The four of us stood in front of the great edifice, a line of warriors waging a mental war of whether or not to walk up those teeming steps. Okay fine, we weren't warriors, the school could hardly be called a "great edifice", and there wasn't much of an internal war going on. We all knew that our feet would carry us up those steps whether we liked it or not. My previous dark feeling of unease and apprehension loomed over me again, and I felt a bit sick to my stomach. I was being overdramatic, yes, but this year of school was going to be different than any of the others. I had never had friends before, and from what I had heard, Castle Rock was quite discriminatory, especially towards my boyfriend.

My hand found Chris' and I squeezed it, receiving one back. Looking up at his cheerless face, I thought maybe I had been wrong when I thought earlier he was getting used to the idea of school. It made me wonder yet again how tormented he must have been in his previous years here. Thinking about it gave me a terrible aching in my heart vicinity.

That's enough reflection of my thoughts and feelings for now, I think. Let's cut straight to the action.

I stepped forward, taking the lead, and goaded myself up the steps and through the doors. It looked like most schools did; boring and bland, the walls occasionally adorning a trophy case, postersor class graduation pictures. As we walked past the cafeteria I noticed it was a bit smaller than those of the other schools I attended, except the school in Mexico, which hadn't even had one.

Now the four of us split up to find our lockers. Chris, Sara and Gordie's were relatively close together, but mine was down a whole different hall. Sighing, I searched for it. When I found it, it was worse than I had imagined.

First of all, there was a girl I didn't recognize already putting her stuff into it. That meant two things: that I was one of the unfortunate few that had to share a locker, and that if I didn't recognize her, she was either new, didn't get out much, or was from the View. Judging by her appearance, I guessed she lived up in the View.

I walked slowly up to her and was about to say something when she beat me to it. "Ugh, please don't tell me I'm supposed to share my locker with you."

My temper flared a little at that snide comment, but I quelled it. "Well, I'm not exactly thrilled either."

The blonde brat took a closer look at me, her lips curling into a disgusted sneer. "Aren't you Chambers' little whore?" I kept my mouth shut and she continued. "AND your mother's a whore too, not being married and all. I guess that also makes you a bastard." She scrunched up her face. "Well, now there's no way you're sharing my locker now. You'll like, contaminate everything with your trashiness!"

I raised an eyebrow, surprised that she had a word as big as "contaminate" in her vocabulary. I wasn't going to let her provoke me into a fight, even if she insulted my mother. I'd get my revenge later. I balled up my fists, but instead of socking her in her pretty little face, I turned and started to walk away. "I wouldn't dream of touching anything of yours anyway," I called back to her. "I might contract an STD. Cuz like, that's what happens when girls fuck guys they don't know, without protection." I kept walking, but I could tell she was fuming behind me. Not waiting for a response, I turned the corner and headed the way my three friends had gone. I hoped one of them had a locker they could share with me.

When I found Chris' locker, he was shoving books up into the top shelf. He looked down at me in surprise, noticing I was still carrying my backpack and was slightly red in the face from suppressed anger. "What's wrong? Couldn't you find your locker?"

"Oh I found it all right," I grumbled, and then told him about my encounter with Miss Priss.

Chris just laughed when I finished and gave me a kiss on the forehead. "Well, I'm glad you didn't get into a fight on the first day. And don't worry, I don't have a locker partner, unless he hasn't turned up yet." He flashed me a grin, "But if he does, I'll tell him to beat it."

There I had been worrying about Chris getting into a fight, when it was actually me that had come close to it, and school hadn't even technically started!

So I settled into Chris' locker comfortably, happy that this way I'd be closer to my friends and not have to walk down two halls to see them. When the first bell rang, Chris and I went to homeroom English while Gordie and Sara headed to Advanced Calculus. How they managed it, I don't know. I could barely get good grades in ordinary Calculus.

We took desks near the back corner of the classroom, and I watched as people slowly filtered into the classroom. One of the girls, I noted, was the one from my little encounter earlier. I frowned in displease and Chris noticed.

"That girl's the one from this morning," I answered him, discreetly pointing her out.

Chris saw her and frowned too. "That's Eva Wallace. Happens to be the next door neighbour of Kadance, but Kadance hates her guts. As Eva hates mine," he added with a grin.

I looked at him thoughtfully. "Do you know her middle name?"

"No, but it's rumoured to be Winifred…Why?"

I smiled. "Well, that would make her initials 'EWW'. Very fitting, I think. Also very kind of her parents."

Chris just returned my smile and shook his head as the teacher started taking attendance.

Forty-five long, dry minutes later, Chris and I exited the English room. Our teacher had droned on for the endurance of the class about "Course Outlines" and "Expectations", as well as "Common Classroom Rules One Must Abide". What a snooze!

By the time lunch rolled around (which, by some gift from Heaven, our entire gang had together) I already couldn't think straight. The first week of school always made me thick as pudding. Instead of trying to grab a table in the cafeteria, we decided to go outside. It was still warm and sunny, and we sat under a big tree and ate our lunches.

When it was time for gym class, Chris and I walked towards the gym. He carried his gym bag while I was empty-handed, having to sit out of gym for a month on doctor's orders. When he disappeared into the boys' locker room, I entered the girls' to find Sara and Kadance.

When I first looked, I didn't see them amidst the many girls who were pulling on the tasteless gym uniforms. When I stepped in further, a hand shot out and shoved me in the chest roughly. Startled, my eyes flicked up to look up at who had done it.

"Hey bastard-girl." It was Eva. Damn. Her friends gathered around her, the other less popular girls watching us with wide-eyes. Eva put a finger to her chin and looked as if she was in deep thought. Or at least as deep as a girl of her intellect could get. "Hmm, I guess I can't really call you that, because you do know who your father is. Too bad he tried to kidnap you, huh? He should have done everyone in this town a favour and got you little boyfriend too, and then dump you both in the river," she sneered at me.

Okay, last straw. I no longer gave a shit as to whether or not I got in trouble the first day of school. She had gone way too far.

Before I had a chance to mess her up, Kadance and Sara broke through the crowd of girls and Kadance spun Eva around to face her. Keeping a bruising grip on the other girl's arm, Kadance hissed, "Maybe you should think about your own family before you go about berating others, Eva. Is it so much better to have parents that completely ignore you, treat you like a nasty infection? You know it's true. Their idea of child-rearing is throwing money at you while they travel the world. And you're a bitch because of it."

Eva's face had gone white, whether in anger or another feeling I knew not. She tore her arm from my friend's grip and walked out of the room in a huff, with her clique following after her.

"Thanks. I would've pounded her face in if you hadn't come at that moment."

Kadance and Sara linked their arms through mine. "No problem," Kadance said, waving it off. "I live next to her; I know the truth about her. Doesn't stop me from hating her, but I do feel a little sorry sometimes."

"She was pretty much raised by her detached 'au pair', and spoiled rotten with money. She used to be nicer, but that pretty much stopped in grade three," Sara informed me as we walked out into the gym.

Chris was already out there, and out of a desire to keep him from placing more blame on himself, I made Kadance and Sara promise not to tell him about it. As I took my place on the bench, after explaining my condition and showing my doctor's note to the instructor, I noticed Eva giving me dirty looks.

The rest of the day went smoothly, because Eva was not in any of my classes after gym, and her cronies seemed unwilling to start anything without their leader. When the final bell rang, I headed towards my locker, Chris lagging behind with Gordie. When I was twirling the combination, I noticed a piece of yellow paper sticking out of the crack in the locker. Hesitantly I pulled it out and read it.

Watch your back, slut. You wouldn't want any unfortunate accidents to happen to you or your boyfriend.

Great, I thought, sighing as I crumpled up the note and threw it into a nearby trashcan. Chris and Gordie walked up to me, still laughing and smiling about something or another. Forcing a smile onto my face, I decided I wouldn't tell Chris about this either. It looked like his day hadn't gone too badly, and I didn't want to ruin it for him.

Ace was waiting outside the school in his car when Chris and I were about to walk home. "Get in," he said gruffly, so I hopped in. I saw him frown a bit as Chris got in as well, but I just hit his arm lightly and he glowered at me instead. He had a better attitude around Chris since the night in the forest, but some habits were hard to break, especially the unreasonable ones. He never had a motive for tormenting Chris and his friends when they were younger, just did it. It had become a way of life. Since there was no reason, there was nothing we could change or discuss to make Ace more understanding. He had to kick the impulse on his own.

We didn't talk much on the way home. Ace asked how the school went, in his usual brusque manner, and put in his two cents about how he was glad he never had to go back there. As I sat there, my mind wandered back to the note. The first day of school, and I was already getting threats. Grade 11 at Castle Rock High was sure going to be a memorable one.

A/N: Okay, that chapter was a better length, but still not up to my old standards. I'm getting there! After the next chapter I plan on sort of fastforwarding through the school year, have some chapters be for holidays or just days important stuff will happen on. I'm not sure exactly of what will be happening and when, but I have a rough idea. Also, I have no clue how school was organized in the 60's, especially in the U.S. I live in Ontario, Canada. So I'm going with what my mom told me, how there used to be eight periods, same subjectsall year long. We only have four here, and two semesters when they switch. I'm winging it with this story. I also don't know what subjects they would have taken, so I'll remain somewhat vague on that point. Also, I just learned about that new "review reply" system, so that's what I will do with my signed reviewers. The unsigned ones I will thank in my A/N's. I haven't started yet, but I'll do it when I get back from horseback riding, which I leave for soon! Cal, you were my only unsigned reviewer for last chapter, so thankyou very much for your review! I'm glad I made your day, you helped make mine too . I'll have the next chapter up soon (hopefully) everybody! Please review!