– Hi, did you just get in too? – suddenly asked me the neighbour on my left – a nice smiling girl.

– Hi, yeah. And to be honest, I'm insanely excited! – came out of my mouth.

– Oh, I know exactly what you mean: I'm the same. Where are you from? You have a strange accent.

– From Poland» I answered and smiled: I was very pleased that she had spoken to me.

– Far away from here… And I'm from Scotland. My name is Ellie.

– I'm Misha. You know, I'm very confused.

Ellie laughed softly.

– Me too. We can… – She didn't finish, because at that moment an elderly grey-haired man in a robe (but not like ours) and a cap came up to the podium and greeted the students. A thunderous applause erupted in response. I followed the students' actions, but I still felt like an unimaginable dumbass.

– Let's be friends, Misha! I don't know anyone here! – Ellie whispered to me after a moment's pause.

– I'd love to, because I don't know anyone here either! – I told her.

– And the guy who brought you?

– He just helped me» I explained.

– Yeah, I see! Shit, I'm so worried! – Ellie laughed softly.

– Me too! – I smiled back.

Soon I calmed down a bit and was able to focus on what was happening: there were hundreds of robes and enthusiastic happy faces around me, young and friendly. Everyone was smiling.

«That's what people are like when they're happy! But they will give this place some of their youth. That's sad» I thought as I watched the students.

I don't remember what happened next: I remember some kind of disorder, professors coming to the podium and saying something, students applauding… Chaos, incomprehension and fog in my head. Then the freshmen recited the pledge. Lots of noise, clapping, speeches, smiles, but I remembered almost nothing and was pretty disappointed.

«And this is what I'm supposed to remember for the rest of my life – the first day at the first university of my life? This chaos? Am I going to be able to fondle myself with these memories afterwards if I realised almost nothing but worrying and looking around? What a disappointment!» – I thought unhappily when all the activities were over and I could go home.

But one thing I remembered for sure: that October day was cloudy, and sometimes drizzled a small nasty rain, but no one paid any attention to it – everyone was completely engrossed in what was happening. Everyone except me.

I was hurt and bitter: this was not how I had imagined this remarkable and long-awaited day!

When everyone started to leave, Ellie and I walked along the avenue and got to talking. It turned out that she came from a small Scottish town: she had won a grant, gone to Oxford, and lived in a university flat. Ellie turned out to be a simple, intelligent girl, and I felt stupid around her, although I guess I was. We exchanged phone numbers, agreed to meet tomorrow before class to wander around the college and look for classrooms, said our goodbyes and parted.

I went to my bike, took off my cap and gown, put them in my bag and started unbuckling my bike. It was wet, but I didn't care about that.

My mood was dreadful, and I felt like one more little thing and I would throw a tantrum. I would scream, scream, scream, scream, scream.

Getting on my bike, I rode home slowly and carefully, as much as my irritation with the day would allow me.

***

A very ordinary English grey day. I could have safely stayed at home, as I never go to such events, but I went to it because I was bored in my big old stone mansion on Abington Road. I bought it four years ago when I first got here, and I've been bored here for four years now. Of course, with my unpretentiousness, I could have rented a flat or a simpler place, but I needed to be as far away from my neighbours as possible for comfort and peace of mind. Because my house was secluded, I didn't have to hear what my neighbours were doing all the time, although I had long been able to block out the noise in my mind.

Boredom was eating me alive, and I cursed myself a hundred times for the fact that for some reason I had entered the master's programme, but if I had not done this stupidity, I would be somewhere in Scandinavia now: I would build myself a two-storey wooden house on the shore of a forest lake, paint it red, make a wooden boat, have a dog and live quietly and privately. I would eat in the nearest town or my victims would be poachers. But instead, for some reason, I re-enrolled in Oxford, for a master's degree. Why? I was surprised at the stupidity of it: I didn't need another degree, and I wasn't going to become a world-famous public figure. Yes, a vampire only needed publicity, and to be a nuisance to mortals who shouldn't know we existed. Humanity's mission is simple, to feed us with its blood.

The weather was right on order, and I thought I should get out of my smoky house and into the fresh air after all.

I smoked a cigarette, put on my bloody uniform, a black Oxford noose round my neck, a black coat, like many students, and a master's robe on top. Then gloves and boots, though such formal style was repugnant to me. I took my cap with me, threw it on the seat of the car and drove to my college of the Church of Christ, where for the fourth year I was fiddling with an unnecessary right.