Gabrielle: Let me start off by apologizing for any typos. My cat is begging me to pet him, my brother is begging me to massage his feet, and I'm excited because my second best friend in the entire world is moving back in less then a week after almost three whole years! So, I'm both excited and irritated at the same time.

There were three other girls in Mary-Weather's cabin. Georgina, (who preferred to be called Gia) a pretty girl with shoulder length pink hair and light brown eyes. Maggie, a girl with slightly longer brown hair and brown eyes. And finally, the pack leader. A girl with short orange hair and golden eyes named Cassie.

It had been almost three weeks since Mary-Weather came to live at CCU and those three weeks had probably been the most hellish weeks of her life. The first morning she woke up to find shaving cream in her shoes. The one after that came with an overly-hearted welcome when she woke up to find that they'd emptied out her bag and hidden it's contents throughout the cabin and stuff like that. It was as if they were trying to tell her that she wasn't welcome. Surprise. Surprise. After all, she was the new girl, so why would anyone want to be friends with her?

Mary-Weather spent most of her lunches eating with her cabin mates in total silence, hoping that no attention would be drawn to her. And if it ever did, she would merely reply with one word, then go back to staring down at her food. Not that any of them seemed to mind, of course. No, they all actually seemed pleased at the fact that she didn't want to socialize with them. As if they had better things to do then entertain the newbie.

Which brings us to the morning of her 18th day there.

Mary-Weather groaned as she woke up. It had been 18 days since she'd arrived at CCU which was proving to be hell on Earth. Mary-Weather glanced down to see that Gia and Cassie, who's bunk was right under hers were still sleeping. She then looked above Gia to see that Maggie was still sleeping, as well. They all had peaceful looks on their faces as if they were little angels who couldn't do anything wrong. Yeah, right. Mary-Weather knew better. She wondered what was waiting for her, that day.

She stretched her hands above her, wincing harshly as the fingers slammed against the ceiling. That was odd, usually it didn't hurt that much. She turned her hands around and nearly gasped at what she saw.

During the night, her cabin mates must've somehow been able to peel off almost every single last one of her nails without her waking up. Mary-Weather closed her eyes and let out a soft groan. Those girls were going to kill her at the rate they were going at. Still, she wasn't going to tell Alice or anyone about it, because with how little people liked the new girl, they liked snitches even less.

So, Mary-Weather clenched both her hands into fists, biting her lip back as tears threatened to come out, and then began to climb down the ladder. She grabbed her bag and pulled out a random t-shirt, a pair of shorts and her usual neon green flip flops. One of the good things about CCU was that their dress code wasn't as strict as the others. Since it was all girls there, they were allowed to wear things as skimpy as short shorts and tube tops. It was as if they were trying to keep the girls tame by at least allowing them that much freedom.

Mary-Weather changed into her clothes, before trudging off to the mess hall, keeping her hands turned at an odd angle so that the backs were to her sides, minimizing any chance of bumping them into anything.

She was just sitting down to eat when the other girls started piling in. Mary-Weather winced as someone began stroking where her left pinky nail once was softly. She glanced up to see Cassie smiling lovingly down at it, an evil twinkle in her eye.

"Impressive." she muttered, "You haven't told Alice, yet. I was sure you would." she sat down next to Mary-Weather, smirking, "You're tougher than I thought. Congratulations, you passed."

Mary-Weather stared at her in confusion, "What?" she asked.

Cassie rolled her eyes, her smile leaving her face a bit, but not all the way, "Oh, c'mon. Don't tell me you didn't know." she stuffed some turkey into her mouth, before continuing, her mouth now full, "I'm saying that when a new kid comes all the cabin mates play pranks on them to test how durable they are. The second they show any kind of remorse then they lose the game." she smirked, "You made it through eighteen levels. I'm the only other one who has gotten that far. So my respect for you is way higher than anyone else's."

Mary-Weather blinked, "Wait, so you're saying that everything you did to me… it was all just a test?"

Cassie nodded, "Don't get mad now, girlie. You've been through too much to get angry now that it's all over and done with."

Mary-Weather flexed her fingers, "Over and done?" she murmured, mostly to herself, "You mean I won't wake up to any more snakes in my bed or anything?"

Cassie shook her head, "You're in the clear." she chuckled and slapped Mary-Weather on the back, "Hell, you actually seem like a cool girl." she smirked, "Not as cool as me, of course, but still… cool."

Mary-Weather felt a self-satisfied smirk start to twitch onto her face, but she quickly pushed the feeling back. She'd been an emotionless automaton for the past three weeks and she wasn't about to throw it in just because the most badass and respected girl in the school told her she was probably the second coolest girl there. Just because she survived those… "tests" didn't mean she was automatically in and everything would be sugar and cake when it came to the girls. So she was still planning on walking on eggshells around them to make sure she did get out of that place alive. Besides, she kind of missed being able to see the hurt look on her family's faces whenever one of them would have to come bail her out of jail. It was what kept her going.

"So, Cassie already congratulate you?" Mary-Weather turned to see Gia and Maggie setting their trays down across from them.

Mary-Weather nodded, "Yeah, she did."

Gia shot her a playful smirk, taking hers and Maggie's straws and shoving them up her canines so that they looked sort of like tusks, "Young lady," she said in a horrible imitation of Alice, "The correct term is 'Yes', not 'Yeah'. Learn your language."

"It's 'grammar', Miss. Hardiman," they all glanced up to see Alice glaring down at them, "If you are going to make fun of me, please use the correct word." then she stalked off.

The four girls looked at each other for a second before busting out laughing. It actually felt good, considering that it had been almost a month since Mary-Weather had last laughed. So, even though the feeling was kind of weird, it was mostly… cool.

"Man, is she a sourpuss." Mary-Weather chuckled.

"Yeah," Gia chuckled back, as they all calmed down, "But, seriously, congrats. It's really amazing you got that far."

"I only got to level eleven before I caved." Maggie put in.

Gia rolled her eyes, "Well, that's farther than I got." she shot Mary-Weather a playful pained look, "I only got to level eight."

"They're both wusses." Cassie winked over at her, before wrapping an arm around her shoulder, "We're the tough ones at this place."

"Hey!" Gia shrieked, leaning forward and pointing a finger at the orange haired girl, "It wasn't my fault I caved! You guys were the ones stupid enough to put itching powder in my bra! Do you know how hard it is to tell someone you don't feel itchy when you're scratching your boobs like crazy?"

Cassie rolled her eyes, "If you were really tough, you would've waited until the end of the day to itch like a maniac." then she smirked, "And if you were really smart you would've switched bras and showered before breakfast."

Gia opened her mouth, then paused as something like realization flashed through her eyes. She rolled them and plopped back down in her chair.

Mary-Weather forced the remainder of her smile down as she glanced back at the fingers on her left hand. Aw, well, according to them that was the end of it. So she supposed she could let it go. I mean, she was among her own people, here. Girls who did stuff because it was fun without thinking about the consequences. So she could let it slide so long as this was the end of it.

Besides, it would give her the pain she'd been craving and nobody would ever even have to know. Mary-Weather clenched her hand into a tight fist, smiling evilly as a throbbing pain shot through her fingers. Pain she'd been craving for so long.

The blood was her escape. She could feel all the emotional pain drain out of her as the physical pain invaded her mind. For that moment, she didn't have to worry about what the crack was doing to her brain cells, or whether or not the police was on her trail for whatever she'd just stolen. For the moment it was just her and her greatest love.

The blood. The physical pain.

Nothing more….