Friday
Section I of the novel takes place on Friday and begins in a classroom at Stewart High School where Juliette is seated two rows behind new girl Calliope. Juliette sits entranced by the site of Calliope’s smooth brown skin and the way she seemingly feels so at ease in that skin. Juliette, by contrast, has never felt quite so at ease in her life. She is almost stalking Calliope through the halls after class lets out when suddenly something scrapes against her shoe. It is a fragile bracelet and when she bends down to pick it up, she rises in pain slicing through the hand which touched it. It is silver. And vampires do not interact well with silver.
Juliette engages with her friend Ben and reveals that they share the commonality of being interest in members of their own sex when it comes to romance. They do not share being vampires, however. Ben is aware of her crush on Calliope and suggests she do something about it. Juliette denies the whole crush business. Juliette is moved to remember breakfast at home that morning with her sister Elinor discussing the big issue at play: the littler sister has yet to make her first kill. Back in the present, Ben informs Juliette that star football player Alex is having a party the next night.
Saturday
Saturday begins well before the party with Juliette anxiously waiting for Elinor to notice she needs help with cosmetics. They discuss Elinor’s first kill. Elinor suggests that the who of the kill doesn’t matter as much as the following through. After all, their father’s first kill was his best friend while their mother chose a guy who didn’t realize that no means no until it was way too late to find redemption.
Juliette shows up at the party even though she hates everything about them. The disappointment that Calliope is not there is palpable, but temporary. Soon enough, the girl of her dreams makes an appearance. Ben proves his worth as a friend far too valuable to make a first kill by orchestrating a game of Truth or Dare in which Juliette is dared to spend sixty seconds in the heaven of a closed closet with Calliope. It is Calliope who takes the lead, pulling Juliette by the hand into the secluded darkness.
The kiss is almost too incredible to bear, but the hunger is definitely too much to bear, and her mouth moves to Calliope’s neck. The taste of blood as her teeth breaks the delicate brown skin fills a ravenous thirst and it all seems so much easier than she feared. Until, that is, she feels the sharpness of the point on the wooden stake being driven between her ribs.
Friday
Calliope is lost in her thoughts which are completely dominated by the perfect artistic beauty of Juliette’s mouth. And then a dinner roll bounces off her head and brings her back to the reality of the dinner table with her family. This time it is a brother, not a friend, who forwards the idea of a crush that something should be done about. And this time it is Calliope who denies the existence of such a thing. She mulls over all the pertinent facts discovered recently which have convinced her beyond a doubt that Juliette is a vampire. She joins her brothers after the meal as they head out in the night to do what it is they do: go hunting for vampires to kill. Only it turns out that they are heading to cemetery, and it is not vampires they are hunting, but ghouls. The hunting goes perfectly smoothly, but the slaying part is problematic for Calliope when the blade she is using proves too short to do the job and she nearly winds up becoming victim instead of killer. As she looks at the initials JF carved into a wooden stake, she comes to grip with the fact Juliette Fairmont is going to be her first vampire kill.
SATURDAY
As they kiss passionately in the closet at the party, Calliope is taunted by the constant reminder of the most important rule of vampire hunting: finish what you start. But as Calliope is suddenly the first to enter from the darkness into the light of the party, she knows this rule has been violated and she has forever lost the one single great advantage she had over the vampire. Now Juliette knows she is a slayer. And she is making a dash for the nearest exit. But in that moment, their eyes lock and they both grin. The hunt has officially begun.
