RECAP: (starting from the beginning) an argument at Kadic's Halloween dance results in Yumi going out with Odd, to Ulrich's frustration. But he doesn't have much time to dwell on this because he's constantly running into a troublesome trio. Meanwhile the vampires and Aelita are still searching for the Third, and the boys find themselves caught in there dorms during a mysterious gas leak that wasn't XANA's idea. A full moon creates some complications, and Charlie, Herve and Nicholas get dinged on their mysterious-ness. Finally, Odd takes a deep breath an manages to break it off with Yumi, no tears shed. That brings us to now.

These characters, and this universe belong to Moonscoop, and Tania Palumbo (and a bit to Thomas Romain although he had nothing to do with the show after Garage Kids). I claim only the few characters' vampireness and the current plot.

On with the fic...

Soon I was lunch time and everyone gathered in the cafeteria, discussing their day, among other things. Everything was normal for our heros, although they couldn't help but notice that Yumi and Ulrich, who were sitting next to each other the whole time, couldn't stop talking or laughing.

It wasn't long before all five of them were teasing around. It was a joyful, carefree afternoon for all.

As they exited the lunchroom and went to their classes, Aelita stopped Jeremie for a quick explaination. "Hey, what happened with Odd this morning? Was it the full moon?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Probably."

"Probably?"

He began to explain, though reluctant because he didn't want them to be late for class. "From my research and previous knowledge, the full moon affects everyone, supernatural or not, and despite vampires not being associated with it like werewolves, they can still be affected as humans are. Most commonly, for humans, it's a headache or uneasy sleep, or something of that nature. I've heard some people are susceptible to getting really crazy dreams when it's a full moon," Jeremie walked and talked towards the class. "Also a true true full moon only happens for a minute or less, so for me that was when my superhuman-sense acted up, making me go a little loony at that point."

"So that doesn't happen to you any more?" Aelita asked cautiously.

"No. As soon as I started sleeping on nights of the full moon, it somehow counteracted it," he explained.

She seemed satisfied. "Well that's good."

"For me maybe, but I've never known any other vampire, and I was worried that it might have a different effect on Odd than it did on me, like different humans have different reactions."

"And you were right," Aelita reminded. It was weird for her to think that she wasn't the same species as Odd or Jeremie.

"Yup. For him it just magnified his laziness," he laughed.

"Come on," Aelita urged him to follow her faster down the hall. "Or we'll be late."

• • •

The nonchalance and relative patience continued later that day in the boys' dorm room. Ulrich had been beaming since lunch, and couldn't wait to talk to Odd.

Strolling into the room, he opened his mouth to speak but noticed that he was alone. Only him in the drafty vacant dorm. He noticed the wide open window and went to close it, wondering why it was open in the first place. And where had Odd gone?

Then again, he was probably just taking Kiwi for a walk. That would explain the lack of a dog in the bottom drawer of his dresser.

Ulrich shrugged, and figured he'd waste some time on a video game until Odd came back.

• • •

Ulrich had been right when he thought Odd had taken Kiwi out, but what he didn't know was that it wasn't for a walk. It was a race for Odd and more of a drag for Kiwi. As in he was being dragged.

Every day, during one of the 'walks' Odd took Kiwi on, he would race around the forest, beating his own record almost every time. At first it was just testing out his newly acquired Vampire agility, but now it was almost training. It was astonishing how fast he could go, and he couldn't wait to test it out on a specter.

This time was like every other, except as Odd ran past the garden shed like a flash, he thought he saw something strange out of the corner of his eye. Clutching Kiwi tightly not to drop him, he skidded to a stop and turned around, jogging back at a normal pace just in case someone was there, watching.

He set Kiwi down on the dirt path and approached the building, getting a weird eerie vibe as he did. Something didn't feel quite right. Kiwi started to growl quietly, only adding to Odd's uneasiness.

"Hello?" he pushed open the door, letting some much needed natural light into the place. No reply.

He stepped in cautiously, taking a long good look at his surroundings. Four sturdy walls lined with forms of outdoor utensils (sharp and ominous ones at that), stacks of boxes, unused bags of mulch in the corner, and more cobwebs that a haunted house at a Halloween park—or was it just Odd's imagination?

Eyeing the dim room suspiciously, he began to feel as if he was being watched. All the glinting outdoor-instruments weren't helping either. And then he saw a shifting shadow, again out of the corner of his eye. But as soon as his head whipped around, there was nothing in sight.

Odd laughed nervously on the inside. Heheh, this is where the creepy music is supposed to start playing, he thought. Although hoping that his life hadn't yet turned into that much of a horror movie.

Suddenly Kiwi began to bark. Loudly. Angrily. Obviously Odd wasn't the only one with super sensitive animal instincts.

Another shadow.

Odd scooped up his dog and tried to calm him down. This was not some horror movie, and there was certainly no reason to be uneasy. If something, whoever else was here should be uneasy. Odd wondered if they knew they were in the presence of a real live vampire. That ought to knock their socks off.

"You know you really shouldn't be in here," Odd reasoned, unable to keep Kiwi from emitting a low growl.

"I could say the same to you," replied a familiar voice that echoed through the room. If they were trying to intimidate him, it wasn't working. On Kiwi maybe, but Odd, never.

"True." He shot back with confidence and spunk, "But at least I'm not hiding in the shadows."

"Sometimes the greatest hiding place is in plain sight," the voice said.

"What?" Odd asked, not understanding.

Before he could get a reply, the garden shed's door swung open, loudly crashing as it hit a stack of boxes. Kiwi let out a whimper and jumped from Odd's arms, skidding behind some crates nervously.

Odd spun around in time to hear a booming voice. "What are you doing in here?"

The boy had to shield his eyes for a moment before they could adjust to the sunlight flooding in, but he didn't need his vision to know that it was Jim who was speaking. He tried to come up with an excuse. "I, er, I needed to get a...a rake," he grabbed the closest pole to him hoping to find a rake at the other end, but having no such luck. He held a broomstick, but had to continue anyways, make it as believable as possible. "To sweep up some leaves."

Jim had in iffy look in his eye like he wasn't about to buy it. But surprisingly he did. "Alright, you have your room—er that it to say, your brake, um, no..."

"My broom?" Odd suggested.

"Yeah yeah, now get a move on."

Odd was escorted out of the garden shed, and Jim quickly locked it back up. Odd gulped. Kiwi.

Jim turned to face him again. "Don't let me catch you in here again. If Mrs Hertz needs something she can come get it her—" He was cut off by a mysterious ruckus coming from the back of the shed (which the author previously forgot to mention was not really a shed, it was a building, the size of a small dorm room). It sounded like something had come down on the unused back door and smashed the rusty hinges open. And now whatever it was was escaping into the woods.

"Holy jalapeños!" Jim raced around to the back of the garden 'building' and from behind it Odd heard him gasp.

Jim seemed to have forgotten about him, and was preoccupied, so Odd took the opportunity to pick the lock on the door, which wasn't hard with the aid of a bobby pin. He opened the door just a crack, enough for Kiwi to scramble out and leap into his master's arms.

Clicking closed the door and lock, Odd stopped to listen and watch the forest for a moment. He couldn't hear anything but Jim's gasps and to-himself commentary. But his mind was far from listening, he was more busy thinking. About who it was he had talked to. What they had meant.

"Come on Kiwi," Odd mumbled. "Let's not stay here." With a determined set, he turned around and strode back to his dorm, vowing to figure out the riddle that had been left behind.

• • •

In Einstein's room, the owner and Ulrich were having a conversation, one which Jeremie was only half paying attention to. Jeremie had just finished a section of the program he was working on and was taking a break to relax and actually listen to Ulrich when Odd came in. "Hey Jeremie, you got a minute?"

Ulrich stood up to greet his friend, "Hey, I was looking for you. Where have you been?"

"Er, taking Kiwi out," Odd's lie was partly true. "Jeremie, could I have a word?"

"How about you? Could I have a word with you?" Ulrich just had to interject. To him it was casual, innocent, but to Odd it was really starting to get annoying.

"Not now."

"Whoa, ok," Ulrich got the picture. "I'll see you guys later I guess." He left the room, a little curious about Odd's uncharacteristically short fuse, but he just shrugged it off.

"What's your problem?" Jeremie spun around in his chair.

"I saw him!" Odd exclaimed.

"What!?"

"Well I didn't really see him but I'm sure it was him. At first I wasn't positive but that voice, and the weird vibe— it couldn't have been anyone else!" Odd wasn't paying attention to Jeremie's confusion in the least. Instead he was jumping around the room, making all kinds of hand gestures and trying to explain SOMETHING.

"Odd! Who are you talking about?!" Jeremie finally cut in. He was mixed up beyond belief.

"Didn't I say?" Odd slowed down to normal pace again, double checking the clarity of his explaination.

Jeremie shook his head, still waiting for an answer.

"The third vampire!" Odd yelled in a whisper.

Jeremie was puzzled and looked like he was being spoken to in a foreign language. No adequate responce came to mind, so his thoughts just stumbled out "Wh—Odd, that doesn't make any sense."

"But don't you get it? This is big! It's huge!" Odd was back to speaking with his hands, and waving them all about. "We need to find out what he's planning! And fast!"

"If you saw the third vampire, then who is it?" Jeremie asked, more to the point.

"Er, I don't know! Weren't you listening!?"

Jeremie face-palmed and groaned. "So what do you know then? And how are you so sure this person you didn't see is the vampire?"

"Because! It's a guy, that much I've been sure since I got bitten, and when I heard this person's voice it was so familiar, but I couldn't remember where I heard it before. And a guy's voice!"

Jeremie stared at his friend with disbelief. "You know, just from that discription I could list off countless guys that go to this school who's voices you know but couldn't remember right off the bat."

"That's not the point," Odd was calming down a bit, over the constant-yelling stage.

"Ok," Jeremie tried to get more info. "Where did you see—hear him?"

"The garden shed," he replied. "I was taking Kiwi out."

"So you didn't see him?"

"No."

The kid genius pondered for a minute, recalling what Odd had mentioned earlier in his spiel. "What were you taking about before? About figuring out what he was up to?"

"Huh?" It took a second for Odd to remember. "Oh yeah, he's plotting something. I just know it. Even if he isn't the vampire, there is something going on...before getting away he said something really cryptic. I was hoping you might understand it better than I do."

Jeremie was all ears.

"It was like: the best place to hide is in plain sight, or something."

A grave expression overtook Jeremie's features. Odd was right. It didn't sound good. "If it really was the other one then we have a big problem on our hands."

"What? How?" Odd pleaded for answers. "What does he mean? How could a vampire hide himself in plain sight?"

"The same way we do. And by plain sight he means that he is someone we know, but don't pay much attention to. And because we don't take much notice of him, he is able to hatch a plan right under our noses," Jeremie explained.

"So what should we do?" Odd was already a bit worried, which was uncharacteristic of him.

Jeremie told him simply, "Find out what's going on and stop it. And most important of all, keep our secret a secret. Even though this guy means trouble and hasn't done any good so far, he is one of us. That's one thing we can't over look. We may carry ourselves differently, use our skills for different purposes, but when it all boils down, we are all vampires."

• • •

When Odd had returned to his room, Ulrich jumped up. "Hey Odd...whoa, you look a little dazed."

"Huh?" Odd WAS a bit dazed, or rather lost in thought, but he would rather not admit it. "No, no, I'm fine. You wanted to talk?"

"Not really, I just wanted to say thanks," he admitted. "I really appreciate what you did with Yumi."

"No biggie," Odd shrugged with a small smile. "I think we're all just trying to figure ourselves out right now." Well don't I sound like the voice of experience? Odd thought.

Ulrich nodded. "I think you're right about that, good buddy."