I looked around my new room, taking in the lack of warmth in it. I had just moved to Vegas from Canada, where it was really cold and guaranteed short summers anually. The room that Mom had given me (I figured she didn't want the creepiest room) had blacked-out windows, dark walls, and a box that held what looked like a cloth portrait of something, plus other possessions. It looked like it could be hung in a museum. Whoever the previous neighbour was, they definitely didn't like sunshine, rainbows and happiness.

A knock at the door made me turn to my mother, who had a heart-shaped face, dark auburn hair and brown eyes with pillow-shaped lips. She smiled softly, with that familiar gleam of amusement in her eyes that I had grown up with. I, meanwhile, had a square face, blond hair, brown eyes, and a pouty bottom lip.

"How do you like your new room?" she said, with her light Croatian accent.

"It looks like a morgue," I replied, giggling a bit at how frank I was. My lips stretched into a lopsided grin. Mom let out an amused sigh.

"Well, we can always fix that, starting with the horrible wall colour."

Good thing we hadn't moved in quite yet-this place needed to have a new look.

"Can we keep the blacked-out windows though? I like the privacy they give."

A month or two later, Mom, my sister Zoey, and I had moved into the house. Apparently the previous owner, Jerry Dandridge, had disappeared, so the house was abandoned. Mom got it for a great price, though. No one would even step foot in there for some reason (which I found very strange), making it an easy purchase so Mom didn't have to pay through her nose for the rest of her life when the mortgage bills came. Our neighbours, Jane Brewster and her son, Charlie, were really friendly and extremely happy that we had moved in. I liked Charlie's girlfriend, Amy. She was really nice, someone I could look up to outside of home.

I loved my room, too. The walls were painted a light sea blue, with a wooden floor and a black carpet with blue flowers as a pattern. My bed had white sheets and pillows, with a sapphire-colour comforter ontop. My bed was across from the closet, my dresser on the wall by the door to the room was, while my desk was at the opposite wall. I tried to keep it simple; a few pictures here and there, some soccer trophies on the shelf. There was a large mirror that was beside my bed, angled so when I got up, I could see what I looked like. There were plenty of lamps that followed the blue theme of my room. My room was great-bright and light during the day, dark and comfy when it was time to sleep.

And right now was one of those times where I wanted to sleep, since I was going to school tomorrow.

"Do you have your papers, Miss Harris?"

Registering for school was a pain in the ass. Seriously. I had to sort through a binder's worth of papers to get to the ones the school secretary needed, who then typed in all the needed information onto a computer and printed off my timetable.

"Your first class is literature. Hope you like it here," she gave me a friendly smile, and turned back to her computer.

"Thanks," I replied. I walked into the swarm of students buzzing about to get to their classes, and I briefly wondered whether I would get lost or shoved into a locker. I held the written note in my hand as tightly as I could as if it were a lifeline, because honestly, I was nervous to meet new people and adapt to a new environment. Thank God it was at least five minutes before the first period bell rang. I looked for the room I was supposed to be going to for Lit, but I had no clue where to even begin even though I got to tour around the school this morning.

A tap on my shoulder brought me out of my thoughts.

"Hey, you look lost."

I sighed in relief. It was Charlie, my neighbour. His familiar curly, short brown hair and hazel eyes made me feel much calmer, but he was a head taller than me, so I had to look up.

"Yeah," I said stupidly,"Can you help me? I have no idea where I'm supposed to go."

"Sure. Can I see your timetable?" Charlie moved to stand beside me when I finally fished it out of my jeans pocket, holding it out to him as he read it.

"Oh, you're just around the corner to your left. Have fun with Mrs. Miller, she's something."

"Thank you."

"Anytime," Charile gave me a boyish smile I found really cute, despite him being two years older than me, "If you need help, just find me or Amy."

With that, he gave me a wink, and turned away to go to his classes. I smiled.

I had such an awesome neighbour.

After school, Charlie and Amy were nice enough to give me a ride home so I didn't have to walk. They kept the conversation light and interesting, and I laughed every time Amy slapped Charlie in the arm if he made a comment that was teasing toward her. They asked a lot of things, actually; did I like school so far, how I was adjusting to my new surroundings, and if I got lost today (I never admitted to being late for science). I loved being around them, because it was like having more siblings when my sister Zoey was off at college for her lessons for the day.

"See you tomorrow!" I called to them when I made my way up to my house, then entering it.

"I'm hooommmmeeee..." I sang.

Dropping my bag, I walked up the stairs and peeked into my sister's room. Zoey was sitting on the bed with a few of her college friends, whom acknowledged me quicker than my own sister. It looked like one of those cheesy sleep over scenes that you would find in a chick flick, but I entered the room.

"Hey Joce," Zoey greeted, "These are my friends I've been telling you about before you and mom moved up here. This is Kathryn" she gestured to the red-headed girl, "And this is Denise and Sam."

The two girls were twins, with green eyes, freckled faces and brown hair. Denise had a small beauty mark on her cheek by her nose-it was the only way I could identify them seperately.

"Hey," I said shyly.

A chorus of warm "hi's" and "hello's" were the responses I got from them.

"So, what's up?"

Zoey gave me a mischevious look, pulling something from underneath her pillow and showing me a square-looking piece of wood.

"Denise, Sam, Kathryn and I wanted to see if this really works, and since they're sleeping over and all, I thought it would be a great time to try this."

She unfolded the wooden square, revealing a Ouija board.