There ain't a diamond that didn't start out rough Chapter 2

The next morning Peter gathered the Cliffhangers to meet Madison. There was anticipation in the air although most wouldn't admit it. The group hadn't felt as a whole since Kat left, Peter had sensed this and hoped the arrival of Madison would change this. "Shelby, when Madison arrives you're going show her around, okay?" Peter said, this was a statement, not a question. "Sir, yes, sir!" said Shelby, saluting Peter, she wasn't exactly happy about the newbie.What if she ended up having to deal with a second Queenie? Jules however, could hardly contain her excitement. Since Kat was her only friend and she had left, Jules was pretty lonely except for the time she spent with Auggie. She wasn't the only excited about Madison's arrival though.

"Don't worry Peter, I could make her fit right in" Scott said with a wink. Normally this remark would have bothered Shelby but not this time. Shelby and Scott had tried a romantic relationship but both decided it didn't work. It wasn't that they didn't love each other, it's just that it was in a brother and sisterly way. Peter on the other hand, wasn't pleased with this remark. " I don't think so Scott, when she arrives, you'll be chopping wood!" "What! I can't believe this, I didn't do anything!" Scott yelled. "You better believe it! You think I didn't notice you skipping math ?" answered Peter. "Oh, it must of slipped my mind" Scott said, embarrassed. His cheeks were turning pink. " Its not his fault, he was too busy dreaming about girls in his bed" said Auggie. Everyone laughed. Scott's cheeks were now beet red. " I'm outta here" he said, and he stormed off to do his punishment. * Auggie is going to pay for that* A few minutes later a car pulled up.

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" Well, here we are Madison, said Kerrie, go get your bags, and don't forget the file". " Now why would I want to do that?" Madison said dryly. She grabbed the file and jumped out of the car. Just then she saw a man and a woman approach them. Madison quickly walked to the trunk of the car to get her bags, she decided to leave the introductions up to her mom. "Hello, I'm Peter Scarbrow, the headmaster, the dark haired man said, and this is Sophie, Madison's new counsellor". " I'm Kerrie Daniels, Madison's mom, we can't begin to tell you how thankful we are that you are willing to take Madison in," she said sincerely. You don't have to make me sound like a diseased animal* Madison thought as she put on her sunglasses. * Break a leg* she thought to herself before stepping into view. " I'm Madison" she said with a confident smile. " Good, now that we're all here, we'll get Madison checked in, Sophie said warmly, You'll come with me for the procedure and then join your mom and Peter" she started to walk off. Madison followed her, wondering exactly what the "procedure" was. Finally they were in the intake room. Madison had barely put down her bags when Sophie said "Take off your clothes" "Excuse me?" said Madison " Sorry for being so blunt, when a new student arrives they are given a physical and their things are searched for any self-hazardous material like drugs, or razors" explained Sophie Madison replied with a simple "Oh" 'Why don't you give me your file so I can look over it while you're with the nurse." Madison looked down at the file clutched in her hand. She had forgotten all about it. She desperately wanted to know what was in it. Hesitantly she gave the file to Sophie. "Okay, you can go follow the nurse now" Sophie said. When Madison was out of the room, Sophie opened the file. The instant she was done reading it her heart went out to Madison. The file read.

Name: Daniels, Madison Age: 17 Eyes: Brown Hair: Brown

On the night of Sept. 18, police responded to a 911 call placed from the Daniels' residence. When Police arrived they found the home burglarized. Madison was found bound and blindfolded, there was a blow to her head that had rendered her unconscious and which doctors later confirmed was the cause of her current amnesia. Her friend, Lori Stevenson was also in the house, she had a stab wound in her shoulder, and she was the one who called 911. Stevenson said she heard a commotion in the house and went to check it out, she saw Madison unconscious and tried to pull the blindfold off but only managed to pull it down before the intruder found her, stabbed her in the shoulder and hit her in the head which is when she lost consciousness, when she came to she called the police. Madison needed 8 stitches in the head to make it stop bleeding but was otherwise unharmed. Unfortunately because of her amnesia she could not remember anything that night except that she was in her kitchen when she felt a gun put to the back of her head and then having her head slammed across the kitchen top. The amnesia is a result of a defence the body takes after it has experienced traumatic shock. The police report and this file must never be disclosed to her or it may result in permanent memory loss.

Signed,

Dr. Edward Brown

Sophie knew that Madison was defiantly going to have to discuss this in group sooner or later if she was to get through it, however she made a note to herself to tell the Cliffhangers not to pressure her into talking about it. She had a feeling Madison hadn't talked about this with anyone.

A moment later Madison was back in the room. " So have you checked my stuff?" asked Madison "Yea everything seems alright" "You mean you didn't find the handgun I hid in the right pocket?" she said with a devilish smile Sophie laughed, " Okay enough jokes, now I have to tell you the rules" and with that she started her speech. 10 minutes later she was finally done. " Well now it's time to say your goodbyes with your mom and then you'll meet your group". On the outside Sophie seemed happy but on the inside she was actually worried. She knew that with Madison's politeness and cute small talk it was going to be hard getting past her wall, and that behind it was a lot of hurt and confusion. Madison was not the typical student at Horizon but Sophie knew she couldn't treat her any differently. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

While Madison was still saying her goodbyes Sophie went up ahead to the Quad where the Cliffhangers were to keep an eye on them, she also wanted to see what they would think of Madison. She doubted she would have to wait long and sure enough she heard the footsteps of Madison and Peter approaching from behind. A few seconds later they were in the room. Sophie inspected their expressions. They were all stunned and staring at her, yet Madison didn't flinch at all. " Madison, I'd like you to meet the Cliffhangers. This is 6 out of the 7 other people in your group. That's Daisy, Ezra, David, Auggie, Juliette and Shelby" Peter said as he pointed to each one. Madison just stood in front of them and tried to memorize their names. " You guys will get a chance to know each other later, right now Shelby is going to show you around.

" So why are you here?" asked Shelby as she showed Madison around. She was only met with silence. " What? Cat got your tongue? If you don't want to tell me just say so". " No, it's not that, I'm just out of it right now, this is all new to me". " Don't worry, everyone is like that on the first day. Just ask me anything that's on your mind." Madison thought about this for a moment. " What are the people like?" " You don't have to worry about that, everyone is nice but some people can get annoying like Quennie's 24 hour joy and happiness. " Are you talking about Juliette?" " Yeah but don't worry I bet you'll be best friends with her". " You might be surprised, I'm not the preppy cheerleader you think I am." " I have a feeling we're going to get along just fine". Shelby was pleased, Madison seemed friend material. " Well anyway, I was wondering, who was that other person who wasn't with the rest of the Cliffhangers back there?" "Oh that's Scott, you're gonna have to watch out for him, he chases girls around a lot. I went out with him, he puts on a tough image but he is actually very sweet" Shelby said. As much as Madison hated to admit it she liked the sound of Scott and hoped to meet him soon. After a few minutes Shelby finished the tour. " Listen, I have to go check on something important, after 10 minutes we'll meet on the docks and go to lunch, kay? Madison nodded in agreement. * This is going to be one hell of a day* she thought to herself.

She started off in the direction of the docks, not noticing the tall blonde boy who was headed straight in her direction. Both were deep in thought and didn't notice each other, or the fact that they were going to collide!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* A/n: Thanks to all the nice people that reviewed, especially to the fruit and the duck for telling me that I was only accepting signed reviews cuz I missed it on the settings but since u told me I was able to fix it. Sorry it took so long to write this chapter but originally I was going to put something completely different in the file but I realized it was too stupid so I had to change the whole chapter, sorry, this chapter isn't as good as I'd like it o be but I've got great ideas for the next one. I will let you in on a secret about the file though, what it says isn't what really happened that night, will Madison ever get her memory back and tell what really happened, or will someone get in the way? Stay tuned for more chapters to find out!