D’Lenge Boarding School

"And I find it kind of funny and I find it kind of sad, but the dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had, and I find it hard to tell you and I find it hard to take when people run in circles it’s a very very mad world."

Mad World Gary Jules

Chapter One: Welcome to D’Lenge

My name’s Magdalene. Magdalene Dupree.

I guess that’s where I should begin this story, since it is about my life and all. Huh, I can almost hear Nona laughing and taunting me about the notion of this being the ‘beginning’ of my story. She always tells me on our abnormally long phone calls that nothing really has a beginning or an end. You just sort of wake up one day and find yourself in the middle of it all.

I think she got that in a book somewhere, though. Nona usually isn’t really philosophical enough to think of something like that. She probably heard it in a movie or mooched it off of Emily. Emily’s smart enough to think of intensely amazing things like that. I mean if she can handle Mike (who may or may not be the biggest pervert on the planet), she has to at least be smart. And tough. Probably a bit insane, too. Dealing with people like that takes wit and might, I suppose.

I guess I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. This tends to happen so try not to be too offended and too overwhelmed.

This is supposed to be my ‘beginning’ and Emily, Nona, Mike, or anyone else I love haven’t even come into my life yet. They are probably still causing simple mayhem without me, and haven’t been put into any life-threatening situations because of me yet.

Keyword: yet.

Anyways, as I said before, my name is Magdalene Dupree. I am now twenty three, but this story ‘starts’ when I was sixteen and in my most rebellious stage. I guess I was an average girl, besides the fact that I liked to watch people do crazy stunts on the Internet and was an animė freak. I was pretty violent but maybe it was just the way I grew up. Again, you’ll understand this soon enough.

The reason I ended up in the D’Lenge Boarding School’ is a bit of a long story. I had tried to beat the crap out of one of my ex-boyfriends. His name was Eric. He had chestnut brown hair and deep amber eyes with a rather gentle smile that got a bit too annoying after a while. He was a softie and you could tell just from the way he acted. That boy hadn’t worked a day in his life either. He would always wear that damn uniform of his to show he was a student in a famous prep school and obnoxiously proud of it. He was a prick.

We dated for a while, and at the time I was on some really bad drugs. I would get pretty obsessive compulsive if I didn’t have my way and would start to destroy things. I was smoking pot all the time and I would often snort three lines of blow everyday before school. I was so jacked up all the time that I lost reality and felt that beating up Eric was the only way to solve my problem. It wasn’t. I feel really stupid now for all that juvenile stuff I did. I was immature, what can I say.

I wouldn’t beat people up or anything for no apparent reason, so don’t get the wrong impression. Usually all I would do was take a giant bat that belonged to my naïve little brother and smash in car windows, break lawn gnomes, and do mundane damage like that. Nothing serious, just enough to get a reaction. I love reactions, seeing someone genuinely shocked that you would have the balls to do something they’re too wussy to do.

But that night it had been different. I remember this guy told me he saw a girl named Melanie making out with Eric at a party over in the Valley. I was told that Eric was going to dump me for this girl. I was drunk, stoned, and really pissed off. Not the greatest combination. If I had been straight minded, I would have known Eric didn’t really have the balls to cheat on me, and less to dump me. He was a total mama’s boy. He always treated ladies with respect, or that respect he felt they deserved. He probably genuinely liked me too, but I guess I was just too screwed up for someone like him. I admit that now, even if it’s just internally.

I had gone off when I was told that, and had left my house in a stormy rage. I think smoke was fuming out of my head furiously.

I snuck into his house through his pool door that I knew was always open with a large steak knife and a glare that could probably kill. I had been standing over his bed, ready to do what I called a ‘Piss-Your-Pants-Mutha-Fuckaa!’ when his eyes had flown open and he had sat up and screamed like a pansy. Loud and high pitched, or so I’m told. I don’t really even remember doing all of this; I heard it later in the police reports. I was a little (very) drunk after all, and have no recollection of anything past me leaving my house.

I distinctly remember though, at court, one of his defense cases was that I had cut off his pinky finger and shoved it down his pants or something like that. I was pretty surprised at that. Maybe I was just a serial murderer waiting to happen, or maybe he lied. I mean, where was this disemboweled pinkie finger now? Where was the evidence? At least he didn’t get away unharmed, because for the punishment I got it seemed as if I cut of his whole head and sucked his brain out of his eyeballs with a straw.

You want to know my punishment? Juvie for a year, or, go to a ‘lovey-dovey-quant-little-boarding-school-for-juvinile-deliqents-like-youself.’ The boarding school meant I wouldn’t be released until I was eighteen, but then again, going to juvie sounded ten times worse. I had heard many horror stories, and I wasn’t ready to be raped by scary butch lesbians.

I picked the boarding school.

It was in Colorado of course, only a few million miles away from my hometown in Texas. They had even been so kind as to give me a whole five minutes to pack then shoved me onto a miniature bus that reeked of transmission fluid and gasoline.

Like I had even done anything wrong.

XXX

Magdalene Dupree sat on the bus and gazed disdainfully at the countryside. The trees were slowly zooming by, and the scenery was all the same. Mountains looming in the distance, dried up grass, and rusty billboards. She felt her body stick to the ugly brown plastic seat and groaned aloud before taking a huge breath. It was humid, very humid.

The bus was a small one, only four rows of seats, and it shook and jumped over every rock and pothole. Besides the driver and the guard, there was only one other passenger.

Magdalene looked back at the girl, probably caught with heroin by the way she looked, and saw she was sleeping with her neck at an awkward angle. Magdalene shook her head and pulled her black AFI shirt off her sticky skin. She groaned again as she pulled her Hot Topic skirt up too, vainly trying to create air to soothe her sticky skin. Her right arm had three studded bracelets and her left about a hundred mini bracelets you buy in packs of fifty. She had a nose piercing that held a black ‘X’ and an eyebrow ring that held a pink gem. Each ear was pierced six times. Three bottom lobe, two top, and one particularly painful one that was between the crest and trough of her ear. She still winced at the thought of the piercing needle driving through her soft flesh and the very messed up night that had lead to that particular piercing.

Leaning her head back, she focused her vision to the reflection of herself in the window.

Her blonde hair, now pulled into a loose bun, looked shiny, almost greasy in the sun that was pouring from the window. She could see that she was sweating from the reflection. The telltale gleam was on her forehead. She was used to the heat of course, living in Texas for the last three years and Hawaii before that.

Humidity was nothing, but she could have used a drink of water at that moment. She closed her eyes, sighed, and opened them, examining her features. She looked average enough, with two small blonde brown strands of hair encasing her non-make-up'd face. She had only had about five minutes to grab all of her stuff after her unfair court trial after all, so makeup had been out of the question. She hadn’t even showered in two days. She felt dirty and wanted to change her panties. She debated on doing it where she sat, but because of the butch guard sitting in the front leering at her, she decided against it. Her goals for this excursion were thus:

Don’t get raped

Don’t get maimed

Run away as soon as possible

Take shower

Next to her was a small black suitcase with a very large bobby-pinned rip right in the left-hand corner. It was sewed carelessly with mismatched pink threads, and had Magdalene cared about her travel accessory, she would have guessed that this would be its last trip.

A bright orange and piercing black Sony CD player lay on top of that. It looked warn and well used, and anyone could tell that it had seen better days. She picked it up, and with some effort, opened the suitcase and took out her black CD case.

Damn, it’s hot. She thought, opening the case lazily. She felt herself sweat slightly from the work. The CD player was very warm from sitting in the sun, and Magdalene hoped her batteries would live through this trip.

Because of the effort she needed to get the CD she just grabbed the nearest disc, which happened to be a Marilyn Manson album she had burned a long time before. She plopped it into the player and snapped the cover shut. Most people hated Marilyn Manson, but she had grown up listening to him. She knew every song by heart, and it comforted her in a way that she probably couldn’t explain with real words. Ubercumpfer came to mind, but that wasn’t a real word to anyone except herself.

She yawned carelessly and let the hard music lull her into a dreamless sleep.

What seemed like five minutes but was actually a good three hours later, she felt her shoulder being poked awkwardly. She opened one bright blue eye, and saw the other stoner girl who had been sitting on the bus with her. She sat up and rubbed at her neck that was sore from sleeping while sitting up. She then turned her attention to the girl.

"Get up. We’re here." The girl said in a ‘bitch-you-don’t-mess-with-me’ tone.

"Thank you ever so much." Magdalene told her, albeit sarcastically. She really wasn’t in the mood for this.

"Bitch." The girl remarked, flicking her hair dramatically.

"You got it!" Magdalene sneered right back, flicking the girl off, but she had already turned around, swaying her hips, and left the bus with an over-exaggerated ‘hmpf!’ Magdalene rolled her eyes, stopped her CD player and put it back into her almost dead bag. She then looked out the window, wondering if she was a little in over her head. Were all people going to be like that stoner girl? She sure hoped not.

"Holy hell...” was all she could mutter when her eyes lay on the sight before her, giving her shivers up her spine.

The supposedly 'smaller more quaint' boarding school the unfair-court had shipped her off to looked more like a European Hogwarts than a simple juvi-boarding school. It was huge. On the front gates which she was directly in front of resided a large fading wooden sign that read "The D’Lenge Boarding School” and a date that she couldn’t read. It was faded away.

She smirked as she saw that some kid had spray-painted the cheerful words “welcome to hell!” in dripping gothic style red letters. It fit very well. The building itself was brick and about four stories high. It stretched a good way to her right until a small river hit. All around the school were thorny bushes and spiked rusty gates. Three guard posts were placed around the school in a triangular shape, and constructed of a darker brick than the main building. The guards that she could see looked stiff and unforgiving, all wearing darker clothing and hats with logo’s on them.

One of them seemed to be attractive and Magdalene squinted to get a better view of his face but she soon gave up and stood up, stretching her sore limbs.

Seeing movement over to her left, Magdalene watched a lady get on the bus from the corner of her eyes. This lady had brunette hair, tied tightly in a bun, black glasses, and bright red lipstick that was pretty hard to miss. She was wearing a stiff-looking tan dress and an ugly brown pendant around her neck made of some polished stone. Her outfit was completed by a pair of librarian looking black shoes that had more scuffs on them then her old copy of the book Go Ask Alice.

"What are you, a lawyer?" Magdalene mused aloud while she crossed her arms, not at all intimidated by this stern-looking woman. The woman stopped directly before her and Magdalene noticed that she had brown eyes, a similar shade to her ex-boyfriends. Dislike already surged through her.

"No," replied the lady quite firmly, "I am Mrs. Barbra Kallanen. You will address me as Mrs. Kallanen. Now get your lazy ass up, and follow me to where you will be spending the next two years of your life."

Magdalene put on a face of mock fear while her blue eyes sparkled dangerously. Nobody spoke to her like that and got away with it, well, at least they had never used to speak to her like that. "Oh, I'm so scared," she muttered, waving her hands dramatically.

"What was that, Miss Dupree?"

Magdalene just rolled her eyes and followed Mrs. Kallanen out of the bus. This was her first day, and she didn’t know just what to expect from a place that needed guard posts.

A few minutes later, Magdalene found herself in a chalk yellow medium-sized nurse’s office. It had an cold examining table with a piece of paper stretched across it, the chair that she sat in, and a picture of some nurses college degree in a boring frame. She got her fingers printed, ID picture taken, and a full medical strip-down checkup. This pissed Magdalene off a lot, she didn’t want some old chick she didn’t know staring at her boobs making sure they were perky enough. It was uncomfortable to say the least and she had said a few select words that had made the nurse glare at her, and she would just glare back, resilient and angry at being treated like a child. Magdalene was in a foul mood.

After she was finally done with the manual checkup, the nurse who had examined her walked out of the room and Mrs. Kallanen re-appeared still looking stiff as ever. She was holding a brown office folder and a black ballpoint pen. She was shifting from one foot to another.

Magdalene was then given a green and silver key and a number, along with her identification card that she was required to keep with her at all times no matter what. She lost the card within the week, nobody cared.

"You will be rooming with three other ‘students.’” She told Magdalene in the same stern voice, fidgeting for some reason. Magdalene vaguely thought about how this lady needed to get laid or drunk. Maybe both. Usually if she was all uptight and stressed that was the perfect remedy. Well, besides playing Mario Party Seven with all her old friends. That worked just as well.

“Two boys and a girl, all your age. They are in the same code class as you, so I believe you will fit right in." This last bit was said with a tone of sarcasm that Magdalene caught on to right away. She could always hear what people really meant when they spoke, even if they didn’t intend for that person to identify it. Mrs. Kallanen was pretending to be polite, but Magdalene could tell that there was something in her gaze that was askew.

"What the hell do you mean by code class?" Magdalene asked bitterly, turning away and glaring at the wall, though she already knew the answer. A code class was a pretty stereotypical description of someone. Hers probably said something like, ‘mental-murderer-slut’ or in more polite medical politically correct terms, ‘attempted murder psychopath with a sexual deficiency.’

"Language, Miss Durpee, Language." Mrs. Kallanen tatted, clucking her tongue.

Magdalene had already seriously considered punching Mrs. Kallanen, but had come to the conclusion it was not worth the trouble she would get in on her first day. She took deep breaths and repeated a mantra in her head, making her calm enough that her fists stopped itching to feel contact with a nose. She stood up slowly, giving Ms. Kallanen her friendliest death glare. She then dragged her now-very-dead bag up to the front office and waited for a moment. She saw a police officer saying something into a walkie-talkie, shifting his eyes around at her momentarily. He was surrounded by stacks of files that were precariously balanced next to computers and half empty mugs of coffee. Another guard came out and he unlocked the door to the main living area for her, gave her very unspecific directions on where to go.

She was surprised that she wasn’t escorted to her new room. She was beginning to think this place was more relaxed than she originally anticipated.

Her room was down a large corridor that had cheesy looking paintings everywhere. The corridor had about ten doors in it, each of them were damaged in some way. There were a few pieces of litter scattered about, but it seemed well maintained and lived in. At the end of the hallway was a barred window that was so dirty you couldn’t even see the light from outside shine through. She came up to the room labeled 303, and stood outside the door for a moment. It had been the second door from the last on the left side of the hall. She lifted her hand to knock and paused after she heard a loud scream coming from it.

"Ahh! I’m going to maim you!"

Magdalene smiled to herself, her eyebrows raised up a little. ‘I might actually enjoy myself, just a little bit’ she thought to herself, pausing to remember the home that she had come from. Her mother drinking constantly and her younger brother stealing her drugs for money to buy ‘better’ drugs. Home sweet home was nothing in comparison to this place. Her eyes grew deep and she felt herself shiver. That vile place. Shaking her head, Magdalene took the key and pushed it into the slot. The door open hesitantly, and she stepped in. She then saw an interesting sight.

A girl with blackish brown pig-tails was sitting on top of a fit young boy with a mohawk, trying to punch his face in. He was holding both of her arms and rolling around, trying to get her off of him. Another very attractive boy was sitting on a couch, looking all too amused by this. She glanced over at the large TV in front of the guy on the couch and saw he was watching a TV show called MXC. She had watched that show a lot back home with her younger brother.

The girl with black pig-tails looked up when Magdalene stepped inside and closed the door. The girl had startling green eyes, like the ocean from her childhood memories. Clear and aqua, comforting but startling, and soothing but feisty. They reminded her of something from a long time ago, but she couldn’t remember what it was.

"Who the hell are you?" the girl asked, trying to sound suspicious of everything. It ended up making her look really corny, but Magdalene shrugged it off. Some people just didn’t do well with meeting new people.

"Magdalene Dupree. I've been assigned to this room."

"Well freak yah!” The girl cried out, giving her a friendly smile, “Finally! Another chick to entertain me! I'm Emily." Emily’s eyes sparkled and she hopped off the boy she had been sitting on, as if this was something they did everyday. (It was.) She walked over, took Magdalene officially dead suitcase from her, and invited her in, though she was already inside the door. It felt like a teenage slumber party.

Magdalene now got a chance to look at Emily fully. She was wearing a tight blue fox racing shirt, black shorts with white checkers, and a pair of black and pink Etnies. Her socks were mismatched, one pink and one white, but she had a nice figure and seemed to be friendly enough. Most of the people who were considered to be ‘bad’ by society after all, probably would end up being the best people you would ever meet.

Her hair, as Magdalene had noticed already, was in two childish but rather appropriate looking pig-tails with little red ball hair ties that where the same color as her crimson eye shadow. Crimson was a hard color to pull off, but it looked perfect for her because it wasn’t too dark and overdramatic.

Her face was a mature one, but beautiful, and held a slight cocky attitude. Her style seemed to suit her perfectly at first glance, but Magdalene would have to wait and see if she really filled it out. You couldn’t tell a book by its cover, and this girl could just be a poser that Magdalene would end up hating. Magdalene had low poser acceptance. Emily interrupted Magdalene's quiet musings by asking, "What brings you to hell house?"

"Attempted murder, breaking and entering, battery, you know, the whole ten and 1/4th yards kind of thing..." Magdalene replied while Emily smiled back at her, putting her hands on her hips. Her eyes were so green that she lost herself staring at them for a few moments. She then realized that this girl was someone she probably would have become friends with back home.

"Well anyway, introductions! The duckweed I was pounding on is our signature pervert- Mike," She pointed at the boy who was now rubbing his head. He smiled at her awkwardly and she noticed that his teeth where slightly crooked, but not horribly so. He was wearing a light pink Bam Element skateboarding shirt that looked pretty faded and had a rip on the back, plus a worn in pair of baggy jeans. He didn’t have any shoes or socks on, but he wore a leather necklace with some chain that was hidden from view.

“Thanks for the loving introduction, Emily.” Mike told her bitterly, emphasizing her name. Emily chose to ignore him and turned back to Magdalene. She then pointed towards the guy on the couch that was still watching TV. He was now staring avidly at the screen, a smirk on his face, ignoring them completely.

His black hair, obviously dyed, was longer than most guys and was kept in a sort of retro mullet that fell to the side, casing his face. He let the silky mass fall over both his eyes, but when she caught a look at his soft cerulean orbs she felt her stomach tingle and her throat go dry. His eyes were like a sea of amethyst that she felt she could fall into and never climb out. This boy was extremely lanky, but not cowardly looking like some people who scream ‘beat me up!’ with their styles. He had a small fang piercing in his right ear.

"And that's our resident All-Or-Nothing-Totally-Male-Ego- Seth." Emily filled in for her, noticing her intense gaze with a self-satisfied grin.

He looked over at Emily when she said his name, and for the first time seemed to notice Magdalene in the room. He stood up and Magdalene noted that he was wearing a darker red shirt that had some band logo on it and a pair normal loose-fitting blue jeans. He had a hemp glass bead necklace on and was wearing plane white socks. He gave her a once up and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking aloof and shrugging incoherently. Magdalene felt her toes tingle.

"Who's the new chick?" he asked rather bluntly, his gaze turning to Emily after he had fully checked out Magdalene. She wondered for a moment what he saw when he looked at her, but dismissed it.

"This is Magdalene, she is going to be joining us in hell for- uh, how long did you say?" Emily asked her, trailing off and looking over at her.

"The next two years of your life." She stated back, smiling.

Seth gave what looked to be a smile, and made a noise that sounded like it was meant to be a laugh. Magdalene then, for the first time, took in her surrounding area. The door had led to a large white room, with a kitchen directly to the left. The kitchen looked dirty in a clean sort of way, and all the dishes were shoved in the half-opened dishwasher unceremoniously. A couple empty soda cans were littered on the counter and empty boxes of macaroni and cheese lay on the stove. There was a large mirror on the wall but you couldn’t see your reflection clearly because it was covered with permanent marker handwriting. There was a penis drawing in the center, with several different handwritings stating different obnoxious and bizarre phrases like “My god the cheese will sell his soul to Santa!” and other such nonsense.

A couch, small wooden table, and phone booth stood in front of her, along with the big-screen TV and a killer sound system. A ways up the room to the left were two doors. Each were closed, so Magdalene couldn’t see inside of them. This place hadn’t been what she had been anticipating. She had expected small rooms with cots on the floor, not an expensive TV and a freaking phone booth. She looked back over to the phone booth for a moment, and silently wondered if the phone worked, before turning her attention back to Emily.

"Where do I crash?" she asked, looking over the room once again quickly. She didn’t just want to barge in like she owned the place, so she stayed by the door. Making a bad impression on people who she would be living with wasn’t a great idea. Plus, it was common manners that even a rough girl like Magdalene obliged too.

"Over there." Emily pointed to the last of the two doors that were right next to each other. They had posters of a few bands she knew littered on it, and a couple pictures that she couldn’t make out. She was about to walk over to it with Emily but she suddenly felt something tug on her tight AFI shirt and looked down. The guy with the Mohawk, Pervert Mike, was kneeling before her, a loving look on is face. He was rather cute with large blue eyes and a baby face, but Magdalene caught the stare that Emily was giving him, and felt the ‘we-have-a-secret-vibe’ vibe.

"Will you have drunk sex with me?” He asked, sounding completely sincere, like he was asking her out on a date to the movies. That certainly caught Magdalene off guard, and she blinked, looking down at him in shock for a moment. That was before Emily kicked him across the face with her foot, making him fall on his butt. He smiled back up at her after he recovered from his fall, and Magdalene got the impression that this happened a lot around here.

"You stupid pervert! You just don’t say that to someone you just met!" Emily hissed, crossing her arms. Her face was red and she was glaring, looking a little hurt. Magdalene felt the vibe again, and reasoned these two were either dating or had dated or were going to date sometime soon.

Magdalene sighed and kneeled down, grabbing Mike’s hand and helping him up.

"Mike, that’s your name?” She leaned forward and whispered something quietly into his ear, getting a surprised look from Seth (who had been watching this whole exchange from the corner of his eye) and a rather furious one from Emily.

"You know that you shouldn’t ask someone that, but I’ll tell you this, Emily looks a little hung up on you.” She whispered, winking at him after she pulled away. Magdalene knew it wasn’t her place to interfere with other people’s affairs, but she felt this dialogue was necessary.

Mike’s eyes widened and he looked over at Emily (who he thought looked very cute when she was all riled up) before getting a thoughtful expression on his serious face. After a moment, he got up and walked away, sitting next to Seth on the couch without saying another word. Magdalene giggled quietly and walked next to Emily’s side, looking pleased with herself.

"What did you say?" Emily asked with a weird look on her face.

"That Mike had a better chance with that Seth boy over there than with me."

Seth lunged off the couch the moment those words left her mouth, and looked at Mike, completely frightened. Both girls laughed aloud at this knowing that wasn’t what she really said but Emily intertwined their arms and pulled her over to the right of the two doors anway. They went inside and closed the door behind them, laughing together again as Seth shouted, “Stay away, you lard!”

The room Magdalene entered was a dull white, but had gray carpeting instead of beige like the main room. It was messy, with different clothes and knick-knacks precariously placed everywhere. She glanced over and on her left was a very large window with a small bench. A couple mounds of books lay atop some sort of fabric, and loose-leaf lined paper with little drawings were taped in the alcove. Most of the pictures looked colorful and psychedelic.

To her right Emily had made sure no furniture was touching the wall because there was a big mural in spray paint of Emily, Mike, and Seth. They looked a little like anime characters, with exaggerated features and adorable clothing.

"You did that?" She asked with a little aw in her tone. Magdalene wasn’t the best artist, but this mural screamed talent, even to a mediocre girl like her. Even she could appreciate it for its unique artistic value, though she wasn’t sure exactly what that meant.

"Yah, a while ago. Maybe if I keep you around long enough, I'll draw you in too!" Emily said, putting her hands on her hips again and giving her a big grin, “But only if you can handle being my roommate.”

Magdalene rolled her eyes dramatically, but there was laughter in them. They both could tell that they were going to get along just fine. She was already liking this Emily a lot, and that was rare for Magdalene to warm up to someone so quickly. Emily went over to one of two beds that were about to capsize under the weight of her clothes, CD’s, and other random crap that was piled on it. She shoved the stuff off of it and heard something smash and shatter. Shrugging it off, she tossed Magdalene’s bag on it, a little more gently this time, and sat down. She crossed her legs and put her fist under her chin, looking up at Magdalene.

”This will be your bed, and oh, before I forget, bathroom is over there. Sorry, co-ed only. I did put in a complaint into the main office, but they refused to make the boys pee in the phone booth."

Magdalene smiled again at Emily’s remark and her eyes followed her pointed finger to the door on the eastern part of the room, it was halfway open but she couldn’t see inside.

“This place is a lot different than I would have ever imagined,” Magdalene said, setting the map of the school and the room-key she was holding onto the bed and walking over to the door.

After she opened the door, she was greeted with a rather smaller and bleak looking bathroom. It was a teal color and had makeup and wrappers lying on the floor. It looked like it hadn’t been swept in a few thousand years. On the opposite wall was another door. She went over to that one, and opened it. The bedroom she walked into was a good size smaller than Emily’s. It was white to, but all the dust made it tint gray. The window in the room was smaller on the south wall, and it didn’t let much light through because of a tie dye curtain that was draped over a pole.

The boys had unwashed clothes all over the floor, and posters of punk rock bands littering their walls. The mass of colors was beautiful to Magdalene and she found herself staring at each poster, taking in all the designs and all the bands. She could obviously tell Seth’s side of the room from Mike’s though. Mike’s had less punk posters and above his bed in striking hot-pink letters the words “Pervert!” were spray painted on the wall. He also had a teddy bear and a Care Bear blanket on his bed.

She laughed again for a moment, but was startled out of it when a voice came from the door against the wall. “It’s so appropriate, isn’t it?”

Seth walked past her and sat on what she had correctly guessed was his bed. His voice was deep and tenor, and it had an accent that Magdalene couldn’t place. He leaned back against the wall and she walked forward, her eyes scanning over the room again. “Pretty sweet. You’re talented artwork? Or is it another Emily original?”

Seth smiled. “It’s all mine!” he told her, sounding thoroughly pleased with himself. Not obnoxious, but like there was a pretty interesting story behind how those letters got there. Magdalene was just glad that he seemed to be warming up to her. He was hot, and what girl didn’t like hot boys?

“Cocky, aren’t we?” She asked, smiling lopsided, “But this place is a lot different then I would have thought boarding school would be. A lot more… casual. The phone booth was kind of a surprise too.” She told him, sighing.

Seth nodded, and looked like he was lost in thought, "This place wasn’t always that way. We just mended a few previous rules. I’ve been here almost five years now and I can see the change in it. Even our teachers aren’t like they used to be.”

Magdalene gawked, her eyes growing wide, "Five years! You’ve got to be joking me! Damn! What did you do to have to come here?" she than asked, still sounding pretty amazed. Five years was a long time after all. She plopped on the bed next to him and leaned back, gazing upon all the different band posters. They were all very interesting, and Magdalene found herself enthralled.

"Yes, Seth what did you do?" Emily's voice came from the bathroom. She walked into the room, holding an orange bouncy ball. After bouncing it a couple times, she plopped on the floor gracefully, directly in front of Seth and Magdalene.

"Grand theft auto." He told them, almost lazily, rolling his eyes and scoffing. Magdalene looked at him, her eyes wide and surprised, "That’s pretty harsh."

"Harsh world." Emily told her, matter-of-fact.

"Very True." Magdalene nodded. She knew this all too well. But she was also a little confused. She wondered how Seth had that much power. She voiced her question, “How come you were able to change some rules?”

“Oh,” Emily told her, “he’s been here so long that the teachers and staff treat him like their over coddled child. He may be a naughty little boy, but he’s cute and a bit of a pet to them.” She cooed, smiling at him and poking his knee. Seth scowled and fake-hissed at her, but gave Magdalene a genuine smile and a wink.

"Yah," Seth spoke, "How did you get trapped here?"

Magdalene looked at her feet, a bit embarrassed, "Well, I thought that my boyfriend was going to break up with me for this fat chick called Melanie, and I was pretty drunk at the time, so, uh, I tried to scare him a little at his house while he slept with a big steak knife.”

Now, most people would be like, "Are you freaking serious?" but Emily and Seth just simply nodded, as if these things were likely to happen in everyday conversations. Seth even sympathized for her by saying, "That freak had it coming."

Magdalene finished her story quickly by saying, "His nanny came in and caught me, bam, bang, I'm here. I had a few other charges here and there that just added to it as well."

Emily looked at her skeptically, her delicate eyebrow raising on one side, "His nanny?" Magdalene nodded, still flushed from sharing a personal story. She didn’t really like to talk much about herself to people she didn’t know, because people often judged her unfairly. Emily snorted though and crossed her legs under her. "I'm here because I got caught with a couple ounces of weed in my room." Emily told Magdalene, breaking her from her internal reverie.

"That's it?" Magdalene asked, surprised. Her brows were now fused together. That wasn’t even as bad as Seth’s little mishap. A misdemeanor in most states. She could understand grand theft auto, but usually if you got caught with weed you would get a fine and a slap on the wrist. The cops would also add you to their watch files.

"Then I got caught trying to steal my confiscated weed back," Emily said, scratching her head and laughing nervously. Yes, that was a pretty stupid thing to do.

"Then..." Seth put in, smiling like a cat.

"Then I got caught recklessly driving when I was thirteen."

Magdalene smiled a genuine smile. She now felt very comfortable. These people were just like her, she could feel it. They all had a past, and they weren’t goodie goodies. Plus, this boy Seth was very pleasant to look at and Emily seemed to have a good sense of humor. She loved people who could appreciate a good joke.

"So, how old are you guys?" she asked, a little offhand, leaning against the back wall.

"Well, I’m seventeen, Mike’s sixteen, and Emily is sixteen. Your sixteen too, right?” Seth asked, picking up a small cheap looking yo-yo that had been sitting on the floor and swirling it around in his hands. It almost hit Emily in the head but she didn’t even flinch. She took her bouncy ball and threw it at the wall, were it hit and ricocheted back to her.

"Yah, unfortunately.” She told him.

"HEY!" They heard Mike’s voice scream echo from the main room. Magdalene jumped a little, startled. Neither Seth or Emily looked phased. Nothing seemed to phase these people.

"Jackass the movie is on HBO!" his voice called back, sounding pretty excited. Magdalene would later learn that it was because they were not allowed video tapes or DVD’s, so they didn’t get to see too many good movies. It was one of the rules that Seth was working diligently to abolish.

They all looked at each other for a moment before each flinging out of their respective spots, and running to get the best place on the couch. The movie was already half finished, Steve-O was tightrope walking over alligators in a thong, but it was pure entertainment. It made Magdalene feel really happy in a way that she had not felt in a long time. Her stomach tightened, though not in a bad way, and she seemed lost in the moment of it all. It was so different from the place she had come from.

“This movie is so hilarious.” Emily chimed, jogging over and claiming a spot next to Mike on the couch. He looked at her and glanced down at her chest for a moment but she ‘Hmpht’ and ignored him completely. Seth and Magdalene both sat down too, Magdalene next to Emily and Seth on the edge. He smiled at her with a smile that made her melt a little. She could feel a crush for this boy coming on, a deep crush.

‘Hell,’ Magdalene thought to herself, ‘this place is officially better than home.’ She tilted her head back and she closed her eyes, smiling, letting the laughs of her new roommates comfort her, somewhere deep inside that she didn’t let anyone touch very often.

XXX

I remember just three weeks after I moved in Emily painted me on the wall in our room, right beside Seth.

I had watched her do it too, it was so amazing. Stroke by stroke she made me look way prettier than I am in real life, blending and mixing colors till she received an abstract effect. She had told me she could tell that we all were soul mates the moment I had popped into their door. Our ‘ying and yang was now complete’ as she had put it. I had just laughed and told her I thought she was right, though I wasn’t even really sure what she had meant at the time. I understood more as I grew dependent on these people, they became the center of my life.

They would also save my life eventually, but that’s a little later on yet.

In the following weeks we did so much crazy stuff. Not dangerous stuff, just wild and fun. We laughed and freaked everyone out. They showed me around the school (that was larger than any place I had ever lived in) and introduced me to a lot of new people. We did so many jokes on my new professors, made fun of younger kids, got so wasted we could barely remember our names. We had more fun then I ever thought I could have had with three semi-strangers.

It was some of the best times of my life.

I made friends with some of the guards, learned to get to know the right people to get an extra helping of fruit during lunch, and relaxed more than I had ever known before. I wonder if that’s what true happiness is, living in the moment instead of worrying about the future or reminiscing about the past. My past was horrid and my future didn’t look too bright, but my now was freaking so awesome that I didn’t worry about it anyway.

And I got a crush on Seth, that’s the best part. Though he was aloof and touchy sometimes, he seemed to open up to me right away and Emily told me that she’d caught him giving me a few extra glances. And damn, that boy was sexy too.

I never wanted to wake up from this feeling I had, like each and every memory was a life time of happiness compressed into each moment.

13