Chapter 1

Ayumi stared at the new girl nervously as she stood at her locker sipping a smoothie with her headphones in. Ayumi had decided with her friends they'd invite the new girl to join them after school in helping to clean up the classroom and tell ghost stories. Unfortunately, they were making Ayumi ask because she was the class representative. Hesitantly, she walked up and tapped the girl's shoulder.

The girl jumped and dropped her smoothie. The liquid splashed out when the cup hit the ground. Yanking her headphones out, she turned around and flattened her back against her locker. The girl's long blonde hair fell around her shoulders like silk. Gently and softly flowing. Her bangs were parted to the side and dyed black. She wore a simple black tee, and dark gray jeans with high-tops. She stared at Ayumi with wide, startled blue eyes. Ayumi dropped down immediately to her knees and started cleaning the mess.

"I'm so sorry!" Ayumi said, full of guilt for her deeds.

"It's fine...just take heed to not tap my shoulder when I'm listening to my iPod," the girl said, dropping down to help clean.

"Right, note taken," Ayumi said as she stood up after finishing clean-up.

"Aren't you the class representative?" The girl put her iPod in her backpack.

"Yeah! I'm the female class rep Ayumi Shinozaki!"

"I've heard of you before. People call you the horror rep," the girl said, "I'm Annika Uzanier."

"Well, it's good to meet you, Annika. Some friends of mine and I noticed you were always alone. So...we wanted to invite you to help us clean up the culture fest. We might tell ghost stories!" Ayumi said happily.

Annika looked at her, startled, "Um..sure."

"Don't worry, no one except Kishinuma bites," Ayumi laughed, smiling.

Annika closed her locker and slung her backpack over her shoulder, "Let's go?"

"Don't you have tot call your parents and tell them?" Ayumi asked.

Annika started walking, laughing a little as she said, "Nope, I live alone."

'Just like Kishinuma...' Ayumi thought to herself, following.

The walk to the classroom was silent. The only sound was their footsteps. Annika seemed to be just fine with the silence, so Ayumi said nothing. Deep down, Ayumi wasn't sure how the silence made her feel. Annika's eyes caught the little white doll sticking out of Ayumi's backpack, almost uneasily. However, her mouth never uttered a single sound. As they made their way down the hall, not a sentence, word, syllable, or even letter was spoken. Silence seemed to set in all around, like a simple sheet glued to a bed that could not be moved. Eventually after what seemed like forever, they arrived at the classroom. Annika's eyes feel to the floor as Ayumi opened the door. There was a creak and a shudder from the door as it slid open.

"Come on, it's okay," Ayumi encouraged, her voice soft and smooth.

Ayumi entered the class room, where her friends were waiting. Yoshiki Kishinuma, the "delinquent" with blonde hair, looked at her with a teasing gaze.

Yoshiki said as a sly smirke slowly crept on his face.

Ayumi crossed her arms with a quick exasperated sigh. As she did so, her blue pigtails that reasted against her shoulders shifted.

"Kishinuma, lay off! I was getting the new girl, okay?" Ayumi asked, a playful pout forming with her soft, lightly glossed lips.

"The groups gaze shifted to Annika and in return her face turned a light shade of red as she avoided eye contact completely.

"My name is Annika Uzanier," she stuttered, her blue eyes never leaving the ground.

"I'm Satoshi Mochida. It's good to see you came, Annika. We were hoping you would," A boy with brown hair and a white shirt said.

"Sakurator Morishige. Preferable, if you will, address me by my last name," A boy with blue hair, glasses, and green eyes who seemed like the quiet type said.

"Annika looked at him, and couldn't help but think he was cute.

"My name is Seiko Shinohara! I just adore your hair! Isn't it just so cute!?" A girl with light brown hair said, her hair curled forward at the bottom. She had turned to the other two girls. One had brown hair cut short, almost like a boy's. The other had her hair up in a little ponytail that stuck up, the rest hanging down.

"To die for! I'm Naomi Nakashima," The girl with shorter hair said, nudging the girl with the ponytail.

"For sure. I'm Mayu Suzumoto," She said with an adorable smile.

"Thank you...," Annika murmured, her eyes fell on Yoshiki, "And you? All I know is Kishinuma."

"Yoshiki Kisinuma...," He muttered.

Annika felt her heart speed up, but kept herself perfectly calm as she said, "Can I call you Yoshi?"

Yoshiki looked at her with an annoyed gaze. It softened a little when it met Annika's playful gaze, "Haha, very funny. No, what you can call me is Yoshiki..."

"Aaaw, you're not fun," Annika said, smiling.

Yoshiki rolled his eyes, keeping up his careless behavior. Annika had a feeling it was an act, but said not a single word. Ayumi grinned happily, and her hand nimbly moved to the pale light switch. Silently as a ninja, she pulled the light switch down, shutting off all the lights in the room, plunging it into darkness. A pitch black darkness, like an abyss. Some of the girls let a startled gasp escape their lips, and the skiddish Satoshi cried out. Ayumi let out a childish giggle as she lit a candle.

"Ghost stories!" Ayumi said happily, running over and throwing herself on the ground. Carefully she set the candle down. The others gathered around with her in a circle.

"What's it called this time, Ayumi?" Naomi said cheerfully.

Ayumi narrowed her eyes, and a mischievous look suddenly shone brightly as she said the name, her voice dropping many octaves lower than normal, "The Teacher of Heavenly Host Elementary School."

Seiko and Mayu let out excited squeals as they wriggled with enthusiasm. Their eyes were wide as they awaited the story Ayumi Shinozaki, the class horror rep of Kisaragi High, was about to tell.