Snip. Snip. Snip. Long strands of brunette hair fell to the floor. I turned
around.
"Auntie! What do you think?" I asked when I saw her standing there.
"Oh, Crystal! I always knew bangs would make you look older! But, we have
no time to waste unless you want to be late on your first day of school,
dear."
It had been 6 months after the death of my beloved parents. Now I was
living with my Auntie, who took care of me as a mother. I scoffed down a
bowl of cereal, grabbed my backpack, and...
"Crystal! You don't plan on leaving me without a kiss goodbye, right?" I
shook my head coming back.
"Of course not."
"Try to make some new friends, dear. You will be able to tell me all about
them when you come home."
I smiled.

Because Auntie insisted on driving me on my first day, I ended up 10
minutes early. Glancing around, I spotted a bench by a maple tree. I sat
down, and reached into my backpack, hoping I had remembered to bring my
diary. Pulling it out I wrote:

Dear Diary,

Today is my first day of school without my parents. Due to Auntie's
location, I had to transfer to a new school. Life has been so hard without
them...if only I could have them back for a moment...

" Hey!" I yelled as my diary was ripped out of my hands. I looked up to a
grinning face of a guy with blood red hair.
"What's this? A diary?" He opened it up to a blank page. "Dear Diary" he
said in an unforgettable high pitched voice. " I couldn't find my unicorn
last night, which made me sleep bad.". I snatched it out of his hands.
"Mind your own business." I said. ***Riiiiing!***
"See you in class if you are able to find the front doors." He smirked.
"Name's Castiel, just so you know."

Once he was gone, I threw my diary in my backpack, and ran inside.
" Oh, look! Its the new girl! A blonde said to her friends, and shoved her
elbow into my side, which made me drop my books.
"I'm so sorry." A guy said when he walked up to me. He looked at me with
golden eyes. "Really. I'm sorry. My sister, Amber, can be such a pain. He
began picking up my things with me.
"Its ok. Its nice to be greeted on day one..."
"I'm Nathaniel" he said brightly
"Nice to meet you. My name's Crystal."
"Well, I'll catch up with you later, Crystal" he smiled as he walked away.

"Well, that was just sad.". I glanced up into Castiel's face.
"What do you want?" I asked trying not to sound ignorant.
"You never told me your name, girly"
"Crystal. My name is Crystal."
He let out a short, stifled laugh. "That's such a nice name!" He said
sarcastically.
"Did you hear me make fun of yours?"
"No, girly, I didn't. But, that's off the point."
"Listen," I said getting aggravated. "You could at least show some respect,
and stop calling me 'girly'."
He let out a belly laugh. " The day I show you respect will be the day I
blush at something you say!"

"I'll show you respect." A small, but friendly voice said. I turned around
to see a boy shorter than me handing out a cookie.
"Thank-you!" I smiled sweetly, then gave Castiel a murderous look.
After this boy, called Ken, introduced himself, all of the kids went to
lunch except for me. I went and sat down on the same bench were I was in
the morning. "This is going to be a long, long year." I thought to myself.

Just as I was going back inside, Nathaniel ran out, and stopped in front of
me.
"I forgot to tell you, but we need to take care of your student ID.
" Ok, let's do it."
He paused. "Well, you see there's a 20$ fee."
"Unfortunately, I didn't bring any money...actually I might have. Be right
back." I flashed him a smile, and ran to the courtyard.

" Castiel! You see, I just needed one little favor. If you would be as kind
as to..."
"What was that?" He asked, pulling out his earplugs.
I rolled my eyes. "There's a fee on the student ID, and you see, I
didn't..."
"Ya, whatever" he said, and handed me a 20$ bill. "I went through that same
stupid thing with the same stupid president."
" Thanks! Oh, before I go..." I paused.
"What are you looking at?" He said, grinning.
I glanced away hoping my cheeks weren't red. "I know I've seen the picture
you have on your shirt somewhere."
He laughed. "The Winged-"
"Skull" I finished for him.
"What does the little girl know about the Winged Skull?" He asked.
"Everything" I said matter-of-factly. "But, I've gotta run."

"Thanks for helping me take care of this. I could have gotten into quite a
lot of trouble." He smiled apologetically.
"No, no, its fine. He stared at me for a moment.
" See you tomorrow." He said in a half wisper.

I began walking out when I felt my arm grabbed.
"Hey, want a tour around the school?" Castiel said grumpily.
"Well, I'm..."
"What am I thinking? Of course you do!" He said, and pulled me in the
opposite direction.

***

"Auntie! I'm home!" I called into the big, empty house.
"Oh, honey, you were an hour late!" She smiled, but to me it didn't look to
be her usual smile. For a moment, I thought something could be bothering
her.
"Are you OK, Auntie?"
"Of course, dear. Now," she sat down in her rocking chair. "Tell me all
about your day."
"Oh, Auntie. It was far from usual. Overall, everyone's pretty nice. Except
for one or two...Auntie, what's this?" I reached over to her desk, and
picked up a picture. It was of my mother, which caused my eyes to swell
with tears almost instantly.
"I miss her so much, dear." She said, sobbing.
I sat down beside her, and put my arms around her. "Me too... "
"Sometimes I feel like all the blame should be on me. I was the fault,
anyway. If only my life had been taken to spare theirs."
"Don't say such things! What you did was the right thing. We'll just have
to pull through it together."
"I love you more than anything in the world, Auntie." I whispered.
"And I was just going to say that!" She said. We laughed, and cried until
we fell asleep.