Ariana's POV

By dinnertime, she knew everyone. She'd made friends with Mara, Fabian and Amber instantly, of course. Nina still wasn't sure about Ariana. Patricia and Ariana hadn't really talked, and neither had the rest of them.

It was when they were eating dinner that she got attacked by questions.

"So how come you're here?" Patricia asked her.

Ariana looked up, surprised. "Uh…"

"Because usually people only come to boarding school when they're bad, or when their parents want to get rid of them or something." Patricia continued, and not even Amber could mistake the malicious look on her features.

"Patricia…" Fabian began.

"So were you dumped here? Do your parents not like you?" Patricia said.

"Of course they like me." Ariana lied.

"You're lying." Patricia said, glaring. "Don't. Don't lie to me. Ever."

"Or what?" Ariana challenged.

"Don't go there." Patricia hissed.

"Too scared to think of something, are you?" Ariana shot back.

"I'm not scared of anything." Patricia growled.

"Liar."

"You're the liar, pretending mummy and daddy love you when they obviously don't if you're here. Did you see her dad, Fabian?" Patricia asked innocently.

"No." Fabian said. "Patricia, just stop it."

"I bet daddy didn't want to say goodbye to you. You don't look like much and you got all upset over a bit of glass. Boo hoo, boo hoo, baby. You even had to hold Fabian's hand. No wonder your parents couldn't stand you. That's why you're here…" Patricia taunted.

"Patricia!" Fabian yelled, but he was much too late.

For a moment, Ariana sat there, stunned. Then she got up, grabbed her plate of spaghetti Bolognese, and marched up to Patricia (who surprisingly but obviously didn't see it coming.)

"My dad is dead." Ariana said, and she tipped the contents of her plate all over Patricia.

"Ooooh!" she heard some people saying from around the table.

"You bitch!" Patricia yelled, and she threw the plate at Ariana, who ducked and stormed out of the room.

She ran upstairs, tears falling down her cheeks, and slammed the door as she got into her room. She walked straight past Amber's bed and Mara's bed, and flopped onto her own, burying her face in her pillow as she cried.

Amber's POV

"Patricia!" Fabian, Mara and Amber all shouted together, turning towards the girl as Ariana rushed out.

"What?" she said innocently. "I needed a break from making fun of Nina and besides, she only made things worse on herself." She grimaced and started pulling spaghetti Bolognese out of her hair.

"You know, I'm getting real tired of your crap, Patricia." Fabian said. "You're not exactly the most welcoming girl in the world and you seem to have something against everyone you don't know."

Patricia shrugged. "So?"

"You're such an utter bitch!" Amber snapped, surprising everyone. "Ariana is really nice, and she thought this place would be great for her. Why are you so insistent on making everyone's life a misery?! Is it just because yours has been so bad, so you think everyone else has to go through worse than you did?! You're bitter and pathetic!"

Even Patricia was speechless. Amber, not waiting for an answer from anyone, turned on her heel and left the room, walking upstairs. She hesitated when she came to hers, Mara's and Ariana's room, but she entered anyway, closing the door quietly behind her.

"Ariana?" Amber whispered, looking over at the girl. She was laying on her bed, muffling her sobs with a pillow. "Try to ignore her…Patricia is such a bitch."

"I can tell." Ariana said, straightening up and looking at Amber.

Amber felt really upset, just upon seeing her face. Ariana's makeup was streaming down her face, fresh tears kept coming all the while and her hair was messed up. Her clothes were seriously creased and Ariana was fiddling with her hands.

"Please stop crying." Amber said softly. "At least you have friends here, right?"

"What, two friends?" Ariana said skeptically. "No, wait, three."

"Yeah." Amber nodded. "It's better than nothing, Ariana."

She looked Ariana's outfit up and down.

"I know, I know." Ariana chuckled. "It's very blue. But I just threw on whatever I'd left out of my suitcase and only realized after we left that everything was blue."

Amber laughed. "Nah, that's cool, I think it suits you. So do you have lots of clothes? I notice that they've put in an extra wardrobe for you."

"Yeah." Ariana sighed. "My mum's always buying me clothes. She wants me to have the best clothes since she figures that will lead to my success…somehow. My mum's weird." She chuckled.

Amber sat on Ariana's bed beside her. "My mum's a bit weird too." She reassured her.

Fabian's POV

What the hell is Patricia's problem?! Fabian thought to himself as he walked upstairs. He was about to enter Ariana's room (well, Ariana's, Mara's and Amber's room) when he heard what they were saying.

"Can I ask how your dad died?" Amber asked.

Fabian groaned, but inwardly. Amber, seriously?!

Fabian knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Ariana called.

Fabian entered and when he closed the door and faced her, he was surprised to see her makeup running down her cheeks and she looked really upset.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly, going over and sitting on her bed, on the other side. "Patricia can be a cow."

"I'm okay." Ariana said. "Could be better, but I guess I'll get used to it."

"I won't let you get used to it." Fabian said. "If she starts badmouthing you again I'll set her straight."

"Thank you, Fabian." Ariana said, smiling softly.

"And so will I." Amber said determinedly. "Because that's what friends do."

"Exactly." Fabian agreed.

"If you ever need it, I'll do the same for you guys too." Ariana said, smiling.

"So…how did your dad die?" Amber asked.

"Amber!" Fabian said. "You don't have to tell her. Sometimes she just forgets tact." He gave Amber a pointed look.

"No, it's okay." Ariana said. She drew in her breath, then let it out. "You might freak out, though…"

"We wouldn't." Fabian said. "Promise."

"Yeah, promise!" Amber agreed.

"Can you not tell people? It's a bit of a sensitive subject and besides, you guys are my only friends around here so that's why I'm only telling you." Ariana said.

"Like I said. I promise." Fabian said.

Ariana and Fabian both looked at Amber.

"I promise too!" she said, nodding solemnly.

Nina's POV

She really shouldn't have been eavesdropping, and she knew that. But Nina had followed Fabian and she'd heard them talking, and when Ariana said that she was only telling Fabian and Amber about her dad because they were friends, Nina knew that if she was going to satisfy her curiosity, she'd have to eavesdrop.

"Like I said. I promise." Nina heard Fabian say.

There was a pause, and Nina guessed they were giving Amber the 'you-have-to-promise-now' look.

"I promise too!" Amber said after a few seconds.

"Okay." Ariana said, and Nina heard her let out a sigh. When she spoke again, her voice was wobbling. "It happened when I was seven or eight years old. I'd been asleep for hours…it was a school night, you see. You don't mind hearing all the details, right?"

"Of course not!" Fabian said reassuringly. There was a tiny shuffling sound and, when Nina peeped through the keyhole, she saw that Fabian had his arm around Ariana. A surge of jealousy went through her, and she put her ear to the keyhole to hear better.

"Good. Well, anyway…" Ariana's voice was getting worse, but her words were still clear. "I woke up in the middle of the night, because I needed to go to the bathroom, plus I needed water. So I went to the bathroom, then started heading downstairs. I heard my dad and my mum yelling at each other in the kitchen, and then mum stormed upstairs, so I had to hide in the stair corner. Since it was dark, she didn't see me, so I kept going down the stairs. I got my water, said goodnight to my dad, and started heading upstairs. But then someone smashed a window and came in. I was, of course, frozen on the stairs. The person saw me…and they started coming towards me. My dad ran towards them and they began to fight…I dropped the glass, and my dad stopped fighting for a moment to look at me…" her voice cracked and she started to cry.

"You don't have to tell us, Ariana." Fabian said, and Nina heard him pulling her closer. That sent another wave of jealousy through her.

"No, it's okay." Ariana said. She inhaled sharply, and she tried to stop crying (and failed). "When Dad looked my way, the man took his chance, and…"

There was a long pause. Nina thought that Ariana wasn't going to say it, but just as she was about to move, Ariana spoke again.

"The man shot my dad right in front of my eyes."