three hundred in your textbook. Have a good weekend.

‘Have a good weekend,’ he says, Rebecca said, obviously annoyed. I was planning to but giving me Calc homework doesn’t really help.

Yeah, I agreed. Did you understand that lesson? ‘Cause I didn’t.

I hardly ever understand his lessons. I go home and read about it online.

Same, I admitted. Well, I’ll see you at lunch, I said, as we reached my next classroom.

Have fun in History.

Like that’ll happen, I said as I walked in and took my seat.

As much as I hated Calculus I would much rather sit through another lesson by Mr. Martinez then go to History. I liked learning history, don’t get me wrong. I just can’t stand History class. That was probably because my dad was a history teacher. Ever since I was young summer vacations usually involved going to history museums and famous battle sites. Dad didn’t make learning history very fun and he was really tough on me about doing well. Lucas, my eleven year-old younger brother, loved History class. He has always had a lot in common with dad.

Is Mrs. Harris not here today? Louis who was sitting next to me asked.

I don’t know. Mrs. Harris was never late to class. We waited and a few minutes later a stranger walked in.

Hello. My name is Mr. Jones. I’m your substitute today because Mrs. Harris isn’t feeling well. She left a movie about the Vietnam War for you to watch. I don’t care if you watch the movie or not but please stay quiet. I’ll pass around an attendance sheet. Just write your name and keep passing it. He turned on the movie, turned off the lights, and took a seat.

I didn’t pay attention to the movie. Instead I thought about the amazing weekend I was going to have.

Julia, someone behind me whispered.

Huh? I said, turning around.

Attendance sheet. The kid passed me the paper.

Oh, thanks. I wrote my name and passed the sheet up to the next person.

I looked at the clock and saw that there was only ten minutes left in the period. It was almost time for lunch. I’d finally get to see Alex. We didn’t have any classes together this year. When the bell rang I almost ran out of the room.

Hey Baby, Alex said, when he met me at my locker.

Hey! How are you? I asked, giving him a hug.

Pretty good. My classes weren’t too bad this morning. What about you?

Eh. Nothing terrible but nothing exciting. I switched out my morning and afternoon books and then went to the cafeteria with Alex. We sat down at our regular table and soon Rebecca joined us.

Hey Rebecca, I said with a huge grin on my face.

Hey Julia, Rebecca replied. How was History?

Good. We had a substitute.

Hey everyone, Jackson said as he joined us at the table. He took a seat and hugged Rebecca. Hey gorgeous. I missed you.

Do you love birds need your own table? Alex asked