This is a story that I've been working on for a while. Please Read and Review. Critics are gladly welcomed.

I could feel my heart pounding nervously as I searched around me, trying to find my way out of the dense forest. My forehead beaded with sweat as I frantically pushed past bushes and thorns. Someone was coming for me, I didn’t want to believe it, but I knew it was true. In fact, the only thing I didn’t know was who I was hiding from or why. Leaves and sticks could be heard crunching some distance behind me. The sound was so low, that only my heightened hearing aloud me to hear it. I guess it was my pursuer, because when I heard the disturbance, my feet quickened in pace, almost as much as my heart did. Suddenly, as I ran through a clearing of trees, the only source of light being the moonlight that streamed through the tree branches, a hooded figure appeared directly in my pathway. I skidded to a halt, and attempted to change direction, but the figure was too quick for me, and grabbed me by the wrist, turning me so that I faced it.

“Listen to me.” It said in an angelic, male voice.

“No!” I shouted desperately, my own voice had an unrecognizable hint of beauty to it. I began twisting and turning, my heart beating so hard against my chest that I could hear it. The figure’s face got closer, and just as I was about to catch a glimpse, of who I was so afraid of, of who I was so desperately trying to escape from, a loud, obnoxious beeping noise interrupted me. I jerked awoke, sweating, and breathing hard, lying in my bed in a curled position.

“What the heck?” I breathed. The noise continued annoyingly.

“Raven, are you awake yet? Turn off that alarm clock!” My mother shouted from outside my bedroom. I sat up straight and looked confusingly around my room. It was just a dream. The same dream I had been for about three days now. I couldn’t even take a nap without having that…nightmare.

The beeping continued, and I spotted the small, black clock glowing a bright blue color as the alarm bleeped on and off. I reached for it groggily, and hit the power button. The noise immediately stopped, and I sighed in relief, lying back down on my bed. I didn’t get the extra five minutes of rest I was shooting for, because my mother busted into my room, almost as soon as I had laid my head back down.

“Come on Raven. You need to get up and get ready for school.” She said while clapping her hands. The loud noise made me a little upset as I forced myself out of bed to throw some clothes on.

“Mom, can’t you come in a little less noisy next time?” I complained in a winy voice. My mother shook her head as I took my pajamas off.

“Get up on time, and I won’t have to do this.” She said, leaving the room. I rolled my eyes as I pulled a thin hoodie over my head. I walked slowly into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth, only to find that the water had been cut off once again. My mother was a single mother, and we struggled with a slight issue of poverty, considering that she had failed to attend college because of her unexpected pregnancy. I irritably snatched my toothbrush from its holder, and headed downstairs with a rag in my hand. When I was half way down the stairs, my mother came back out of her bedroom into the hallway.

“The water’s off, mom.” I said, a fake smile stretching across my face as I tried to hide my frustration towards her. It didn’t seem to work, because she looked at me apologetically.

“I really thought I paid that bill, honey.” She said, tears beginning to show. I smiled a true smile this time as I spoke.

“At least you paid the electric. Neither of us is nocturnal,” I replied, trying to crack a joke. Her face softened and I found myself trying to wear the same pathetic expression as her. “At least when the water bill isn’t paid, we have bottled waters to make up for it.” I finished encouragingly. My mother brightened up.

“Sometimes, Raven, I think you’re all the support I have.” She said, staring me down admirably with her chocolate brown eyes. I smiled back, and continued my quest downstairs into the bathroom. I grabbed one bottled water, and soaked my rag with some of it. I looked at myself in the mirror to see what improvements I needed to make on my appearance, but my reflection wasn’t there. Was this morning going to get any weirder?

I heard my heart beat violently against my chest when I noticed this. It shocked me so much, that I was unconsciously gripping the side of the sink. I knew for a fact that I was there, in the bathroom, and yet the mirror failed to show me any proof of my existence. I gulped, and with my quivering hand, picked my rag up. Of course, because I and good luck are such good friends, my rag wasn’t on the counter where I had put it. I looked around frantically, still shaken up from my missing reflection. I turned on my heel, which turned out to have a bad and a good result to it.

The good thing was that I found my rag. During my gaping at my invisible reflection, it had fallen to the floor without me noticing. The bad thing was, because I was challenged in the balance category, and because the rag was wet on a nice and slippery linoleum floor, these two factors had to combine with each other, causing me to fall. I had to restart my heart from the shock of the fall before standing back up and reluctantly looking back at the mirror again; maybe it was just my imagination. I sighed in relief when I did actually see a reverse version of me, staring at me with the same relieved expression I knew I had on my face.

After brushing my teeth and washing my face with the unexpectedly cold water, I began heading out the door for school. A notebook, a pen and a pencil was all I ever carried to school. I thought it was pretty amusing to watch other students haul their backpacks full of books into the school building, when I had it so easy.

“Aren’t you going to eat something?” My mother asked before I closed the door behind me. I turned to face her.

“I never eat breakfast mom.” I explained impatiently. She seemed to catch my impatience and just nodded. I was grateful I didn’t have to argue with her this time.

“Raven! Rave!” I heard someone shouting. I turned to see my best and only true friend, Silvia, running over to me. I stood in my place to let her catch up to me.

“Hey!” She said in an excited voice. Her hair was short and black, with dark red streaks in it. Her eyes were light brown, unlike my gray eyes. She was a couple of inches shorter than me, and her skin was slightly darker than mines. I admired her black baggy jeans and black shirt with a red heart on it before I spoke.

“You’re all kinds of matching today.” I commented with a smirk. She nodded proudly and we began walking again.

“So how’s your morning been so far?” She asked, looking at me. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I had that crazy dream again. Same old, same old.” I said. Silvia frowned.

“Again? You’ve had that dream all week.” She said while laughing nervously.

“I know. I don’t understand any of it.” I said. She beamed up at me, and I could immediately tell that she had an idea. Whether I would like it or not was still in question. I sighed before I spoke, knowing what she wanted me to ask her.

“How was your morning?” I asked. She practically jumped with happiness when I finally asked the question. She turned towards me.

“”I heard a rumor. And it’s one we’d be interested in.” She said, still beaming. My eyes narrowed as I glared at her.

“What do you mean?” I asked carefully. I hated rumors and she knew that. I couldn’t think of any rumor I’d be interested in, even if it had something to do with me.

“Ok, so there’s this new house that they say just appeared out of nowhere down that closed road.” She began explaining. I rolled my eyes. Great, rumors from a bunch of jealous and annoying teenagers.

“What makes you think I’d be interested in a stupid, probably not try, rumor about a random house?” I snapped.

“I think we should check it out today, tonight.” She said. I frowned.

“You actually believe one of those stupid rumors?” I asked. I knew she wanted me to ask her this, because she got even more excited when I asked.

“Well, at first, I didn’t believe it. I mean, how can a house appear out of nowhere? But this weekend, I was outside, helping my mother in the yard, and this mysterious boy passed by.

At first, I didn’t think anything of him, but when I glanced up again, he was extremely pale, and he had dark rings under his eyes, as if he was sleepy. I’d never seen him before, so I rushed over to greet him.

When I asked him where he was from, or if he was visiting someone, he told me he lived in a house near the neighborhood, and then he kept walking.” She responded. We had reached the bus stop finally, and were standing furthest away from everyone else. I brought my voice down to a whisper.

“What does this boy have to do with anything?” I asked confused.

“He’s a suspicious suspect. Oh yeah, and he was hot, taller than you.” She pointed out. I ignored her.

“Ok, we’ll check out this house. Maybe it’ll humor me while satisfying your curiosity. But what if he does live in there?” I asked. She looked thoughtful.

“We’ll just not go in,” She said. Suddenly, her attitude changed, and she rolled her eyes and shifted her weight to one side of her hip, crossing her arms. I knew immediately by her expression that someone she didn’t like was approaching us. I turned to face the direction she was facing to see a short girl, with long blonde hair, and blue eyes approach us.

“Raven, Silvia.” She said. Silvia grunted in response. I sighed.

“What do you want Ava?” I asked her. Ava was our mortal enemy. She was the one who had the biggest issue with us. I wasn’t sure if she was really jealous, or just severely hated weird people. Whatever the reason, she really wanted to make our life miserable, although that failed most of the time.

“Oh, I just came to tell you that you are not invited to my Sweet Sixteen.” She said. She was obviously proud about this fact, although I couldn’t see why. She was only making us happy, and I could’ve sworn her agenda was to make us miserable.

“Really? Oh that’s great! Now me and Raven can go to the mall this weekend and do what we do everyday!” Silvia said with exaggerated enthusiasm. Ava looked confused.

“And what’s that?” She snarled.

“Not think about you or any of your minions…I mean friends.” Silvia said with a serious face. Ava’s face turned a light shade of red before she spoke.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but you just can’t be invited! No one likes you, and if I invite you, no one will have fun! I know you really want to come, and if your presence didn’t offend everyone, I would invite you! This is just what’s best for everyone! Begging won’t do anything. I’m sorry” She said, raising her voice so that a few faces turned in our direction. Several people fell for her charade and shook their heads in disgust at the thought of us begging to be invited to Ava’s Sweet Sixteen. A slight smirk crossed her face as she noticed the attention she was receiving.

“Don’t worry about it Ava! We know you don’t want us to be offended by everyone’s lack of individuality at your party! But don’t worry; we’re having a party on Sunday, the day after your birthday! As you know, you are always invited! But this time, can you bring extra chips and no dip? Because we still have the dip you bought last year.” Silvia retaliated, equally loud. The people listening to our conversation looked confused and walked away. Ava scowled and stormed off without another word.

The bus pulled up to our stop ten minutes later than when it usually came. We all kind of figured we had a substitute driver that just didn’t know his or her way, but apparently, it was our usual bus driver. Everyone filed on the bus, me and Silvia first, angry at the bus driver. As soon as I got in the middle of the aisle, I understood why she was ten minutes late. She had another stop added to her route. A pale skinned boy sat close to the window near the back of the bus, in me and Silvia’s seat.

“That’s the boy.” Silvia whispered, slowing her walk down the aisle. I had to admit, she was right, he did look good, but I wasn’t easily enthralled by one’s appearance like she was.

“I guess you can sit there, Raven.” She said reluctantly. I already knew how she wanted me to answer.

“I’ll sit here.” I told her, gesturing two seats in front of her, which was usually vacant. She perked slightly, but not noticeably to the untrained eye, and skipped to her seat. I turned and sat in the seat I gestured to. I could hear her start small talk with the boy.

When everyone finally filed onto the bus, I was sitting by myself and gazing out of the window. The bus ride was quieter than usual. I noticed several kids throw uneasy glances back at the new boy as they whispered.

We arrived at my dull high school fifteen minutes later, and the bus was livelier than it was when we first started the ride. Everyone anxiously rushed off the bus and into the school to meet up with friends that didn’t share the bus ride with them. When I got off the bus I patiently waited for Silvia, looking around nervously for annoying teachers who would order me away. When Silvia finally got off the bus, she didn’t look too happy, and neither did the boy she sat next to, who was behind her. She stepped down the last step grumpily and moved to the side so that he could get off. He brushed passed us, and for a brief second, his dark brown eyes made direct contact with mine. I turned to Silvia when he wasn’t in earshot range.

“What happened? You both look like someone sucked the happiness out of you.” I commented. Silvia crossed her arms.

“You happened.” She responded coldly. I was taken aback by her cold words. She seemed really agitated, and not for the reason I thought. She was agitated with me. I’ve known her since I was four, and this was the first time I’d ever seen her so angry with me, and I haven’t done anything.

“What?” I asked, confusion written all over my face.

“Oh I had a great conversation with him. He answered every question I asked him,” She began. She eyed me angrily.

“And?” I asked, still confused.

“And every question he asked me was about you.” She snarled. I thought I was stunned earlier. This, I completely did not expect.

“Me?” I repeated. She nodded, and a teacher ushered us into the building. As we walked, Silvia looked everywhere but at me.

“Tell me what happened. I’m confused. I’ve never spoken, seen, or touched that boy before.” I explained. Silvia seemed to decide that it wasn’t my fault, and her expression was unreadable as she spoke.

“First, when I saw him, I was like, ‘Hey! Remember me?’ and he nodded. I sat down next to…” I held my finger up, cutting her off.

“I don’t need every detail, just the conversation you had with him.” I clarified. She glared at me. She obviously was looking forward to explaining every precious detail to me. But I didn’t want to hear that. I wanted to know what he was asking about me, and why. It kind of reminded me of the dream I had this morning. The fact that I was running from an unknown person was scary.

“So I asked him his name. He said it was Rayne. Rayne Black. I asked his age, his middle name, his favorite color and his band. He’s 16, he wouldn’t give me a middle name, his favorite color is quote ‘blood red’ end quote, and his favorite band is someone who I’ve never heard of before,” I nodded. “We were quiet for a while, which disturbed me, so I told him to ask me some questions. I was really happy when he asked my name. I told him, and he smiled this beautiful smile and said that it was a beautiful name that fits me,” Silvia dazed off.

“Keep going.” I reminded her. We had stopped at my locker. She snapped out of her stupor.

“His next question was what your name was, which I also gladly answered. He asked for both of our ages, which I gladly answered. He also asked for both of our favorite colors and our favorite band, which I answered also. Then he asked where you were from, and when you moved down here, and why you didn’t sit where I was. He also asked for your middle name, your mother and fathers name, and what your favorite food was.” Silvia finished bitterly. I was puzzled. I just learned this guy’s name through my best friend, and he’s already asking personal questions about me. What could he possibly want? I furrowed my brow in confusion.

“I don’t understand…” I admitted. Silvia shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh yeah, he also said ‘How does she look so lively?’ under his breath. I don’t think I was meant to hear that. It’s really crazy. You should confront him.” She said. We were walking again, and this time we stopped at her locker.

“And what did you tell him?” I asked.

“I told him your mother’s name…and your middle name. Neither of us knows your father…and I kind of told him that too. I told him that I moved here 2 years after you did, and as far as I knew, you’ve always lived here. I told him that you wanted to sit in the seat where you were sitting. I also told him to stop asking me questions about you.” Silvia said, sounding guilty. I gapped at her.

“You should’ve just given him my birth certificate, made it easier for the both of you.” I had to admit, I felt betrayed. This stranger knew vital information about me, and all I knew was his first and last name, his age, his favorite color, and his favorite band. He knew that about me too, but he knew so much more, and simply because my best friend since Pre-K couldn’t keep her mouth shut. I scowled at her, and she closed her locker. She looked at me, sensing my anger, with apologetic eyes. It was difficult to stay angry with her longer than two minutes when her eyes looked so innocent. I sighed and rubbed my temple.

“I need to know more about this guy.” I explained. She nodded, deciding that it’d be best if she didn’t talk. I actually agreed with her on that one. The bell rung shortly after we began walking to our classroom. Our pace quickened as we walked out of the school doors, leading outside to the trailers.

“I wonder if we’ll see him at lunch.” I said to myself. I turned to Silvia.

“Did you see his schedule?” I asked, hopeful. She shook her head.

“I did ask him what classes he planned on taking. He said I’d find out sooner or later.” She admitted. I frowned. This boy was really difficult. Why couldn’t he just give a straight answer?