After an interesting lunch with my aunt and new friend Abi, there wasn't much left to do with our day. Abi came back to the house and spent time painting with me and my aunt. She also enjoyed art, though not as frequently as me and my aunt. I relied on my art like a crutch, letting my emotions and thoughts absorb into the canvas, no longer plaguing me. The day passed much too fast in my opinion. I wasn't sure if I was ready to be the new kid again. The smile on Abi's face as she promised to walk me to school, invigorated me and gave me hope for the following day. After all, I had made a friend. My first friend in what felt like forever. For the first time in months, I was looking forward to tomorrow and the possibilities it held.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
My alarm buzzed bright and early, scaring me out of my sleep. Another night of restful sleep, then why did I feel so on edge? Why did I feel so comfortable in this strange old town, and yet I felt that something was coming, like something was waiting on me to make the next move.
I hopped out of bed, determined to put my best foot forward and make some new friends this time. I walked over to my mirror and combed my hair, thankful it has always been soft and manageable. I rummaged through my closet and picked out a white tank top, a short emerald green cardigan, dark blue jeans, and a pair of dark brown boots with a small heel. I rushed to my jewelry box and put on my earrings I got for my 14th birthday. Cute little earrings with little green emeralds on them, along with the matching necklace. Popping on some lip gloss, I looked myself up and down and nodded in approval. This was as good as it's going to get. On the way out of my bedroom, I promised myself I would expand my wardrobe. Something other than tank tops and cardigans would do me some good.
I made my way to the kitchen, surprised when I smelled food cooking. I was greeted by my aunt who seemed to be struggling with cooking breakfast.
"Everything alright in here?" I laughed coming into the kitchen, watching my aunt rush from her burning eggs, to the blackened pancakes in the pan.
"Oh I hate breakfast." My aunt huffs, trying to pry the charcoal pancake off of the pan.
"I can see that." I laugh, reaching over and turning off the burner.
"I'm more of a bagel person." My aunt sighs in defeat, the breakfast winning this round.
"I like bagels." I shrug with a smile. I can't see why my mom would want to keep her out of her life. She's lively and does her best to make everything fun or interesting. She was the first true bright spot I had in months and even after a few days, I wouldn't know what to do without her.
"Alright, cream cheese or butter?" My aunt asks, a bagel in each of her hands.
"Hm, lets do cream cheese." I shrug, grabbing a glass of orange juice.
"See, I knew we were related." My aunt says with a proud nod, handing me my perfectly toasted bagel.
"I see you can work a toaster just fine." I laugh, taking a bite out of my bagel.
"Oh haha miss. You know I'm a good cook. It's just me and pancakes have a love hate relationship." She pretends to scold me, taking a bite of her bagel.
A knock at the door startles us both, my aunt rushes to the front door and with a mouth full of bagel she yells, "Corinne, Abi's here!".
"I'm coming!" I yell back, setting whats left of my bagel on the plate.
I grab my little black book bag and run to the front door.
"Hey Corinne, you ready for your first day?" She asks smiling at me.
"Too late to say I'm sick?" I ask my aunt giving a fake cough.
"Oh hah, let me guess, Abi's sick too?" My aunt asks, raising an eyebrow.
I give Abi a hopeful look and she chimes in, "Oh yes very sick".
"See were both sick." I say to my aunt with a smirk.
"Very funny, if you're both too sick to go to school, then i'm definitely too sick to go to work." My aunt laughs shooing us out the door.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Me and Abi make our way down the sidewalk in the direction of the school. Lucky for us, the town is so small that the school is only a ten minute walk away.
"So at this school your homeroom is your first class, but you'll need to go to the office first to get your schedule." Abi says as we walk. The rush of cold on my back makes me cringe. Not even 5 minutes outside and i'm already being tormented.
"Oh alright, you mind showing me to the office?" I ask sheepishly, feeling bad for clinging to the girl I had just met.
"Oh it's no problem. I've never been the new kid before, but I can only imagine what it's like. So i'll be with you every step of the way, if thats alright by you." She says giving me a small smile.
"I don't mind it one bit, if anything I really appreciate it." I say, causing her smile to grow.
"You don't know this yet, but I don't really have any friends here. They don't really like me." She frowns and pushes up her glasses.
"Well, I don't see why they wouldn't like you. Must be something wrong with them." I shrug and give her a warm smile. The cold wrapping around us, sending a prickling sensation down my skin. I look at Abi, wondering why no one else seems to feel the cold.
"Corinne"..A voice whispers past my ear.
"Yeah Abi?" I reply causing her to look confused.
"I didn't say anything" Abi shrugged.
"Great i'm hearing voices now." I laugh, trying to ignore the whispers directed at me.
As we walk to school Abi talks about the after school programs the school offers, while I look around at all of the kids walking to school. I tell myself i'm people watching, but there's only one person I'm looking for.
"Does Jason not walk to school?" I ask lightly, but her eyebrows raise anyway.
"Find us Corinne"..The voices whisper. They start to become agitated and whisper over one another, the only words I can make out are Corinne, find, and secrets.
"Jason drives to school." Abi shrugs, "Why are you so curious about him?"
"I don't know. There's just something about him." I say frustrated, shaking my head.
"Got a crush already?" She asks with her eyebrows raised.
"Definitely not." I say with a stern voice. There's no way in hell I have a crush on that jerk.
We approached the school, complete with its faded bricks and front doors with their chipped paint. Abi see's the look on my face and chuckles.
"I know the outside looks bad, but a few years ago the Mayor had the inside remodeled so it looks a lot nicer now." She says with a smile as we merge with the crowd of kids entering the building.
"Alright so here's the office." Abi gestures to her left after turning right down the hallway.
"Wait here for me?" I ask in a small voice.
"Of course." She says with a smile.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I walk into the office and wrinkle my nose at the smell of cheap air freshener. I make my way to the desk where a plump woman in a purple sweater looks up from her computer.
"Yes?" She asks, her fingers still clacking away on the keyboard.
"Um, I'm new here. I came for my schedule." I said awkwardly, looking around.
"Oh right! Corinne, Lysa's niece." The woman said, her face perking up.
"Yeah thats me." I say with a small smile.
"Welcome to our little town Corinne, and I gotta say, I'm sorry about what happened." She said, a frown forming on her face. I resisted the urge to sigh. I knew this would happen ahead of time, and people are just trying to be polite.
"Thanks." I say as I grab my schedule and make my way to the door.
"Let me see!" Abi says with excitement, grabbing my schedule from my hands.
I wait anxiously, praying to what gods are out there that Abi will magically have every class with me. I know it's a long shot, but I had to try. I wasn't surprised by what Abi said next.
"Well out of your 6 classes, you have 4 with me!" She says with a smile. 4 out of 6, can't entirely be mad at those odds.
"Alright so i'll show you your locker, and then we can head to our first class!" Abi says with a smile.
"Lets do this!" I say smiling back. My smile began to fade as I saw a shadow cross my line of vision, darting from one classroom to another and stopping midway, as if it had saw me. Why would it be looking for me?
I freeze in place as the shadow glides towards me, and stops right in front of me. What is it doing? No shadow has been this bold before. They typically hide behind me, or dart past, never stop directly in front of me. It was almost as if it had been looking for something, and was surprised to find me.
"Well are you coming?" Abi called from halfway down the hallway.
The shadow didn't move. It just hovered in front of me. I couldn't walk around it, as students had already begun to notice me. Whispers of "thats Corinne the new girl" and "oh yeah her whole family died" echoed around me. These were the whispers of classmates, ones that I had gotten used to over the months. But, if I was going to make my life here work, I had to ignore these shadows at all costs.
Swallowing my fear, I walked through the shadow.
I wasn't at all prepared for what I was about to face.