Psych

Chapter One

I stared at myself in the mirror and heaved a heavy sigh. This was as good as it was going to get. My family moved to this rinky-dinky little town a little less than a month ago for my father's job. I'd stayed inside or in my backyard the whole time while the other kids went on all sorts of summer adventures. Today was the first day of school. The first day of my senior year. Moving to a new school for my last year of high school was less than ideal.

            The school bus honked outside and I gave myself one last once over before I grabbed my backpack and ran down the stairs. 'Why aren't you driving to school? You're a senior. Riding the bus is a little embarrassing.' I had a car until the start of the summer. I was driving home from a day of wandering the forest when something huge jumped out of the trees in front of my car, causing me to swerve to miss it, flipping the car and slamming against a tree. Thankfully, I walked away with a couple of cuts, only one needed stitches, and a little trauma. I hit my head pretty good when the car made contact with the tree and stayed the night in the hospital. Things haven't been the same since the wreck.

            I got onto the bus and took the last empty seat near the back of the bus. A few fellow riders would look back at me and whisper to their seat mate. Feeling nervous, I put my headphones in and kept them in until we got to school.

            My first stop of the day was the office, which didn't seem the best. No one wanted to start their day off in the office. In trouble or not. I took one of my ear buds out to talk to the secretary who didn't look much older than the students. She kindly gave me my schedule, my locker numbers and a map of the school. The school wasn't huge, but a map would probably be helpful. I said my thanks and headed to find my locker.

            Students lined the halls and lockers, mingling before the school day started. There were only a few minutes left before the first bell would ring before I was able to find my locker. It was nestled in the back of the school in a small dimly lit hall near the theater. It was a small section of lockers that didn't really look used.

            The first bell rang and I hit my head on my locker. I'd tried so many times to get it open to no avail. "Having troubles?" "You have no idea..." I mumbled, head still firmly pressed against the locker. The voice chuckled. "Here," I looked up to see bright blue eyes and a friendly smile. He hit my locker door with the side of his fist just above the dial and it popped open. "These lockers are as old as the school. They need a little nudge if you want them to open." He laughed and did the same thing to the locker next to mine and it popped open. "I'm Alex by the way." He extended his hand to me. "Nova." I took his hand in mine, feeling a warm surge go up my arm causing me to drop his hand quickly. I gave him an awkward smile and pulled my black cardigan closer around me.

            Since I didn't have anything to put in my locker yet, I shut it and pulled my schedule out of my pocket. Alex snatched it out of my hands and looked it over. A small smile crept onto his lips. "We've got the same schedule. If you're nice, I'll show you around." Alex said with a wink and a smile as he handed my schedule back to me. I shoved it in the back pocket of my ripped black jeans. Before I could come back with a witty come back, he led me out of the dark hall to first period English.

            The two of us walked in together and all the students' eyes landed on me. I couldn't tell if the reason was because I was the new kid or that I was with Alex. I made eye contact with who I was guessing was the queen bee around here. She was skinny with a full chest, perfectly curled auburn hair and eyes that could kill with a single look. She looked like she could be Gretchen Wieners from Mean Girls little sister. "Who's this bitch?" I heard as she looked me up and down. Her mouth didn't open but I heard her as clear as if she'd said it. This has been a reoccurring situation since my accident. I wasn't sure if hitting my head actually gave me the ability to hear others thoughts or if it made me crazy and I just thought I'd heard their thoughts. I was voting the latter. Alex and I took a seat near the back and the girls head followed us. "Is this new bitch really going to try to steal my man?" I looked away from her and stared at my hands, chipping away at my already chipped nail polish. "Good morning, class." A man who looked to be in his mid-30's eagerly greeted us as he walked into the room. Only then did the girl in front of me turn around.