• I stumbled as the girl's fist connected with my face. I looked up at her, she was smirking as though she had already won the fight, which annoyed me to no end. "Had enough, smallfry?" She asked. She had asked it with so much attitude that no one but me seemed to detect the hint of fright in her voice.

    My fists clenched almost instantly. The last time I had been called a smalfry was in elementary school, back when I wasn't even five feet tall. "You think you're all that because you landed a punch on someone that wasn't expecting it?" I stood stood straight and glared at her.

    "After pissing me off you should have expected me to hit you." She stated as though she had rehearsed it. Her friends that stood behind her started snickering and whispering among each other. Though the guy was different; he looked as though he was ready to join the fight.

    My fists finally relaxed after my nails had broken through the skin. A single drop of blood fell from the wound and onto the floor. "You know what?" I paused and watched her expression change to curiosity. "I am not going to fight you."

    She smirked, sure that she had won the fight. "It seems that you are scared and knew that I would win either way." The girl stood completely confident but her smoky gray eyes told a different story. They revealed her relief of not having to continue the fight.

    I snorted with amusement at her arrogance. "You're quite full of yourself, aren't you?" I walked up to her and smiled. "You are just not worth fighting." I sauntered out of the cafeteria without looking back.

    The floor was the only thing that I looked at while walking down the narrow halls of the school. Every so often a pair of shoes would enter my vision or my shoulders would collide with someone else's. I wandered around aimlessly just waiting for the bell to ring, though something collided with me before the sound of the bell would echo through the halls.

    Whatever it was, it hit me with such force that I was knocked to the ground. My head suddenly began to pound as though I was getting hit continuously with a hammer. I looked around the hall for somewhere I could just sit and hide for awhile. I found no such place, so I decided to sit against a wall instead. I brought my knees up to my chest and rested my forehead on my knees.

    Doors throughout the school clicked open simultaneously with the ringing of the bell. Nobody stopped if they noticed me which I was perfectly fine with. It didn't last long. I heard a single set of footsteps stop in front of me but I didn't bother to see who it was.

    "What do you want?" I asked flatly, not caring who was in front of me.

    A girl's voice spoke, it was strangely familiar, though I couldn't figure out who it was. "Marissa, what's wrong?" It took me a minute before I placed the voice as Vanessa's.

    "I am fine. Why do you ask?" I struggled to keep my tone even due to the increasing pain in my head.

    "You are huddled into a ball in the hallway and it's lunch." Vanessa stated bluntly. Her voice changed instantly as she continued to speak, "I thought you were going to hang out with me."

    I looked up at her and sighed. "You are not going to leave until I go, are you?" She shook her head and smiled. "Fine." I struggled to get to my feet but I managed, somehow.

    "So, how are you feeling?"

    "It feels as though there is construction going on in my head and that I am going to hurl if it doesn't stop soon." I explained truthfully.

    "Well, you're very blunt and honest." Vanessa said with a small laugh.

    My gaze wondered to her face, it had completely changed. When she was checking up on her expression had been so worried, like that of a mother who was taking care of her sick child. Now her face was so bright and happy that she could light up a room, it even seemed to influence those around her. Every time someone looked at her, they would either laugh or smile back.

    I was so lost in thought that I didn't even notice she was talking to me. "There are a few things that I need to fill you in one, seeing as you are a new student and all." There was something about her tone that I couldn't quite figure out.

    "Alright." I thought for a moment. "Like what?" I was very curious and just had to ask, even though I was sure she wouldn't answer.

    "I'll explain that once we sit down." Vanessa pulled open the door to the cafeteria and let me go first.

    I winced as the pounding in my head seemed to get even worse. I took a few deep breaths, trying to prevent myself from clutching my head and running in the opposite direction. I looked to my right only to find Vanessa beside me.

    She took my hand and led me to a table in the corner of the room. Finally she stopped in front of me and spoke to someone. "Hey guys. I brought someone to eat lunch with us." She walked forward and sat down.

    I quickly glanced over the people sitting at the table and found three other faces, besides Vanessa's, staring at me. There was a very handsome boy and a very pretty girl on one side of the table. My vision changed to the other side of the table where realization hit me like a brick wall.

    The guy from my English class was looking at me, his face revealed shock for a moment but it quickly went back to its usual expressionless appearance. He looked a bit different than he had in English class. He had looked amused in English but now he showed no emotion at all.

    "Um, hi." I said, my voice lacking confidence. "I'm Marissa." I nodded to them all but they looked at me as if they knew something I didn't. It bothered me slightly that they were looking at me with such intensity in their eyes.

    "Now, I have told Marissa that I would explain a few things to her but, as you all know, I can't explain it very well." Vanessa said to the other three in the group.

    "Okay, well we might as well introduce ourselves." The boy sitting across from Vanessa said. "I am Drake."

    "I am Lily." The girl said.

    "You obviously know me." Vanessa said. "Even though you already know this, the guy beside me is Luc, he doesn't talk to people besides the three of us."

    I smiled to them all, hoping that they wouldn't realize I was faking it. I avoided all eye contact with Luc, I didn't want to show him that I was a bit frightened by him. It wasn't until that moment that I realized the pounding in my head had subsided. "May I sit down?" My voice became high for a brief moment but they didn't seem to notice.

    "It appears that the only free seat at the table is on the other side of Luc." Lily said.

    Damn. I thought but nodded. "Kay." I slowly walked over and sat beside Luc, his eyes followed my every movement. "So what did you guys want to tell me?"

    Drake shook slightly from laughter which, for some reason, offended me. "What's so funny?" I demanded.

    "It's obvious, isn't it?" He asked, still smiling from the laughter. I shook my head. "Well, before we tell you we must get to know you."

    "Oh, okay." I looked at each one of them before starting. "Well, I lived with my mom until I was seven. We were driving to Orlando, like we did every weekend, when we got into a crash. It was a head-on collision with a big right, so my mom was killed instantly. The doctors couldn't explain it but I walked away with only a broken arm and a few scratches, which surprised me as well. I thought I was going to die."

    I paused for a minute, trying to calm myself down. It was the first time that I had spoken to people about the crash since I had told my new family when I was eight. "Marissa, it's okay. Only go on if you can." Vanessa told me in a motherly voice.

    I nodded slowly and took a deep breath before continuing. "I was adopted by the Marsh family and moved around a lot since then. I have been to Canada, Texas, New York, California and now Florida."

    Lily's eyes grew so wide I was afraid they would pop out of her head. "Are you talking about the family of the rich and famous hockey player, Steve Marsh?" She asked in excitement.

    "You follow hockey, Lily?" Drake asked. Lily turned red and nodded. Drake smiled in amusement.

    "Yes, I am talking about them." I said, completely bored. "Anyway, I am now their daughter. Though I try my best to hide who my parents are and would appreciate it if you did too."

    Luc looked at me and spoke for the first time. "I can understand hiding who you are but I don't understand moving around the continent so much." Luc's expression stayed completely emotionless but his voice seemed to be confused.

    His incredibly dark blue eyes seemed to be searching for something. For some reason, it almost seemed as though his eyes had been searching for something unknown. After a few seconds of looking at me his eyes became disappointed.

    His voice had been so demanding that I couldn't help but answer. "My dad is one of the best hockey platers in the country so he gets traded a lot. My mom has tried to stay near him over the years but gave up this year. She figured it would be best to stay in one place for the school year." I closed my eyes for a moment and let out a gentle sigh when I opened them once more. "What she doesn't know is that this is the area I used to live when I lived with my biological mom."

    Drake nodded slowly and looked at the two girls. "So, should we tell her?"

    "Maybe by the end of the week. Though we should probably do something about her headaches." Vanessa's calm aura was back, as was her smile. She looked at me as if she had known about my headaches the entire time.

    I went along with it, making sure that I would ask her about it later. "Thanks." I said gratefully. After that, they all went back to talking amongst themselves. My gaze wandered around the cafeteria for about a minute before I heard a recognizable voice.

    "We must do something about her, she is imposing on our territory." The voice was female and sounded familiar though I couldn't remember where I'd heard it.

    "We have territory?" Another girl asked. She sounded confused and surprised.

    "Not yet. But she has committed two crimes: not going through our test and not finishing a fight. You girls know that every girl within this school has gone through the test so we must not exclude her." It wasn't until I heard her slightly snobby tone before I remembered who it was. It was the girl that tried to fight me.

    "Looks as though the bell is about to ring." Lily said as she glanced at the over sized clock on one of the cafeteria walls. "Marissa, what class do you have?"

    "Gym." I said with a smile. I loved gym, had all my life. It was the one class that I could let loose and have fun. I really hoped that we would be playing a violent sport, I needed to take out my anger somehow.

    Lily nodded and looked around the cafeteria like I had previously done. "Well, meet up with me after your gym class. I will be nearby." She told me. The chair squeaked across the tile of the cafeteria as she stood. She nodded to the others and walked away, her footsteps echoed through the cafeteria.

    I sprung from my seat which attracted a lot of stares. "Thanks guys. I'll see you later." I said happily and ran out of the cafeteria, passing Lily on my way. Finally, gym class. That girl had better be in my class. I thought with a smirk.