Oh my god, I wish the bell would ring I thought to myself sitting in the middle of Trig II.  And with that last thought the bell rang, I jumped up out of my seat and grabbed my bookbag off the ground and hurried out the door.  Once I got outside the classroom my friend Jenna yelled to me down the hall.  I looked up to see her standing by her locker and waving me down like I just got off a plane at the airport.  After a few minutes of trying to sqeeze through the stream of kids in the hallway I managed to make it to her in one piece and without dropping anything.

“Hey Jenna!” I called to her cheerfully as I approached her.  Jenna was gorgeous, she had pale blonde hair that curled all the way down to the small of her back, it looked like it you touched it it would feel like cotton it looked so soft.  She had bright blue eyes that always seemed to sparkle.  She was short for someone our age, she was 4’11”, poor thing, and everyone made a point to inform her of her height problem.

“Hey yourself,” she said grabbing books out and throwing others back in.  “So are we all still on for this weekend?” she asked.

“Yeah as far as I know, no one has yet to text me and tell me no.”

“Well that’s good because I’m really looking forward to this.” She gushed slamming her locker shut.  She waved bye to me and took off in the direction of the student parking and I headed in the direction of the bus parking lot.  I don’t have my licencse and don’t plan on getting one so it was no big deal to me that I still rode on the school bus, but to all my friends it was awful. I smiled thinking about their reactions to riding a bus.  I climbed on and just in time, I had the same seat since I first started riding this bus and it’s all the way in the very back and no one sat with me so I could kick back and relax while I waited to be returned to my home.  I always made sure to bring my headphones on so I could drown out all the sounds of everyone talking, it never really got queit until the last few stops an dmine was the very last stop. 

Finally pulling up to where I got off I was glad to be almost home.  I had to walk from my bus stop up to my house because for some odd reason the bus wasn’t allowed to come into my trailer park.  I would’nt mind if I didn’t have this monster of a hill to climb up which is usually no problem when im not carrying a bag full of school books with me.  By the time I made it to my door I really had to pee and I was wore out.  I hurridly unlocked the door and ran in throwing my stuff down wherever on the floor before I peed myself.  I came out and looked at the clock, I sighed in the silence of the house and decided that I didn’t feel like doing home-work so I was going to go to sleep.  I walked into my room and threw myself down on the bed glad to be lying in it.  I started at my wall while I layed there motionless.  My room was a red with gold brushing on it, all my furniture was a dark cherry wood. I didn’t really have much in my room considering it was small, my sister’s room is the biggest but she mainly pays the rent so I cant really argue with her about room size.

I woke up to the sounds of banging in the Kitchen, and I could hear voices too.  I walked out into the hallway and listended.  The Tv was on and my sister Heather was laughing about something that was on.  I could smell Chinese floating down the hallway.  I walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table I leaned my head on my hand and was still working on getting my eyes open all the way when heather sat down a plate of food in front of me.

“Are you going to make it over there?” She asked laughing and scooping more food out of a pot on the stove.  Heather is a great cook, well she’s good at everything that is.  Heather is the complete opposite of me; she’s tall and athletic built with sandy blonde hair that falls in curls down her back, she has dark brown eyes like mine but look wise that’s about the only thing similar between us.  I’ve always wondered how we were sisters because Heather looks nothing like our parents and she doesn’t look like me.  I started to dig into the lo mein with giving up on trying to wake up completely first.

“How was school today?” She asked sitting down opposite of me at the table. 

“Fine I guess,” I replied inbewtween bites of food.  I felt like a zombie I was so tired and my movements were automatic.

“Have you been keeping up on your studies, you’re not failing are you?” She continued on. 

“Nope,” I said taking the last bite.  I got up and rinsed off my plate setting it in the sink.  I started to head back towards my room and patted her on the back as I walked by her.  I think I must of patted her harder than I relalized because as she was in the middle of taking a bite she started choking on her food.  “Sorry,” I hollered at her before I walked back into my room.

Once I got back inside and had the door shut I leaned back on it and sighed because now I knew I had to do homework, there was no putting it off any longer.  While I had to start on this horrible task I guess it couldn’t hurt to start on one of my favorite subjects, Photography.  I had to write an essay about how light and positioning can affect how our pictures turn out. Blah.  After working on my homework and going through another day of boring school it was finally the weekend.  I was so excited to hang out with all my friends outside of our version of jail. 

A bunch of my closest friends and me made plans to go to the lake and find something to do then at nightfall we were going to check out this old abandoned house on the creepy road Pinhook near Jess’ house. 

At that instant the phone ring and it was jess, thinking of the devil. “Hey Jess I greeted her excitedly.”

“Hi, so are we all still on for today then?” She asked.  A few of the friends that hung out in our group were known to call off plans at the last minute. 

“So far so good from what I know, no one has text me yet cancelling. That’s always a good sign.” I answered her. 

“yup, very good!” She sqealed from the other end.  I could just picture her making faces from her excitement and jumping up and down like a little kid in the middle of a market, you know the ones who just got their favorite candy bar after throwing a fit over it for about an hour.

“Hey did Zach tell you about our idea we had last night, I know he told Dan and Lisa. “

“No actually he didn’t’,” I sighed quietly to myself.  Sometimes he tended to have bad ideas.

“Well he has a couple tape recorders and a video camera, so we were all thinking maybe we could go to this house and do a investigation.  You know, since a few people at school say it’s haunted and all.  What do you think?” She asked.

“Actually that doesn’t sound like too bad of an idea, wow it’s been awhile since he came up with a good one; no offense or anything but his ideas usually fall through.” I told her.

This time is was her turn to sigh, “Yea I know, but he’s just so darn cute.” She said laughing, she was twanging a bit kind of making fun of him.  Zach and Jess have been dating for about a year but they’ve seem like they’ve been together for a lifetime.  Jess is extremely pretty and smart and doesn’t let anyone influence her in any kind of way, she knows where she’s going in life.  Zach on the other hand plays football and that’s about all he knows, he sits around watching tv or playing videogames that mostly involve zombies.  Jess is right he is cute but he’s really hard to have a conversation with sometimes, I don’t know how she does it. Oh and did I mention he is a twanger, his parents both twang worse than he does.

“Well let me call you back Jess, I still haven’t gotten my stuff together and I need to get a shower.” I tried getting off the phone gracefully.  Jess liked to talk on the phone for some reason and I really don’t so sometimes it was hard getting off with her because she thinks that im just making an excuse to get off.

“Okay well call me after your done, I’m going to call Zach and tell him you like the idea. Bye.” She chirped and hung up without waiting for a reply from me.  I got off the phone and layed down on my bed enjoying the feel of laying there on my super soft mattress and being surrounded by warm blankets.  I was thinking about all the stuff I had to get packed on our little trip and deciding on  what to wear when a loud noise startled me and cause me to sit up so quick I felt a little woozy.  I looked around my room trying to find the source of the sound and didn’t see nothing out of place.  I looked out my bedroom window staring at the gray cloudy sky when suddenly a black bird flew into the window, it startled me again causing me to jump.  I felt so silly when I realized it was just a bird and I was getting so worked up over nothing.   I got up and walked up to my window and stared out, I didn’t see the bird on the ground or in the sky anywhere, then suddenly yet again it flew into the window. Stupid bird I though and pulled the cord to close the blinds. 

Letting out a big breathe I walked into my closet and started pulling clothes off the racks and grabbing my black duffel bag.  I wasn’t feeling up to dressing all up in my usual attire and I guess it was good that I was in that mood.  Now thinking about it, it’s probably a good idea that I wear some of my old clothes to go adventuring in and since im going to be by a lake and walking through a spider filled house; I shivered at the thought of the spiders.  So I settled on a pair of faided jeans and a black spaghetti strap shirt with a small black jacket over top.  I loved the jacket but when I hit puberty it got to the point where I couldn’t zip it up over my chest, though oddly enough it still fit fine around the waist, guess I can’t complain too much about that.

After I got another change of clothes packed just in case something happened to the ones I was in and some snacks and flashlights, and of course the Quiji Board that we were taking to this supposedly haunted house. Oh, and I almost forgot the snacks, someone has to remember to feed us and I doubt any of them are going to be thinking about food when they’re all stoked up about going to this house.  I looked around satisfied with my packing and picked up the phone to call Jess.

“Hello?” She picked up on the first ring.

“Hey are you all set I’m finally done here, what time are you coming to get me?” I asked, we had decided that since I have no driving experience or even a license that I was out of the driving duty.  So out of everyone else that was left Jess had the most experience driving and by far the nicest car.  Jess comes from money and so she  always has the nicer things.

“Well I just called everyone else and they’re all ready we were just waiting on you, is it okay if I come scoop you up now?” And yet again I could picture her jumping up and down from excitement.

“Yeah, I’ll be waiting outside.” I told her and she hung up without a goodbye.

I grabbed my duffel back and as I was walking out of my room stopped and stared at the book that caught my attention Oh what the heck I though and picked it up.  I ran out and didn’t see any traces of my sister.  Once outside I looked around and it looked like it was going to rain I really hoped Jess checked the weather forecast today.  I sat down on the step leading to my building and opened the book up and started reading.  I lost track of time and when I finally snapped back to reality Jess was standing over top of me talking.

“What?” I asked.  She just rolled her eyes and shook her head at me.

“Come on,” she said smiling and walking away.  I jumped up off the step and grabbed my bag.  Her new ride was a brand new sorento, and it was a green with gray accents, you’d think it would look ugly but it was actually pretty cute.  I jumped in the very back since that was the smallest space and there was going to be two couples figured it would be best to let Zack up front and in the backseat let the other two love birds nest.  I didn’t mind being in what was considered the trunk on this thing, it just meant I could stretch out and maybe read some more until we reached the lake. 

“Hey what CD do you want to listen too?” Jess yelled from up front.

“Um, I don’t know, do you have the new kenney Chesney CD?” I yelled back.

“Actually I do.” She popped it in and cranked it up.  We drove without talking, not like we could hear each other over the music anyways.  I didn’t think I could read while the music was blaring but I somehow managed to drown it out until it was all background noise and there was nothing but the words in the book. Eventually I needed a break from reading so I looked up and instantly all the images in from head created from the words I was reading when away, and I was left staring at a full car of kids.  By the time I realized where we were, we were pulling up to the lake.  As soon as the car stopped we hopped out excited to finally be here after about a week of talking about coming here.  We got all out stuff out and set on the grond near the car, we all took turns going in the woods and changing into our bathing  suits.  Mine was red with white polka dots, Jess was the same color green as her car, and Lisa’s was yellow.  All boys had plain black swim trunks, we all ran into the water splashing each other and of course the boys were dunking each other pretending to be drowning the other one.  After playing around in the water and swinging off trees into the lake we all headed towards the car.

“I’m so hungry,” Zach said.

“Yeah, me to.” Came from Lisa and then everyone else was hungry.

“Well, lucky for you guys I brought snacks.” I declared.  I dug through my bag and pulled out a box of muffing bites and some doughnut holes we all bunched on those and drank warm pop lounging out on the grass staring out over the lake joking and telling stories.

“Well, I think it’s time we got a move on to the other activities of the evening.” Dan said, and helping Lisa stand up.  I looked up and sure enough it was dusk out.  They sky was orange going to a dull yellow then to a slight pinkish color, the light made the clouds look like they were golden.  The trees surrounding the lake were almost black against the sky and the whole scene reflected in the surface of the still water.  We were all packing up when a cold breeze blew up my back and made the hairs on my neck stand up.  I didn’t know if it was the breeze or if someone was actually there but I felt like I was being watched.  Everyone was in the care already waiting on me, I threw my back in and hopped in the back pulling the hatch down as I got in.  Once it was safely closed jess took off and I was staring at the emptiness of the woods as they were getting smaller and smaller until they were out of sight.  We all drove in silence, seeing as how Dan and lisa fell asleep leaning up against the side of the car with Lisa laying ontop of Dan with her head cradled in his chest.  Zach was up front telling jess where to go and holding her hand. I looked at myself with nothing but my book, oh well at least I got my book.  We were pulling into a gravel driveway when I looked up out of my book.  We were sitting in a gravel driveway surrounded by weeds and tall grass.  There was a line of trees going all the way down the side of the mile long driveway, which led a perfectly straight line down to the house where the trail turned into a giant circle with an anceient looking fountain in the middle surrounded by yet more tall weeds and grass.  The house stood out like a mansion against the horizon, which was now a dark navy blue.

Looking out the windows somemore as we approached the house slowly Jess starting tell us all about the place.  “my favorite, an old mansion that was built in the early 1800’s stood back about a half mile away from the road. It had a wrought iron black fence surrounding the whole property, which was nearly the whole street, and at the start of the drive-way is this huge old gate, you know, those really, really old ones that have those spikes at the end, where if someone where stupid enough to try to climb over they could possibly impale themselves. The drive-way went straight back to the front door and was lined with weeping willows the whole way, and in the daylight when the sun hit everything just right the whole gravel road was covered in stripes of all different sizes and his was breath taking to anyone who actually paid any attention. I first hear of the mansion from my great, great grandma, hearing her talk about the house was like listening to her talk about a passionate romance she had. When she was younger and the owners still were there they used to have huge parties and would invite most of the town. She always loved the house and since she first saw it she wanted to buy it she said, and for as long as I can remember she always talked of that house and how she would one day strike it lucky and become rich enough to have it. I heard it still has its old slave houses in the back and secret doors and passages that the slaves used to get around without being seen. I think it would be amazing to see the inside, but I couldn’t live in it, too many passages and doors people could hide in, I’m too paranoid to live in something as big as that. I’ve even heard that all the owners’ belongings are still in the house too, they had a second property and went there for a vacation and there was an accident. The property has been passed down from generation to generation, but none of the relatives want to live in it or sell it, who knows why, no one, will say, maybe it is haunted after all. As I stood there staring at the house thinking about the fact that it might be haunted I got cold chills down.” She finished just as were pulling up to the front door.  She turned the key in the ignition to off and everything went dead silent.  The only sounds were those of the crickets as they chirped in their hiding spots from the world.  I got all our flashlights out and grabbed my Quiji board out and carried it under my arm.  We walked up the big porch and Jess was messing with the front door.  I looked around, the porch was a light blue painted wood, which was extremely worn from years of adbandonment. 

The porch stretched around the right side of the house, and started from the bay window sticking out front.  I heard a pop and looked up to see Jess opening up the front door which was huge.  The door way was wide enough that two of us could walk in side by side and it had crème colored curtains in the window of it.  The wood of the door creaked as we shut it behind us as to not let in the wind that was picking up outside.  We all turned on our flashlights and made faces at each other and bantered with each other for a minute.  We all stuck together as we checked out some of the rooms in the downstairs, walking around we saw three stair cases in different areas there were doors in the walls that opened up just to reveal a wall behind it, most of the furniture was covered up in dusty white sheets and what pieces we could see were obviously very expensive and old.

We finally found a door through the massive kitchen that led to the basement, it was right next to the door leading into the walk in freezer that was more stifling hot than cold.  After a big debate we decided to go into the basement with the Quiji board. Oh yeah like the basement isn’t already creepy enough, now we have to use the Quiji Board down here too. I thought as we set up in the middle of an extremely crowded basement area.  We each sat in a circle around the board and set our flashlights down on the ground next to us facing the board, it casted shadows around the room, which gave it a more eerie feeling.  When we all got settled in Dan spoke up.

“Okay, who wants to go first?” he asked offhandedly.  We all looked around at each other silent, Jess looked more wide-eyed than anyone.

“Okay, how about we all put our hands on they eye and do it together we’ll just take turns asking the questions.” Lisa suggested nodding to get a response from each of us. We all nodded when she looked at us. Jess let out a loud sigh as we all put our fingertips on the edge of the eye, we started by asking stupid questions joking asking if Jess was dumb and comments of a much similar nature.  We all took turns kind of  bashing on one another laughing, none of us took anything personally with each other because we would never intentionally hurt each others feelings.  It was very easy for all of us to hang out with each other because none of us had to worry about making the others mad.  Thinking this I started to relax sitting in the musky basement of this creepy house.  “Okay enough jokes lets start asking some serious ones now.” Dan said, still laughing.

“I’ll go first,” Jess chimed up real quick.  She looked like she was lightening up in her mood as well as me. 

“Is there anybody here with us?” She asked, we all sat looking around with the only sound being the wind howling outside the small windows at the top of the basement walls.  Then it went around the circle to dan.

“How many are there here?” he asked nervous, now.

Now it was my turn. “what are your names?” we listened and it was still silent.

“Did you die here?” Lisa asked. Nothing.

“How old are you?” Zach stampered. Nothing. We started on our second round of question asking.

“Are you a girl?” Jess asked. Then a loud bang came from above us. Then littler ones that sounded like footsteps.

“Oh my god are those footsteps?” I asked. Looking around and listening harder.  The others were looking around now too and they all got silent.

‘Yeah I think those are footsteps, guys, we have to get out of here!” Jess whispered scared.  She started getting up and grabbed her flashlight holding it with two hands and standing there as if she was trying to pull herself into a ball. We all started following in her example and got up and grabbed our stuff. I got the Quiji board packed up and grabbed my flashlight, when I looked up they were all walking up the stairs slowly leaving me behind.  I tried to hurry up to catch up to them without making a bunch of noise.   I caught up to them when they were stopped at the top of the stairs, Jess was shaking bad when she was reaching toward the door leading to the kitchen.  She turned the knob slowly and peeked out through the crack.

“I don’t see knothing.” She whispered looking back down at all of us.  She slowly opened up the door walking through it at a snails pace.  We all managed to squish together and stand just inside the door we didn’t hear anything anymore, but I could sense that no one wanted to stay here any longer.  I still though had the feeling that I was being watched. We were starting to leave when a loud bang sounded and it felt like the whole house shook.  We all yelled and screamed and took off every which way.  I ran into the next room and hid behind a couch,  after a few minutes I peeked my head up over the couch and noticed that I was alone, I could of sworn Jess was in this room too.  I listened and I didn’t hear anything.  I was debating on which way I thought was the way out; when I heard Jess scream.  I got up and started running towards one of the stair cases I remembered seeing, I thought it had come from upstairs but there really was no way of knowing for sure this place was so big I felt a little like I was in a fun house.

When I got to the top of the spiral stair case I skidded to a stop.  The walls were all wallpapered in a vintage design.  It was a dark red with white designs.  The floor was wood for the far as I could see and there had to be at least 13 doors in just this one hallway. 

“Jess are you here” I whispered into the epmtyness.  The third door opened up slowly, all my hair was standing on end and I was getting ready to book it back downstairs when jess’ face popped out of the darkness.  I let out a breathe I didn’t even know I was holding.

“Thank God youre okay.” I whispered again quickly moving up to her side. I was carrying the Quiji board in front of me like shield or something.  Mentally I was shaking my head at myself. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said and I could barely hear her whispering so low.  I took a step back as she started to come closer in my direction and close the door of the room she just came out of when another loud bang sounded that felt like it shook the place even more than before. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye; I gasped and started to turn in that direction when Jess screamed and took off down the hall not even waiting for me.  The next thing I knew I was being thrown up against the wall when I opened my eyes to see what was going on I was staring into the face of the most handsome guy I have ever seen.

“What are you doing here!” He practically growled at me. His eyes look furious and I could see my wide-eyed expression in the grey of his eyes.  His hair was black, short and spiked. He had me pinned to the wall with  his hands on my wrist.  After what seemed like an hour of staring at him I finally came around and did the only thing I could think of, I screamed as loud as I could.  He took one of his hands off my wrist and covered my mouth in that same instant I took my free hand and balled my fist up and blasted him in the side of the face with all my strength.  He let go looking surprised and took a step back from me that’s all the instant I needed and I was off full speed down the stairs and flying through room after room til I saw the front door and Zach standing on the porch yelling for me to hurry up.  Before I could get to the door though it suddenly slammed shut and that guy was standing there with his hand on it and staring right at me.

I stopped wondering how he got to the door before me, I didn’t know what to do my mind was racing with so many ideas that I could figure out what was going on and I just stood there watching him like an idiot. 

“What are you doing in my house?” I repeated with hint of a growl in his voice.

“I-I didn’t know anyone lived here.” I blurted out before I relized it.  He turned the lock on the door that I could hear the others on the outside banging on it and screaming my name.  When the lock clicked into place he started to walk towards me and with every step he took forward I took the same amount backwards.  He was devastatingly handsome, I felt so stupid thinking about this when I was probably about to be killed. And with a speed that I couldn’t follow he had my held by the wrists.  I stumbled being startled by his movement and the next thing I knew after that he was laying on top of me, I was gasping hard and so was he.  When I was about to scream again I heard a crash and saw the front door had been busted through and my friends were running through it towards me.  The mystery guy was gone and no where in sight.  Jess had one of my hands and Lisa had the other and they were both pulling me off the floor. 

“Are you alright they all managed to say together?”

“Yeah I’m fine.” I manage to say inbetween taking deep breaths.   We all ran out of the house as quickly as we could and jumped in the car almost piling in ontop of one another and flew down the driv-way.  I was staring out the window towards the house and I could’ve swore that I saw the front door close.  I turned around in shock and sat there looking around I was squished in the backseat inbetween Jess and Dan and Lisa was driving and Zach up in the passage seat.  We all had the same surprised looks on our faces and were looking around at each other except for Lisa who’s eyes were glued to the road and she was breathing heavily.

“Lisa slow down before you hyperfentilate.” I said to her, listening to myself it didn’t sound like me.  Yep must be shock I thought.  After about driving down the road for like 10 mins. In silence Lisa pulled over on the side of the road.

“I don’t think I can drive anymore I just keep hearing everyone screaming and I’m not sure what I saw or if I saw anything at all will someone please just take the wheel.” Lisa said breaking down up front and crying.  So jess jumped out and took her place driving her car.  Jess dropped us all of leaving me last except for Zach because he was going home with her to spend the night.  Jess’ parents weren’t going to be home and I’m sure he was going to take advantage of that and the fact that she was scared and would probably want him close.  She pulled up to my apartment and I went to grab my bag out of the back but it wasn’t back there.  I must’ve dropped it I thought, I pictured me smacking myself in the head over and over telling myself stupid, I had all my money in there in case I needed it.  I don’t get paid for another whole week, my job pays bi-weekly. 

“What’s wrong Amber?”  Jess asked up front looking back at me.

“I think I left my stuff there.” I stated flatly.

“Well, you might as well forget about it all because we are not going back.” She said emphasizing the word not.  I nodded at her and climbed out of the care.  I walked up to the door leading into my building, luckily I had put my house key on a keychain around my neck today.  I unlocked the door and was walking up to the stairs to my apartment which was on the top floor.  I heard a loud bang when I was on the second flight and jumped about losing my balance.  I stood there and waiting for what, I didn’t know but I was too scared to move thinking about what had happen at the house.  I took a step up and my neighbor Jordan rounded the corner fast, I jumped and almost yelled.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to startle you.” He said with a smirk, I think he was trying not to laugh.  I nodded at him and walked up to my apartment in a hurry feeling even more stupid that I had all day.  I unlocked the door and walked in, instantly a heat wave hit me, suffocatingly almost.  I closed the door and locked it then hurried up and ran over to the heater dial turning it off.  I walked over to the balcony door and slid it open just a little bit, just enough to get a slight breeze flowing through to keep me from passing out from heat exhaustion.  I walked into my room and flipped on the lights, I looked around satisfied that everything was normal. I guess I was still spooked.  I stripped down to my shirt and panites already starting to sweat from the heat.  I walked to the hall closet and grabbed a towel and wash cloth out I guess a cold shower couldn’t hurt anything.  I turned the water on and jumped in to let my body get used to the cold faster. 

I stood there letting the water run down me and letting my muscles relax under the pressure of the watter hitting me.  By the time I got out a few ours had passed and I was really feeling how tired I was, I felt slow like I was bogged down by everything that happened today.  I wrapped my towel around my head as I threw my favorite sweats on and a regular old t-shirt. I walked out into the living room and started to watch the late night news.  I don’t know how long I was out but one of those paid programmings were on and I was freezing.  I got up and closed the sliding door grabbing a blanket off the couch and wrapping it around me.  I cliked the tv off as I walked past it and culed  up under my convers.  Sleep took me and it took me fast.

I woke up with my whole body covered in goosebumps, it was even colder than it was when I first went to bed.  I grabbed all the blankets off the bed and wrapped them around me when I got up, I walked out into the living room thinking maybe I didn’t close the balcony door all the way. I walked out and it was opened all the way, and I know I didn’t open it up all the way last night.  I looked around the living room and everything looked fine.   Walking from room to room looking around I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so I ignored it figuring it was me and nothing more.  I walked over to the heater dial and cranked it up, then I hurried back to my bed and luckily the middle of the bed was still warm from my body heat.  I curled up in a ball there and lavished in the warm,  not soon later I fell back asleep.

I woke hours later and thankfully I was neither hot nor cold.  I got up and put a sweater on and walked out, I heard voices coming from the living room was I recognized as my sisters’ the other I didn’t know.  I walked quietly and glanced around the corner trying to be as stealthy as possible.  I looked over to see the maintance guy for our apartment over.  I walked over stretching pretending that I just now woke up. 

“Morning Amber, wait a few minutes before you eat breakfast okay?” She said smiling at me still in her perple robe.  She doesn’t like having outsiders see her in her sleep attire so I wonder what was up that could be so important to get  her to stand what she considered naked in front of this starange man.  I walked into the living room and it smelled odd. I looked around until my eyes fell on the heater dial it was melted along with the wall around it.  I looked over at my sister and we both locked eyes for a minute we didn’t have to say anything, I could tell by her look that she was going to tell me what happened, I just have to be patient.  I layed across the couch and listened to them go back and forth with questions until I heard them exchange good bye’s and I heard the door shut. 

I rolled over on my stomach and stared at her while she stared at the hole in the wall.  After a minute of it staying like this I couldn’t help it anymore, sometimes I have the worst patience.

“So…?” I asked hoping to get her started.  She turned around to look at me with her arms crossed in front of her. 

“I came home last night and the place was freezing so I turned the dial up even more than what you had it set on, I woke up to the smoke detector going off, I came out and the whole living room was filling with smoke and the dial was on fire along with the wall around it.  So I grabbed the fire extinguisher and put it out and called the land lady.  I’m surprised you didn’t wake up during all the noise.” She finished and I could see the exhaustion written all over her face and I could also see the bags under her eyes.

“Well I’m going back to sleep now, I’m on call today so I don’t know if I’ll be here to cook dinner, if I’m not there’s Ramen noodles in the cupboard.” And with that she walked off back into her room and closed the door.  I looked back over the wall and I got a chill down my back.  I didn’t want to think about any of it so I got up and grabbed a pop tart out of our pantry, mmm hot fudge sundae flavored.  I went back to my room and got dressed I decided I wanted to lounge around in my favorite outfit in case I considered going out.  I pulled on a pair of faded out ae jeans and a black metallica shirt with a bright red ae hoodie.  I grabbed my red and white Jorndans out of the closet and threw them on too, I know it all didn’t sound like it would go together but I actually looked pretty cute in it all.  I pulled my long brown hair up into a ponytail, my hair could sometimes be really difficult as it was nerither curly nore completely straight in was always a mixture of both, wavy I guess you could say.  I went over to my desk to grab my money out of my drawer and then it hit me, the memory from last night hwen I realized I left my stuff at that creepy old house.  Then images of that weird guy flashed into my mind. 

I wonder why I’ve never seen him around before, he looked to be my age so wouldn’t I have seen him at school?  I thought about all the money I’d lost and I dreadfully knew what I had to do.  I walked into my sister room and nudged her on the arm.

“What?” She croaked at me not bothering to open her eyes. 

“You remember the Bension Manor, do you know how to get to there?” I asked nudging her all the while to make sure she was still awake to hear me.  She mumbled to me the directions on how to get there told me that there was money in the money jar on the counter.  After she was done with all her mumbling I lightly walked out of her room closing the door with a slight click, once outside her room I picked my normal pace back up and walked into the kitchen to grab the money.  I reached in and pulled out a wad of money, I didn’t bother to count it out I just stuffed it in the front pocked of my hoodie and walked out the door.  I most of the time had a pretty good memory so I didn’t write down any of what my sister told me, hoping that today wouldn’t be the day that my memory does mess up on me. 

I walked a mile to the closest bus stop I climbed on, paid the bus fare and headed straight to the very back.  I sat there staring out the windows watching the trees fly past and buildings and cars went by quickly too.  I had butterflies in my stomach and also a tightness it was a little nauseating.  I just hoped that that weird guy wasn’t there.  I couldn’t exactly remember at what time did I remember having my bag last.  I think I may have left it in the basement, you know it is times like these I really wish I had a cell phone.  Now that I think about it what happens if that guy is there and I don’t come home?  My only hope then would be that my sister who was practically half dead at the time I spoke to her, would remember me asking directions to this place. 

After what seemed like forever of sitting there watching the world go by outside my window I finally made it to the stop my sister told me to get off at.  I hopped off the bus and stood there stretching the tightness in my muscles out.  While I was standing there stretching, feeling stupid, I was thinking of the next street my sister told me to go to.  Well, to my disappointment my memory did chose today to fail me, so I walked around for three hours hoping that I was at least headed in the right direction, I’m kind of like a guy, I don’t ask for directions.  I was so wore out and was thinking about going back to the bus stop and giving up when I I looked to my right down the street and saw far off in the distance the very place I was headed for.  I was so relieved to see it after I was starting to become hopeless.  I started running towards the house dispite the protest of my muscles; clearly they weren’t completely up to this task, I only made it half way to the house before I had to stop.  I leaned over holding myself up with my hands on my knees, I was working on catching my breathe when a red ball rolled up and bumped my feet.  I glanced up still bent over and trying to catch my breathe, I looked up shocked as a jolt ran through my whole body.  There a couple houses up from where I was standing was a little girl, a little girl that looked exactly like how I did, I thought I was looking at me.  I bent looked back down at the ball, a ball that I know recognized.  I picked it up and looked back up, the little girl was gone, I looked all around and didn’t see any trace of her.  I looked back down at the ball in my hands and tossed it into the woods that started a few feet away from the sidewalk.  I took a deep breath and started yet again towards the house.  The butterflies in my stomach were slowly dying away and the tightness was getting worse the closer I got to the mansion.  I finally reached the gate that started the mile long drive-way.

I put one hand on the gate clutching to one of the wrought iron bars and the other hand clutching at my stomach I didn’t know what was going on.  But I wanted to get this over with since I’ve already gone through the trouble of coming all the way out here.  I pushed the gate open with some effort and it creaked  obnoxiously.  I stood there holding my stomach and staring down the long drive-way which seemed to go on forever; the sun was just starting to set and it was casting shadows the whole way down.  With the white gravel path and the willow trees surrounding it it looked to be striped.  I started the long walk down the drive taking in all the surroundings.  The yard was huge and barren except for a really large barn to the back right of the house.  The place didn’t look as intimidating in the daylight as it did at night but it was still pretty old school looking.  I didn’t see any cars around so I was pretty sure no one was here.  The house you could tell was white as one point in time, but most of it was peeled off to where you saw the dark wood underneath that made up the whole place.  The porch was a wrap around porch and you can see the faded light blue paint on it, there was a huge bay window on the very front of the house, all the windows were completlly closed up with all white lacey curtains, not a wingle window I saw yet was open even an inch.

I got the the end of the driveway where it turned into a cirle and in the middle was a  big fountain that was decorated with little angels the fountain didn’t run instead it was full of leaves and debris.  I walked around the side of the house headed away in the dirction of the barn.  This side of th houe was a long stretch of wall and windows.  Just below one of the first floor windows in about the middle of the house was a small set of wood cellar doors, leading into the basement, the metal handle of one of the doors was so rusted looking I didn’t think you could use these anymore.  I kept walking to around the back where there was another fountain surrounded by what used to be a garden.  This one was like the first all dried up with debris in it, it was though a larger one and with more elaborate décor on it. To hear there was a back door and above this back door was the back porch to the house which I thought was rather odd.  I looked around away from the house and there was still no cars in sight the tightness in my stomach was going away just slightly.  I looked over at the barn it was a huge wooden barn with two huge barn doors and it had two separate bale windows.  It is by far the largest barn I have ever seen.  I walked around the house to the last side I haven’t explored yet, it was the side that the wraparound porch went to.  There was yet again a huge bay window on this side of the house that was boarded up and the porch was barren.  There one no one here I was sure of it, but I still had a sense of unease.  I walked up to the front of the house and right up onto the porch.  I was so nervous as I went to open the front door that my hand was shaking just like jess’ the night before.  I grabbed the knob tightly and very slowly started to turn it all the while listending for any small noise alerting me to anything; but the place was dead silent.  I turned the knob all the way till I heard it give and the door swung open quietly. 

As I opened the door dust picked up in the slight breeze of the summer heat coming in with me as I step in peeking around to make sure no one was trying to ambush me; but there were no signs of life except for the track marks of our group when we were here.  I looked around at the furninture and everything now, every inch in the house was covered with dust, thick amounts of it too.  I do’t know how we missed how filthy this place was.  I closed the door behind me and still heard nothing, I was concentrating on making sure no one could hear my breathing or hear any trace of my movement through the place.  I walked to the livingroom with the big bay window that faces the front.  As soon as I moved through the doorway right in front of me I saw a huge wood grandfather clock, it wasn’t moving so I guess it’s broke.  I looked to my left and in front of the big window was an old record player, you know the kind with the big tube/horn looking things on them.

The couch looked big under the white almost gray sheet.    The wall to my right was completely covered in shelf after shelf of worn out books, but with a few excepts the books weren’t really that dusty, it made me raise an eyebrow in curiosity.  I kept walked though all the rooms from what I had see so far had the same wallpaper on, a dark red with white pattern on it, covered almost every inch of wall.  The only exception for this rule was the kitchen from what I saw in there last night.  I walked into the next room which was big, it was the room with the metal spiral stair case in the corner that was behind the grand piano that sat on a raise platform of the floor.  The dining table was covered in sheets along with all the chairs, the table took up most the space in the room.  Along the walls that didn’t hold the piano with its raised platform was the same table sitting next to each other to make up what looked like one long table going around the room.  They didn’t stand out from the wall much just enough that a few very elegant lamps sat on them, and a few oil lanterns too I noticed.  There were colorful, and old painting on all the walls, they were all of different scenes one I looked at was a beautiful sunny field filled with bright flowers with a little crystal stream flowing through and a forest in the backdrop.  Another one was of a dark snow covered cabin, the stars were shining all throughout the sky and you could see the silhoutette of trees behind the cabin.  There were lights on which shined out over the yard.  They were both my the same artist, Caleb Bension. 

Wow, it must be the one a family member who lived here that did all these, I thought.  I walked into the kitchen which had black and white checkered lenolium floors and was painted a hay straw yellow, there was a small round white table in the corner and the basement door was across the kitchen on the same wall.  The basement door was wooden and painted white, it had a huge black doorknob.  There were white cabinets going along all the walls and a open walk-in pantry that stood empty and darker than the rest of the room.  I stayed standing where I was scared to go to the basement, I didn’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier, but generally I get the heebie jeebies in basements, I haven’t found a single one I’ve been comfortable in yet.  I took a deep breathe of motivation, the sooner I get my stuff the sooner I could get out of here.  I walked down flicking on a lightswitch I found on the wall, if this place is as old as jess said I keep wondering about all the lamps and lightswitches I’ve seen.  Why would all this stuff be here if its been abandoned for decades too, I thought suspiciously.  Is there really someone living here?  The basement lit up and I continued on my quest into the deep dungeon of my nightmares.  I got to the last step and looked around I didn’t see nothing except clutter upon clutter, there was furniture down here stacked upon each other.  I saw where we had been sitting at and I saw a flashlight and Lisa’s jacket on the ground but nothing else.

Satisfied that my stuff wasn’t down here I ran back up the steps glad to be out of that room, I flicked off the light and closed the door letting out a sigh of great relief.  I would have to go upstairs and check the couch in the downstairs room I didn’t go in other than that I don’t know where they could be, those were the only places I really checked out in this place.  I decided that sincei felt the first floor was safe I would check out the other living room.  This one was more homely looking than the other, the only thing covered in this room was a desk that sat next to a huge bookcase.  There were three sets of couches all different in shape and color.  One of the couches farthest in the room from me was a lounge couch where it had one arm and the back, it was a gold color with darker gold stripes going down it.  The second one in the middle was the one I hid behind, it was a deep red with lion faces carved in the wood accents around the frame.  I walked over to it and glanced behind, nothing except the disturbed dust where I had been crouching.  There was a set of stairs in this room just like the first living room leading upstairs, they were simple wood stairs with a solid red carpet going down the middle.  The two libing rooms were ajoin by the stairs leading up to a single platform that merged into one stiar case between tall walls.  There were photographs hanging on the walls of the platform and the walls lining the singular staircase of four people, I assumed it was the family who lived here last. 

I was thining about Jess’ story she told us in the car I didn’t remember saying anything about kids being here, just a couple.  I shrugged to myself and kept walking up the stiars, at the top there was a long hallway that looked to go on forever, but I knew it didn’t.  Because on the other end of the hall was the spiral staircase I used last night.  All the doors in the hallway were closed and as I looked out the window at the end of the hall above the staircase landing I could see that I didn’t have much time til it was really dark now.  I walked down the hall and looked around  the staircase and I didn’t see no sign of my stuff, I was racking my brain when a little lightbulb went off.  What if that guy grabbed my stuff and htrew it in one of these rooms.  So I went through and open doors a small mostly brown bedroom, a bedroom sized bathroom with a standing tub.  Another red colored room; a mostly black room, a blue room, a baby room, until I striked the jackpot.  I opened the door annoyed by now to the biggest room in the whole place, it looked to be a library, it had walls completely covered in books and one of those nifty ladders that slid around the top of the bookcases.  In the middle was a huge wooden desk that also had lion head carved in it.  There was a simple lamp on the desk and piles of books and papers all over it.  There was a couch under the only window in the room covered up with a sheet, but the couch looked used.  I saw my bag sitting on the ground next to the desk and quickly walked over to it.  I picked it up and looked inside my money was in there along with my clothes and book too.  I was excited to get my stuff back, probably so much that why I didn’t hear the footsteps behind me.  I turned around to leave smiling with my bag in hands when I looked up to see the man from last night standing in the door way.

He was leaning against one side of the fram with his other arm stretched out to rest on the other side of the frame.  I was trapped.  As soon as I saw him my smile instantly dropped along with my stomach.  The tightness and pain came roaring back to existence with a single studder of my heart.  He looked ordinary enough wearing faded blue jeans and a dark green sweater, that brought the green in his eyes out. He stood there paler than anyone I’ve ever seen and gave me a closed lipped smile, one that I thought looked sinister.  Knowing that it wouldn’t help anyways, I started backing up trying to think of what to do. 

“So trespassing again.” He said putting his hands in his pockets and stepping forward in one fluid movement.  It didn’t sound like a real question so I kept my mouth shut. I could barely make out his footsteps as he walked towards me, and then I backed right into the big wooden desk in the middle of the room, how could I have forgotten about that!  My panic was threatening to take me under in a mix of pain and nausea, I felt as if I was on the verge of hyperventilating.  I took one step to my left and before I knew what happened he was standing right on top of me with a death grip on my arms, holding me prisoner in the spot I stood in.  He stared at my face as if searching for something, I could see that there were a million thoughts racing in his mind behind those alluring eyes of his.

He started to part his mouth as to say more but before he could I did the only thing I could think of, I brought my knee up as fast and hard as I could between his legs and made contact.  As he doubled over his grip on my arms loosened just enough to where I shoved him onto the floor and ran as fast as I could.  Racing out of the room I threw my bag strap across my body so I didn’t have to worry about it while I was running for my life.  I was headed in the direction of the spiral staircase when I heard him behind me, I had just hit the first step and was in the middle of seeing if I could jump over the railing when something tugged my bag back cause me to fly backwards and right into the arms of the guy.  He wrapped his arms around me from behind and held me tightly to him.

“If you keep struggling, you’ll only make matters worse for yourself, so I suggest you stop immediantly.” He whispered in my ear menacingly.  I gave up hope of eluding him and quite struggling.

“That’s better,” he said never loseing his grip on me.  “Now, how about you begin by telling me your name.”  I stayed silent just standing there wishing this were all a nightmare.  “Well seems you need some inspiration,” he continued on I guess seeing that I wasn’t going to answer; “My name is Caleb and this is MY home that your in, so I suggest you start minding your manners and answer me or I could just have you taken to jail.”  He stated matter of factly.  I weighed my options and seeing that answering him was probably the lesser of evils I yet again, gave in. I let out a heavy sigh.

“Amber.” That was all I said.

“Amber,” he said my name letting it roll off his tongue smoothly, “how beautiful and suitflul since it’s the name of your hair color.” He spun me around and grabbed my upper arms again sqeezing them until it hurt, he pushed me up against the wall and pinned me there. 

“why are you in my house?” He asked and his face was dead of expression, like a mask was just put on him, even his eyes looked dull. 

“I left my stuff,” I barely managed to get out between the pain in my stomach and my nerves.  He took  a glance down at my bag and back at me.  I didn’t know what to expect, my mind was going a million miles an hour with all sort of thoughts.  I didn’t know if he was going to let me live, if he was going to kill me.  The pain in my stomach tightened and I grabbed my stomach with a gasp as the pain worsened.  He looked at me in concern then suddenly let me go.

“Leave, now.” He yelled and turned and just as quickly as he appeared he was gone.  The pain in my stomach lessened a bit and I didn’t need to be told twice, I booked it.  I ran down the spiral staircase and through room after room downstairs til I hit the front door.  Once I made it out onto the porch, the pain in my stomach relaxed more.  I no longer felt anxious because I was now out  of the house, so I simply walked down the driveway clutching at my bag strap.  I finally reached the gate relieved, now I never had to come back here again.  It was weird the minute that I took a step outside the huge gate, the pain subsided completely. 

I ran the way I came here stopping every now and again to catch my breathe, I was almost to the bus stop when I recognized the headlights of my sisters car driving in my direction.  She pulled up to the curb and I climbed in.

“Where have you been this whole time?” She asked before I could even get seated comfortably. 

“I’ve been at the Bension Manor.” I said feeling exhausted as I was sitting now, I could feel tension humming in all my muscles, and I knew I was going to be sore tomorrow when I woke up.

“Why were you even at that old place?” She asked.  K

“I thought I told you, I left some stuff there when I was there last with Jess and everyone.” I was hoping the conversation would end so I could relax and stop thinking about that place and everything that happened there. 

“Your brave,” she said laughing.  I looked over at her questioningly and picked up on that.  “When I was younger than you I did the same thing with a group of my friends,  because everyone has always said that it’s haunted, I think it’s a tradition that someone goes there…well probably not.  But we went there and were exploring the house we had split up in groups to make it funner, so when me and my girlfriend got to the attic there was a guy up there and he started yelling at us to get out, it was horrible and none of us were expecting a person to be in there.”  She finished with a shrug and laughed.  I was sitting there in shock, was the guy I saw the same one she saw, no way that would mean he’s been there for six years without anyone seeing him!  The thought was so mind boggling that I put it in the back of my head and stared out the window, after a few minutes of silence I feel asleep against the window, the coolness of the glass felt good against my forehead. 

I wasn’t asleep for long when a dazzling pair of green eyes came out of the darkness.  Then slowly the rest of his face too, I knew who it was before i fully saw him.  The perfect angular features; the sharp, straight slope of his perfect nose.  His lips looked to be the softess and most kissable ever.  His hair was short and spiked, the black of his hair helped you notice his eyes; which I could stare into forever.  I snapped out of my dream before I saw more.  I was so confused about what I was thinking about and what I felt in the dream, it didn’t feel like those were my thoughts or feelings.  I looked around out my window and we were pulling into the parking lot infront of our building, all I could think about was how good it was going to feel getting a hot shower and going to bed.

Kate parked the car and cut the engine, climbing out without a word.  I followed her lead and got out following her up the the apartment.  When we walked in she through her stuff down on the couch and walked right into her room closing the door.  I walked into mine throwing my bag on the floor next to my bed and grabbed a pair of pjs to sleep in.  I was excited to get into the shower and try to loosen my muscles up.  After what felt like an hour I got out and ran to my bed flopping myself onto it.  I grabbed all my covers and curled up in a little ball, ravishing in the warmth of my blankets.  It didn’t talk long before I was out again and thankfully there were no more strange dreams.

Today was Sunday so I didn’t plan on leaving my room really, except to eat and go to the bathroom.  I lounged around sleeping and studying, I always made a point to try to stay one step ahead in all my classes in case I missed a day, it wouldn’t be a big deal really then, that was the theory anyways.  It was nice having a normal day where I just lounged around and did my usual. I was sitting in bed with my window and blinds open, letting a cool breeze blow in through the window cooling off the heat that built up in my room from the summer sun.  I was sitting studying my Trig homework when the sound of the phone ringing pulled my concentration away from my text book.  I dropped the book leaning over to grab the receiver.

“Hello?” I asked, honestly not knowing who would be calling me today.

“Amber?” Avoice asked that I recognized as Jess’. 

“Hey, Jess whats up?” I asked positioning myself to where I was standing cross-legged in the middle of my bed and mound of dark covers. 

“Nothing much, how about you?  I tried calling you yesterday to see if you wanted to go to the movies but your sister said you were gone.”  She started rambling into the receiver. 

“Yeah, remember when that creepy guy showed up at that house?” I asked.

“God, don’t remind me!” she piped up.

“Well I left my stuff in the house when we all scrambled and took of, so I went back and got it yesterday.”  I said flatly, like it was no big deal at all.

“Why didn’t you call ME! I so-o-o would of went with you.” She replied back dragging out the so, kind of annoyingly I might add.  I shrugged relizing she couldn’t see it.

“I guess I thought you wouldn’t want to go back.  So whats up, was there a reason you called?”  I asked with all my excitement of having a break from homework wearing off. 

“Oh, yea I was wondering if you could please e-mail me your answers to our English homework, PLEASE!? I’m going to be out all day and I’m not going to have time to work on it and you know that Mrs. Banner hates me and this is the last time I’ll ask for answers on homework again, please help me!”  She went off into her story and started pleading with me.

“Okay, fine, but this IS the last time.” I told her, giving her a stern look that I knew she couldn’t see but just thought I’d do it anyways. 

“Oh, thank you; thank you!  You’re the best, well I’m sorry but I got to go.  Love ya!”  She hung up before I could get the chance to say more, I put the phone up and grabbed my English paper out of the bile of books sitting on the floor next me.  I walked over to my computer and turned on my printer, that I haven’t used in a long time.  It came on with a quiet hum that went away when it was all booted  up.  I scanned the homework and mailed it to her and turned everything back off.  I went back to studying my Trig book and then went back asleep for the rest of the night.

I woke up to my alarm clock screaming at me to get up.  It was Monday, eww, that meant school.  I smacked the button on the clock to shut it off and threw the covers back with a sigh.  I walked out and to the kitchen grabbing a pop tart and glass of milk.  I turned on the Tv in the living room curling up in the corner of the couch eating to get a quick forecast so I knew what to wear today.  The weather call for high temps. And lots of sunshine.  I turned it off finished eating and walked back into my room.  I grabbed clothes out not really paying attention to what I was getting just as long as it wasn’t long sleeved or heavy.  I usually wore make-up to school but today I was tired and didn’t feel like putting any on so I just threw my hair up into a high ponytail and got dressed.  I walked over to my pile of school stuff and threw it all into my book bag, hoping I did all the studying I needed to yesterday. 

I grudgingly went to school, when I woke up I wansn’t necessarily in a bad mood but I wasn’t in a good mood either; I had a feeling that today was going to be a long day.  When I walked through the front doors and walked to the table that everyone was sitting at I perked up a little bit until I started to hear rain at that moment start pouring down on the roof of the cafeteria.  We were sitting in the Senior commons, which is a separate part of the big cafeteria where the Seniors can go to sit at during lunch and now before classes start for the day, it has a stage in the far end of the room where the dance team practices and it has a jukebox and tv, along with a  set of vending machines, no one but the Seniors are supposed to come in here; but we do and everything is okay as long as no Senior compains. 

The roof to the Senior commons is gorgeous, it reminds me of the glass roofs that you see in malls, a lot.  I looked up when I entered the room and what I had heard at been confirmed by my eyes.  The rain was falling heavily on the glass panes making it look like I was looking up from the bottom of a lake.  I sat down and listened into the conversation trying to pick up what everyone was so excitedly chattering about.

“I heard he’s from Germany!” Lisa chirped.

“No way, I heard he was from England!” Jess threw back louder at her.  They weren’t argueing but they were both getting pretty worked up whatever they were talking about.  I glanced at the boys since they were being quiet and they both looked bored and aggravated at the same time.  I tried not to laugh at the looks on their faces because they were both identical.  I decided I would find out what was going on.

“What are you guys talking about?” I butted in to their conversation.  Both girls looked at me surprised, which clearly meant they hadn’t seen me come in and sit down.  Bleh.  Jess recovered first.

“you didn’t hear?” She gasped like it was an outrage.  I just shook my head at the obvious.

“Well…” They both began and looked at each other.  Before they could tell me what was going on they started bickering with each other over who was going to tell me the story.  I glanced at the boys’ faces again and I know understood there looks.  I just rolled my eyes and shook my head getting up right as the bell rang to start heading towards our first class.  Our school was small, since it was a small town.  The population of the school was a whopping 345 students and the highest class is our Junior class pulling 178 students.  I walked into my first class and sat in the back, dropping my bag on the floor next to me and leaning back in my chair with my arms crossed over my stomach, I was sitting there relaxing rocking back and forth in my chair using my one foot to keep me balanced.  Everything seemed normal enough when Mr. Paterson walked in the room with a new student in tow. 

The instant I saw his face I about went into shock, I lost concentration of keeping myself balanced and bell backwards in my chair, I was so embarrassed I could of died.  Everyone was staring at me as I got up picking the chair back up behind me, a few near me asked if I was okay I nodded smiling at them and it felt like my face was on fire.  I knew I had to be beat red.

“Okay class listen up, Ms. Brown enough clowning around.” He said getting the class settled down.  The student in tow was Caleb from the Mansion.  I had to be in shock because I couldn’t get my mind to move on from the sight of seeing him, and then it struck me.  We only had one open seat in our class and it was to the right of me from a student who had transferred out.  I couldn’t have been more flustered even if I walked into school naked, I never expected anything like this.  After Mr. Paterson introduced him to the class he walked up the aisle looking at me with a smirk on his face that I didn’t understand, and took his seat next to me.  In a setting where I felt safe, I couldn’t help but notice how amazingly good looking he is.  He was wearing dark blue jeans and a forest green shirt underneath an black button up shirt that he had hanging open.  He set his bag down on the floor and immediantly looked at me smiling leaning with his arms crossed on his desk.  

Embarrassed I looked down at my bag and got my book out for the class and opened it up to the chapter we were going to be studying today hoping that he would turn his attention to something else. 

“Do you need help with anything?” I recongnized Julia’s husk voice talking to Caleb.  Julia was every guys’ dream.  Bleach blonde with beautiflul curls.  She had the same colored tan all year round, a dark mahogany.  Her eyes were a stunning shade of gray, that really stood out the way she always applied her make-up.  She was almost like a real life Barbie, and she made a lot of us envious.  He looked at her giving her an appraising look and then smiled shaking his head, which I was surprised about.  I thought with the look he gave her that he was for sure going to take her up on her offer. 

“No I already have someone to help me, but thanks for the offer anyways beautiful.” He smoothly said, and her and all the other beauties that hung around with her, started blushing and giggling like little school girls.  It was very amusing to see them acting like that since I’ve never seen that kind of behavior from any of them before.  I was going to have to tell Jess and Lisa about this little scene, I know they’ll be amused too.  The class started and I tried to pay attention as he put in the movie Hamlet 2000.  He turned off the lights and I relaxed, watching the movie.  I watched the first ten minutes of the movie decideing it was looking to be good, and we were going to be watching this for the next three days along with studying the chapter on Shakespeare; which we were to do on our own at home.  We were about half way through class when I yawned and then heard a snicker from beside me.  I had almost forgotten about Caleb, letting myself get drawn into the movie.  I looked over at him and he was resting his face on his hands staring right at me smiling.  I felt my face blush again and turned right back to the movie. 

The bell rang and I jumped up grabbing my bag, I was starting to walk away from my desk when someone caught me by the arm stopping me.  I turned around and it was Caleb, he let his grip on me go as soon as he was sure I wasn’t going to flee. 

“So you are going to help me right?” he asked.  I looked at him trying to rack my brain to figure out what he was talking about and I was drawing a blank. 

“Um..” I began, still trying to think. 

He laughed seeing that I was clueless.  “Get to class.” He said smiling down at me with the most amused look.  Then I understood what he meant and I felt really stupid and surprised to see that he wanted my help.

“O-okay I guess I can help you, let me see your schedule.” I held my hand out waiting, so I could see what his next class was and point him in the right direction.  He dug it out of his front pocket and handed it over without bothering to smooth it out.  So I smoothed it out and scanned over all his classes, almost going into shock again.  He had every class with me and the same lunch bell too.  God this was so weird I thought shaking my head.

“What?”  He asked leaning in towards me a bit and glancing down at his schedule like he expected something interesting on the paper.

“Oh, um, you have every class with me and lunch too.” I told him and took a step back handing him back his schedule.

“Well, I must be the luckiest man on the face of the planet so be able to spend all day with you, Amber.” He replied back to me, it sent a shiver through me hearing him ssay my name. 

“Yeah, right.” I answered trying not to sound as weird as I felt.  He smiled down at me again, he smiled to much I thought.  I waved my hand at him signigling to him to follow me and he did, I just wanted to sigh and blush at the same time.  Maybe I was dreaming, hopefully I was dreaming, but I doubted it. 

We walked into History in complete silence which was perfectly fine by me.  As we walked in everyone in the class shut up and stared and for what I considered for the twentieth time today I blushed, ducking my head and went straight to my seat leaving Caleb up front looking dumbfounded.  The teacher handed him his books and seated him across the room from me.  During the middle of class though I noticed that he still was looking at me inbetween pushing all the girls throwing themselves at him.  The day pasted in pretty much the same manner with Caleb fallowing me around in silence and flocks of girls swooning over him.  At lunch he silently followed me to the table that I sat at with everyone and  patiently answered all their questions as he was interrogaited, he smiled at the girls and joked with the guys.  I was surprised to see that jess didn’t recognized him from the night we were first at the house. 

We were in the last class of the day, Trig II, the class I hated the most.  Besides my first class,  Caleb sat next to me in this one too.  Luckily all the gossip girls finally spread the word around that he didn’t seem much interested in any of the hotties around school.  Nope now the gossip involved me too, saying that they all thought he was into plain looking girls.  I had heard the gossip  while walking through the halls and listening to peoples conversations, and I’m sure Caleb heard it too.  We were taking notes today so I was hoping this would solve my new neighbors staring problem, but when I dropped a pencil and picked it up I cam face to face with him.  I couldn’t help but feel he was studying me.  I had finally had enough and quickly sqruibled down on a corner of my notebook a message for him.

Stop staring at me Weirdo!!!

I ripped the corner of the paper out of my notebook and set it on his desk in front of him.  He looked down and smiled even more.  But as he looked up he didn’t look at me instead he grabbed his pencil and started taking notes.  I shook my head and went back to my own note taking.  When the bell rang I was glad to be out of there, I felt like a had a stalker, it was annoying.  But a small part of me couldn’t help but be a little flattered, I have never had a boyfriend before or even had a remote interest in having one.  When I was walking out the door of the classroom a piece of paper fell on the ground in front of me and a smiling Caleb walked out the door.  I picked up the paper and read it. 

Weirdo though?

That was all the note said.  It did make me laugh a little to myself. 

I got home feeling extremely tired, I figured since I was a step ahead in all my  classes that if I were to put off my homework tonight It would ok.  So I changed into some sleepware and crawled into bed yawning over and over, I was so tired that I couldn’t stop yawning until I layed my head down on the pillow and sleep peacefully took me. 

School the next day was tiring also.  It was still a shock to walk in and see this stranger still here in realitly.  Everyone was already there sitting at the table talking between one another, it seemed that again no one really noticed when I walked in, except for one.  Caleb had his back to me facing towards Jess but when I walked in I noticed him perk up as if he had been shocked.  Before I even sat down he turned slightly in my direction and slid over making room for me on the bench to sit.

When I sat down Caleb was still getting drilled for questions about where he came from, what are his dislikes/likes.  I just rolled my eyes digging in my pocket for some money to grab a snack and a pop, I needed the caffeine to wake up anyways.  I got up and started walking towards the vending machine, I noticed when he got up and followed me too.  I ignored him to the best of my abilitly but it’s hard to completely ignore him, I put reaching up to put my money in the machine when his hand shot out of no where and beat me to it.

“You never let a lady pay.” Was all he said.  I looked at him for a minute, not really sure how to react to it.  When I saw that he was set on buying my stuff for me gave up shrugging my shoulders and picked my stuff.  After I grabbed it I turned around and thanked him, and was going to back towards the table when he caught the corner of myshirt and without a word held me there; after he had gotten his water then he let go and followed me back to the bench and sat down wit me.  The day passed by much the same as the one before, he followed me around in silence and did the studying look.  I made sure to give him the same reaction as before, I sighed and shook my head. 

Today in our last class he tossed a note on my desk and it landed right in front of my on my notebook disrupting my notetaking.  I opened it up trying to be sneaky about it, last thing I wanted was to have it confenscated and read out loud to the class.  It said are you busy Friday night, I don’t know why but it made me smile and I wrote yes and tossed it on the floor next to his foot.  With one fluid motion he swooped it up off the floor and read it with a huge smile on his face, I don’t know why I had this sudden change of feeling but I was excited about him asking me out, even though all day I’ve been hoping and praying that he would stop staring at me, it really bugged me how he looked at me.  Like he was studying me and waiting for something to happen. 

When I got home my phone was ringing and I could hear it through the door, I hurried up and unlocked the door almost breaking my key trying to pull it out of the lock too fast.  I dropped everything and ran to the phone grabbing it as I belly flopped onto my bed. 

“Hello?” I asked breathless. 

“Oh My God!” I recognized as Jess’ voice over the phone.  She made the three words sound so much like a big deal that I was thinking already she must of heard some really juicy gossip, that was the tone and way she pronounced everything when she was in her Gossip Queen mode.

“So what’s the dish?” I asked resting my chin on my hand and tilting my head slightly getting ready to hear some long winded news from around the school.

“Yeah, what is the dish, Amber?” She asked cohercing me.

“Huh?” I was totally lost now, am I supposed to tell her something? Had I done something interesting that I’m not aware of?

“Don’t act like you don’t know!” She exclaimed, her voice going up two octaves like she was offended.  I could just see how fake her face must look right now putting on an act like she had been kept out of something really good.

“Honestly, I really don’t know what your talking about.” I told her.

“Oh, come on, like the whole school isn’t already talking about it.  You know, your date Friday with the hottest guy in the whole entire school!” She gushed over the phone.  Of course that’s what she’s talking about, I should’ve known.  This will be my first date, wow my first date, I just realized and now I was starting to panic.

“It’s nothing really.” I told her, my voice only wavering a little bit with nerves.

“Well, you know that youre’ going to have to give me all the juicy details when your date is over.” I pictured her jumping up and down like a rabbit while saying this.  I rolled my eyes, glad she couldn’t see because then she would have been mad.

“Yeah, you know I will.” I tried to sound enthusiastic but miserably failed.  “Hey, Jess I’m getting pretty tired, um… I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” I said and then listened for her response.

“Oh, okay, Bye.” Hanging up before I could say Bye back to her.  I dropped the phone trying to put it back on the base, I hung upside down over the edge of the bed lifting up the duvets to see where the phone went to.  The green light coming off of the caller id screen showed me where the phone was but I wasn’t too sure if I could reach it without falling onto my head from the bed.  I scooted my body closer to the edge and was reaching toward the glowing light, after struggling I finally managed to scoot it closer to me til I was able to wrap my hand around it and pick it up, I was sitting up when I thought what sounded like someone breathing in my ear from behind.  I gasped and turned around but there was no one there, I looked all around and even though it was just me I couldn’t help but feel like someone was watching me. 

I shook it off convincing myself that it had to be my imagination, anymore I feel like I’m losing it, but I’ll just keep pushing all the weird things I’ve been seeing and hearing away; I feel mentally unsable anymore.  I walked out to the living room and grabbed my school books trying to force myself to study.  It was harder than usual because even though I was trying not to think about all the weird stuff that’s been happening in the past few weeks, I doubted I was going to get far in my books.  I got up and grabbed a towel out of the hall closet jumping in the shower and letting the scolding hot water beat down on the back of my neck and shoulders.  I was trying to relax when I heard what sounded like glass breaking, I turned off the shower and stood there listening for any further sounds.  But there was nothing.

I wrapped my towel around me and open the door a crack, I peeked around and didn’t’ see nothing.  I walked into the kitchen and living room, then my sisters’ room and last mine.  So far I hadn’t seen anything until I opened up the door to my room.  There was broken glass on the floor around my desk  and half of what was left of my glass vase.  Sitting on my desk where the vase was kept as was a big painting of me.  I looked around the whole apartment again literally running and there was no one, all the doors and windows were locked besides mine which was wide open.  I shut the window not caring if anyone outside saw me in my towel or not;  I locked the window double checked it feeling almost dizzy.  This had to be a dream, I turned and looked at the painting there was no signature and the paint was still slightly damp.  This can’t be happening, I droped on the ground to my knees holding my hands to my chest.  I was gasping for air trying to calm the speed of my thoughts, what is happening I started crying to myself.  I know for sure that I’m losing it.

I ran over to my closet and got dressed and jumped on my bed backing my self up into the corner and sitting with my knees pulled up to my chest determined to keep vigilant.  I was going to stay up all night if I had to to figure out what was going on.  I was still sitting there crying when my sister opened up the door looked in at me.