A/N: Clare and Eli are both 16.

Clare's POV

"Welcome to Degrassi Juvenile Mental Hospital. You must be Clare Edwards," a lady greeted my mom and me. She was rather short, with long, pin straight brown hair and wide brown eyes.

I nodded and she smiled. "My name is Dr. Johnson, I'm the head psychologist. Here, Mrs. Edwards, please sign here and initial here," Dr. Johnson gestured to blank lines on a contract of some sort.

"There. Can I go now?" my mom asked, not caring. I rolled my eyes. She hasn't cared about me since dad left 3 years ago – which is why she decided to ship me here rather than take care of me on her own.

"You can if you'd like, but I suggest you take the tour with us," Dr. Johnson said.

"I'd rather not," mom retorted, and strode out the doors. I tried to ignore the pang of sadness I felt by biting my lip, hoping to stop the tears threatening to leak out of my eyes.

"So, let's start by searching your stuff," she said, grabbing my suitcase. We went into a room where she pulled out all of the strings in my hoodies and tennis shoes, to prevent hangings I guess. I was just glad we actually got to wear normal clothes, and not hospital gowns. After she finished, she took me on the tour.

"The girls rooms are in this hallway and the boys rooms are on the other side of the building. Your room is right here, number 23, and your roommate is Alli Bhandari," she explained, and allowed me to put my stuff in the room.

For the next half hour she walked me around, showing me the different rooms and explaining the rules. We stopped at the cafeteria, and she ushered me inside.

"Lunch just started, go ahead and eat. After that, you head to group therapy; there will be a nurse calling out names to tell you what room to go to," she said.

She left me standing awkwardly at the door. The kids seemed pretty normal to me; at least they did from a distance. That thought was short lived, because I heard screaming from the hallway behind me. I peeked outside and saw two massive men holding one smaller, younger guy, who was freaking out.

He was pretty tall, had short brown hair and squinty eyes. "You wanna hurt me! I know you do! I can read your mind! LET ME GO! HELP!" He shouted, struggling against the two men. I sucked in a breath and he looked directly at me. "PLEASE HELP ME! THEY WANT TO HURT ME! I KNOW THEY DO!" They dragged him away, with him still yelling and screaming. It was truly frightening, and it did not give me much hope about the rest of the people here.

I looked back in the cafeteria. There were many tables, most full. I looked around, and saw that while there were no completely empty tables, there was one with only one person. I would rather talk to someone who looked lonely rather than talk to a bunch of people who don't look like they need friends.

"Um, hi, I'm Clare, and I was wondering if I could sit with you?" I said this like a question, even though I was going to sit there regardless of what he said. The only reason I asked was to be polite.

"No."

Did he really just say no to me? It's because I'm fat, isn't it?

"Too bad," I said, sitting down. He looked angry and I smirked, because that means I won.

Eli's POV

Really? I told the girl she couldn't sit with me, so what does she do? Sits down anyway? Who does she think she is?

I was seething. I didn't want to be around anyone, which is why I sit alone. We were glaring at each other for the longest time, the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.

I took this time to really look at her. She was short and skinny-very skinny, she looked unhealthy, with short auburn curls and the clearest blue eyes. From our short conversation, I could tell that she was stubborn. After much internal debate, I decided that maybe we could be friends.

Only because Dr. Johnson would get off my back if I told her I made a new friend. She says 'it's unhealthy to have no friends'. So, with the thought of getting out of here in my mind, I introduced myself.

"I'm Eli. Eli Goldsworthy."

"I'm Clare."

"I know, you said that already," I said, and she narrowed her eyes at me once again. I bit back a laugh; this girl got flustered so easily. "So," I started, "what are you in here for?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Clare shot back. I smirked. "What are you in here for?" she asked me.

"Wouldn't you like to know," I said, repeating her earlier statement. She narrowed her eyes again and sighed in frustration.

This could be fun.

A/N: PLEASE READ THIS. So there ya go. This chapter was basically just setting things up for later. If I continue, it will get better, and it'll go more deeply into their me in a review if you think I should continue, because I don't know if people would like this idea or not.

P.S.

Did you figure out who the crazy guy was in the hallway? I tried to describe him so you could recognize who he is, hopefully you did. So, yeah, review por favor :) Tell me predictions, what do you think Clare&Eli are in for? Clare's should be kinda obvious, I hinted at it... :)