Claudia awoke again at dawn. New beams of sunlight glowed on her tawny sheets, and she wondered what she had been so afraid of the night before. After all, it was only a dream…and a very understandable one, considering her bunkmate.

She rose silently and dressed, keeping one eye on the slumbering Beetlejuice at all times to make sure he wasn't sneaking around. But he never stirred from his spot, not even when she eased out of the room and went downstairs.

She ate her breakfast alone and called to her awakening mother that she was about to walk down to school. Mrs. Lowe returned with a request for her daughter to be home by four because they would be hosting a church social on the lawn, and Claudia started out.

The rush of cool wind past her face was completely refreshing. Entering the school lot, she took in the sight of her new school. It was called the Winter River High School, and it looked like a prison, she thought. With plain white walls, high-set barred windows near the roof, a heavy wooden front door and a perfectly mown grass lawn in front, it was the pinnacle of serious education, with no hints of the fun times high school stood for.

Claudia sighed and walked in. With relative ease, she retrieved her schedule from the front office and she found her way to her first class, thanks to the highly descriptive directions given at every intersection of hallways in the building.

Her first class was advanced biology, and she found a seat near the back next to a huge clear bottle full of frogs floating in formaldehyde. She stared at the slightly moving amphibians for a few minutes before realizing that the teacher was talking to her.

"Miss Lowe? Miss Lowe, are you with us?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry. The frogs got to me…" Claudia commented.

The teacher laughed. "Yes, they tend to do that. I like to call that jar my 'poor bio professor's lava lamp'. Today's your first day here, and I'll expect your peers to learn about you in time. For today, I'd just like you to get better acquainted with the rundown procedure. Feel free to mill around with the rest of the class," he explained.

This statement puzzled Claudia at first, and it confused her even more when the entire student body began to get up and inspect the various contents of the classroom. Some asked questions about the various biological relics along the walls or in jars or hanging from the ceiling; others consulted the dozens of textbooks in the front of the room. Claudia approached the teacher with a very befuddled face.

"Um, what exactly are we doing?"

He looked around for a moment, looking like he had just realized what was going on.

"Oh, yes. See, the Board of Education didn't dictate a specific curriculum for my department this year. Hell, I'd probably disregard it anyway, even if they did issue one. So this class is run on what is lovingly referred to as 'interest study'.

"I figure that if a subject boring to you, you won't learn at all. You'll just tune all the information out. So I tell my students to pick anything in this room and to research it, and at the end of the marking period, they just turn in a detailed report of what they've discovered, all on their own!

"The only rules are that you can study one subject for only two consecutive marking periods, and reports have to be rather specific in all fields. Other than that, feel free to explore!" he exclaimed.

"And by the way, my name is Mr. Carl."

"Sounds like a blast," she commented.

"It works, and if a system works, you use it. Have fun," he said before turning to help another student.

Claudia drifted about, examining various whatnots. She found particular interest in a mutated mouse skull, and she marked it mentally for something to be studied eventually.

While looking at a two-headed snakeskin, she suddenly felt a weight slide into her back pocket and reached behind her, pulling out a piece of paper. Her eyes widened as she read the print silently.

Hey. Being new is really hard around here, huh? I know, I was once new too. If you're interested in a tour of the town, meet me by the West Entrance after the last bell.

Ben (the guy in the jacket and sunglasses)

Claudia looked up and caught a glimpse of him. He was wearing a vintage leather jacket; one his father could have easily passed down to him. Underneath was a white tee shirt and he wore denim jeans over beat-up, once-white sneakers. The black sunglasses were over his eyes, but they couldn't hide the grin he sported to one of his friends, talking about something humorous. He touched the glasses and brought them down a fraction of an inch for a second to glance in her direction, grin, and put the glasses back up again.

Her face almost exploded in color as she blushed, quickly turning back to the snakeskin. A tour…from that guy? She smirked to herself, embarrassed. They didn't hold back here in Winter River, did they?

Making a mental note to go see if was truly him after school (after all, someone else could have slipped that note into her pocket), she continued through the day, nervous and adrenaline-pumped. Finally, as the last bell rang, she gathered her things and threw them into her backpack, making a beeline for the West Entrance.