...WHENEVER YOU NEED ME

Vanessa's heart sunk to the bottomless pit. Never had she expected such a response from Stephan who she claimed understood her the most. She tried to speak, but her lips wouldn't move. Tears gathered in her eyes as she let out silent whimpers. 

 "Stephan!" Francis felt that their decision was unfair. 

 "What?" Stephan growled in reply, "Do you want to get expelled? As a matter of fact, you of all people should be even more afraid. What do you think your father will do if he discovers that you were a part of this incident?"

 Hearing Stephan's words, Francis had no choice but to agree with their decision in the end. Vanessa could do nothing but listen to them plot her expulsion. 

 "We need a reason to expel her," Mr. Hanzel spoke. 

 "Simple! She seduced the boys into falling in love with her and deliberately caused the fight!" Miss Flauce smiled. 

 "Just look at this, a set of perfect criminals plotting the downfall of their very own student! How intriguing!" Damon was truly fascinated by the sight before him. "Even my father who I consider criminally minded isn't as criminally minded as you guys."

 "What are you implying?" Miss Flauce asked. 

 "I do not agree with your decision. You will not punish Vanessa; she is not at fault. If someone was to blame, it would be me. I started the fight and I ended the fight. Punish me instead."

 The principal cleared his throat, "Ahem… We can't punish you. After all, your father owns the majority of this school's shares." 

 "How about this; 'Given their good academic performances, the school board has decided to pardon the perpetrators involved in the recent scandal. However, the students deeply rooted in this 'scandal' are to be placed under a week of community service'," Damon said to Miss Flauce.

 "Y-you want community service?" Miss Flauce asked in shock.

 "Sure." Damon smiled. "As long as I'm able to save an innocent person."

 "Then, I guess that is all," The principal said with a clap. With the sound of the clap, the lecturers exited the principal's office closely followed by Stephan and Francis. 

 Vanessa remained in the principal's office with a look of despair on her face. The principal felt disgusted when his eyes fell on Vanessa – apparently, in his eyes, she was like a wayward woman. 

 "Why are you still sitting here? Leave my office now!"

 Hearing the principal's aggressive tone, Damon frowned, "She's not going anywhere, Mr. Marlow. You know, it's very easy for me to convince my dad to get you out of the board. Is that what you want?"

 "No… um.. sorry, Master Damon.." The principal apologized in fear. 

 "Add her name to the Whitelist," 

 "I can't do that… Mr. Melado hasn't approved of this…"

 "There's no need to get my father's approval. He'll definitely understand why I asked you to do it." Damon kept his gaze on Vanessa. 

 "Sure…sure… Right away!" Mr. Marlow left the room to find the Whitelist book.

 Damon's heartbeat started to rise when only Vanessa and him were alone in the office. He tried to ward off the feeling, convincing himself that it was wrong, but he couldn't since he had never been alone with a girl before. The feeling of liking someone was a feeling that he had never felt in his entire life till now. In his eyes, he saw Vanessa as special.

 "Are you okay?" He asked, but Vanessa did not respond. "Vanessa."

 "Thank you for helping me," Vanessa replied in sober tone.

 "I do not need your appreciation; I only did what I had to do." 

 "Why did you help me?"

 "Because… because…I wanted to," Damon answered with a comforting smile. 

 Seeing his smile, Vanessa was cheered up a little, "I'm sorry for troubling you." 

 Damon chuckled, "You didn't trouble me one bit. I will always be there whenever you need me."

 Vanessa rose to her feet and left the room. With her presence now gone, Damon could only heave a sigh of relief, although, he was a little hurt that she was no longer by his side. Vanessa headed back to her room with the pain of betrayal still dwelling in her heart. 

 "Vanessa," Anna; a friend of Vanessa, saw her heading into her room and wanted to comfort her, but Elsa pulled her back.

 "Let her be," Elsa sighed, "Even we cannot help in comforting her this time. Imagine being betrayed by three guys – not even one." 

 Vanessa fell onto her bed as tears flowed out of her eyes. Heart-struck, she brought out a letter from underneath her bed. It was a letter from her father which she had received last week. 

 "Father, you were right," Vanessa sobbed on remembering her father's words. He had warned her to stay away from 'her friends', but she acted ignorant and got herself hurt. 

 At that moment, there was a knock at the door. Hearing the knock, Vanessa got angry, "Leave me alone!"

 The knocking stopped and the shadow behind the door left. Vanessa returned her attention back to the letter in her hand, guilt slowly consuming all her other emotions. 

 Dad, I'm sorry…

 "So, you've finally found the woman of your dreams?" A man in a black trench coat said as he slapped Damon on the shoulder. 

 "She's not… Ugh! Forget it!" Damon shrugged.

 "Finally! You've done something I'm truly proud off!" The man laughed out loudly, "You are now worthy of being called a Melado!" 

 "Melado? You have no idea how much I hate that name," Damon replied, "Why did you choose such a weird name as your last name anyway?"

 "Well, the last one didn't sound too normal…"

 "Oh, so you realized?" Damon asked sarcastically.

 "Wait, are you trying to say that Melado also sounds weird?"

 "Yes dad. As a matter of fact, It's the worst surname I've heard so far."

 "So, what should I do?" Damon's father asked.

 "Change it." 

 "Again?" 

 "Yes. That's our only option." 

 "If you say so, then why don't we name ourselves Phoenix?"

 "No Dad," Damon chuckled, "We are humans not birds."

 "That's true, that's true… Then, why not use Beast?"

 "I've got an idea Dad," Damon smiled, "Why don't we use mother's middle name?"