Chapter 1 "Outside my Window"

"Uniform, check, hair pinned to the side, check. Backpack stuffed, check, lipstick intact, and check. Birds fed, not checked."

Private school sometimes sucks, didn't get to wear the coolest clothes, and it was so expensive that you didn't have time or money to buy other ones. I'm Daniella, Ella for short. I'm seventeen and I have a sister and I live with my mom and I don't know who my dad is and I have dark brown hair and hazel eyes and long legs…..PAUSE. Maybe I'm moving too fast for you.

Let's start from the beginning, the part where I'm going to run out of my room and head for the front door; without feeding my birds.

Tip-toe, tip-toe don't make too much noise or else those stupid birds will make noise.

"Ella, go feed the birds." DRAT.

I walk over to the stupid cage and feed the little chickens and make my way for the door, once again I was probably going to have to sit in the backseat of my uncle's car. My uncle is my A.P. American History teacher, so my mother decides that he should be my ride every day.

I jump in the car and my uncle, doesn't give me more than a nod; as he drives off of my driveway. I didn't care if we didn't have the best relationship, he wasn't my actual uncle; just by blood so he really didn't mean anything to me except for being my ride.

"Hey, Mr. Regist do you think that you can drop me in the front? I promised Ashton that I would meet him in the front."

"Sure," he shrugged. This man wasn't the friendliest outside of class, but when we were in class he was the honey on the honey bun.

As always Ashton had kept his promise of meeting me in the front, this kid was always there for me; even after my temper tantrum in the fourth grade. I got out of the car and walked up to Ashton, wanting to fix the little strand of hair that wasn't in place. "Hey."

"Did you hear that Mr. Stafford is gone, again?"

I shook my head no and we continued to walk into the building, heading for my locker. "Maybe he just wanted a break from Lily." I chuckled. Lily is my other best friend; she and Mr. Stafford were a secret couple ever since last year. But she got a little obsessed and so he left her; she's been a little bit crazy ever since.

Ashton huffed and leaned back on my neighbor's locker, he was obviously still pissed off at Lilly. "I told that girl to stop talking to that man, but she wouldn't listen. And now look at her, she's insane and is going to lose her scholarship."

"I don't think she's doing that bad, that she would lose a scholarship this big. I'm pretty sure her parents would kill her if she did." Ashton shrugged and grabbed a piece of gum from the side of my locker.

Ashton and Lily are friends, but sometimes I feel like that even thought Lily is crazy for her teacher; I still like her better.

It was 1:43 and I was waiting for those seventeen minutes to pass to go home, when my friend Jennie interrupted my thoughts.

"Ella, look outside at all those birds."

I followed her finger and saw the birds, probably vultures, flying in a circle. "They're vultures; they do that when they're about to land, and find something to eat."

"Well, looks like they're going to eat today. That's a lot of birds."

Jennie wasn't the brightest in our class, but I let her stupidity entertain me; I think that's what everyone does just to get through a conversation with her. I looked back at the clock and wanted to kiss Jennie at the moment; her conversation with me had lasted about seven minutes. So now there were only eight minutes in class, and knowing this teacher in about three minutes we can leave.

"Alright class, its Wednesday; so you guys can go now. We'll finish our presentations on Friday."

I'm pretty sure everyone in that class stormed out so fast, that was dust blowing in my face. Jennie's conversations made no absolute sense, but they made you think about it. Those birds were flying around for a while and there was an unusual amount of them flying.

I ran out of the class and ran to the back, where I knew Ashton's class was. And motioned for him to escape, but he wouldn't budge; since the teacher was kind of his mom. As the bell rung, Ashton ran out of the classroom with an odd expression on his face.

"Ashton, follow me I want to check something out?"

"Yeah okay," Ashton sighed.

I grabbed his hand and we headed towards the back of the school, passing by the rest of our student body. Ashton still had that odd expression on his face, but I would figure out what was wrong with him soon enough.

"Ella, where are we going?"

"I saw some birds flying around the Moore's Property; my mom isn't going to pick me up for another hour, so I thought that we can go check it out." Ashton gave me a death glare, but I didn't care and kept on walking towards the lake.

After ten minutes, of not hearing Ashton saying anything I stopped and took hold of his shoulders. "What's wrong with you? You haven't said a word the entire time, and I'm getting worried."

"My dad is coming over tonight for dinner, he just got back from Mexico. And he's bringing his daughter and his new wife over."

I wanted to say that things were going to be okay, but knowing Ashton's family things were most likely to get worse. His mother would probably have another fight with his dad and his stepsister would most likely try to hook up with him again. "Let's just keep walking." I mumbled.

Ashton shrugged and led the way, with that pissed off expression on his face. He wouldn't want to talk about it, and would get mad if I tried to discuss it; yet if I didn't bring it up he'd be pissed.

"God, it's starting to smell like a dead animal." Ashton groaned.

Ashton was right; the lake didn't smell all springy as it usually did. Something about it was off today, and it wasn't just the fact that the place smelled like someone was being burned. "Ashton, I think that we should head back; the scent is getting worse."

Ashton grabbed my hand and led me farther into the woods, passing the lake. "No, no. El, you got me into this; we're not leaving until we find what we're looking for."

I stepped back and realized that Ashton was getting irritated and was taking it out on me, "Ashton, you're hurting my hand." I pulled my hand back and crossed my arms, "We need to head back, we're going to get lost."

Ashton didn't mind me and continued to walk, so I attempted to pull him back by running after him but I tripped on something. As I fell, Ashton finally stopped and turned back to help me up. "Ella, are you ok?"

I nodded and wiped the blood off of my leg; it was just a scratch. "I'm fine, can we go back now?"

Ashton helped me up and we started to walk back near the lake. I took my phone out of my pocket and realized that I had missed five calls, all from my mother. I was officially in trouble, since I was probably later.

"Ashton, we have to run. My mom's already at the school and I don't want to get in any more trouble than I'm already in."

I grabbed his hand ready to run, when I realized that he wasn't budging. He was just staring at the ground; "Hey, what are you looking at?"

He started to tremble and he pointed to the ground, and as I followed his hand. I saw what he was so shocked by.

I saw the dead body he was staring at, the dead body of our English teacher. The missing Mr. Stafford.