Chapter 6: Tuesday September 5th 2000

The cafeteria was painted a weird faded mint green.

The tables were long, with benches.

Students sat in little huddles, leaving big gaps between them and the next group.

In one corner was the kitchen, in the other was a small stage.

There were caddies of chairs pushed against one wall.

While I had talked to a few people, I hadn't really made any friends.

My second day here, and I ended up sitting alone, despite there being a group of girls a few feet down the table from me.

They all had the same bleached blonde hair, ripped jeans, and oversized sweatshirts. They were also incredibly loud. Can you believe what happened on Supernatural? I could have died.

I made a note to bring my own lunch tomorrow. Mashed potatoes shouldn't taste like this. The same with mac and cheese.

My brain decided it was not going to eat another bite, so I stood up and went to the trash can. The only can not filled the the top with garbage was right next to a small group of... seniors? Teachers?

It was a group of five, sitting silently at the table. When they saw me looking at them, they seemed to suddenly burst into weird, rehearsed conversation. The way they moved was strange and I looked away quickly.

They bothered me in a way I could not put my finger on. Maybe it was how much anxious energy everyone else in the room had. They moved constantly, even if it was just shaking their legs or tugging at hair. That table had been completely motionless, waxy, like manikins pretending to be students. It was super creepy.

When I made it back to my seat, I snuck another glance. They were back to not moving at all. They stared at one another with expressionless faces. They didn't look like students and their skin was so pale it was unnatural. It looked like they had put on too much foundation and forgotten to contour in their features. The didn't seem to move their faces either. The back of my skull tingled. Something was wrong with them.

I slipped down the bench towards the group of freshman girls.

"Hey, I have a question real quick. I'm new."

The leader of the group, a girl with short blonde hair, nodded her head. "Ookay."

"It's quick. Who are the people sitting over in the corner?" I asked. I kept my voice low, like they could hear me or something. "Are they teachers?"

The group of girls turned in almost perfect unison to look. They burst into loud, obnoxious laughter.

The leader sighed. She leaned into me and said, "Those are the Cullens. They're students."

I looked at the group again. It was three men, two women. They didn't look like students.

When I said as much, the Leader nodded. "We think they got held back."

The other girls nodded. This had obviously been some kind of conversation before I even asked.

"They look like teachers." I turned away when one of the Cullens turned to look at me.

"I think they're weird," the Leader said.

"We all do," another girl spoke up. She had pink in her hair near the temples.

The group mumbled like discontent bees.

"Well, that was pretty much all I wondered. They just..."

"Gave you the creeps?" Leader said.

I agreed. "Not to be mean, but yeah."

"Well, I would stay away from them if I were you," Leader said.

I didn't have to be told twice.

The girls ended up introducing themselves to me. The Leader went by Ivy and they all had floral names-Rose, Ivy, Iris, Fern. They said they were in a band, Flowers in the Arctic, and I should listen to them sometime. They gave me a hand written card with their MySpace on it and told me they were all about saving nature. But between the hustle for their band and telling me weird things about the Cullen family... Lunch ended rather quickly.

For Freshmen they were incredibly nice.

Between classes, I texted Amelia from the bathroom about how weird the Cullens were, adding in some drama that Ivy gave me.

Amelia asked me to take a picture of them. I said absolutely not. I was already certain the whole group of them knew we were talking shit during lunch. The Flowers were incredibly loud.

Amelia said I was no fun and promised to call me Friday to talk about it. Mama Sandy was making her take part in church activities, something I was grateful was never pushed on me when I stayed with them.