• My gaze fell upon three students I had never met before, but had seen earlier that day. I attempted to even my breathing out and hoped that no one would actually be able to hear my heart pounding. One of the three looked up at me, one of the two girls. Her expression was calm and kind but her eyes were different. Her deep brown, almost black eyes, reminded me of something. I thought for a moment and it all came back to me. Her eyes gave the exact same feeling that the guy next to me in English had caused me, uneasiness. I walked to a table that was as far from the trio as the vacant tables would allow, which wasn’t very far at all. The girl finally looked away as I sat down, those three sort of creeped me out but they interested me like the guy had.

    Oh man! Why did they have to be in the library this period! They are his friends, which means that they probably already know of me by now. I know none of their names, yet they scare the hell out of me! Why, oh why, did my mother have to send me to this school! Plus she made me promise that I wouldn’t try to transfer myself out this year, no matter what. I thought to myself. I all but smashed my head against the table, which caused stares that I could feel were cast my way. I sighed and heard a chair squeak across the maple hardwood floor.

    “Is anyone sitting here?” A female voice asked.

    I glance up and noticed the girl who had been staring at me. “No. Go ahead and take a seat.” I said before smashing my head against the table.

    “Doesn’t that hurt?” She asked.

    “Not really,” I grunted. Why is she talking to me?

    “I’m Vanessa. You must be Marissa, Luc told me about you.”

    My head shot off the table, “Luc?” I asked.

    “The guy that is in your English class. He surprised me when he said you sat beside him.” She said, her tone of voice was thoughtful.

    “How does he know my name? What did he tell you? I didn’t even talk to him.” I said quickly. Stupid french heritage. I hate talking fast sometimes. She probably didn’t get anything I said.

    “He heard the teacher say your name when he took attendance, he told me that you were the one person in the class that was brave enough to sit with him and yet appeared to fear him.” Vanessa explained.

    How was he able to figure all that out? I am able to hide my fear very well. Plus, he tried his hardest not to smile during class and he actually looked at me, unlike all the other girls.

    “You are new here right?” Vanessa asked. I silently nodded. “Well, would you care to hang out with us? It must be lonely, sitting here by yourself. Well, before I came over at least.”

    “You don’t even know me. So why are you being so nice to me?” I said, I made myself sound like I was interrogating her.

    “Let’s just say we have something in common.” She said, her expression suddenly became mysterious. “If you want to hang with us, meet me in the foyer at lunch.” She walked back over to the others.

    I sat there, dumbfounded by her offer. Something in common? What could we have in common?

    My forehead met the table once more and I drifted off to sleep.

    *~*~*~*~*~*~*

    About an hour later the bell rang. I slowly got up and rubbed my eyes. I have a spare right now. So what am I supposed to do? I thought. Eventually I came to the decision of going to the cafeteria and study.

    After I retrieved my books for my locker, I headed downstairs. Once I entered the cafeteria I heard regular conversations that were going on throughout the room. After a few minutes I realized that some of the students I was able to hear were across the cafeteria and were whispering. That’s weird. Since when do I have such good hearing?

    I noticed many people staring at me, some stares were sheer curiosity, and others were the same dagger stares I had gotten while in English class. I walked up to the girls that were shooting daggers stares at me and glared back at them. "What the hell are you staring at?" I asked the girl that looked as though she was the leader.

    She flipped her long black hair behind her shoulder and looked at me with smoldering grey eyes. "You are the new girl. All new girls must be," The girl paused for a moment. "Approved by us." She looked back at the girls behind her, all of them were smirking or snickering.

    "Approved? What, to see if I am a clone of you?" I replied with as much attitude as possible. All of the girls looked at me as if I had just made the biggest mistake of my life.

    She stood up to become eye level with me, her eyes were full of rage. "A clone?!" She yelled. The entire cafeteria was looking at us. "Is that what you think we are? Clones?! Oh, you must be brave to say that."

    I rolled my eyes and was somehow able to sense her anger. She was really ticked off. I saw her right hand twitch slightly just before her fist connected with my face.