Allison Carmichael's Story

It's a dreary Monday in Black Falls. The sky shows a chance of rain. In about two hours, school will start. The dam that holds together the water flow of the river is full as always, and the buildings seem almost as eerie than yesterday. The church was probably the only thing in town that had probably gotten a new paint job recently, unlike the others that seemed a thousand years old. About every person who has a job is already at their job, and just now the rains starts as every child wakes up to got to school, which the like to call "Prison".

Ali woke up with boxes all around her bed. I hate unpacking, she declared to herself. Ali got out of bed and looked over herself in the mirror. Skinny, wearing black basket ball shorts and a white thank top, no makeup on, hair in a bun... Ali rolled her eyes. She walked to the boxes that were stacked and pulled out some clothes from one of them. A Billy Joel shirt, ripped jeans, and a pair of classic Chuck Taylor's. Ali brushed out her hair, and it fell perfectly in place. She put on her regular makeup, and made her way down stairs.

Cadan was making pancakes and waffles. Ali laughed. The looked a lot similar. Cadan and her had the same hair color and eye color. The only thing different was Cadan was tanner and more muscular. "You're going to do this every morning... right?" Ali went over to hug her big brother. Cadan patted her head. "It's the first day of school. Well, for us, anyway." "Wheres our Moma?" "Dr. Snore gave her an earful last night about his nightly routine." Ali scoffed. "If he didn't marry Moma I would've sworn he was gay." The talk continued until Savvi came down. Savvi had straight blonde hair and she was wearing skinny jeans, a loose pink pastel tank top, a mint rain jacket and boots to match. Her icy blue eyes slide to the siblings. "Well, are you finished?" she said in a bratty attitude. "Yea, one sec." said Cadan as he made the last pancake.

They all sat down together, not speaking a word. Then, Cadan and Ali's mom came down in a grey robe with Erik, still in his dinosaur footy pajamas, in her arms. "Good morning, guys!" "Good morning, Moma." said Cadan and Ali in unison. "Good morning, Jeanne!" said Savvi, in her cheery goody-two-shoes voice. Ali rolled her eyes at Savvi behind her mother's back. Savvi stuck out her tongue. "First day of school, wow! Make friends, okay? Ali, try to be nice to Savvi, and Cadan, try not to get in trouble! And Savvi, your father said for you to be nice to Ali. Okay?" "Okay." They all said. "Now go! You're going to be late." They all finished and kissed their mother/stepmother on the cheek and headed out the door and into Cadan's beat up Chevy Tahoe.

Brooke stared out her window, rising early in the morning, when the town was very quiet. The dreary overcast of the dawn sky covered everything in a gray, dim light. It was dreary and dull, but Brooke found it relaxing. She turned on her music player, she played an eerie and somber classical piece. She stood up and stretched out her limbs, and then she placed her hand on a dresser, thinking of it as a barre. She danced gently and gracefully, moving to the calm and serious melody of the music, with her white nightgown flowing with her movements. She stood up on one leg, standing on the toes of the grounded leg. She lifted her hand off the dresser and posed in arms as the music faded off, and held the pose until the next song started to play. The next song was grander and epic, with a mystical yet dark feel. She gently stepped to her closet, careful not to make her aching feet hurt any more.

She changed out of her white nightgown and into a flowing blue dress with long sleeves, adding on black boots to her ensemble. Her makeup was natural and her hair was brushed but otherwise not styled. The house was still quiet and asleep. She had a feeling that her brother could just be hiding in a corner, waiting to jump out and scare her. It gave the house an eerie feeling. Her steps were careful and quiet. The silence broke when she heard a deep, booming bark. Van Helsing, the family akita, approached her, his claws making a clicking sound against the wooden floor. "Hey Donnie," Brooke greeted the akita as she walked to the kitchen. Donnie was Van Helsing's nickname. She made a cup of coffee, trying again make a tree design out of the creamer, with failure. She sat at the table and sipped the hot liquid.

Rose, Bronx and Brooke's mother, walked out of the master bedroom dressed in a dark burgundy dress and black pumps, with hair done in a bun. "You're up early." Donnie barked at her, begging for food. Brooke stood up to get the dog food, but her mother interjected, quickly saying, "Don't worry, I'll get it for you." The sound of the food bowl was loud, and with Donnie's excited barking, the room quickly became chaotic. It hurt Brooke's ears, but she said nothing of it. As soon as things quieted down, her mother reminded her, "Well, today I have to leave early. It's a big day at work. Bye." Rose kissed Brooke on her forehead before leaving.

"Bye Mom," Brooke turned her head to the window and saw the start of a rainstorm with the first few droplets pitter-pattering against the windowpane. She drank the last few sips of her coffee as she waited for her brother to wake up.

Ali walked into the high school, and gave acknowledgments to her brother by smiling and a wave, and to her stepsister, a roll of the eyes. Here we go again. Except... the school is different. She went to the office attendant. "Oh, um, hey Deborah. Could you let us in?" The woman forced a smile and pressed the button to let the three in. Ali went straight to the locker number on the slip of paper she received from her boring stepfather and opened it. She looked around and noticed that the hallways were just as dull as the ones in her old school. The walls were a yucky grey color, and the lockers were a faded red. "Oh, God..." Ali said as she opened her locker. It smelled of dirty gym socks and burnt toast. "I... I really hope they have a Bath & Body Works around here!" She managed to cough out. She closed it, and decided to just to lug her backpack around. She looked at her schedule. "Uh, Psychology? Or does it say English?" Oh no, I'm talking to myself! What ever shall I do? Ali shrugged off her craziness and went to find her brother.

Cadan was outside his math class when Ali spot him. "Cadan, is it just me, or does it smell like wet dog?" Ali said as she scrunched up her nose in disgust. Cadan shrugged. "It smells like wet dog. Sadly." They fist bumped as faces past down the hallways, looking at them as if they were crazy. "All of them sure do like to rubberneck at us..." She snorted. Cadan chuckled. "Well, what do you expect? I'm a hot guy, you're a scene girl..." Ali punched him playfully. "I'm not scene. I'm alternative." Cadan rolled his eyes like Ali always did. "Oh, gawdd! I'm Ali and I am so alternative. Gawd." Cadan mimicked. "What the fuck, Cadan!" She giggled. All of a sudden, a gruff voice cleared it's throat behind them. Shit. Ali turned around to see Dr. Snore starring right at them with his emotionless face. "Your mother sure wouldn't appreciate it if you got in trouble the first day of school, would she?" Ali forced a smile. "Sorry, Samuel. I'll be going to..." "Psychology?" "That's what it said! Yea, thanks Samuel." "It's Principal Vaughn here, Ali." "Yea, Samuel. Sure." Ali, said goodbye to Cadan, went to her class and just stood by the door instead of sitting down.

As Bronx caught the dingy taste of the air in the halls - he knew it was good to be back. Then he coughed it out before he got some sort of lung infection. Black Falls High School was in no way the best of the best when it came to schools nor did it come close to any of those in the cities, like in Madison or Milwaukee. It didn't really matter though, Bronx was fine with shaking things up right where he was; besides, it'd be a heck of a challenge to take on all those big city pranksters. Nothing he couldn't handle though. He got a few nasty looks - first from his Math teacher at the Staff Room who had to toss his pants after it got coated in super glue and next was a cheerleader who had the delightful surprise of finding a fake tarantula in her bag, Bronx thought back to the high pitched wail.. simply heavenly. All in good fun, of course.

En route to class, he saw two of his close friends hanging out near their lockers; Jamieson Forte and Amy Lastas. The trio were friends since the Fourth Grade or something but Bronx found it difficult to hang around them since they started dating recently and the large amounts of P.D.A. was like watching his brother and sister kiss. Just no. It wasn't as if he expected the two of them to work out though; Amy was a shy, sensitive girl and had always been that way since they first met- easily heart-broken and just down on her luck as far as dating went but she was an above average student and possibilities for a decent college was there. Jamie, on the other hand, was always an easy-going guy but was turning into the kind of womanizing a**hole he couldn't see himself being friends with.

Bronx waved to them and continued on his way, he so lost in his thoughts about them dating and about the next few stunts he'd want to pull, he barely had time to evade the girl who came crashing into him - not like he'd be able to, he wasn't the one with the fancy footwork. She made some hasty introduction that was probably meant to be an apology but it didn't matter; accidents happened, right? And, she wasn't bad looking so, he could let it slide, if only for that reason.

"Hey, new girl." He nodded to her, "Welcome to Black Falls, I'm Bronx."

Ali turned around. "Black Falls? Creepy." Ali smiled and got a closer look at the guy. Definitely not my type, but he could be. "Anyway, Bronx, right? I'm from Kenosha. Way down south. Dr. Snore - sorry, my step dad - lugged my family up here so he could be the principal in this high school. Also, I don't know my way around this place. Could you maybe show me around?" Ali asked, a little timid. This guy was taller than her, and he could probably throw her across the room. Not like she was afraid of that, it's just the fact Cadan would kick the sorry guy's ass and pound his face in. Ali didn't want that to happen... again.

A grin lit his face, "Yeah. Creepy, seems like it'd fit you." She seemed a little spacey from the get-go; who moved to a whole new town without knowing where they were going. Even if it wasn't her decision, it would, at least, give her something to talk about.

>Oh, yeah. I'm going to Black Falls, guys. Totally sounds like the next horror flick, amirite?

Then she'd pull up her spikey, little, emo boots (since Ugg didn't exactly seem like her style), take a sip of her Starbucks Double Triple-Chino Mocha-Latte Surprise and everything would go happily ever after. But, on a more serious note - if her fath- step-father was the principal then that'd make for an all-new interesting set of pranks and methods of getting off the hook he didn't yet consider. "Sure, I can show you around." He gave her a little suspicious nod as though wanting her to come closer; whether or not she complied, he said in a hushed voice, "Right now.." Bronx looked to his left then the right as though looking for listening ears, "You're in Black Falls High School."

He clicked his tongue and took a few steps back, toward his class, "Meet up with me after school and I'll continue the tour." The offer was up then and while the first bit didn't seem too.. ground-breaking, Tremmy knew a great deal about the town; land-marks to look for, where /not/ to buy food aaand all the best spaces for camping out in the event of zombie apocalypse or angry villagers or whatever.

Ali smirked. "Okay, yea. Later." She turned around and started walking back to her class. Really, creepy wasn't her 'style'. Ali loved the warmth of the sun, which is weird since she lived in the north her whole life. But the times she went to go see her grandparents in Florida was the best. Her brother and herself always went to the beach with their father, and it was jolly good. But after her parents divorce, she kind of went 'creepy'. If My Chemical Romance didn't scare her parents, then the Tiny Tim music definitely did.

Just then, she came across Mary. Ali didn't like the looks of her... probably because she assumed Mary was popular. But something in her gut told her to stay away from somebody like that.

Our young hero didn't have much time to think about that emo girl as he shuffled into class because as he slid into his seat, the teacher came in right behind him wanting to get an "early start" and eager to talk about the latest scientific discoveries that were made in some other part of the world, or some other part of the U.S. at least. Then the teacher paused to take note of all the blank faces looking at him, Bronx included. Turned out he was a sub who'd gotten lost on the way to his correct class and the whole 'scientific discovery' blabber was to make him seem like a regular face - although, given the nervous expression that soon followed, the poor guy was pale and quaking.

Geez, such an easy target but.. surely, Bronx wouldn't. Would he?
Maybe not this time, but he would do something else.

Spotting the actual teacher approaching the door, a large grin played on Tremmy's face as he got up, calling across to the class he'd help the sub find the class. Some of his classmates knew what this meant and began applauding his /courteous/ nature. They knew he was going to pull some world-class trick on the guy; maybe douse him with oil and feathers or get him to reveal he couldn't stand the actual science teacher's knack for exploring their nasal cavity during class or.. even more outrageous.

Or, that's what would happen if he wasn't already such a pain to everyone else. Instead, the class fell into an even quieter murmur than the din that rose after the substitute teacher's blunder.

Well, it didn't matter, did it? He was going to miss a few minutes of class regardless.

--

Bronx and the teacher marched through the hall, taking the free chance to wave to Mary in the hall.. only she seemed a bit spacier than normal. "Happy birthday Mary.. I guess." As much as he wanted to abuse the naivety of this teacher - he surely couldn't start having deep, meaningful conversations in the middle of the hall when both (or three) of them had classes to get to. Continuing on, he led the teacher to a class that had another certain pale-faced kid who may've been every bit as frightened.

Donnie Darko. Wait, that's not the one. Donnie... something...
He couldn't recall and it wasn't as if they were tight mates or anything; in fact, he knew Donnie the same way most everyone else did, through non-association. It was a bit cruel, he thought, but still.. everyone was fair game to Madz.