I stared dreamily out of the window, at the rain pouring endlessly out of the sky.

I stared dreamily out of the window, at the rain pouring endlessly out of the sky. I loved to watch the drops splatter against the glass, loved to watch them spiral down to the Earth below. From up here in my room, I could still hear the traffic blaring and the incoherent buzz of people talking, but when it started to rain, it was like everyone else didn’t exist. It was as if the heavens had opened up, showing the world that someone was crying, that someone knew about it’s problems and wanted to help. That someone was out there. That someone still cared.

My head in my hands, I wondered if anyone still cared about me.

My name is Ella Rose McKenzie. I am 15 years old, and have just started my junior year. I was put ahead in primary, but I’m not particularly smart. Extension classes are as close to genius I’ll ever get. I think, once upon a time, my parents did believe that I could be one of those super genius kids. It was only about 5 years ago that they gave up on the idea. And with the idea, they gave up on me. I didn’t blame them – I wasn’t exactly the perfect daughter they had dreamed about.

I have never had any friends. I’d always been the ugly fat girl, the girl everyone picked on and hated because the in-crowd declared her to be untouchable. I had grown to ignore the sneering comments I heard on a regular basis, but every now and again, one would cut deep. I didn’t want to be the weirdo anymore.

I think that’s what set me off. Weirdo I mean. Trisha Banks, it girl of Clear Water High, calling me weirdo. Nothing out of the ordinary – I watched her walk out from the school entrance, flicking her perfect hair in time with her ‘bouncing’ steps (Heh. We all know what was bouncing, and there was no way in hell they were real) as she walked to the bus line. She caught sight of me and frowned. “Get out of my way, weirdo,” was all that she said. She pushed past me, got on the bus, sniggered at me as she climbed the stairs. I don’t know why it got to me, but it did. For some stupid reason it hurt more than anything else anyone had ever said to me before – and people had definitely said worse.

Luckily that was the last day of school for me that year. My parents had decided to go on a “family holiday” (They went skiing, while I stayed at my grandmother’s house in France), so I got to leave school 2 weeks early. I wallowed in self misery for a few days, and then decided that I had to do something about my weight. Looks I couldn’t change, but I could definitely change how fat I was.

The holidays were 3 months long. I worked my butt off the whole lot, laying off the sugar and trying to get fit. It worked, if I do say so myself. My hair was the same mousey brown color and my eyes were still the same old stormy grey, but I looked different. The layers of ‘puppy fat’ as my mother used to call it, back when she still talked to me, were gone, exposing a face that didn’t look like mine, and legs that actually fit properly into a pair of jeans. You get the picture. I wasn’t any prom queen, but I was definitely not ugly or fat anymore.

Now that I think about it, I suppose I could have said something back to Trisha instead of going absolutely psycho and losing about 40 pounds. But I’d never been able to say anything like that to any of them, not Trisha or anybody else in her little gang of cronies. I hated swearing, and I knew how much it hurt to be called names. I had promised long ago to never, ever, call anybody else fat.

I guess it was one of those changes you go through as you get older. I turn 16 in October – Exactly two weeks away. I’ll get the usual credit card shopping spree as a present, but that’s not why I’m excited. 16 seems to be the age when exciting things happen. Maybe a miracle would occur and I could win back the favor of my parents. Or maybe I would truly discover who I was and stop caring what everyone else thought.

Meh. Fat chance.

But one good thing was that I would start the year off with a clean slate. I wasn’t looking forward to school, but how bad could it be? Trisha and her crew didn’t have anything to mock me about, I wasn’t so insecure about myself, and I might even find a clique stupid enough to let me into.

I grinned. This year, noone could call me lard.

I awoke to the sound of birds trying to outsing the morning traffic. What was the point in living in a penthouse if you could still hear the cars 20 storeys down? I moaned and buried my head into my pillow. Nothing happened. If anything, the birds seemed to screech louder. Grumbling about the selfishness of people driving around at 7 in the morning, I reluctantly got out of bed and walked into the bathroom.

And promptly tripped over the bathmat.

I yelped in frustration. What was it with bathmats and rolling up anyway? I got out a towel and hopped over to the sink. Staring at myself in the mirror, I glared into my appearance. Long brown hair framed an oval face. My skin had always been pale, and this year’s holiday in France had made no difference. My eyes were large I suppose, but grey and boring. My father used to say he could see the storm blow up in them when I was angry. He said that he could see the lightning spark inside each one.

I dropped my head. It didn’t matter how much thunder or how many clouds showed up on my face. They weren’t good enough to hold onto my parents, so they weren’t good enough for me. I had tried to make myself look like the daughter they wanted me to be, but they hadn’t even noticed. When I got first in the class in English, Second in Science and Second equal in Math, they hadn’t cared. I was obviously never going to meet their approval, so why did I care so damn much? Angry at myself for being so pathetic, I punched the bench top.

Ouch.

Rubbing my hand, I got into the shower and washed away my troubled thoughts. I changed into the pathetic outfit our school called a uniform - Pleated black skirt, white blouse, and a black vest with a black blazer, not forgetting the lame as hell red tie we have to wear with it. Looking into the mirror again, I winced. I looked like a schoolgirl slut.

Ignoring my reflection, I walked out into the lounge. It’s not long before I get bored. I go back into the bathroom and tie my hair up in a messy pony tail, then head out into the kitchen. The cupboard reveals a fifty and a note telling me to go out and by myself some food, but after a bit of rummaging I find last week’s muesli box and take the last one. I pause for a second before pocketing the fifty. The caf didn’t take cards, so I’d need some change – and cash was always handy, right?

I roll my eyes mentally. I’m trying to justify why I should take the fifty my parents left me to buy breakfast, to spend on food. Scared that I’m turning into a nutcase, I run out the door and leave for school.

Clearwater High is about 10 minutes walk away from our apartment block, so it doesn’t take very long. I knew that I’d be pretty early for school – about half an hour - but I didn’t care. Sometimes it’s too hard to sit around and do nothing in the empty rooms at home. So instead, I focused on the sound my black school heels made on the pavement, walking as slowly as I could to avoid the extra time waiting around at school.

I had been posted my timetable the week before. I hadn’t bothered checking my subjects, but I had read the intro letter. The student body would sit through a horrendously boring assembly first, then normal classes would resume. Our school didn’t get an orientation day like every other school, no half day either. Nope, at Clear Water High, “every second counts!”

I did one of those sarcastic laugh things that earned me more then a few weird looks from passersby. But my random laugh soon turned to curses - By focusing on my long steps, I had accidentally walked a block and a half too far. I turned around and ran back towards the school, completely forgetting where I was supposed to turn and ending back on the block our apartment was on. This time I take care to walk the right way, but having taken another 20 minutes wandering around in my moment of chaos, I was late.

The assembly was just as boring as I thought. I snuck in at the back, hoping noone would notice or more importantly recognize me. Luckily, everyone was too busy catching up with their friends to look around, so I was left in a peace.

First class was about as uneventful as assembly. It was Math, with Mr. Gorgon. I had never had him before, and I didn’t know anyone in the class. A girl with blonde hair sat down next to me.

“Hey. I’m Jacqueline. New?” She asked cheerfully.

“Naw. Been here since freshman year.” I answered.

“Shame”, she sniggered, “This school sucks”.

“No kidding.” This girl was starting to get on my nerves.

Mr. Gorgon got us to write down the usual expectation stuff, and then told us we were doing Algebra.

“Open up the textbooks – Chapter One”, he said in a monotone that would make his fellow math’s teachers proud, “Exercise 1-“ he carried on like this for the rest of the lesson, describing exactly what to do in each exercise and why we would need to do it. He then gave us 5 exercises for homework.

Exiting the classroom, I heard the blonde girl sigh.

“Ugh. Homework on the first day?” she whined.

I rolled my eyes.

Honey, its high school. It’s called hell for a reason.

Second, third and fourth period were the same. On some stroke of luck I had classes with none of the in crowd, although I had seen Trisha and Aileen, her right hand cow, walking down one of the halls. Charging more like. People seemed to duck for cover whenever they walked past – whether it meant standing flat against the wall, jumping into classrooms, or even into the broom closet I saw in one poor kid’s case – whether they knew the girls or not. The “Cheers” as they were called, had a reputation that preceded them. Everyone knew exactly who they were and how nasty they could be.

I was very careful when I walked into the cafeteria. I crept in through the side door nearest the canteen line so as that noone would see me enter, grabbed something that looked vaguely like meat, paid, and walked quickly over to the corner table, which was in the shadows so noone sat there. Yesterday I had daydreamed about the look on Trisha’s face when she saw the ‘new’ me, but right now I was as cowardly as ever. Being thin wasn't going to stop her from torturing her favorite toy.

Everything was going fine until a girl with short spiky hair came and sat down opposite me. With her came three others, all with dark hair. I didn’t bother looking up, but started beaming “I hate you, go away” vibes, desperately hoping they would pick up on them.

“Hey. Mind if we sit here?"

I groaned internally. “Hi. Yeah, no worries”

The girl smiled brightly. “I’m Amelia. We’re new,” she waved her hands at the others, “Let me introduce ourselves.” Once everyone had sat down, she started talking again. “This is Sarah,” she paused and pointed at a beautiful looking girl with long black hair. Lifting her head up, the girl smiled quickly before looking away. I got a good look at her eyes - it was like looking straight into the night sky. Corny I know, but it was true. They were almost black, but not quite – you could see that there was a hint of blue in them. I also realized that she had brought her own lunch, thus meaning she would not have to battle the disgusting meat-thing. I vowed to bring my own tomorrow.

“This is Jonathon”, she pointed at a guy who looked like he had just woken up, who groggily waved in return. He had brown hair, now that I actually looked at him, not black. It was sitting in a curly mess at the top of his head. I wondered if he ever bothered using a comb – didn’t look like it. His eyes were a strange green, a deep emerald I could not remember ever seeing before. Quite like the beautiful girl with the night eyes.

“And this is Hunter”, She pointed at the hottest guy I’ve ever seen, easily surpassing Trisha’s boyfriend by miles. Not that any of them were ugly - they were all pretty good looking. But he looked... different. His eyes were the strangest of all, A nutty hazel with flecks of purple in them. Yes, purple. I had definitely never seen eyes like his before. He had longer hair than the other guy - Jonathon - but it was as if it couldn't decide whether it wanted to curl or lie straight. It sort of just tufted out around his head, but it didn't look stupid - it looked absolutely perfect.

My mind gagged. I was already fawning over the guy's hair. Time to leave.

He looked up, glared at me with eyes more piercing than my own (Hey, my eyes may be boring, but they can do a hell of a glare) and then went back to prodding the nasty meaty-thing with his fork, putting off eating it.

Well at least leaving wasn’t going to be hard.

“Don’t mind him”, said Amelia, “He’s just antisocial.”

“Uhuh”, I replied nonchalantly. To be honest, after the surprise at Hunter’s hotness had passed, I found I couldn’t care less. I started shoveling the crappy food into my mouth, weighing up the different places I could hide in for the rest of lunch.

I swallowed the last chunk of the so called meat, and started on my drink.

“Ugh. This meat looks disgusting, don't ya think?” she asked jokingly. It was almost as if she was trying to be friendly.

I shot her a weird look.

Deciding on the girl’s bathroom on the other side of the school, I started to pack up my tray.

“Where ya heading?” Amelia asked.

“Gotta see err, someone”, I grunted.

Seeing that she was going to try and follow me, I jumped up and started walking towards the tray dumper. I didn’t see that someone was coming up behind me, and as I turned around I crashed straight into them. Straight into Trisha Banks, who fell back and lost control of her tray with everything on it. I watched in horror as the remainders of my meat-thing floated up in the air, and splattered all over Trisha’s perfect pink cardigan. The look on her face was absolutely priceless. But, unfortunately for me, it meant that the entire cafeteria’s eyes had been draw to the scene.

Drawn to me.

“What the hell?!” she screeched.

I began to stutter. “Err, well-“

“-Looks like you walked into Tamesis here”, Amelia sniggered, saving me. I hadn’t noticed her walking up behind me, nor did I know how she knew my name. I looked at her gratefully.

Trisha looked outraged.

She opened her mouth to shout more abuse, but before she could answer, Amelia snorted and said, “Nice sweater, Banks”, and grabbed my arm, dragging me out of the cafeteria.

I decided that I liked Amelia after all.

“Thanks”, I said thankfully, “I’m not exactly good with the whole come back thing.”

“No problem”, she laughed, “That absolutely made my day. Did you see the look on her face?”

I giggled. “Yes!”

She grinned. “Pull some more jokes like that, McKenzie, and I might just have to salute you.”

I gaped. “How do you know-“

I was broken off by the bell ringing, drowning out the rest of my words.

She winked. “See ya tomorrow, Tamesis.”

She left me standing outside the cafeteria, staring after her as she walked to her next class.

Just who was that girl, and how did she know my name?

It wasn’t until the second bell had rung before I snapped out of it, and ran quickly to English. I managed to get through the door just ahead of Ms. Madison, taking a seat at the back. There weren’t many students in the class, only about 15, which was good. English was my favorite subject – Although I got fairly high scores in most subjects, English was the only one I really enjoyed.

Ms. Madison told us that for the first lesson, we would be given an assignment about ourselves. All hope I had for English this year died right then. We were juniors for god’s sake. We were so above doing the “about me!” thing. I began to drift off, waiting for her to finish talking, when I noticed the hot guy from lunch sitting next to me. What was his name again? Hunter? He seemed caught up in something, so I stealthily leaned back to see what he was doing. He turned around and glared at me.

So much for stealth.

“What?” I asked him.

He responded by turning back to face the front.

Prick, I thought. He obviously knew how hot he was, so he had deemed himself above talking to me. Hmph. Well, two could play at that game. We were the only people sitting at the back, so when Ms. Madison told us to “get to know the person sitting beside you!” I put my head on the desk and refused to look up.

Oh yeah, a mighty blow that was. He didn’t even notice.

I knew that if I talked to him, it would probably annoy him, but I didn’t quite dare.

Hey, I never said I wasn’t a coward.

I spent the rest of the lesson amusing myself by looking out the window. The school was two storeys high, and spread over a full block. It was a pretty ‘prestigious’ school, so everything was neat and squeaky clean. The classrooms were modern, the teachers posh, and the principal even more so. The school blocks were not very forthcoming with amusement, however, but there was a park across the road from the classroom I was in. So instead of listening to Ms Madison’s overly enthusiastic chatter, I looked on to the scene at the park.

Two mothers wheeled a pushchair each up to the kiddies play area. Satisfied that their kids would be okay, they walked about 50 meters over to a park bench in full view of the grounds. Two little boys and a little girl scrambled up and down the slide for a bit, before getting bored and walking over to the field area next to it. The two boys began to show off for the girl and the girl showed off for the boys.

Aww, young love.

I chuckled to myself as I watched them try to outdo each other, the little girl doing cartwheels while one of the boys tried to copy her and fell over. The other boy laughed at his brother (from the looks of it, the boys were twins and the girl was the other mother’s child) but looked up at something in the trees on the other side of the playground. The mothers were gossiping happily to each other, and were temporarily lost in discussion, so they didn’t see something dark step out of the bushes where the little boy was looking.

The laughter died in my throat. I could clearly see the children, but the dark shape which had stepped out of the brush I could not make out. It looked like a man, but as I saw it move closer to the children, I immediately knew that it couldn’t be. My next thought was that it was a dog, but it was clearly standing on two feet, and as it …swayed? Walked? Oozed? It was hard to say.

The children were visibly shaking now. They had stiffened as the thing approached, but now they were cowering in terror. I looked to the mothers for help, but they were still caught up in their animated conversation.

It was about 10 meters away, and it looked as if it was going for the kids. I still couldn’t make out what it was, but I didn’t need to – it was apparent from the expressions on the children’s faces that something was wrong. I stood up and opened the window, taking a breath to SCREAM at the mothers as loud as I could, hoping against hope that it would rise above the sound of the traffic, when the thing stopped.

And looked straight at me.

That was when I knew for certain that whatever it was, it was not human. Its body didn’t seem to have a form: It slunk over the ground like it wasn’t quite sure how it managed to rise off it in the first place. It seemed to be made of a thick smoke, except it couldn’t be, because it was definitely solid – it had pushed it’s away out of the bushes, so it couldn’t just be some random haze tornado thing. The only thing that wasn’t jet black was the thing’s eyes. They were literally on fire, burning insanely inside the thing’s face.

It pointed at me – At least, I think that’s what it did – and grinned. A grin made up of sharp, rotten spiky things that sprouted jaggedly out of a line on the bottom of its head. Even though it was still too far away for me to hear it, I saw its mouth move and heard what it said.

“Found.”

And with that, the thing disappeared, its body billowing out into the wind as if it never existed. The kids carried on as if they had never seen it, the terror gone from their faces. Had I just imagined the whole thing?

I sat down, frightened out of my wits, and realized the entire class was looking at me strangely.

“Y-yeah, s-sor-ry, daydream-ming ag-gain. H-haha” I stuttered.

Ms. Madison laughed and carried on talking. The rest of the class just turned around and continued on with what they were doing beforehand. Hunter, however, crouched down beside my desk.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I was dumbstruck. He was talking to me for one, and he had noticed the thing as well.

“Err, yeah?” I replied, a part of my voice shaking, not knowing whether to mention the shadow thing or not.

He looked at me, this time sympathetic, and said in a soft voice, “You’re not going crazy. I saw it too.”

My eyes widened.

“What-“ I started to ask, but the bell interrupted me.

He got up and walked out of the classroom. No goodbye, no wave, no nothing. It was as if he had already forgotten me and the thing we had both seen. He hadn’t seemed particularly fazed by it either. I was pretty freaked out to be honest. What if that thing was going to come back? What if it tried to hurt more kids? Summoning up my courage, I ran after him, but I was too late. I was left staring after the crowd of people he had seemingly disappeared into, wondering what the hell was going on, again.

A/N: My first story! Woo! It’s my baby ;)

Hope you like this chapter. It’s 15 pages long, yey! Took me ages to get it that long, but I’ll try and keep them at an average length of about that. Try, that is :P.

Also, any mistakes, review and post them, I shall be ETERNALLY grateful! I try to check them myself, but sometimes I miss a few xD.

PLEASE R&R!