Forever

The last chapter ended on a pretty dark note, huh? This chapter I'm going to try to brighten the mood (no guarentees, though) as Scarlett learns more about the people she's forced to live with. Also, what else is she going to learn about the school?

Also, one of my reviewers wondered what Stephanie is doing at the school, since she seems so out of place. But don't worry, I do actually have a story behind her besides just being the annoying room mate with a muscular boyfriend. Her story will be covered in time.

I'm listening to Zumba music while I'm typing this, so if something seems wrong, that's probably why. Well, I'm not anymore. Now I'm listening to loud pop music. Whether that's better or worse is entirely up to you.

Anyway, enough rambling. Here's your stupid whatever.

Chapter 4 - There Ain't Quite Something Right Here

And I'm not sleeping now! The dark is too hard to beat! - "Lights" Ellie Goulding

I arrived at Creative Writing class three minutes and forty seven seconds before it began, which for me is cutting it close. Everyone in the class were already seated and talking, so I took a seat in the back of the class, hoping no one notice me, and trying to forget about what had transpired before I had arrived. But it was hard to forget (it only happened a few minutes ago) and my hand still hurt. I was sort of grateful that he had cut my left hand and not my right, or I may not have been able to hold a pencil.

The teacher arrived two seconds before class began, and I can assure you that everything about this teacher was so much more different than the other two. First off, the teacher was a woman. She was dressed in Hippy clothes, and wore a flower head band and danced into class. She reminded me vaguely of Ella. She danced over to the black board, wrote some stuff down, then turned to the class.

"Hello, students!" she greeted in a sing-song voice, "My name is Miss White! I will be your creative writing teacher! How are you all today?"

Her cheery greeting was met with a resounding silence. She didn't seem to mind, though.

"I see you're all a bit tired this morning!" she noted, "But don't worry! Here at HFFTRSGEMD, we strive to enlighten and enrich the lives of every student that passes through these doors!"

"Geez, can't anyone just say 'Reform School?'" I muttered to myself.

Miss White started passing out a small sheet of paper to everyone. When I got mine, I saw that it was basically a "getting to know you" sort of thing that normal teachers usually handed out at normal middle schools. Oh, and high school, I guess. It did not take me very long to fill it out, I mostly just reflected my bitterness at being here.

After that she asked us all to write a four word "poem" about our time here. It was very easy for me: "This place is Hell." When the bell wrang, I turned it in and immediately left. Before I could wander away without knowing where I was going, I took out my schedule to see what was next. I was relieved to see that it was lunch next, then free time for most of the rest of the day. I headed over to the cafeteria and was just wondering how long it would take for Max to find me when he was suddenly at my side.

"Ah! Sidekick! There you are!" he greeted me. I was still annoyed about how he called me "sidekick," even though I had made it perfectly clear that I was not his sidekick. Or minion. Or anything of the sort.

"Max," I replied, simply, "How was your class?"

"Boring," he answered, "I don't who thought I needed 'Writing About Literature.' It was totally pointless."

I was about to point out yet again that he was the one who hacked the computer to pick his classes, but I decided not to. He kept close to me as we entered the cafeteria. The room was extrodinarly large, and was almost completely packed. However, since the whole school had meal times at the same time, this was hardly surprising. But the colors of the room were quite pleasing compared to the rest of the school. It was painted with dark warm colors, like maroon and dark orange, with soft lighting. There were some raised areas that looked over the rest of the cafeteria, and different lines for different kinds of food. At least there was one good thing about this horrible school; they made sure you wouldn't go hungry because you couldn't find anything to eat.

Max and I split up as we went to seperate lines. As I was selecting what I was going to have, I briefly wondered how long it would take Stephanie to find me when she was suddenly at my side.

"Hey, Roomie!" she greeted me cheerfully. Much like Max, I was quite annoyed how Stephanie refused call me anything but "roomie." I had a name!

"Like, how was creative writing?" she asked me before I could get the chance to greet her.

"Fine, I suppose," I replied, "The teacher was rather odd. Quite unlike Mr. Smiles and Mr. Medlicott."

"Did you have Miss White?" she asked, "Like, I had her when I took that class. She was like, tons of fun. A lot of the students don't like her though, 'cause she's like, so nice and not evil. But she's like, totally cool."

"Indeed," I noted, simply. We joined Max again and chose a table to sit at. I was about to ask Stephanie if Tom was going to join us, when he strode over and sat down next to her.

"Hey, babe," he greeted her. The two hugged and I noticed that Tom looked right at me as they did. Perhaps I was just imagining things (highly unlikely, but it was a possibility.)

As we ate, Max and I in silence, while Stephanie and Tom talked up a storm, I suddenly saw the girl I had bumped into earlier walk past. I scowled at her. She was the one who got me called into Flappy's office, the reason my hand was cut up and bandaged...

And it was at the moment she was passing that Max, with his brilliant timing, decided to suddenly notice my bandages.

"Scarlett," he said in a slightly-louder-than-was-neccesary voice, "What happened to your hand? Why is it all wrapped up like that?"

I saw the girl turn and notice me. She must've known what had happened, because she sneered at me with the smuggest expression and look of self-satisfaction on her face. It was my deepest desire at that moment to throw a knife at her, but I restrained myself. Instead, I forced myself to (kind of) answer Max.

"I don't really want to talk about it," I said, still glaring at the girl.

Stephanie turned to see who I was glaring at and caught the sight of the fleeing girl. "I like, know her," she informed me, "That's like, Brittany. She likes getting everyone into trouble."

"I heard that she pulled a long string of robberies back where her home is," Tom said, "She never got caught because she could always pin the blame on someone else. When she finally got caught, she was sent here, and I guess she decided to continue her reign of terror."

The rest of lunch was rather uneventful. When it was over we started heading back up to our dorm room (did I mention it was on the sixth floor?) As we did, we passed by Flappy's office, and I made sure Max and Stephanie were on either side of me when we did. I don't know what I was expecting to happen, maybe I thought Brittany would appear out of no where and get me into more trouble. But even so, Stephanie stopped in front of the door anyway.

"Oh! I just remembered!" she said, "We have to sign up for therapy with Mr. Flappy!"

I groaned. "Does it have to be with him?" I asked, a desperate note in my voice.

"Well, yeah," Stephanie replied, "It's part of the program that's like, supposed to help us get like, normal and stuff. So we can like, go home and stuff."

"That's not what I meant," I muttered under my breath.

"We have to have therapy like, once a week," Stephanie continued explaining, "You like, sign up for a day and time, and that's when you have it every week. Want me to sign up for you?"

"Whatever," Max replied.

"I don't care," was my response. I rather had hoped that someone else would have been our therapist. I didn't know if I could spend an hour alone with Happy Flappy.

"There!" the girl exclaimed as she finished writing all of our names down, "Babe, I put you right before me. Max and Scarlett, your times are tomorrow, all right?"

"Hooray," Max answered, his voice dripping with disinterest.

As soon as we got back to our dorm, I locked myself in my room to get started on the enormous pile of homework Mr. Medlicott had given us. I was just about to finish when there was a knock on my door. I growled to myself, but chose to ignore it. Perhaps who ever it was would go away. But somehow I knew it was Max, and I knew that he was not going to go away.

"Scarlett?" Max called, "Can I come in?"

I sighed in frustration. He wasn't going to let me say no, so I let him in. "What is it?" I asked.

"I was just wondering if you were ok," he replied, sitting next to me, "I mean, your hand is bandaged and you seemed rather upset."

Frankily, I was just suprised he cared. It just didn't seem like him to care about me at all. So, I decided to reward his sentiment with a little bit of openess.

"Um, I cut my hand a little," I replied, rubbing my hand.

Max suddenly took my hand and, before I could stop him, started unwrapping the bandages. I was about to object when Max gasped as the last wrap fell away. The X on the palm of my hand was still bleeding slightly, and it still hurt.

"What happened to you?" Max asked, shocked.

I didn't quite know what to say. I didn't really want to tell him that Flappy cut my hand, how would that look? But there wasn't a very graceful way to lie myself out of this. So, I decided to confess the truth.

"Er, I got called into Flappy's office when I bumped into another student," I explained, "And he cut my hand like this."

Max just stared at me for a moment. "That," he said eventually, "is seriously messed up. What kind of authority figure does that?"

"I'm not sure," I replied. Compared to Flappy, I thought, Chris was starting to look like a saint. Who actually likes teenagers.

But maybe it was a one time thing. I mean, Flappy couldn't be like that all the time!

...Could he?

Oh Scarlett! If only you knew the sick and twisted things I have planned for you! Heh, heh.

Hopefully this chapter wasn't too long for you. I wanted to add more, but I decided an open ended question was the perfect place to end this chapter. Next time, we get Scarlett's first time in therapy! And yes, it will be just as dark as you think it will be!

Unfortunately, I'm sad to say, I'll be taking a brief break from this story so I can work on other projects. Namely, my other fan fictions. I want to update the ones that haven't been updated in a while, but don't worry! I'll try to get them done as soon as possible! I have other fans to satisfy too, you know! Anyway, leave a comment and don't forget to vote for Courtney!