SHIFTING FROM ONE position to another throughout the night was never my thing, but everything changed the day I migrated to the school's dormitory. The uncomfortable feeling of sleeping in someone else's room was killing me. I was sleep-deprived for a week now, and all thanks to my stubborn self.

I wanted to go home, just like Denna Inriquez, who chose to go home every after school hours. Her parent's house was only a few miles from La Trinidad, so transportation didn't become a hindrance. That girl introduced herself as bisexual the first time I had met her; she got attracted to boys and girls at the same time. It wasn't a problem for me, but the school made a big deal out of it.

While Rayne Sayson became my roommate, and just like how Denna described her, Rayne might be brave on the outside but a scaredy cat on the inside. Now, Rayne stared at me like there was some kind of virgin ghost that appeared behind my back. I rolled my eyes at no one in particular and decided to start my day; it was almost seven in the morning, to begin with.

"What is your first class, Mich?"

"Physical Education in the afternoon," I replied before stretching my body. "Are you taking Music as your first class today?"

"Maybe," Rayne hopped out from her bed and grabbed the guitar from its stand, standing nearby. "Maybe not. I don't want to face any members of the student council today. They made me watch The Ring and Coming Soon yesterday with them."

"Those are great movies!"

"As if, Mich!"

Rayne almost threw the guitar at me with a terrible face. She choked on her saliva before playing the guitar so hard that her fingers were about to bleed, and my eardrums were about to burst as well. But it was a great alternative to a freaking alarm. Everyone in the building would definitely wake up by Rayne's craziness early in the morning. I smiled as soon as I heard Deanna's voice in the hallway. Rayne and I looked at each other and laughed in unison, and the door burst open.

Deanna gave us a weird look before shouting at the top of her lungs. Crazy. Tell me, how did I end up being friends with these crazy people in the first place?

"Where are you headed for your first class?" Rayne asked the newcomer while putting down her guitar.

Deanna sat beside me with a snuggish smile on her face. "I want my revenge. . ." she said and looked at me in the eyes. "I am taking chemistry as my first class today."

The curriculum of La Trinidad might be confusing to the new students, but within a week of staying here, I found the arrangement interesting. The scheduling of classes doesn't exist in La Trinidad. However, the school gave us a list of classes to attend for the rest of the semester, with a specific minimum number of hours to be eligible to proceed to the next semester.

"What does that even mean, Deanna?"

Well, the brat didn't explain what she was planning to do, and I just found out later in the afternoon about the chaos she had caused at the science laboratory. I tried to hide the smile on my face while running back and forth in the field. News spread like wildfire on campus that Deanna Inriquez failed her exam by mixing unknown chemicals in the laboratory, resulting in a bad chemical reaction.

The science laboratory was off-limits for the next few weeks due to the sudden explosion.

I stopped running in the middle of the field and tried to catch my breath while looking at the sky. It was quarter to five in the afternoon, and I was the only one left in the field. My professor had already left, marking my sheet with whatever he had in mind.

The school bell rang, indicating that the class was finally over, but not for me, as I still had to attend my Art class. I went to the shower room to fix myself before running toward the main building, located at the center, facing the gate, while there are two additional buildings built on both sides, namely La Maria on the left and La Dolores on the right. In between the main building and the La Maria building was the way to our dormitory, built at the back with a beautiful garden around, and in between the main building and the La Dolores building was the way to the gymnasium with a wide range of fields and where the back gate to the forbidden forest was located.

As soon as I got to the end of the hallway on the fifth floor of the main building, the place was unpleasantly silent. I chose to ignore the eerie feeling and went straight inside the room, but I stood frozen when my eyes landed on the painting displayed at the very center of the room.

It was the well they were all talking about in the urban legend. The painting was beautiful yet obnoxious at the same time. I was so focused on what was unfolding before me that I didn't notice someone was standing behind my back, and as soon as they called my name, I screamed out so loud that the whole building might shake.

"Relax," the woman said, almost laughing at my reaction.

I immediately looked at the woman behind me, "Miss Samantha?"

"The one and only," she walked past through me, still laughing. "You look like you have seen a ghost, Michelle."

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