Chapter 1

Frida sat in the back of the car. At seventeen, she felt old. Jaded. There wasn't much hope left in her after all that had happened. The little hope she did have she didn't want. Hope seemed to her a thing that could destroy a person. Wanting, needing, something that was impossible.

She took a drink of her Cherry Cola. Quite possibly that last soda she would have for a while. She knew the drill. She had been places like this before. She didn't know for sure what this place, Mount Horizon High School was like yet. She could guess the overall, but each place had its little details too.

The drive seemed to be taking forever. It wasn't that she was in a hurry to get there, but she was tired of sitting in the car and had started to feel slightly car sick. There had been nothing but wood out the window for a while now. She liked nature, but she mostly thought of the isolation that must be associated with the place.

She knew by now that these places could get away with pretty much anything. It didn't matter too much where they were. She had been places that were mostly isolated before, but also places right in the middle of a city. Just big buildings with more floors than she could be sure of, and no one outside bothered about them either.

She looked at her reflection in the window, a transparent image with trees all through it. Blond hair, a few inches past shoulder length and filled with random skinny braids here and there. With the trees reflecting from the outside and her own image reflecting from the inside, it looked like she was part of the tress and they were part of her. She like the idea. As if she were just wind or air or some intertwined matter.

The car stopped. They had gone through a wooden gate and into a parking lot without her realizing it. The driver got out and she knew if she didn't quickly follow that she would be pulled roughly from the car. The people transporting her were from the last place she was at. They were afraid she run away if she just went with her parents.

Frida got out of the car as the door was opened. She was handed her bag and she watched as a man came out of one of the buildings along with the driver. The talked a moment and then he got back in the car. The car started up and she took a few steps away from it as it drove back the way it had come. The man from the building was walking toward her now.

"Hello there. I'm Peter Scarborough. Frida, right?" The man asked. She didn't answer. She was so used to seeing new people that it wasn't likely that she would remember him past that moment and if he was just the intake person it didn't matter anyway. She found she usually didn't need to speak in these situations. Things generally moved along well enough on their own. Talking tended to cause problems and miscommunication.

Peter studied the new student. Her file said she was 17, but she looked more like she was 14 or 15. She had on eyeliner, a green t-shirt, black skinny jeans and black boots. Her hair was braided in spots but looked a little disheveled. She had brown eyes that somehow looked both hard and dreamy at the same time. According to her file, she had been through a lot.

"Welcome to Mount Horizon. Let's go inside so we can get you settled in." Peter said, indicating the main building that he had come out of.

"Hi." Frida finally said. Her voice was low and almost inaudible. She followed Peter into the building. The first room they went into was bare except for two chairs and a table off to the side. Frida was suddenly more alert her eyes were tense and looked a little angry.

"This is where we check through your things to make sure that there are no weapons or anything else that isn't allowed at Horizon. This should be easy since you were already at another facility." Peter explained. "If you will just set your bag on the table we can get started."

Frida gave up her bag easily. She was used to this too. He explained the rules while he checked over her bag and then he checked her shoes. Peter was right about this being easy, anything contraband had already been taken away from her way before she got to this new place. Frida felt a little uneasy when he explained that they would have to check her clothes, but he left and a woman came in to check through them.

Then a female doctor came in. Frida was numb to this. She didn't like doctors, but she didn't care anymore. So many had seen her lately. She sat quietly as her blood pressure was taken and her self harm cuts and scars documented. She answered questions asked with a simple yes or no.

The next part she liked less, but was also pretty standard she knew. She had to shower with a female staff member nearby and then they gave her a change of clothes from her bag. The only makeup she had on was her eyeliner, a parting allowance from the staff at the previous place she was at, and now that was washed off. No nail polish or anything other makeup had touched her for months. She didn't understand that. If people feel bad and are having problems already, why make it so they can't express themselves in healthy nondestructive ways like makeup? Honestly it could be seen as a form of self-care, so it didn't make sense to her. As far as she could tell, it was just to punish them for being sent wherever they were sent.