"Here we are, that's your English class dude", the guy with brown curly hair who just guided me to the classroom says.
I think his name is Dan, don't judge me, his whole group of friends looks similar and I just met them so how on earth am I supposed to remember their names?
"Thanks", I mumble. "Glad we could help. Makes us look good in front of Ms. Wood by the way", says one of them and winks. Okay, not all of them look similar, this one looks kinda Asian.
They laugh and leave quickly as the bell rings. I enter the room and look around. No one seems to notice me yet. Looks like no one's seated alone, great, means I can sit alone in the back.
I sigh in relief when I notice a girl who looks like she's sitting alone. Her brunette hair is tied back into a ponytail and she's wearing a plain white shirt. While everyone else jumps around and screams she seems to be quite into the book she's reading. Is she even reading? It looks more like she's just staring at the pages.
Something tells me there's a story behind her sitting all alone in the back. Normally I would've thought maybe America's different to Australia and being pretty doesn't necessarily mean you're popular, but let's get real here, we've all seen plenty of American teenage movies and it's exactly like that.
I hear someone walking inside the room behind me. "Morning, cla- oh you're Lucas aren't you?", the young woman asks as she shows her perfectly white teeth while smiling at me. Is she sure she chose the right job? She'd fit better into some bad TV show but it's her choice anyway.
"Yes I am but I prefer Luke", I reply kindly. "Right Luke, so you can sit in the back?", she more asks than stats.
I nod and walk over to the girl who still seems to be reading or at least looking at the book.
The girl in front of her turns around and gives me her best movie star smile while blinking a few times. Is there something in her eye? "Are you the dude who just moved here from Australia?", she questions while twirling a lock of her blonde hair. She kinda looks like Barbie to be honest, I'm not sure if that's what she wants to.
"Yes, my dad got a job here in Florida so all of us had to leave Australia and come here.", I say while rolling my eyes, I'm still quite annoyed with that decision.
I notice I'm still standing and quickly sit down. The quiet girl doesn't look at me but she tenses up. Uhm ok? It's not like there's anything scary about me, I mean yes, I'm tall but here are much taller guys so that can't be the reason she seems to feel uncomfortable around me. I neither can imagine it's because of my lip ring, here are a lot of people with piercings and some of them even have pretty much tattoos.
I decide to ignore the fact she's digging her fingernails into the table and try to focus on the teacher.
After a few minutes I notice a boy with glasses and black hair looking at me. He looks.. worried? Okay, there's definitely something going on with that girl next to me, as soon as I find friends I'll ask them about her.
Friends.. it seems like ages ago that I saw my friends from Sydney, even though it's only been two weeks.
When the lesson is over I try to find my locker. This school is huge and all I can remember is that it's near the cafeteria.. I think.
"Luke! Hey, Luke!", I hear someone shout.
Oh great, Barbie.
"Uhm.. hi", I say awkwardly as she smiles bright at me. "I just wanted to say it's cool that you're from Australia and that I love Australian boys!"
Okay maybe a bit too direct.
"Thanks", I say, not sure what else to reply. "No problem at all, I'm Stacy by the way", she says. "I'm Luke." She giggles.
Of course she does.
I feel like I'm in a movie, can I get out of here, she's annoying.
"I know that, silly!" She giggles again.
No, just no.
"It's cute how awkward you are", she winks. Is that even a compliment? I know I'm awkward but I never knew that's something good..?
"Well, I need to go, bye bye", she winks again and walks away. Please say she's the only girl here acting like that.
I make my way down the hallway, still looking for my locker. "Oh, Luke, right?", the Asian guy from earlier asks as he comes out of a classroom. I nod and he smiles. "I'm Calum if you can't remember" "I actually couldn't, there were too many of you", I laugh and he joins in.
"So what are you looking for? You're obviously lost", he grins. "My locker", I admit and he starts to laugh. "I'll help you" "Thanks, it's near the cafeteria I think", I say. "Okay good, just follow me", he says and I thankfully do what he said.
After a while we reach the locker, I tried to remember the whole way but I think I failed.
"Thank you!", I sigh and put my books inside. "You're welcome, what are your plans now?", he asks. "Lunch", I reply and he smiles, "Same, wanna join me?" Finding friends seems easier than I thought.
After we've grabbed our lunch we sit down at a table with lots of other kids, I feel like Calum and his friends are the popular guys at school.
"That's Luke!", Calum introduces and they all smile at me. I recognize two or three boys who helped me finding my English class earlier.
The English class.
I'm not sure if it's the right time to bring up the mysterious girl now. "So how's your English class been? That's where we dropped you off right?", Calum questions.
It definitely is the right time.
"Well I'm sitting next to this girl.. she seems quite shy, I don't know there's something weird about her, she-", I stop talking as I notice how everyone around me seems to get uncomfortable.
"Ariana", Calum mumbles. I look at him questioning and he bites his lip.
"You sure you want to know the truth?", he questions. I nod and the others sigh. Calum gulps, then he says,
"She got raped."
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Hi everyone, thanks for reading :)
I hope you enjoyed this first chapter of "Haunted". If you did please tell everyone you know about it ;)
I don't know when I'll update the next time yet, it depends on the reads because I definitely won't update daily if I only get 10 reads per chapter :)
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