New School, New Life- Chapter 1

New School, New Life
….Chapter 1

I woke up bright and early, ready for a new day. Well, very new in fact, as I was starting at a new school. I had been in an accident that year, and could remember nothing from my old life. Just what my parents told me. Their were pictures on every wall, and I could see my parents dismay when I told them that I couldn’t remember, so I started to lie, just throwing back the stories they had been telling me about each image and trip. The doctors told me that I had made a great improvement in remembering many memories, so now I’m was allowed to go to school.
The only problem is I don’t know what school exactly is. I’d read on the internet that school is a place for children to learn about English, Maths and Science, amongst other classes such as Art and Computer Technology. What ever that was!
“Janice! Hurry!” my mother yelled from downstairs. “We need to take pictures!”
I sighed, straightened my tie in the mirror, and then opened my door, which my sister had been leaning against. She toppled into my room, crumpling onto the ground.
“Seraphim, what are you doing?” I asked suspiciously.
“Nothing. Nothing at all. Oh! Would you look at that time, Wow! We must get going.” Seraphim hurried down the stairs, not wanting to admit she had been worried about me. “Janice!” she yelled up the stairs at me.
I shook my head and closed my door behind me with a soft thud. Strolling down the stairs was hard when I knew three pairs of eyes on me, my mum, my dad, and Seraphim my older sister.
Before being allowed to step out the front door, my mum went psycho with the camera, forcing Seraphim and I to endure a million pictures before being allowed to leave. Other than being in the car to go to the doctors, I had never gone anywhere on foot, except that one time we went to the park, but my mum and dad were really intense and wouldn’t let me go very far. But today, free!
I hurried out the front door with Seraphim who raised an eyebrow at me, “Suddenly excited, I see,” she turned to close the door behind her, so I ditched her and started walking down the street.
“Hey!” I heard Seraphim’s clomping shoes coming after me, “Not cool Janice.”
I grinned and swung my bag as I walked. I was in a great mood. That is, until I saw the school I had to attend. It was a huge hulking modern day building. Meaning it was ugly. Really ugly. And dirty, because of the toilet paper everywhere, and the mud balls stuck on the windows.
Seraphim laughed, “Not so eager now, eh?” she charged through the front doors, past random kids burning blades of grass, and away from a group of smoking teens. She beckoned to me on the top step.
I followed Seraphim into the school to get acquainted with the students and the teachers when the smell hit me. A musty sweaty smell that made me shudder deeply.
A teacher shook my hand and introduced himself as Mr. Browne. He took me to my new classroom and chattered annoyingly the whole way. When he opened the door, I felt an overwhelming need to run away and hide. A paper aeroplane hit me hard in the shoulder. I picked it up, and stared at it. It was so unsymmetrical! I hated it immediately.
Mr. Browne took it from my hands and walked into the classroom, holding his hand up for silence. Amazingly, the class co-operated. I would never have believed that the teacher could have gotten them silent.
“Children. This is your new classmate, Janice! I expect that you will welcome and respect her!” He walked to his desk, throwing the paper plane away as he did.
He motioned for me to join him, “Let’s see. You can sit next to Julie there.”
A young girl with short blonde hair shook her head angrily, “No way! You know I sit here with Annie.”
“Oh. Whoops. Then you can sit in between Hunter and Sasha there.” That was when he pointed to a dark gothic boy in the corner, and a cheeky looking blonde. He raised his eyebrows at me, but swept the dust off the chair next to him. I sat down, embarrassed at the class’ attentive gaze.
On my left sat the gothic boy, Hunter, who was staring at me critically, and on my right was the young blonde, Sasha, who had lovely blue eyes. She smiled at me as I sat down, and I instantly relaxed. The gothic boy had black hair, but light hazel brown eyes. I felt slightly uncomfortable, whereas the blonde looked like she was eager for conversation.
“Hi,” she said, looking extremely perked to be sitting next to me, “I’m Sasha, and this is Hayley.” She ushered towards a friend sitting in front her. She had short brown hair that would never sit down straight, even if God himself willed it.
“She’s a big Alice fan.” Sasha whispered to me.
“Twilight?” I murmured back, “Personally, I thought her book The Host had a much more convincing story line.”
Sasha giggled, “But that was about aliens!”
“Yes, and Twilight was about vampires.” I raised my eyebrows at her, “and I take it you’re not big on vampires?”
“Right on!” She said, while Hayley gave us both a death stare, “You’ll fit in here.” She said winking, “Janice. I’ve never heard of that name before, except in movies. Does it have a meaning I’d know?”
I smiled, “I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask my mum.”
Mr. Browne at the front of the class clapped his hands, and the room fell silent, “As you all know, seven students won’t be coming back to school.” The class turned into an uproar, gossiping about something that I didn’t understand.
I looked at Sasha, but she was glaring hard at Mr. Browne, “He doesn’t have the right to bring that up.” She was muttering.
“What’s going on?” I was absolutely confused, but Sasha said nothing.
The ranting from the class continued, and it was Hunter, the gothic boy sitting next to me who touched my elbow and told me.
“Seven kids, one destiny.” He grinned nefariously, “Seven teenagers went on a camping trip last week, and we have no idea what happened. One girl, Tabitha, survived the accident, but is now in a mental hospital.”
“What?” I frowned, “Why is she in a mental hospital?”
He smiled again, “She never speaks. She’s retracted from the world. But she draws pictures of what happened. And in one, she had a teenager they can’t identify scrawling the word ‘faeries’ on the trunk of the tree in what looks like blood. He’s surrounded by dead bodies, all with their necks snapped.”
My eyes widened in horror. It was horrible. “So,” I said, trying to grip the story in my mind, “This girl Tabitha survived, and the others died of a broken neck?”
Hunter leaned forwards toward me, “That’s the thing. In her drawings, the two males that were in the camping trip have their necks broken, but the girls are running wild. One hiding behind a tree. And when they found Tabitha, it was only her. There was no one else for miles. No blood splatters. No fight marks. Nothing. Only Tabitha. The cops can’t locate anybody else.” He gazed at me steadily, “And they’re not going too either.”
Sasha grabbed my arm, “Shut up, Hunter. God, you’re so pessimistic.”
Hunter grinned at her, “That’s me! The pessimist. But c’mon, there are no leads, and no evidence that those kids were kidnapped, or that they even survived! In the pictures they were dead!”
I looked at him, “But you said the drawings had the girls running wild!”
Hunter’s permanent smirk faltered for a moment, “Clever turkey,” He whispered, his face paling slightly.
“Exactly! So ha!” Sasha said.
I looked at her, “You seemed really close to this case when Mr. Browne said it in class. Did you know any of the people on it?”
Sasha stared at her pencil case, “Yes. I did. I was supposed to go on that trip, but I had a horse riding competition.” She twisted her pencil case in her hands, “I should’ve been there!” she looked close to crying.
“So these were your friends?” I asked, sadly.
Sasha looked up at me, “No. Not really. But my girlfriend Alyssa was on the trip, and she asked me to come. Now she’s gone.” A few tears escaped her eyes.
Hayley stood up from her seat and came around to Sasha, holding her tightly. Sasha didn’t cry any more, but wiped her tears from her face.
I looked over at Hunter and he smirked, shrugging his shoulders, “I have pictures of them if you want to see them?”
I nodded and he took out a huge book from his desk that looked like it was filled with newspaper clippings and pictures. I frowned but Hunter flipped through it easily, showing me the school newspaper article.
I looked at the picture of Tabitha first. She was a very pretty girl, with long wavy brown hair, and green eyes. She was a model of perfection. The next picture showed a boy called Brad, someone who looked popular. He also had brown hair, but it was cut short, showing off his head.
The next picture showed a boy and a girl hugging tightly. Sasha’s finger pointed to the good-looking boy, with tanned skin and black hair, “He was Freddie,” her finger moved across the page to the girl with long shiny blonde hair, “And that was Erin. They were only this much,” Sasha held her thumb and pointer finger apart a few centimetres, “from getting together, but everyone knew they fancied each other.”
Hunter pointed to the next picture, “And that is Alyssa.” He breathed down my neck. I looked at the picture of the dark skinned seventeen year old. She had black hair and brown eyes, and very pretty. Actually, all the children missing were good-looking.
Hayley came over and pointed at a girl with red hair, that was cut randomly like an artists, “That is Cooper. She was the first one to go missing. She was playing hide-and-seek with Erin, and she either hid too well, or was found by the wrong person. And that,” she motioned to the last picture, “was Rachel.” The last picture horrified me. It showed a girl with bright green eyes and mousy hair. But the worst thing was her left cheek. It had a huge scar on it! It went from the top of her left eye, to her chin. It made her mouth and eye droop ever so slightly.
I realised that Hunter was staring at me, looking at my appalled face, so I quickly neutralised it. Hunter raised his eyebrows, “I don’t pity her disappearance. Her father assaulted her, that’s how she got the scar.” I didn’t say anything, instead staring at the pictures in front of me.
Seven kids, doing nothing wrong, but some creep comes up to them and kidnaps them all, except for one. What was so special about this girl Tabitha?
“By the way,” Hunter said disrupting my thought patterns, “I wanted to ask, where did you get all your scars?” He traced one finger along a scar that went from my right ear lobe to my nose. I flinched away from his finger, and he dropped it.
“Car crash.” I mumbled.
“Oh my god!” Sasha nearly screamed, “Are you okay? When did this happen? Were you driving?”
“Whoa! Whoa! I’m fine! It happened months ago. One minute I was in the car, my dad driving, and then I woke up in the hospital three months later,” I glanced at her, “I am only sixteen. I can’t drive yet! Well, I could if I wanted too, but after this, I think the bus is safer!”
Hunter frowned, “sixteen? You should be in year ten then. Why are you in a year eleven class?”
I shook my head, “My parents tell me that before the crash I was really smart, so they threw me up a year level. I guess only time will tell right?”
Hunter rolled his eyes, but Sasha grinned, “It’s good that you’re here! Much more fun than the year ten’s! They’d pick on you about everything. Urgh! They’re horrible!”
Hayley finally cracked a grin at us, “Only because you threw a ball at someone, and it hit them in the head!”
“Oh that! It was a light tap.”
“No it wasn’t, you threw it extremely hard and it was a rock hard basketball. And did you mean love tap?”
“Oh I have no clue!”
I laughed at the friendly banter going on, relieved I was away from home, and the stares everyone would give me, making sure I was okay.
Hunter stared at me as if I were nuts, but I realised I was happy for the first time I could remember.
The morning class finished quickly, as it was just all of us gossiping about people and their antics. Sasha kept us all busy, but Hunter seemed thoughtful and withdrawn from the classroom, and no prompting from Sasha got him talking.
As we moved to our next class, English, I found I was seated next to Hunter only, as Sasha sat next to the teacher because she talks too much. Hayley made her way over to sit next to another bunch of girls, so Hunter led me to the back of the room. He slammed his books down, “Prepare for boredom!”
I grinned. I had no idea what to suspect, but now, I know this wasn’t a loved class.
The teacher looked cruel. She had long black hair tightly in a bun, and she sadly completed the look with really bad glasses. She was wearing a female suit, and she meant business. We were writing four line long poems for the first half hour, and I had to ask Hunter what poems were.
He didn’t laugh as I expected him too. Instead, he was kind and gentle, and taught me what they were with a few of his own samples. I finally understood it, and wrote one. Unfortunately, we had to read these out to the class.
Sasha went first, as she was sitting next to the teacher,
“Shall we fly the skies, and watch the ice turn to bees?
From there where shall we go, when according to scientists:
Life has no meaning, but maybe I found mine,
To live, to feel, to want and to love that which is not mine anymore.”

We all knew her poem was about Alyssa, but obviously the teacher didn’t. She ranted on about how Sasha has no heartfelt meaning in her poem.
A few more went, including Hayley, then it was Hunter’s turn,
“Think me like an angel,
Tell me your lies, and I shall help you,
Show me your sins, and I shall fix them,
Give me your heart, and I shall bury it.”
With that, Hunter sat down. I shivered despite the warm room. The teacher frowned, “That wasn’t a decent poem. Not all the lines were the same length, and nothing rhymed either, even though it doesn’t always have too. And honey, I doubt angels go around burying hearts.”
Hunter ignored her comments, so I stood up, delivering my piece of writing,
“I believed all to be true,
But now I know life is a dream,
Where I am a puppet on a string,
Without a way to scream?”

I looked and saw Hunter’s astonished face that was mixed with a touch of fear. The teacher’s mouth was hanging open slightly, but I only saw the window and my own pale face reflecting their. And I also saw where my face went wrong. My eyes. My eyes usually a pale blue had now turned a deep violet. Not that I was complaining. They were so deep, and my hair, normally a light frizzy brown, was now shiny, smooth and a deep black.
Hunter started clapping his hands, “Now that’s what you call a poetry reading!” I looked over at him, and his face was a neutral mask of curiosity and nothing more.