Mental

Chapter One

The town was quite bleak. Most of the buildings looked ran down, yet items could be seen in the shop windows. Not many people walked the streets, unlike the busy towns Luka was used to. The rickety bus stopped in front of the school building. The only resemblance of a school it had was the sign out front with faded letters. Kids were in the grass by the path, smoking drugs and drinking alcohol.

Luka walked up to the school doors, pushing button to enter. A click sounded, notifying the doors were unlocked. Luka opened one of the doors, stepping inside the building. She glanced around the abandoned halls before stepping into a room labeled 'office'. The receptionist who sat at the desk looked as if someone put a skin suit on a skeleton. It didn't even move.

"Are you the new kid?" Luka jumped, quickly turning to see who had spoken. A girl with dark brown hair with a colorful sweatshirt smiled at Luka. This kid was the first person-first thing- that didn't look like she constantly wanted to die. "I'm Angel! I've been assigned to help you to all your classes and make sure you don't get lost. I'm also supposed to answer whatever questions you have." Luka watched her in awe.

"How come you don't look like everyone else?" Luka asked, following Angel as she left the room.

"Daniel straightened my hair today! I think it looks nice, thanks for noticing." Luka started putting a bit of distance between them, sliding her hands into her pockets.

Angel led her down to the cafeteria. once the doors opened, hundreds of voices slammed into Luka. Angel walked over to a table with a few people sitting at already. Luka loosely followed behind, trying to hide from everyone.

Three people were sat at the table. A curly haired boy was writing in a notebook. The other boy was intently staring at the wall across the room, his blue eyes piercing. The last resident of the table was a bleach blond girl messing with what looked like recently done nails.

Angel smiled over at Luka. "This is Daniel, Shawn, and Monica." She had pointed to them in the order Luka had observed them. "Guys, this is Luka." Daniel looked up from his notebook, weakly smiling. Shawn waved to her without looking away from the wall. Monica hadn't even noticed their presence.

"How did you know my-" Luka was interrupted by a loud scream.

"Philip, move! you're going to get us all killed!" Shawn yelled at the newcomer, trying his best to look around him. His breathing had obviously quickened, his entire being shaking dangerously.

The black-haired newcomer, whose name was assumingly Philip, lean towards Shawn. His palms were flat against the table surface. "There's nothing there." He spoke out lowly. Shawn slowly sat down, hiding most of his face.

Angel turned towards Luka, a look of interest on her face. "So why are you here? Couldn't be anything too big." Angel chuckled softly.

"Oh, my parents wanted me to go to a different school. The people at my old school kept leaving." Luka responded.

Angel rolled her eyes. "I meant why are you here? In this city."

"I don't really kn-"

"If you're shy, I can go first." Angel interrupted. "Daniel has depression. Philip has multiple personalities. Shawn is schizophrenic. Monica has really bad memory loss. And I have nothing!"

"Angel's a psychopath." Daniel added in. Angel glared over at him.

Luka glanced between them confused. "I don't think I have any-"

"Woah, who the hell are you?" Philip interrupted her again. He abruptly held her face softly. "Dark hair, blue eyes, soft skin is a plus. She's perfect." He mumbled quietly to himself.