vampires will never hurt you. ashton and karoline.

Karoline Burkenshire sat surrounded by her friends in World History, laughing, smiling, joking, flirting. She was a rather popular girl, she supposed, and not just because of her blood line. She was a very like-able person, and she adored being around her family and friends. It made her happy, as long as she had someone to talk to, she was happy. And, today, the history teacher was assigning parters for a project. Everyone was taking bets on who they thought each other was going to be paired with, and Karoline hoped she was going to be assigned with one of her friends. She liked almost everyone in her class, but some more than others.

Ashton Mead was sitting in the back of her history class, looking around lithely at her fellow classmates, occasionally allowing herself to pry secretly into their minds to see what they were thinking about. It usually just made her feel sick though, as they thought about their nice lives. Ash wasn't usually a jealous person, but the way her family lived sometimes made her bitter towards others. She just hoped she wouldn't get stuck with some totally happy-go-lucky person for the upcoming paired assignment. Otherwise she didn't care who it was. Sure, she had her friends, but it was no bother to her if she got paired with one of them or not.

As Karoline waved away a joking comment one of her guy friends made that would usually make a girl blush as the teacher walked into the room. She straightened in her seat, and the class quieted down as she stalked up to the front of the room. The teacher looked awfully stressed today, which meant nothing good for her students.

As she named off who got who as a partner, Karoline felt her spirits sink as her friends were slowly assigned with someone other than her. I wonder who-- Her train of thought was cute off as the professed called out her name.

"Karoline Burkenshire? You're paired with Ashton Mead." Her sinking spirits turned to horror as she twisted in her seat to where the teacher was looking at. Ashton? She thought. I've never liked her very much. Resisting letting the frown form on her face, she turned back to the teacher and nodded.

Ash sat in her desk, waiting patiently to see who she would be paired up with for this project. As she heard her name paired with another she looked over at who it was. Karoline Burkenshire. Of course, Ashton would get paired with someone basically descended from the school itself. Ash closed her eyes, focusing her mind just on Karoline's, pleased to note that this girl was probably just as disappointed with her partnering as Ash was.

One of Karoline's friends sent her a knowing look. As the teacher finished listing off partners, Karoline glanced back once more at Ashton. The girls eyes were closed, and she looked like she was concentrating on something. The professor explained the project everyone had to do.

"Go pair up." She ordered, walking back to her desk. Karoline stood up and quickly walked over to Ashton, clearing her throat.

"So. I suppose we're partners." She said, looking down at Ashton.

Ashton opened her eyes upon hearing her so-called partners voice. "Suppose we are," she replied, voice suggesting that getting this done with as little talking as possible would be the best way to go about it, since she really did not want to deal with the other girl.

Karoline narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips but said nothing.

"You don't have to be so hostile." She muttered under her breath. Then she cleared her throat again. "So. I guess we need to brainstorm." Karoline said louder, deciding to ignore the tone of voice Ashton had spoken to her with. She better not make me fail this. Karoline thought. And she better not force me to have to do all the work.

Ashton blinked at Karoline innocently. "Me? Hostile?" she said in an angelic voice. "Now whatever gave you that idea?" Then she smirk slightly, followed by a sigh. Pissing off her partner wasn't a good way to start a project. Sometimes though, Ash just couldn't help herself. "So what are we brainstorming about?"

Shoving her little hostile comment out the window, Karoline stared blankly at the girl sitting in front of her.

"The project?" She said slowly, scrunching her eyebrows together. She's not stupid is she? Sighing, she yanked a chair over and sat down in front of Ashton, resisting going to the teacher and demanding a different partner. Anyone would be better than her. She thought sadly, biting the inside of her cheek.

Ash narrowed her eyes at this girl. "I'm not stupid, thank you very much," she said, knowing full and well that she had answered the girl's thought. But, it wasn't even her fault. Karoline just thought loudly and strongly. Ash hadn't even been trying. "And I meant what aspect of the project, or are you the stupid one?"

Karoline looked at Ashton, shocked.

"Did you just read my mind?" She said, knowing full and well that she was admitting to thinking Ashton was stupid. All she needed to know right now was if Ashton actually read her mind, because Karoline knew she hadn't questioned her intelligence out loud.


(sorry for fail post. here is something to make up for it

)

Ash shook her head. "Of course I didn't," she said. "That's just ridiculous. It's just written all over your face." She hoped that Karoline bought it, because she hated people knowing about her special talent. It completely took away the surprised of answered thoughts.

Karoline crossed her arms. She knew that her face only showed frustration.

"I do believe I know what emotion shows on my face. " She said crossly, frustrated. "I admit to thinking that you might be stupid, but I never do make it clear how exactly I think of a person. I wouldn't have any friends if I did that."

Ash made a 'hm' noise. "Sounds like your a downright unpleasant bitch then," she said casually, "if you only have friends because they don't know what you think of them." Then she shrugged. "Who's to say your face didn't betray you this time though? Certainly not you, as you can't see it without a mirror."

"What I mean," She said angrily, "Is that I don't treat people I just met so rudely, I hid it, because inside, the person I am speaking to just might be a good person." Karoline tried not to sigh. "Please do not play games with me, Ashton. I know what my face looked like. And I can tell when someone is lying or hiding the truth."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Can you really tell the liars from the honest Abes? Or are you just bluffing in an attempt to recover yourself. Do you really hate being bested so much that you have to lie yourself just to make yourself the winner again."

"You think I have to lie to win? What are you getting at? I do not bluff, thank you very much. I tend to stay away from situations that I know might cause me to, I suppose, in your terms, lose. This isn't a game, there is no winner or loser. I have no need to recover myself. Tell the truth, Ashton. You read my mind, didn't you? Personally, I don't understand why you have to hid it. I mean, honestly, its not like I'm going to run off and tell all my friends that Ashton Mead can read minds. Its not really all that important to the student body, trust me." Karoline sighed.

"What does it matter to you if I can or can't? You should just let it go before I end up insulting you again, because I'm not going to be gentle about it," Ash warned. "And if I do read minds, maybe that would be my secret to keep. Now shut the hell up about it and get to brainstorming about the project. Or do you want to fail it?"

Karoline kept the smirk of her face, knowing that she just admitted to reading minds.

"Well. We're supposed to be collecting information over a country. I say we do it over Australia." Karoline had been to Australia before and she thought it was a lovely place to be. Images of the beautiful beaches flooded her mind. While it was a very warm place in the summer, taking a swim cured the hotness easily.

Ashton raised an eyebrow. "Australia?" she asked incredulous. "What have they got? Kangaroos and koalas. I say we should do some other place, like maybe France, or Japan. They have to be more interesting."

"Yes, Australia! Have you ever been there?!" Karoline's eyes got wide. "Its amazing. The landscape is beautiful and the people are some of the nicest ever. Sure, Japan or France would be a good place to do the project on, but everyone else is going to use them, too!"

"I've never been anywhere, for your information. I can't afford things like that," Ashton snapped, eyes narrowing. "Hell, I'd never even let the state I live in until I got accepted to this school. So don't go lecturing me about going to countries."

"Okay, okay. It was an innocent question." Karoline muttered before perking back up. "But yes, yes. I could put in half the information that I got from being in Australia into our project and we would just have to put a little bit more in and bam--" Karoline snapped her fingers. "Full credit."

Ashton shrugged. "I suppose so," she muttered. "And yeah, sorry. I'm just sensitive to things that involve money in any manner." She shrugged again and leaned back in her chair, resting it on the desk behind her's.

"Then we won't talk about money. We will talk about Australia." Karoline nodded. "The capital is... Canberra. And apparently the government sucks or something. Kevin Rudd is the prime minister." She thought a tad more about stuff in Australia.