Chapter 1

Pip stood next to Stark's Pond, watching as the moonlight glinted off the frozen surface. 'Beautiful', he thought to himself. Pip was wringing his hands together as he shivered in the cold of the midwinter night. He left his house in such a hurry he forgot to grab his coat or shoes. So he stood there in his shorts and shirt, snow numbing his feet with it's cold. His left cheek, still stinging from earlier, stung even worse as the cold bit at him. He'd eventually have to go home. Jut not now. Pip's lower lip trembled slightly, but not a single tear slid down his face. He really wanted to just lay down and sob. But he couldn't because then they would have won and he couldn't have that. He couldn't let them know he was hurting. They wouldn't care anyways. No one cares about him.

He was just Pip.

Everyone hated him. Everyone bullied him. No one like him, no one loved him. Not even his foster parents. His stinging cheek was a reminder of that. He wished his parents were with him, but alas. His mother had died giving birth to him and his father from a sickness not long after. Oh, how he wanted to know them.

Pip was shaking by this point, the cold slowly overpowering his still figure as he stood there. Pip didn't care at that moment. Not one bit. But he had to get home or else he'd be in bigger trouble. Pip sighed as he slowly turned around and started walking, wincing at the numbness of his feet.

The wind picked up and Pip shook as he walked. The night would've been beautiful had he not been freezing. He eventually took a shortcut behind the school as he trudged home through the ice cold.

"Hey!"

Pip almost fell as he heard that shout, thinking it was more bullies out late or even Middle or North Park students that enjoyed tormenting him. But as he turned around, he let out a sigh of relief. It was none of the above.

It was the Goth Kids.

Pip watched as they slowly approached him. He didn't have anything against the Goth Kids and they've never bothered him, so things should be good between them.

The girl (Henrietta?) stepped forward.

"What happened to your face?" She asked curiously. Pip inwardly curse, a bruise must be forming already.

He gingerly touched a hand to his cheek.

"Oh, nothing. I just fell is all." Pip put on the most convincing smile he could muster. None of them looked convinced.

The one with black and red hair spoke up. Pete, if he remembered correctly.

"We see how all the conformists treat you. It's not right."

Michael, the tall goth stepped in.

"We've been meaning to ask you something." Pip just watched them as the youngest, Firkle, began to talk as well.

"Would you like to turn away from conformists and become one of us?" Pip was frozen in shock and his lips moved without him knowing it.

"Why, of course."