Skylar exited the taxi that had brought her from Southfield to Detroit, along with trains and buses. But here, she had finally arrived at Meadow High. The main building was handsomely tall, intimidatingly large with its skyscraper-like windows gleaming with the reflection of the sun. The main entrance to the school was through a driveway black gate, it opened when her taxi arrived, though it opened electronically. There was a fountain leading up to the end of the small driveway and Skylar now stood in front of it.

Skylar was nervous, as she was intimidated by the massive approach of the school and that no students were roaming around. Alas, she stepped up onto the marble staircase and entered the school. There was a woman behind a curved desk in the reception, clicking away on her keyboard.

The receptionist looked up and adjusted her glasses before she stood up, "I'll get the principle for you." She said and left for a door behind her.

Skylar took the chance to glance around, there was nothing special, but she felt like she needed to distract her mind for a bit instead of trembling in fear. Skylar had once been to a high school from her first year but she never made many friends. There was only one, Lennon. He stayed in contact with her ever since what happened seven months ago. He said he believed her, that she wasn't wrong for what happened. And that made Skylar have hope.

Although she had missed about four months of her junior year, she was informed that she had to transfer to a new boarding school, in what Skylar believed, it was a school for psychopaths and mental cases.

"Miss Evans?" A male voice deep and called out. He came from the main door opposite Skylar. He wore a grey suit and black browline glasses. As he stretched his eyebrows, greeting favourably, wrinkles lined his forehead. He held his hand out and Skylar shook it.

"Yes, that's me," Skylar said, attempting to smile.

"I am Mr Davis, the principle. Welcome to Meadow High. Allow me to take you inside."

Skylar followed Mr Davis, she walked through the big doors that led her to a massive hall. Stairways were at opposite ends of the wall and if Skylar was given the time to stop and capture the sight, she might have been able to see a chandelier hanging above her.

"Please place your belongings here." There was a table and sign read behind it on the wall 'Security'. Skylar lifted her suitcase comfortably as if there was nothing in it. A security guard standing behind the table began to unzip it, with of course a bit of courtesy before rummaging through her belongings.

"This is just a precaution as you can understand," said Mr Davis, "students are unpermitted to bring in alcohol, cigarettes or any kind of drugs unless for medicated purposes."

The guard pulled out a pouch in which he shook close to his half-deaf ears, then opened it and took out a couple of pill bottles.

"Oh, I'm on some antidepressants and Zoloft," Skylar said, hoping the guard wouldn't confiscate those.

"Do you have any prescriptions?" Mr Davis asked.

"Oh, yes. Let me...find it." Skylar rummaged through her handbag and gave it to him. "I do have more for the other medications I'm on."

"No, no. This is alright. Pack them back in." He addressed the old guard. "I hope you will use them responsibly, as I know the situation you are in. The police informed us beforehand, don't you worry-" Skylar's eyes were wide with shock, it was like she was told she had a day left. "They only told me fewer details than I could press on. But we would like to help you with your mental health. Do let me know if you would like therapy, OK? I could have it arranged."

"Yes, sir." Skylar nodded.

The guard was zipping up her suitcase and she could finally go to sleep.

"Skylar Evans, am I right?" Mr Davis said, looking through a clipboard. "Your dorm room will be 205. Here are the keys." The rattling of the keys sounded an alarm in Skylar's head, but it grew pertinently louder inside her head. The images were flashing in her mind, the sound reverberating against the walls of her head, throbbing, Skylar pressed her hand on her forehead, hoping that the scene of blood and flashes of white light would disappear. "Skylar? Are you alright?" Everything came back to her and she realised there was a formidably jovial crowd running here and there, booming up the stairs and chattering un-instinctively. The school bell just rang.

"Yes, I'm fine," Skylar murmured, catching her breath as she cast nervous glances at all the sudden people gaping at her, some pointing their fingers.

"Karla! Miss West! Come here a moment."

A girl parted ways from her group of friends and joined Mr Davis. Skylar thought that she would be in trouble, the girl (whose name Skylar didn't pay attention to), seemed intimidating. She had black hair with purple dye at the ends. She wore a leather jacket and a purple top. She was slightly taller than Skylar which made her even more scared, it was like a shadow was going to beat her in a fistfight.

"What's up, Davis?" Said the girl, with an unexpecting soft voice.

"Mister Davis."

"Yeah."

"I would like you to take Miss Evans to her dormitory." Davis handed her the keys he was still holding in his hand. "Give her a tour as well." He said.

"Sure thing, boss." The girl swooped the keys from his hand and spun on her heel as she led the way.

Skylar was already failing to keep up with her as she had forgotten to bring her suitcase along and she didn't want to end up getting lost. The gothic girl was already standing by the double doors at the end of the hall as Skylar broke into a run after retrieving her things. To her surprise, the girl didn't seem to mind her tardiness, she had a patient expression even though her arms were crossed.

"Come on." She opened the doors and they were met with the icy cold winds of December. It was like being slapped in the face by an ice cube.

"My name's Karla West and if you ever spell my name with a 'C' I'll make sure your body rots in the snow," Karla said. "But hey, don't be so serious. You just gotta keep an eye out-, not just one- both. Got it?" Skylar wasn't entirely sure she was being nice, she was making death threats with a smile on her face and for all Skylar knew there could be rainbows and happy clouds behind her.

"Right," Skylar said as they walked by a massive but almost deserted field.

"You got a name?" Karla said.

"Skylar."

"Cool. Mind if I call you Sky?"

"No, I don't. Most people call me that anyway."

The girls approached a building where people were blocking the entranceway, they waited until the clustered crowd of students left.

"Oh, right. This was supposed to be a tour." Said Karla. "That building right there is the main building where classes take place, we call it Sector A. This one-" The building they were standing beside was at the main buildings right- " is Sector C, where our dormitories are. And that one right at the end there- is Section B. It's like the cafeteria, gym slash activity centre exclusively for the whole school."

Skylar followed Karla inside the Section-C, students were placing their books inside their lockers. They went up the main stairs to the right of the entrance, which was no wonder that so many people were blocking up the main doors. They climbed up staircase after staircase, Skylar counted two landings that they had already passed but had no idea why. It was getting difficult to drag her suitcase alongside her.

"How many floors do we have to go up?" Skylar said, breathing heavily.

"Just one more. Don't worry, the boys have to go further to get to their dormitories. Poor them."

However, Karla did not help by running her mouth and not lifting the suitcase with Skylar. She was exhausted, the handle of the suitcase slipped from her hand and slammed down onto the landing behind her. People yelled and shrieked, but Skylar was thankful it didn't hurt anyone.

"Sorry!" Skylar made her way down the stairs again for her luggage, when someone had already lifted the suitcase upright. 

She glanced at him and his electrically blue eyes struck her like lightning. She didn't understand what to do, she noticed her hand was hovering above his- Why wasn't he giving her her suitcase? Why won't he just leave her be, then maybe she could forget about his mesmerising smile or that small birthmark on his fair skin, sitting in the crease of his smiling eyes. He had blond hair, a short cut, and nicely styled.

But the way he looked at her, made her feel like she could fly.

"Do you need some help?" He said with such sweetness in his voice, it wasn't deep but husky and soft.

Skylar wanted to say 'No' but the words couldn't leave her mouth.

"Hey, I got you your coffee!" A girl's voice called out to him and she stood inches from where he stood. Skylar woke herself back to reality, Karla just joined her.

"Thanks. I was just going to help this new girl carry her suitcase up some more stairs and I'll meet you at the lounge downstairs, OK?" Said the guy.

The girl glanced at Skylar but she averted her eyes, she suspected that she was his girlfriend. But the girl curved up a smile, her green eyes sparking that kind of envy through her, she replied with a cheerful "OK!" And skipped downstairs with her dark hair flowing behind.

"Come on, Sky," Karla said with a sound of disapproval in her voice.

"Sky, is that your name?" Said the guy as he carried the suitcase up the stairs.

"Uh, yeah. But it's actually Skylar." She replied, trying to throw away the softness in her voice, it made her seem like she was a shy nobody, which was indefinitely accurate.

"Cute. I'm Rhyder, I'm in class 1-B. What about you? Where are you from?" He asked.

"Oh, I don't know which class I'm in yet. But I came here from Southfield." Skylar said.

Karla remained quiet, she didn't turn back but continued leading the way. Rhyder and Skylar didn't talk through the remaining way to the dorms, but once they reached up to the third platform, they stopped. Rhyder dropped the suitcase in front of Skylar and said, "Well, here you are. I hope you'll have an amazing time here at Meadow."

"Thanks. And thanks for the help." Skylar said.

"No problem. See ya' later, Sky." Skylar couldn't help but blush after he turned away, it was difficult to maintain her face.

"Your dorm is in the East Wing," Karla said, there was no softness in her voice and she was almost deadpanned.

They finally reached door 205, Karla rapped on it. "I believe you're gonna share with Cassia." She opened the door and the first thing Skylar saw was a mess of a human being collapsed in a strange position lying on her bed.

The room was of moderate size but due to all the mess, it seemed smaller. There were two beds, one at opposite sides and a single desk in front of the curtained window ahead. There were two built-in wardrobes with a mirror attached on the door.

Karla approached the sleeping girl and slapped her across the face. "Cassia! Wake up, you bitch!" She screamed as she pulled the brown girl's dark curls it almost seemed like she was going to pull them right out.

Cassia yelled in pain as she sat up and began screaming profanities at Karla. "What the hell is wrong with you?" She held onto her hair as if she feared them to fall out if she didn't.

"What's wrong with you? Your room's always a mess! You always sleep after a class and you're a fucking mess!" Karla bellowed.

On the other hand, Skylar stood at the doorway, clueless if she should be existing through this drama.

"Anyway," Karla calmed down, "You have a roommate."

"Huh?"

Skylar saw the dishevelled curly hair sitting on top of Cassia's head like a bird's nest.

"Hi," Skylar said.

"Who's she?" Cassia turned to Karla, confused.

"She's going to be staying here with you." Karla said, "Her name's Skylar. Here, you can take this side of the room." She turned to Skylar now, "Also, piece of advice: don't be too soft with her. You need to set up some rules and from now on she has to do all of her chores whether she wants to or not."

Skylar found Karla and Cassia as a comedy duo, she heard them talking about stupid things like 'Why do periods happen?' Or 'Why do animals hibernate during winter and humans don't?' Mostly asked by Cassia, but Karla's response was really funny. Skylar finally completed unpacking and setting things up. She sat on her bed and asked them where the bathroom would be and how things went around here.

The conversation ended and another began.

"We ran into Rhyder while coming up here," Karla said, downcasted.

"So?" Said Cassia as she licked her lollipop. "He is hot. I bet Sky has a crush on him already."

"What? I do not!"

Cassia chuckled.

"We met her along the way…" Karla whispered as if dreading anyone to overhear.

"Who?" Skylar asked. "You mean that girl?"

"Oh shit," Cassia said.

Karla looked at Skylar, she seemed worried and almost terrified that she bit her lip to stop her eyes from swelling into tears any further than anyone could notice. "We need to warn you about that girl, Sky. Stay away from her no matter what."

"Why?"

"Her name is Jade Middleton and they call her The Snitch."