A hand covered my open mouth muffling my screams. My eyes were still fixed on the pavement viewing the dark hand overriding my shadow. I saw the dark figure merge with mine.

Idiot, I thought to myself and cut off my loud noise.

" Am I looking like a monster in that shadow?" An unknown sweet voice said in my ear. Releasing the hand covering my mouth, I turned around to see the person standing beside me.

She was blond. Very fair skinned . Wow, she had a clean face! She looked great in her black tee and high waisted dark blue jean. She had very long her. It was held in a tight bun on the top of her head. Her curls might end up to her hip when undone.

I stood there looking at her for a moment before she snapped me out of it.

" Hasn't your shock worn off yet?" she said cluelessly from what I was thinking.

" Hmm.. Yeaa.. Yeaahhh... I get shocked easily." I blurted out cutting off my bizarre thoughts at it roots before they poured out again.

"I saw the number 12 on your suitcase. I guessed you did the same trick as mine." she shook her suitcase in her hands showing off a piece of plastered paper with number 12 on it.

I remembered my Mom pasting one on mine too. I thought it was an idea of her to make me treat like a middle schooler going for a trip. I didn't know it would come handy in this way to meet my own roommate.

" I even had to fight my Mom to get that thing ripped away from my case. But it ended up staying neatly plastered on it." I smiled while stroking the curved margins of the paper.

" She still treats me like a middle schooler" she commented on her Mom, rolling her eyes and dropped her suitcase beside her.

" Exactly!" I agreed walking along with her, rolling my suitcase on the pavement.

"By the way, I am Arabella Corey. Call me Aubrey" she turned in a hand to shake.

"I am Millana Bassett. Millie." I gave in a warm introductory handshake.

We walked towards the office. We both got our individual timetables from there. A guide map of the school was plastered on the back.

Senior high schooling starts officially.

We had most of the classes together except for the language classes. She chose Latin while I chose Spanish.

We both were excited to see around the school. Luckily we had almost an hour in hand to start the tour.

" We are early!" Aubrey quoted looking around the empty corridors outside the office room.

" Who comes early to school anyway?" I giggled when I recalled myself running into the class five minutes after the bell. I was never good at time management. I miss my old school already.

" You are early today." Aubrey pointed out the flaw.

" Yup. Mom had to go to work after dropping me off. Its first day for us both." I gave in the details. I felt it was better to share with her. She made the conversation comfortable too. I wondered whether we would end up being friends...or not. I hoped we could.

" So you live here?" Aubrey questioned. She might be wondering why I enrolled the boarding then.

" Yes. We rented a house down south from here." I wanted her to add up questions before I blurted out.

" So why did you choose hostel? You could have biked your way here, that would have been more fun adding to your high school memories right?!" she spilled out so much. I found the perfect match.

A talkative girl like me.

Getting a good friend the first day, has never happened to me. But it seems somebody pulled my luck.

" It's one hour from here to home and also I might end up breaking down the whole house if I am left with a Mom as crazy as me." I didn't lie. We had once broken a couple of chairs while dancing our heads off.

"You are funny. How can you break things like that?" she chuckled at my sense of humour.

" Believe me or not we can do that as a pair. You will see it if you come home one day" I offered without second thoughts. I always loved company at home. It sometimes is a bore to hang out with an older person anyway. Only sometimes.

"Sure. I will come." she accepted.

" Okay. So why are you a boarder?" I asked since I was curious to know about her too.

" I wanted a change of school atleast for the senior year." she told me bluntly.

" Ohhh.. That sounds like a good reason. " I felt it funny though and chuckled.

" Yes it is!" she whooped leaping up to punch her fists in the air above.

We clearly got along so easily within few minutes after meeting. It was easy to talk with her.

We enjoyed walking around the corridors. The empty corridors were now starting to gain population. Time was nearing the start of class so people started arriving.

We headed to the west wing of the building where the science class of Mrs. Martina is scheduled for the first hour. We walked along rolling both our suitcases along the corridor.

" We must find the lockers" Aubrey suggested.

" We will reach the science class if we turn left from here." I mumbled while tracing out the map attached to the schedule.

" Alright then. How about we sit in the class along with our suitcases?" she said mockingly "Won't it be funny?" she chuckled on her joke.

"It will be." I laughed with her when I imagined myself hiding my suitcase beneath my legs in my future class.

" We will leave our backpacks first, then head to the lockers to leave our suitcases. How does that sound?" I suggested when our laughter died out.

" Pretty Good." Aubrey exclaimed.

~

We reached the classroom in minutes. There were some students filling in the class by then. We saw around and saw two seats near the window left empty. We were both happy to take them.

We placed our bags in the empty chairs as a reservation and hurried out, to reach the lockers.

It was two corridors away. We passed by the white doors of club rooms dragging along our suitcases behind.

Atlast we reached the lockers, both panting, to catch our breaths.

The red lockers were allotted according to the room numbers for the boarders. Some separate row was there for the dayscholars.

The number 12 was not so difficult to find out. The black letters were engraved boldly at the top.

Aubrey pushed the handle of the locker. It didnt open up.

It was stuck.

"What a bad time for it to get stuck." I said impatiently. I checked my watch we still had 15 minutes left for the class.

I tapped Aubrey to step aside and I tried. I knew my strengths didn't excel that much but I gave it a try.

I yanked on the locker door hard enough to break it open. I hit the handle few more times.

"Tadaaa! " I announced triumphantly when the door swung open.

"Well done, Millie." Aubrey chirped.

She started stuffing in both the suitcases inside the empty space as I stood by holding the iron door.

Aubrey banged the door shut after she set the cases inside.

We turned around and were about to start our run to the class. That's when we heard it.

We didn't dare to move when the creaks of the door increased its volume.

The door was swinging open own its on.

Not the recently closed one.

But the one to open now was.

Number 13!!