Secrets

My whole life I've been keeping a secret. I've known it for as long as I can remember. And no one knows it. Not even Austin, my twin brother. There's a rule that the first born of each family like mine, even by a few minutes, has to keep the secret. The other one/ones have to find out themselves. We are vampires.

I wake up and remember what day it is. Birthday #17. Year #7 without my parents here. The day the tronsformation takes action. I walk out into the kitchen and I realize Austin's already up.

"Good morning Ally."

"Good morning."

"Don't you remember what day it is?"

"Yeah. It's our 17th birthday."

"Remember what we promised ourselves we'd do on our 17th birthday?"

"We said we'd drive to the beach and go surfing for the first time."

"You don't seem very excited."

"I am."

"You've acted strange over the past year. Last year you seemed panicked, this year you seem unexcited. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. Why would you think something's wrong? I'm fine. Why don't we get ready?"

We get ready and grab the surfboards that we bought right after we got our driver's licenses and load them in the trunk.

"I'll drive." I say. I want to get my mind off of things.

When we get to the beach, we grab our surfboards and wait for a good wave to come. When I see one, I start paddling towards it. Not knowing what I'm doing, I start to stand. Wait a second. I'm on the wave! I look over and see that I've caught the eye of a few people. For a second, I forget that I have a secret to hide. I feel like a regular girl. Now everyone's staring at me, and I do a few tricks to keep them entertained. And when the secret comes to mind, I feel like I can handle it. For the first time since I was ten, I feel free. I feel like I've escaped the fears that have been holding me back.

After I get off of my surfboard, a cute guy walks up to me.

"That was incredible."

"Can you believe it was my first time surfing?"

"No way!"

"Yep."

"My name's Dallas, by the way."

"Ally."

Austin walk up to us.

"I can't believe I actually did that." He says. I can, I think. It's all part of the secret. Coordination and stuff.

"Oh, I missed it." I say.

"How did you miss that?"

"I was talking to him." I lean my head towards Dallas.

"That guy was amazing." I look over to see a blond girl talking.

"I don't think I've seen him before." Another girl says. Everyone knows her. She's Kira Starr. The both walk over to us.

"I'm Cassidy." The blond says. Austin is awestruck.

"I'm Austin." Austin says.

"You were amazing out there." Kira says.

"That was my first time."

"Wow." Cassidy says. I can tell Kira's more comfortable around boys than Cassidy, just by their conversation with Austin. And I can see the look in Cassidy's eyes. It seems to say, I hope he asks me out.

Dallas turns to me. "Do you want to go out sometime?"

"When?"

"Tomorrow at seven. Meet me by the cell phone accessory cart."

"I'm busy tomorrow. And the rest of this week." The transformation lasts a week.

"Monday next week." Ugh! Mondays! But it's also the day the transformation ends.

"That works." I say. Hopefully Dallas didn't notice the reluctance in my voice.

"Meet me here at seven next week."

Austin and I surf a few more waves and I wave at Dallas on one of them. I don't think he saw me, though.

Austin and Cassidy schedule a date the same day I'm out with Dallas. I had to beg Austin to not make it any time this week.

I feel a sharp pain throughout my whole body, and that's when I know it's time to go. It gets worse while I beg Austin to come with me, but we finally drive home and Austin drives this time because I can't when I'm in this pain. We get home and Austin gets the same pain.

"Ally what's going on!? I know you know!"

"I can't tell you!" As much as it kills me to see Austin begging and in pain, I have to resist the urge to tell him.

"Why?"

"Because if you know, we could be killed."

"I need to know!"

"You like surprises, find out for yourself."

"This is different! What's going on? Why am I in so much pain!?" Then he passes out on the living room floor.