Chapter 1

Ariel stared at her father through the thick sound-proof glass window, he was talking to a tall woman with cropped black hair, wearing dress pants and a tie. Ariel was sitting in the waiting room on the other side of the glass, impatiently playing with her thumbs, waiting for the awkward goodbyes she'd eventually have to give her father.

At first he had tried to convince her that the place she would be heading wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just a camp for teens. But even naïve little Ariel had seen straight through that lie. She was here because she was crazy, or at least people thought she was. She remembered how at first her father had shook it off as a child playing pretend, normal for anyone the ages of 7 or 8, but Ariel wasn't playing pretend. She knew what she saw, every time her legs even touched salt water. Of course no one would believe her, how could she have been so stupid to let her father know about her… condition.

Finally after what felt like ages, her father came out, followed by the tall woman. Her father gave her a look of pity and sympathy.

"Don't worry Ariel, the month will be up before you know it, I only want what's best for you." He said with a sad smile. Ariel simply crossed her arms over her chest and turned her head the other way, showing him that she didn't care how much he apologized or reasoned with her, things were never going to be the same. Her father, the one she had always counted on, the one who was always there for her, had agreed to have his youngest daughter sent away to a home for troubled teens, practically a mental asylum! They tried sugar-coating the fact that they were pretty much prisoners here by giving the place a sweet and innocent name: "The Mal house". It was engraved in fancy cursive writing on the outside door.

Her father sighed and whispered for a few moments with the tall woman, before finally turning back to Ariel.

"I love you Ariel." He said softly as he headed back to the exit, he turned once more before leaving, perhaps hoping for a response, before finally he left. The tall woman then stepped forwards and Ariel had a better view of her. She had, along with her hair, dark pencil thin eyebrows. As well as high cheek bones and ruby red lips that curved into an unnatural smile.

"Hello, you must be Ariel. I'm Mistress Maleficent, head administrator and owner of Mal House, but you should under any circumstances address me as 'Mistress ' or 'ma'am' understood?" she spoke sharply with fake politeness. Ariel mumbled something like: "Yes ma'am" as she stared at her toes.

"Very well. Now I would be delighted to show you around and introduce you to the rules and your schedule myself, however I'm afraid another more urgent matter requires my attention. I will let your new roommate Belle show you around, now come with me." Mistress Maleficent led Ariel down a hallway and then up some stairs. "This is the girls corridor, the other set of stairs leads to the boys corridor which is off limits after dark, are we clear?" Ariel faintly nodded. Mistress Maleficent then led Ariel to the end of the hallway and knocked on a door numbered '201' before opening it. Behind the door was a thin girl with light brown hair pulled into a low ponytail with a bow, she seemed to be reading the book 'Romeo and Julliet'. Mistress Maleficent cleared her throat, but it seemed to go unnoticed by the brunette. "Belle Chevalier, put that book down immediately or I shall have it burned!" she snapped impatiently. The girl looked up, inspecting Ariel with curious hazel eyes.

"Yes, Mistress Maleficent?" she asked politely before drawing her eyes back to her book.

"As you can see we have a new teenager with us, her name is Ariel and she will be your new roommate. I shall expect you to show her around and teach her all of the rules here. Understood?" Mistress Maleficent said with a hint of malice in her voice.

"Yes ma'am," Belle said with a note of sarcasm.

"Don't use that tone with me Miss Chevalier, supper is at 4:30, don't be late!" Mistress Maleficent warned as she left Belle and Ariel alone in the room. Belle finally put her book down and stared at Ariel from head to toe, inspecting the tiniest details with squinted eyes.

"You don't seem crazy…" the brunette started. Ariel looked down at the floor, embarrassed, and twiddled with a few strands of hair. Belle's face softened, noticing the expression of the other girl.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I'm Belle by the way." She gave her a small smile.

"I'm Ariel," she said timidly. Belle was about to go back to reading her book when Ariel spoke up again.

"umm.. if it doesn't bother you too much, do you think you could show me around?" Belle gave her a cheeky smile. "Sure." Wow for a troubled teen she doesn't seem so…troubled. Ariel said to herself mentally. In fact Belle seemed exactly the opposite. She seemed like 'the girl next door' or one of those average kids at school, normal. Of course Ariel knew something had to be wrong with her, otherwise she wouldn't have been sent here, but the more she and Ariel talked, the more Ariel felt there must have been a mistake sending the totally normal teenage brunette to a mental home.

"…Ok so this is the girl's corridor, there are 9 girls here right now and 7 boys. In the room across from us, 202, is Ella, Snow and Aurora; next to them, 203, is Meg and Jasmine. The first door on the left, 206, is Rapunzel, apparently she's really emotionally instable so she has to be alone. And finally the door at the end of the hall, 200, is for Esmeralda. She seems pretty normal to me, but the nurses don't trust her alone with anyone." Ariel absent-mindedly nodded while trying to remember who-slept-where.

Belle led Ariel out of the hallway and down the stairs to the kitchen, it looked like an average kitchen would, almost like it was too normal. Attached to the kitchen was a dining room with two long, polished mahogany tables that looked like they were meant for royalty. Belle explained that the kitchen was off limits except during meal times or snack, but that mostly everyone had snuck in there at one point or another.

The next room was a living room with a large flat-screen and a stack of board games, along with two bean bag chairs, a love-seat and a long sofa. There were 5 people in the room, 2 boys and a girl were playing the x-box and another two girls were just sitting in the bean-bag chairs talking. Belle explained that the girl playing the x-box was Esmeralda and the boys she was playing with were Phoebus and Flynn. The girl, Esmeralda, had long thick glossy black curls, tan skin and enchanting emerald eyes that seemed to stun Ariel as she stared at her from across the room, the boys that she was playing with were both really handsome, one had dirty blond hair with a slight stubble and a cheeky smile and the other had brown hair with a stubble and more of a flirtatious smile. Belle explained that Phoebus, the blond, was twins with Ella, who was sitting on one of the bean-bag chairs with her friend Snow. The first one to notice them was Esmeralda, she immediately dropped the game controller and ran up to them like an excited little puppy

"Hey, are you new here?" she asked happily. Ariel nodded with a polite smile on her face.

"What's your name?" Esmeralda asked again with the same excitement in her eyes.

"Ariel," she said and then let out a small giggle, Esmeralda noticed this and then changed her demeanor.

"I'm sorry, I'm usually not like this, I-"

"Hey what's going on down here, I try to finish some of Mrs. Porter's already-due homework assignments, and I get interrupted by Esme's yapping!" Ariel looked over to see a tan boy with dark hair leaning against the doorway. Esmeralda walked over to him and hit him in the gut as he burst out laughing.

"Oh shut up Aladdin! I always get excited when a new person comes, even when…" Esmeralda's voice trailed off and she tilted her head to the side.

"Quiet! I hear Mistress Maleficent coming!" she whispered loudly. Ariel gave a look to Belle saying: What does she mean she can hear Mistress Maleficent coming? As far as Ariel could tell there was no noise at all, except the teens chatting. Belle mouthed 'later' and that was that. To Ariel's surprise, seconds later Mistress Maleficent walked through the door. She scanned each of us with what looked like a death glare, before stopping it at Snow, who was still seated on the bean-bag chair.

"It's time for your 4:00 appointment with Dr. Frollo." She said unmoving her gaze from the petite girl with short curly black hair. Snow wordlessly stood up and walked out of the living room, Mistress Maleficent followed. There was an eerie silence until finally Esmeralda spoke.

"She's gone."

"We'll see you guys at dinner but right now I'm supposed to show Ariel the rest of the house," Belle said politely, but it sounded more like an excuse.

"Alright, how about I come with y-" one glare from Belle made Esmeralda shut up, it seemed she understood why Belle wanted some time with Ariel alone.

Belle led Ariel out of the living room into a long hallway with several doors.

" This is the main corridor, it has our classroom, a washroom, Dr. Frollo's office, Mistress Maleficent's office and the nurses room," she said, pointing out each of the doors. "That one leads to the basement," she was pointing at a door that looked slightly different than the rest, instead of a regular door knob, it had one of the old-fashioned ones that could only be opened with a thick metal key.

"Why is it locked?" Ariel couldn't help but blurt out with curiosity.

"We're only a loud down there when we have to do laundry, they don't want us snooping," Belle explained.

" but wouldn't we be more likely to snoop if it was locked?" the red-head said with a mischievous smile. Belle sighed.

"I don't know, but whatever's down there, they sure don't want us to see it." Belle led Ariel down the hallway.

"This," she said. "Is where most of us spend our time." Belle opened the doors to reveal a large room filled with games like foose-ball, ping pong, air hockey, pinball and darts. Two boys were in the room, both playing darts. One was a red-head, but not like Ariel's bright red, his was more of an orange. He had a muscular build and a cocky smile, but it turned into a nervous one as soon as he saw the girls. The other boy was the one who caught Ariel's attention, he was absolutely dazzling. He had wavy black hair and stunning ocean blue eyes that were still captivated by the game. There was an Asian nurse standing in the corner who didn't look like she was that much older than Ariel was. Ariel assumed the nurse had been assigned this room to supervise, just in case either of the boys accidentally went 'psycho'.

Suddenly Ariel felt slightly dizzy and had to stare at the dark haired boy to keep her focus. This had been happening a lot lately, she would get sudden dizziness spells and would feel fine minutes later. Normally it was due to lack of water. She found that with her condition, she needed to have at least 12 glasses of water a day, normally by 4:00 she would have had at least 8, but being so anxious this morning she only drank 2.

Ariel snapped out of her gaze as she felt Belle pulling at her sleeve.

"Come on, we better go. It's supper time and we don't want to be late." She said while ushering Ariel to the door. Ariel was about to tell her that they should probably warn the boys, but to her surprise the entire room was empty except for the two girls.

"Time for you to meet everyone," Belle gave her an encouraging smile. Ariel let out a nervous laugh as she couldn't help but think: well this should be good.