So I got chapter one up really quick ! The more reviews I get , the more I'll want to upload.

Disclaimer : All characters belong to Meg Cabot , and I used a portion of her book (about the tourettes) in this chapter.

You'd think for somebody who sees and speaks to the dead, I'd believe more in supernatural things. Well sorry to disappoint you, but I don't. I've never believed in vampires or the boogeyman, hell, I barely even believed in Santa Clause as a child; however, today as my mother drove me to the airport from my home of Brooklyn, I knew there was a reason it was pouring down rain. This is what I was currently trying to make my mother understand, "Mom," I said for nearly the hundredth time, "don't you see? Even God knows I don't belong in that hell hole."

"Susannah," my mom gave me the look that she always gave me when she was disappointed in me. The one that says , 'Honey, even though I love you you've done some things that I'm not happy with,' , "you've been talking to your father for eight years now, and I think it's time you get some help with it. You aren't the same girl as you used to be, skipping class, getting arrested, Susie," her eyes filled up with tears, "I just don't know how to help you anymore".

I sighed, turning my gaze out the window to avoid my mothers tearful eyes. I hated making her cry, I really did, but how was I supposed to tell her that the reason I've been doing those things is because I speak to the dead? I prefer her assumption of emotionally scarred from loosing my father at a young age. As much as I was hating the idea of spending who knows how long at the Junipero Serra Home, I couldn't help but think it may be good for my mother. She always wanted a daughter that was into fashion, and shopping, had a ton of friends, and boys that never stopped calling. Instead, she got me, the freak with the ability to talk to ghosts. With me gone, she could start her own life and begin dating again, get the new house she's always wanted, and spend more time with her friends. I was so lost in my own thoughts that I barely realized we were at the airport until I heard my mom say quietly, "you promise to call me every time they let you use the phone?"

"Of course," nodding I swallowed back the lump that began to form in my throat, "every Wednesday once a week, you won't hear the end of me."

She smiled weakly at my attempt at a joke, "and every Wednesday I'll be waiting. So," she caught her lip between her teeth, a habit she had most likely picked up from me, "I love you, sweetheart. I'm sure you'll love it there, it can't be as bad as you imagine it to be, and who knows, maybe you'll even meet some cute boys."

Leave it to my mom to think of me meeting boys in a mental home. It was sad how desperate she really was for me to date. Opening the car door I stepped out into the crisp Brooklyn air, it was early November and the first snow of the year would be falling any day now. I had on my leather jacket, the one my mom absolutely hated, a pair of jeans and leather boots. I wondered if these clothes would fit in among the palm trees and the ocean, my mom had said it got cool in California. This was just one of the many things I worried about as I waited and boarded my plane. Right about the time as the flight attendants took there positions in the front of the plane to do there safety demonstration, I leaned against the window and closed my eyes. It was just after 6 AM, meaning I would land in California around 3:30 there time, and I was exhausted. I sort of felt bad for sleeping during the safety procedure, and I remember thinking briefly that I would be screwed if the plane crashed, but I fell asleep after that.

"We have safely touched down in Los Angeles California. The duration of the trip was twelve hours and twenty-one minutes, we hope you enjoyed your flight with Continent…" The sound of the pilot on a speaker system awoke me from my sleep.

"I need your help," I nearly jumped a foot out of my seat at the voice that came from besides me, because this was most defiantly not the pilot. I took the in the person sitting next to me, or rather the child, and the faint glow the boy was emitting told me that this was not a human. I took a deep breath steadying myself, it wasn't that I was afraid of ghosts, because seeing them since I was three, they became a normal occurrence to me, it was just when they seemed to materialize out of nowhere it took me by surprise. The kid next to me looked to be about eight or nine, his sandy brown hair was kept in a way that would drive any mother crazy. The thing that struck me about this boy though was his deep chocolate eyes looked so sad and lost, that it was impossible for me to pass up the opportunity to help him.

"What is it?" I used the most comforting and motherly voice I could muster, hoping not to upset him even more.

"My mom," he whispered, "tell my mom I'm sorry for running off."

I was about to ask him why he ran off, and for his name, possibly where he lived, but a flight attendant chose this time to notice me and stopped in front of my row of seats, "Miss, we've landed, you may exit the plane now."

"Yeah," I muttered looking back to where the boy had been seated just seconds before, but it was empty, just as I knew it would be, "Yeah, sorry".

I stood, grabbing my bags from the overhead compartment and walked off the plane into the Los Angeles International Airport. I groaned at the site waiting for me in the boarding area. A child with hair literally bright red, no lie, and a priest of all people stood with a sign that my name was scrawled across. I muttered a curse and shuffled up to them mumbling, "you can loose the sign now, I'm here."

The boy with the red hair stepped forward, a big smile plastered across his face stuck out his hand, "Hi Susannah ! My name is David, I myself am not a patient at JSH, but I enjoy spending my free time with the residents there. This," he jerked a finger at the priest, "is Father Dominic, he is the founder of the House, and the person who I live with. I noticed you sounded grumpy when you walked in, which is most likely due to your jet lag, which occurs when you travel across different time zones. It causes your body's internal clock to become out of sync, which in turn causes irritability, grogginess, nausea, and in some cases mild depression,"

I stared at him, I must have looked pretty stupid standing there with my mouth hanging open because the priest, Father Dominic, was it ?, stepped forward and put a hand on David's shoulder, "that's enough David, I'm sure Susannah doesn't want to hear about the entire works of jet lag," he turned his eyes toward me and I had to hold back a gasp, for set in his wrinkled face were two of the most lively blue eyes I'd ever seen, "David is much smarter then his twelve years, you're going to have to endure his constant flow of information. Now, what do you say we get your luggage and head off to the house, you must be exhausted."

I spent the rest of my time at the airport in a daze, partly due to David's speech, and also because I was exhausted, and still thinking about the boy from the plane. California was interesting so far, I found out pretty quickly that my jacket and boots definitely didn't fit in here among the tube tops and miniskirts, but I was expecting that. I currently found myself lost in the view of the pacific ocean as we drove down some highway. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. I've see the Atlantic ocean before, but I was young then, and this was much better then my memory. Palm trees lined the beaches, and seagulls and other birds I didn't know mingled on the beach with the sunbathers and surfers. The sun was beating down, reflected off the water in beautiful rays of light. I could have stared at it all day, except for the fact that we pulled into the driveway of a large white building with a carved wooden sign that read 'Junipero Serra' largely and then below it 'home for troubled teens'. My heart spend up and I felt sweat begin to form on my palms, which I attempted to get rid of by wiping them on my jeans.

"Well here we are," Father Dominic said as he opened my door for me, "home sweet home."

Hardly. I stepped out of the car into my own private nightmare, and turned to get my bags out of the trunk only to find that David and Father Dominic had already unloaded them and were making there way toward the front door.

"Come on Susannah," David called excitedly , "You're just in time for lunch !"

Lucky me.

Remember in science class, when they used to make you watch those videos about animals feeding, or gathering at the watering hole? That was what lunch and Junipero Serra reminded me of. In the line for lunch were the lions, the ones with the highest status that are the other little animals stayed clear of , behind them were the cheetahs, or possibly cougars, that were just slightly weaker than the lions. Sitting at the table closest to the lunch line were the hyenas , laughing loudly and causing all the other animals to stay clear, then to the left of them must have been the herbivores, because they just sat there with their bottled water talking amongst themselves and shooting me an occasional glare. I was currently standing in the door way to the cafeteria, with David at my side since he had volunteered to show me around until I got used to the place. I wasn't sure how long I was standing there staring but I felt an elbow poke into my ribs and heard David say "where do you want to sit?"

"Uh," I scanned the lunch room one more time, wishing fervently that a huge neon sign would pop up flashing "SIT HERE SUZE", but when no such thing happened I looked back down at David helplessly, "wherever you want to?"

To my relief David nodded and began to walk toward the far end of the cafeteria, "we can sit by CeeCee and Adam," he was telling me, "CeeCee has photosensitivity, that simply means she's allergic to sunlight. Adam and she sit in the back of the cafeteria, in a special location the home has made that is safe for CeeCee's skin. Don't worry though, although some of the residents here may think CeeCee is different, she's one of my favorite people. Adam has ADHD, hyperactivity that is, and trust me, you've never seen a case like his before. If it wasn't for the medication he's taking, he'd never be able to sit still. Well here we are,"

I broke out of the trance I've been going into when David said one of his speeches, and looked at the table in front of me. The girl sitting there, CeeCee I presumed, was typing frantically on her laptop, "See Adam," she was saying and I looked over at the boy she was talking to. Currently he was tapping a pencil against the table faster than I've ever seen somebody do before, "I'm telling you, statistics right here say that girls mature faster than boys. Don't you think that'd be a good topic to write about for the pap…" whatever she had been about to say was cut off when she noticed David and me standing there.

"Oh, hey Doc," I was momentarily confused by the name she had called him, and I had a brief moment of panic thinking I'd been calling him the wrong name all this time. Then realization hit me,

"Doc as in the seven dwarfs," the smile that was across my face from having figured it out was short lived because CeeCee stared at me, or at least I think she did since she was wearing thick tinted glasses over her eyes, and said,

"Wow, we got us a genius this time, don't we Adam?"

Adam who had seemed not to notice me until now smiled at me, and I noticed for the first time that he actually didn't look half bad. I wasn't sure what I expected the boys at the Junipero home to look like, but it definitely wasn't good.

"Just ignore her," Adam was saying to me, "I think some sunlight's getting through somewhere, and it's messing with her head."

"It is not Adam, that's not even a side effect of photosensitivity,"

The next thing I knew, CeeCee was throwing a French fry at Adams head, and Adam scream "Duck and cover," so loud that it caused the entire lunch room to go dead silent and turn stare in the direction of the commotion. Of course then everyone noticed me, which caused an entire different commotion. One of the girls from the herbivore table, a plastic looking one with thick curly blonde hair, decided to stand up an announce, "of course, she decides to sit next to the freaks"

I smiled at her, it was an evil smile really, one that I saved for when I was dealing with people, or ghosts, such as her, "you must be here because you have Tourette's."

"What ?" She blinked at me, clearly startled, and her posse of Barbie's slowly began to stand up next to her.

"Tourette's Syndrome," I dragged it out slowly making sure she understood, "It's a neurological disorder that causes people to say things they don't mean. You have it, don't you?"

"No, she doesn't have Tourette's," one of the Barbie's said.

"What's your problem anyways, it wasn't like I was calling you a freak," the curly haired one tossed her hair back over her shoulder.

"I know, which is why I'm only going to have to break one of your fingers after lunch, and not all of them," with that I turned around and sat down at the table next to David. I heard giggles and snickers coming from around the lunch room, and I could imagine the embarrassment the girl was going through. I was surprised at what CeeCee said next,

"I don't need you fighting our battles for us," she sounded annoyed, "we can fight for ourselves."

"I know you can," I said quickly raising an eyebrow at her, "I didn't do it because I thought you couldn't. I did it because that girl is a troll."

The corners of her lips twitched upwards a little, "Debbie. That's the anorexia table you know, they think they can live off of Fiji Water, but that one," she pointed to a girl among the Barbie's with straight blonde hair, "Heather Chambers, she's suicidal."

And that's how I spent the rest of my lunch. CeeCee and Adam took turns pointing at different tables and telling me what was wrong with each person. Most of them had pretty common things wrong with them, ADHD, eating disorders, suicidal, or problems with drugs. When CeeCee had asked me why I was here, I had hesitated on telling her the truth, or giving the excuse of being emotionally unstable because of loosing my dad at a young age. I ended up choosing the latter. I had thought we were finished going through everybody, but that's when he decided to walk in. He had short thick black hair, the kind that I would kill to run my fingers through, and stood around 6'0 and had eyes to die for. He wore old fashioned clothes, a white shirt that tied in the front with strings, and had a slit V neck, that gave the perfect view of his chest, and occasionally if he moved just right, his six pack.

"Who is he," I managed to get out,

CeeCee looked at me with a confused expression, and then looked to where I was staring, "Who is who?"

It was only then that I noticed the person that had just walked in was glowing, and I quickly covered my mistake by saying, "oh, never mind. You already told me that was Jake Ackerman, the one with drug problems."

"Crushing on him already ?" CeeCee shook her head slowly, "I don't get what everybody sees in him, all he does is sleep. That won't make for very good date material if you ask me,"

I tuned out CeeCee and looked back to where the guy had just been standing, only to find he was no longer there. Sighing I turned my attention back to CeeCee who was still rambling about what a terrible date Jake would be, and vowed to myself right then to find out who the ghost was. Things for me at the Junipero Serra Home, had just started looking a hell of a lot better.

Alright , that ending there I just decided at the very end. I was going to have Jesse be a student there who thought he was the reincarnation of an 1850's rancher, but I think I can make a better story with him as a ghost. Don't expect the next chapter to be up so soon, I just wanted to get chapter one up so people could actually start reviewing and I would know if I should continue. Just incase you got lost so far, these are the people who have been introduced into the story ,

Suze : Is there because her mother believes she has emotional / behavioral problems because of the loss of her father, but really she just communicates with ghosts.

CeeCee : Has photosensitivity and was sent there because her parents couldn't provide the environment which she needed.

Adam : Has an extreme case of ADHD, and was sent there until they find the correct medicine that can manage it.

Debbie : Anorexia

Kelly : (hasn't been fully introduced yet) anorexia

Heather : Suicidal

Jake : Has problems with drugs

David : Doesn't have any problem, but lives with Father Dominic for reasons you'll find out later.

Jesse : A ghost