Marissa looked at the clock. She had only been in school for two hours, and yet it seemed as if she had been there for days. Time seemed as if it were not ticking at all, at least for Marissa Cooper. Everywhere she went, people were staring at her and talking about her. Most people that stared at her were afraid that she was going to go and kill them next, ignorant to the circumstances surrounding Trey's death, while the people who were talking about her were the ones who were the daughters and sons of the police officers who had been at the scene that fateful night.

The bell rang, which meant it was time to switch classes. She took her schedule out of her purse, and looked at it. Her next class was Advanced Placement English IV with Mr. Gillis in room 324. "How exciting," she thought to herself. Marissa stood up, got out of her seat, and began to walk across the campus to get to her next class. On the way, she saw the other kids snickering about her. If only they knew what had really happened that night. The five minute walk seemed as if were hours long. When kids saw her coming, they all stopped what they were doing and stared.

When she got to the class, she found a seat in the back corner of the room, a place she thought would be appropriate for her to sit. The kids started to file in when the bell rang. Most of them sat as far away as possible from Marissa Cooper. Others were forced to sit near her. Just when the teacher thought everyone had walked in, another soul walked through the door. He came in, and sat down at her table, not afraid of her, like the others.

"Hey, Marissa," the boy greeted her.

"Hey, Ryan," she replied. She smiled. Never before that class had she felt so alone - now she was not so alone.

The teacher soon began after Ryan walked into the room. He asked the kids about their summer, and what not. Then he got down to business. He proposed a project for the kids about their summer reading, in which they would do in pairs. They were to act out a scene from any one of the four books that they were assigned to read that summer. After acting out the scene to the class, they would explain the themes and literary devices demonstrated within that scene. Then he read off the partnerships. Ryan looked at Marissa - they had been paired together. She tried not to show how pleased she was that they had been paired together, mainly because she did not know how Ryan felt about the two of them working together.

After fifty long minutes, the class ended and they went to lunch. She decided to eat out of the cafeteria today. Maybe she would have a bacon cheeseburger with some cookies and milk today. When she had gotten her lunch, she went and sat down at her usual table, and began to eat slowly. Summer soon joined her, along with Seth. Marissa was grateful to have the company.

"So, Marissa," Seth began, "How has the first day of senior hell been for you?"

Marissa sighed. She began to play with the food on her plate with her plastic spork. "As good as can be expected, I guess," she replied.

"Coop, don't worry - Cohen and I - we'll get you through this," Summer told her. She took another swig of her Mountain Dew - Seth's favorite drink.

"Thanks, you guys," she replied. Marissa played with her food some more. "Do you guys think that life around here will ever go back to normal for us now?"

"Some day it will," Summer told her. She reached over to hug her best friend.

"Hey, where did Ryan go for lunch?" Marissa asked, wondering where he was. She knew that he really did not have very many other friends at the school besides Seth, Summer, and herself, which made her question his absence.

Seth finished chewing and replied, "The D.A. needed to talk with him about what happened. I guess he's going to talk to everyone that was there, or really knew Trey well."

"Oh," Marissa replied.