A/N: Unedited. Read at your own risk. :)

"Liz!" I whined, exasperated at my friend. She ran down a long hallway to her room and slammed the door in my face when I tried to pursue her. "Come on, we're both girls. Don't you want to—"

"Tori, I don't want to talk about it!" she screamed at me, her voice thick with suppressed sobs. "Sometimes you just have to stay out of peoples' businesses! Look, you're my best friend and all, but you're so nosy! Leave me alone!" Liz broke down into a torrent of tears from behind the doorway. And all I could do was listen and not do anything to comfort her.

Liz Delaney and I were the "crazy kids" in the group home set up by a long-dead man by the name of Lyle. I had bipolar disorder, and for some reason that gave me a license to be shipped off to the circus. It didn't help that my mom worked for Dr. Davidoff, the man who owned the place. I never even stood a chance.

So I took my medicine, billions of pills every day, and still I was locked up in the insane asylum. I wanted to get out of this hellhole as soon as possible, but for some reason Mom didn't understand that. She didn't think I was trying hard enough. But really, what more could I do?

The other teenagers here weren't so bad. Simon was cute. Derek was...not. Everybody steered clear of him, except for his brother, Simon. And since I liked Simon, I had to bear Derek. Peter was quiet and too young for me. Rachelle was a freak who had a thing for fire, and I tried not to talk to her, except when I was nagging her. And Liz was nice. She was extremely bubbly and greeted me as soon as I was dumped here. I was surprised, actually.

Except Liz had something wrong with her. She claimed she had a "poltergeist." Apparently, a poltergeist "is a ghost, spirit, entity, demonic spirit or being that manifests itself by creating noise or moving objects," in the words of Wikipedia. I mean, who would believe in that crap? Liz was simply in here because she had anger issues, and she couldn't face that.

I almost didn't associate myself with her anymore after she told me that. But how could I ignore her, when she was so kind to me? Everyone else here kept to themselves, except Liz. She didn't look at me with a strange look in her eye, wondering, "What is this chick in for?"

It had been a few weeks since I was tossed in the Lyle House. Liz had randomly stood up from supper after Derek said something and sprinted off to her room. I, being the wonderful friend I am, took off after her.

And now we were here.

"What did that brute say to you? I'll get Mom to have him transferred if he insulted you!" I bluffed, fierce in my comfort. I leaned against the white door, pressing my ear against it for some sign of life from Liz. I didn't want her to do anything irrational and act up again. Then she would be transferred.

I heard rustling, the sound of Liz getting up, and the quiet thumps of her feet walking over to the door. The knob twisted and she peeked out her head. "No," she whispered, her eyes puffed and her face red. She looked awful, her blonde hair tangled. "Don't do that. He just said...well, he said..." She trailed off, bringing her fingernails up to her mouth to bite them.

I swapped at her hand. "Don't nibble on your fingernails. It's gross. Tell me what happened instead of doing that."

She gave a miserable sniffle. "Well, you see, I was eating and Derek was eyeing me. Nobody else heard what he muttered to me, but I did." Liz opened the door the whole way and collapsed onto me. She broke out into a fresh round of tears. "H-he said that after-r what h-h-happened last night, I should be more careful and not make up stories about my poltergeist. I don't know how he knew! It wasn't even that big of a deal! I'm really scared, Tori. I don't wanna be transferred."

I had no idea what she was talking about. My blank stone face didn't help. Liz wanted sympathy, but how could I sympathize when I didn't know what the situation was? I didn't share a room with her. Unfortunately what I would have preferred to be Liz's bed belonged to Rachelle. I swore she had a box of matches up her sleeve. Pyromaniac.

That was beside the point. "What happened last night?" I mumbled.

"Well, I was kinda getting angry after talking to Rae, because she was nodding her head like she didn't care about my problems when I was venting to her about getting kicked out of the Lyle House. And...and I just got so mad, and then her pictures started falling off the wall and her mirror cracked. I got scared but I couldn't stop it."

I had a hard time believing what Liz was saying, but I did what I did best when talking to her—I bobbed my head up and down and said in a soothing tone, "Liz, it's okay. I promise that you won't get transferred. You know that is only something they do to really bad Lyle kids. You're not one of them, so you don't need to worry about it. It's an irrational fear. I won't let my mom do that, so you should be safe. The only thing you can do is keep your fury under control."

I smiled when she glanced up at me, beaming happily. I swore Liz was the most hormonal teenager I had ever come across. "Thanks, Tori. I feel a lot better now. Oh, and guess what?" She perked up considerably and jumped up and off of my lap. "We're getting a new girl tomorrow. Her name's Chloe."

I heaved a sigh. "Great. Another new kid—exactly what we need."

Liz laughed merrily. "Come on, Tori, she won't be that bad. I hear she's creeped out to be going here. Don't be rude," she warned, shaking a finger at me. "You'll scare her."

"Well," I muttered, "it's sort of in my nature."

She giggled again. "Try?" she asked me.

"Okay," I agreed grumpily. "I'll try. Try being the key word, here. I don't like people waltzing in here and acting as if they own the damn place. Why they would do that, I'll never know." Honestly, why would someone yearn to be the owner of such a place as this, where psychos ran wild?

As we parted our separate ways, I worried about what I had told Liz. I knew I couldn't have anyone transferred, but I promised Liz I wouldn't let her be. What if she actually was, and then if we ever met again, she would hate me forever because I lied to her?

I went to sleep that night with several things hovering over my head.

The next day, the only thing I looked forward to was meeting the new girl. However, I didn't get to meet the infamous Chloe Saunders until the following morning. I'd heard from my mother she claimed she saw ghosts. It was bad enough Liz had a "poltergeist," but a freakin' ghost girl, too?

When I woke up and sauntered down to the table, with Chloe sitting quietly with red streaks in her hair, I hated her right away. She was here to steal my spotlight and be Liz's best friend. If Liz knew that she could speak to ghosts, she'd try to set up a séance, and find a new best friend.

Freak.

A/N: Huh. I wondered why Tori hated Chloe so much.

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