As I climbed out of the taxi I immediately began to look for someone who could tell me where the office was. I didn't want to look like an idiot wondering around like a lost puppy. I stopped the first person that walked by. She looked friendly enough. She pointed me toward the middle building.

I thanked her and headed over, rolling my suit case behind me. It wasn't until that moment that I really stopped to look at the huge campus. There were three buildings there. All of them are huge and oddly homelike. Not what you would expect of a boarding school. I guessed that the buildings on the left and right were the girls and boys dorms and the one in the middle was where classes and school activities were held. It was also the biggest building.

I walked through the doors of the biggest building to see the halls filled with students. My guess was that classes were over for the day. It seemed that as I gawked at the interestingly colorful interior, everybody was staring at me. It's like they had never seen a new student before. I swear I saw a couple guys do a double take, and the girls giving me dirty looks. I just rolled my eyes and made my way to the end of the hallway where there was a sign that indicated where the office was.

As I was walking I thought back to what brought me to this situation.

It was all over the news for days. There was a girl in my old school that was alone at home one night. There was a break in; the girl was beaten severely, shot, and left to die. Anything remotely valuable was stolen from the house. Her parents were devastated, of course more about her death than the robbery. They were completely broke and had nowhere to live. Most of the windows in the house were broken. And everything was knocked over, probably from the struggle with the girl. They had to move in with relatives, which didn't help them trying to cope with their daughter's death.

My mom of course got very concerned after that. Her job required her to be away for long periods of time. She started looking for a good boarding school where she knew I would be safe.

"Brooke, I know you don't want to go and I really hate tearing you away from your friends and your life here but I'm only doing what is best for you."

By the look of the people here I might have been safer back home. I thought as I passed a girl who stuck up her nose at me. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of wearing a school uniform but they didn't seem too awful looking. I guess I could get used to them.

I went and got my schedule and room number from the office and headed toward my dorm. Apparently I had a roommate named Becca. I really hoped she was nice unlike half the chicks I had seen so far. I also hoped she liked me. It would be pretty hard to get along if neither of us liked each other.

I walked down the hall until I got to the room with a pink 33 on it. I grimaced at the color. Hopefully we could get along and I could convince her to change that awful color. I set my suit case down to find the key that the office had given me for my room. I searched through my pockets until I realized that I had put it in the front pocket of my suit case. I finally pulled it out and unlocked the door.

My roommate was not inside I realized with a relieved sigh. I wanted to at least get unpacked and settled in before I met her. Slowly I took in the sight of the room. The first thing I noticed was the walls… bright fluorescent pink. It was already making me dizzy. There was a desk in the corner with a small lamp on it and books scattered. There were two beds in the room one with a pink comforter and matching pillows. I was starting to get a headache. I looked at the dresser next to it, which seemed to be serving as a night stand and a dresser with an alarm clock on the top. On top was also a variety of perfumes from Hollister and Pink of course.

Across from the beds was another door, which I guessed was the bathroom, with a closet on either side of it. I went and sat my suitcase on the bed that only had simple white sheets on it with one pillow. I would have to go shopping to get some homey things to add to my side of the room. Add some color other than pink so I didn't start twitching every time I walked into the room.

I unzipped my suitcase and began unpacking my clothes and putting them into the dresser closest to my bed. Once I was done with that I grabbed my bag of toiletries and put them in the bathroom. I looked at the time then, it was only about three thirty and classes had just let out. I found my wallet in my purse and grabbed my key heading for the door. My mom had given me enough money to buy the stuff I couldn't take with me, enough that I could get through until I could get a good job.

I could get directions to the nearest mall from the office. They seemed to have everything there. I think I saw a couple maps that would be very helpful. If only I could find a bus station…

As I was walking out the door I almost ran into someone who I'm guessing was Becca, raising her hand to stick her key in the door.

"Whoops sorry." I laughed nervously, giving her an apologetic look.

"It's fine." She smiled a welcoming smile. "You must be Brooke Waters, my new roommate. I'm Becca. It's nice to meet you." She stuck her hand out for me to shake it.

"It's nice to meet you too." I said shaking her hand and smiling. She seemed very nice, thank god. That's one less thing to worry about.

"So where are you headed?"

"I was just going to go to the mall and get some new clothes and some new bedding."

She looked thoughtful "What if I went with you? You know showed you around, where the good hangouts are. I know how it is being new. I think you will fit in good here." She looked like she was waiting for me to respond but then had another thought. "Do you have a car?"

I just shook my head.

"What if I gave you a ride? I don't think you want to ride the bus. Been there done that."

"Sure, that sounds great. Thanks." "I almost forgot, my friends and I were going to meet up for dinner later. Would you like to come and meet some people so when you start going to classes you aren't a complete stranger to everyone?"

Wow this girl really could talk a lot. "Sure, why not." She grinned at me probably happy she was being helpful.

"Let's go!" she started skipping down the hall. I walked behind following her. She suddenly turned around "Oh, have you ever ridden in a convertible?"

"No" I said curiously wondering why she was asking. She put on a pair of sunglasses and smiled "It's your lucky day."

I followed Becca to the parking lot and just stood and stared when she walked up and got into a lime green mustang convertible. I realized my jaw had dropped and had to close my mouth.

Becca opened the passenger side door from the driver's seat.

"Are you coming?"

I slowly got in the car careful not to move too much. I was afraid to damage any part of this car, especially the beautiful leather interior of it.

Even though it was late September the sun was beating down on us and I was suddenly thankful that this was a convertible. I had better get used to the hot weather, because I was now living in Phoenix, Arizona.

Students stared as Becca sped out of the parking lot and onto the busy roads of the city. My hair blew all around my face while I tried to move it out of my eyes to look around. Finally I took a ponytail out and tied my hair up, able to enjoy the ride now. Feeling the warm soothing air rushing around me I loved that just the smell was peaceful soothing thing. Even if we were in the city it was really nice.

While Becca drove I tried to keep track of the turns she made, trying to make a mental map in my head, but trying to sight see at the same time. It is quite a mission multitasking like that.

•

By the time we finished shopping for all new clothes, bedding for me it was almost six o'clock, and we had 9 bags full from 4 different stores.

We stuffed everything into the trunk of Becca's convertible and headed to wherever to meet her friend which I hoped would soon be mine too. We walked up to a table with four people sitting at it. There were two boys and two girls. One of the girls was sitting on top of the one guys lap so I assumed that they were a couple.

The four greeted me happily and started to introduce themselves. The first guy stood and shook my hand "I'm Nathan" he said. He had light brown hair and green eyes. He looked like a very kind person, but he also seemed kind of gay.

"I'm Brooke," I said back.

The next was a girl that had long black hair and piercing purple eyes. She was stunningly beautiful but she seemed really shy. "My name is May" she smiled. I nodded at her.

The other girl that was sitting on top of the guy was a blonde with blue eyes and she didn't seem very friendly. She just looked at me and continued to hang all over her guy.

Becca rolled her eyes. "Excuse her rudeness. That's Lea and that's Cole." Cole looked up then and nodded at me, defiantly nicer than Lea. He was also very attractive: very dark brown hair with eyes the color between brown and green. I refrained from voicing that opinion, however. I was afraid that Lea would surely rip my head off.

They were all such different people but they seemed to get along with each other. That was a good thing because it meant that there was a better chance that I would fit in with them.

We sat and joined them and Becca struck up a conversation right away. "So Brooke, we are all going to the guy's dorm to watch a movie after we eat. Do you want to come?"

I shrugged. "I guess it kind of depends on what you're watching." I answered honestly.

Becca smiled "Well since it was Nathan's turn to pick the movie, we are watching Star Wars."

I looked at Nathan curiously. He gave a nervous laugh. "What? Anakin is cute!"

Leah chimed in then, "In case nobody told you, Nathan is gay."

I just smiled kind of awkwardly "I like Star Wars, so sure I'll come." When the waiter came we all ordered our food. The rest of the group started talking about things that had happened during the day. All the horrible teachers and the tons of homework they had. I sat there laughing at the stories they told. When the food arrived the conversation stopped temporarily. I suddenly had a random question to ask while I had the chance.

"Are we allowed to have pets? Like in our dorms?"

Becca was the one that answered. "Anything but a bird."

I laughed. "Why?"

"Well, a lot of people have cats and it doesn't really go so well."

I laughed. "Yeah, I could just imagine a cat prancing down the hall with a bird hanging out of its mouth." Everyone laughed at that. I felt the slight tension from having me there start to fade and found myself getting more comfortable with these people.

When we all finished eating, we headed back to campus. Becca and I went back to our room to get some popcorn. Apparently they watched movies together fairly often so they stayed stocked up on popcorn and snacks.

We sat down on the couch and around it in the boys lounge. We started the movie. I looked over at one point and saw Nathan mouthing the words as the characters said them. He had obviously watched this movie way too much.

About half way through the movie Becca stood up. "Brooke do you think you could get back without me? I'm getting kind of tired I'm going to turn in early."

"Yeah, I think I'm good."

"Night guys." Instead of saying goodnight back most of them just shushed her.

When the movie was over I stretched and thanked them for inviting me. I started toward the dorm. About the quarter of the way to the girl's dorm I heard someone shouting trying to be quiet but unfortunately not succeeding.

I hid behind a nearby tree and peeked around it. There was a guy there pacing in a small circle holding a cell phone to his ear. I caught the end of the conversation he was having with whoever was on the other end of the call. He sounded like he had given up on whatever he was trying to do. "Fine! Let me rot in this hell!" Then he threw his phone. It landed near the tree that I was behind.

I slowly came out from behind the tree. His back was turned to me and his hands were placed on the back of his head like he was trying to calm down. Apparently he didn't hear me at first because when I suddenly stepped on a twig when I was right behind him, he whirled around like I had scared him and stepped back quickly. He looked like he was expecting an attack. He dropped his hands to his sides.

"Um... sorry I just…uh…well, I found this laying over there and thought it might be yours…" I sounded like I was scared or shy, which I hated because I really didn't have anything to be afraid of, and I'm not usually a shy person. There was just something about this guy that made me nervous. Maybe the fear of this guy getting mad at me but that was it.

Without taking the phone he looked at me and cocked his head to the side. "I haven't seen you before. Are you new?"

I hesitated, struggling to speak. "Um, yeah. I just got here today." He seemed to realize that I was still holding the phone out. He hesitantly stepped forward and took the phone from my hand.

"Uh, thanks." For a second he looked just as nervous and shy as me. Which I thought was odd. Why would he be shy around me?

When he stepped forward he didn't really step back again he just kind of stood there looking at me curiously. When he had stepped forward he stepped into the light of one of the lamps nearby. This gave me a chance to get a good look at him and man was it a good look. He was enchanting. His hair was black and curly, almost shoulder length. His eyes were a breathtaking sky blue; they looked older than they should though, like he had seen too much for his young life. It made me wonder about the phone call. He looked very kind, even if he seemed like he didn't get to use his social skills.

His body wasn't any less tantalizing than his face. He was wearing a very well fitted black short sleeve shirt that showed off his six-pack abs and perfect arm muscles. He had on regular blue jeans that seemed worn. To tie it all off he was wearing army boots. This guy was without a doubt the most handsome guy I had ever seen. He was like a movie star, but so much better.

Finally when I thought I was capable of speech I put my hand out and said, "I'm Brooke Waters."

Hesitantly he took my hand and shook it slowly. "Shane Collins." Then he looked at me like he was waiting for a major reaction, waiting for a bad reaction. He looked at me curiously; like he was wondering why I wasn't screaming and running away. We stood there for I don't even know how long just looking into each other's eyes. Curiosity in his like he saw something in me he had never seen in anyone else. I wondered what he was thinking; if he was thinking the same thing as me or something different entirely.

Suddenly it was as if he was broken out of a trance. He just avoided my eyes and said barely above a whisper, "Thanks again. Uh…bye." Then strode quickly away.

I stood there for another minute trying to make the flutter in my stomach go away. I didn't know why it was there. I had just met this guy. What was I thinking? By the time I got back to my room I was smiling like an idiot for no reason. Becca didn't seem to notice. She was on her bed flipping through a magazine. Without looking up she asked how the movie was. I kind of mumbled that it was fine, not really thinking about the movie at all.

She seemed to realize that that kind of answer wasn't normal for me. Jeez. She must be really good at reading people considering I just met her.

"What's wrong?" she said looking up from her magazine. Before I could respond she spoke again. "Did they say something to you?" Then she saw my stupid smile. She grinned "Okay what? Tell me what happened you look like your head is way up in the clouds."

"Nothing I just stopped and talked to someone on the way. Nothing major, just trying to make more friends." I grabbed my pajamas and head to the bathroom to change.

"Who?" Becca asked me.

"Just a person, I barely even talked to him anyway."

"Ooo, so it's a guy." She raised her eye brows at me. "If you didn't talk, then what did you do?"

I laughed. "Nothing"

"So who was it?"

I struggled to remember the name. "Shane Collins" She suddenly jumped to her feet.

"Brooke you have to stay away from him!"

"Why?"

"He's dangerous!"

"He didn't seem very dangerous to me."

"He killed his older brother Brooke." She said. I looked at her closely to see if she was joking.

The boy I met didn't seem like he was capable of killing anyone.

"Brooke, promise me you won't talk to him again!" I hesitated still not really believing it. Eventually I nodded, knowing I wasn't going to keep that promise.