Authors Note: This is a short first chapter. It's just explaining the new character and her surroundings. This is my first ever Higher Ground fic. I own nothing, but the people you don't know. I hope you like it. I hope I don't abuse the story line. In my story no one really is a couple. David isn't here and that's about everything.

Enjoy. 33
KC

"I'm not going," said the stubborn girl whose voice was way too hoarse and shallow. She sat in a hard chair, her chest heaving up and down as if she ran a 5k race. Her face was flushed, also and the rims of her eyes were red. She didn't look happy to say the least. She almost looked scared.

"Yes. Yes, you are. And that's final!" the mother said defeated but firm. She was exhausted. Five hours of screaming and yelling towards her daughter, always leaves her a little breathless. But this time was worse and she should have known to ease slowly into it. Well, since she was shipping off that daughter of hers to a school for adolescents. It was for her own good, she decided. And besides she needed some peace around here; that girl of hers' was a mess.

The young girl looked at her mother and saw the look of conquer and remorse- remorse that she was her child. She nodded at the poor excuse of a human and went into her room. It didn't matter what her parent said anyway. She could just run away again. She opened her bedroom door and closed it but not after hearing the faint words: Don't Forget to Pack.

She laughed as she remembered the last time she was supposed to go camping. She didn't want to go. No, it wasn't that she hated the outdoors, but because her mother was trying to quit cigarettes that month, so she was so jumpy and had an attitude problem. The girl who was then 13 didn't want to deal with that, so she just didn't pack a bag. Her mother too drunk to notice and her father just flew in from Reno, so he wasn't that awake. Needless to say, everyone was grateful that they hadn't had to go camping, but the two adults were pissed that they had to make that long 2-hour drive. They haven't been camping or done anything else as a "family" since and she was now almost 16.

"Get a hold of yourself," she quietly said as she laid on her twin bed, her body thrown across it like some car accident victim. Her body was sore and her head hurt worse and she needed to think. Thinking of memories clouded that thinking time and this was a very important time.

"I can't believe she's sending me to a screw up school!" she yelled for the millionth time as she packed another long sleeve shirt. Even though it was the middle of August and really hot in North Carolina, she figured some place out in the woods would be cold. That and it'd hide the scars. After remembering to pack the essentials like toothbrush and deodorant, she started to pack the more necessities like Advil, razors, her journal, and an old photo album. The Advil and razors are self-explanatory. The journal she has kept for over 3 years. And the photo album was the only thing that she had that wasn't touched by anyone anymore. She opened her faked journal that she kept, the one her mother reads and wrote:

Dear Diary,

Right now I dislike my mother. I don't want to go to another school. I really don't, but I guess I put this all upon myself. I should have seen the error of my ways. But I guess for now I shall make the best of it. I hope to have fount at Mt. Horizon with all the new people I get to meet. Maybe I can even find a boyfriend. Or even a best friend. Let's hope so. I plan to make this into a positive experience like my old therapist told me to do. I bet I'll even thank my mother when I return. I'll get back when I get back. (Hopefully, it'll be soon)

Love,
Me

She rolled her eyes at her journal entry. Her mother found her real diary a couple months ago and screamed and shouted at everything that was written. She couldn't handle the truth, so she had to make a bogus one. And it was all-fake, well most of it. She did hate her mother and she did know it was her own fault, but she didn't understand what was that fault. She didn't understand why she had to go to this school. She wasn't a rape victim or been abused as a kid. Sure, she has dabbed into a little bit of cutting and liked the taste of alcohol. But that didn't make her a bad person. Did it? She wondered there at Mt. Horizon if the people are nice. But that didn't matter, did it? She didn't really want to talk. Other people had more important problems than her, even if they recognized it or not. And why waste their precious time with her, when they have people who witnessed deaths in front of their eyes and who messed with drugs and who got molested. She could get along fine by herself. It's what she had done all of her life.

"Get your ass up!" her mother yelled as soon as morning broke. She yanked open the closed door. This was her damn daughter's last day at home, she was not only happy, but practically giddy. She wanted to bang the first man she saw after she got drunk that night. All she wanted was to get this child up to the mountains and come home to a bar.

"I'm up!" she replied groggily, not getting much sleep that night with being so nervous with everything happening. All she had come up with after hours of thinking was "why me". Plus the nightmares she had every night didn't help.

"Now!" her mother screamed which hardly was ever done since she always had a hangover.

So, she got out of bed and slipped into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. No use going fancy now. She took the bag that she packed and checked to see if she hid her journal was in the direct bottom of the bag. It's where she "installed" a secret compartment place about three years ago. Actually, Darcy, the druggie, did it for her, but she knew it was safe and secret. No one has found Darcy's stash yet and she's 24 and has been doing drugs since she was 13. She put on some flip-flops, put her hair in a pony-tail and took three Advil. It was going to be a very, very long trip.