Characters

Winter Evans - PRINCIPAL
Medium sized in every way, not short  but not tall, not thin but not fat, blonde-almost-white hair, really wide blue eyes.
 Smart. That's how everybody describes the 16 years old girl, but she's way more then that.
 She's a deep girl.
 Hunted by the mystery of her sister's disappearance, a year ago.
 She's creative,  writes really well.
 She pretends to be over the deal with her sister because she hates people's pity, but she cries every night and often has nightmares about it.
 Winter is the reasonable one, she controls Thalia so she doesn't mess up so hard.
 Smart in a different way then Nicholas, she's not logical, prefers english then math, and so it goes.
 She's cold a lot, it matches her name.
 Favourite food is ice cream.
 Loves to read.
 She dreams to be a writer.

Thalia
Short, skinny, curvy, dark curly long hair, green wild eyes, huge eyelashes.
Thalia is a wild one. 16 years old.
Impulsive, doesn't think about the consequences.
 Goes out every night, parties hard.
 She smokes a lot because she's not afraid to die.
 She's an orphan, always switches foster parents.
 Gets money by selling drugs.
 Sometimes insensitve to peoples feelings but she loves Winter (best friend) very much.
 Black is her favourite colour.
 Listens to indie.
 The truth is she doesn't care, she's not afraid of living intensely because she's not afraid of dying. She's got nothing to loose.
 The only people she cares about are Winter and Nicholas.
 She acts normal but she've got a war in her mind.
 She believes that as long as she doesn't care she won't get hurt.
 In the end she tells her secret to her friends, she was rapes by a foster parent and had a son that was taken away from her.

Nicholas Parker
Tall, strong, brown straight short hair,
blue deep beautiful eyes.
 Nic is a funny, sarcastic, womaniser, cynical,16 years old guy.
 The only popular kid Winter is friends with.
 Very sociable, makes friends very easily.
 He never falls in love, but a lot of girls fall in love with him.
  His mom is drunk and messed up, his dad left them.
 He's very smart, logical, that's part of the reason why he doesn't believe in love.
 It's really aware of his beauty.
 Kissing him is amazing.
 He loves the colour blue.
 He goes out every weekend and hooks up with lots of different girls, but that's just to cover up the feeling that he's in love with Winter and he because of his parents he can't handle it.

Cassidy Thompson
Medium heigh, really thin, dark blonde long messy hair, brown crazy eyes.
Cass is an utterly messed up 15 years old teenager. She doesn't trust anybody. She is depressive because she sees monsters and everybody thinks she has some kind of disease although the doctors can't find anything.
 She lives in her own world in her mind, she laughs for no reason, suddenly cries over nothing and has angry attacks when everyone around her is quiet.
 Actually she's very lonely, she has no one to help her through the battle with her own mind.
 Very responsible and neurotic parents.
 She has tried suicide 3 times because she can't stand the horrible monsters she sees.
 Chocolate calms her down.
 She's a vegetarian
 She says 'bloody' a lot.
 Loves her brother Thomas because he's the only person that always believes her.

Alexis Harper
Tall, anorexic, barbie hair: blonde, long, straight, cold blue eyes.
 Alex, 16, for starters, her parents are  really strict, they push her too hard, they demand her to be perfect in everything and that stresses her a lot.
 She's bullied by her parents so she bullies not popular kids in her school.
 She's smart but she uses that to be a bitch, and a smart bitch is always worse then a dumb one.
 Dated Thomas for a while.
 Every boy wants her.
  Alexis is, deep down, really insecure, so she tries to feel better then the others by making them feel down.
 She tries so hard to be perfect that she doesn't eat. Ever. She's anorexic and that caused her several visits to the hospital, but she keeps not eating.

Thomas Walker
Tall, strong, blonde short curly hair, brown shiny eyes.
 16 years old prince charming.
 Cassidy's brother.
 Every girl wants him.
 Kisses really well.
 It's frustrated because of his sister's suffering that he can't do anything about.
 Cares too much about what other people think.
 Looks like he just came out of an Abercrombie catalog.
 The perfect boy, straight A's, perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect body.
 Plays football for school.
 Likes to drive his car far away.
 He seed in Winter an escape from all the pressure everybody puts on him, because she's different, she sees him for who he really is.

Vivian Evans
Short, thin, brown straight hair till her shoulders, brown eyes.
 39 years old, Winter and Ariana's mother.
 Neurotic, frustrated, clean addicted, most of this because of Ariana's missing.
 She loves her family more than anything.
 She is controlling with Winter because she's worried she'll lose her too.
 Doesn't drink, or smoke.
 Attached to rules.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3
People always ask me why I'm friends with Thalia. I know we're each others total opposite. She's reckless I'm stable, she changes all the time, I'm always the same, she's wild I'm obedient, she's the one that messes up, I'm the one that cleans it up. But still we found a way to complete each other. I don't know why I care so much about Thalia but I do. And I know she feels the same way about me.
 "HOLY SHIT THALIA." I yelled running towards her.
 "The monsters, they are in her, I...She..." Cassie was sobbing next to me.
 I realised I was crying too when I got too her. I tried to feel her heartbeat but she started   convulsing. I held her head from the ground, terrified.
 "This is all my bloody fault." Cassie said still crying.
 "JUST SHUT UP CASS." I couldn't bear her desperation because I was too busy dealing with mine. I passed her my cellphone. "Call 911."
 Suddenly Cassie's face lighted up.
 "The-they possessed her, I know what to do." She mumbled getting on her feet.
 "I'm not in the mood for your crazy talk right now Cass." My meanness was out of control.
 "We need to take her to the scientists I met yesterday, trust me, please, just once."
 Thalia has stopped seizing but she was barely breathing.
 "Cassie, please we don't have time for trusting now, we need to take her to the hospital."
  "The nearest hospital is 30 minutes away from here, she'll be bloody dead when the ambulance arrives."
 I froze, if I trusted Cassie she could drive me to imaginary scientists or something, but she was right, the ambulance would be to late.
  I got up too, holding Thalia by her left arm.
 "Get the other arm, you can show me where to go but I'll drive."
 -----------------------------------------
 Cassidy showed me the way to a dark, empty street where the only sound we could hear was the distant noise of cars in an avenue.
 We carried still unconscious Thalia out of the car into the only building on the street that had light coming out of a window, witch Cass had the key to get in.
 "We have to be quick, her breathing is just getting worse." I said carrying Thalia through a barely illuminated corridor.
 "Her breathing is the least of our worries." Cassie answered knocking on the last door of the long corridor.
 "What do you mean?" I asked. "And who are you looking for? I'm lost."
 "Who is it?" A strong voice came from the other side of the door.
 "It's Cassidy, let me in Max, it's an emergency."
 The door opened quickly and in front of us was a man that was small to the high of my hips, he was bald, a white beard occupied his chin and the hole perimeter around his mouth, he wore thick black glasses and a white coat.
 "Cassie, I'm glad you came." He then looked at me. "And who are you?"
 Before I could answer Cassie said:
 "These are Winter and her possessed friend Thalia, will you please help us?" She begged.
 "Oh." He seemed to have just noticed the unconscious Thalia in my arms. "Of course, of course, come in."
 Cassie went through the door and I followed her, entering a large rectangular room illuminated by very shiny white lights. I noticed it was a laboratory because of the many devices spread by the room making all kinds of noises. Two other men wearing coats were sitting in tall chairs, leaning over a white marble table and looking into huge microscopes, they didn't even look at us when we came in.
 Thalia mumbled something I didn't understand.
 "Lay her down on the table." Max said pointing at the other side of the room. "How long has she been down?"
 Cassidy lifted Thalia's feet up and we laid her on another marble table.
 "For about 15 minutes." Cassie said seeing I was too confused to talk.
 "You came just in time." He putted on white doctor gloves and grabbed a syringe full of a pink liquid from a silver shelf.
 "WOW, wow, wait." I screamed blocking Max's way. "I'm not gonna let a complete stranger inject stuff in Thalia."
 The other men finally looked at us.
 "It's not any "stuff" young lady." The blonde one said. "It's an antidote for monster possession."
 I was feeling dizzy.
 "You too?" I said. "YOU'RE ALL CRAZY. I'M TAKING THALIA TO A HOSPITAL.
 "Trust me Winter." Cassie said calmly. "They know what they're doing."
 "Nobody is getting {near} Thalia, you hear me? I answered in the same tone.
 But when I turned around to check her pulse her green eyes were wide open.
 In the blink of an eye Thalia got up, grabbed my arm and pushed me to the ground.
 A wild scream escaped from her throat and she kicked Cassie in the stomach.
 "What the bloody hell are you doing? I said, too surprised to scream.
 Thalia didn't even look at me, she raised her hand to punch Max but he was quicker, some how he managed to push the syringe into her arm and she fell to the ground.
 I opened my mouth to protest but before I could say anything I felt a sting on my left arm and lost the ability of forming words. Mumbling senseless noises I was lifted up to a table by the brunet scientist that was the last thing I saw before my eyelids got heavy and everything got dark.
------------------------------------------
 I woke up with my arms and legs tied down to a plastic chair in a small room made almost entirely of wood. Differently from the place we were before this one was dark, illuminated by candles, the only electronic device in sight was a panel with a 3D image of our city marked with 8 red dots, some of them were moving. There was also multiple shelves on the wall on my left side, covered by old looking books.
 Thalia was apparently sleeping next to me, tied down to another chair.
 "Thalia." My voice sounded rusty. "Wake up."
 She opened her eyes slowly and looked around confused.
 "Where are we?" She asked. "What happened?"
 "You suddenly turned into a robot sent to destroy us all, that's what happened." I laughed faintly.
 "I remember punching a bunch of people, but it's all fuzzy and it doesn't seem like it was exactly me." She laughed. "That must sound crazy."
 "It does." I said. "But the point is I think we were kidnapped."
 I heard a clicking noise and the door opened, the white light coming from the other side hurt my eyes, the scientists entered the room, all three wearing white cotton shirt and pants.
 "Hello girls." Max said. "I'm sorry we had to tie you down, we were afraid if we didn't you two would run away."
 "You were right." I said interrupting him.
 The two other scientists gave me a mean look but Max just continued "You must be very confused by the events of tonight and if you want we can explain it all." He coughed. "But I must warn you about the responsibility that comes with this explanation."
 I then noticed someone was missing.
 "What did you do with Cassidy?"
 "She's eating a sandwich in the laboratory." The blonde scientist said quickly. "By the way, my name is Daniel."
 "We'll have time for presentations afterwards." Max told Daniel and then turned to us. "Girls, I really think you should listen to me for a moment before you choose to believe it or not."
 I was curious to hear their crazy version of the story so I asked "If we listen to you will you let us go home?"
 "Of course." Said the brunet scientist that was quiet till now.
 "Ok, I need to explain it all from the start then." Max said slowly. "You have probably noticed that sometimes Cassie sees creatures that frighten her." I knew where this was going. "And you have to know that this creatures are real, it seems impossible but they are."
 I rolled my eyes but Thalia was still paying attention.
 "This monsters are the image of fear, they are responsible for nightmares and when a child truly believes in them, they become real."
 "Can you stop bullshitting us?" I said irritated. "I wanna go home."
 "Shut up Winter, I want to hear him." Thalia said and I rolled my eyes again.
 "Well" Max said. "Their idea of fun is possessing people, leading them to get into fights, rob places and even kill other people."
 "Wait." Thalia finally looked suspicious "So you're saying every crime committed is this monsters fault?"
 "Of course not." Max said scratching his beard. "Just the ones committed by good people that had no intention of doing it, people can be evil by themselves too."
 I was tired of all this. I started to wonder if there was any possibility that we were on TV and this was some kind of prank.
 "And you just figured all of this?" I said in the middle of a laugh.
 "Thank you Winter, that's what I was trying to get to." Max said ignoring my laughs. "Me and my sons Daniel and Henry come from a long generation of Liverpool *******  we have seen and killed a lot of this monsters."
 I contained another laugh and Thalia looked at me mad.
 "We usually live a normal life." Max continued. "This creatures are rare, so we only have to interrupt about once or twice a year, but there has been an incredible increase on their number in this city and we don't know the reason for it, that's why Cassie has been so desperate."
 "And how come we can't see them?" Thalia asked.
 "I was getting there." He said. "To see this monsters you just have to believe they exist, it may seem easy but it's not."
 Thalia's eyes were glowing like tiny stars.
 "Now that you 'explained'" I formed quotation marks with my fingers. "Can you let us go?"
 Max and his sons exchanged a look and nodded with their heads.
 "We only have one last thing we have to tell you." Max said calmly. "You see those red dots in the city map?"
 We nodded.
 "They show the ******** in this city, and if you come closer you can see that there are 5 of them in this room." He pointed at the panel.
 "What are you trying to say?" Thalia's eyes seemed to glow even more if that was possible.
 "Didn't you wonder why Cassidy tried to be around you?" Max said. "You give her the feeling of protection, you give each other that feeling too that's why you're friends. You two and your friend Nicholas Parker are *******.
 "Okay." I said. "That's enough, let us go."
 He ignored me.
 "You see this mark?" He showed a familiar brown mark in the form of a little 'plus' in his clavicle "Is the mark of a ******, I bet all that I own that you two have the same one." The two brothers repeated the gesture showing the same place.
 It was true, I had that same little plus in my clavicle since I was borne.
 "You're right." Thalia couldn't contain her excitement. "We have it too."
 I needed some air, it was getting harder and harder for me to breath, the air seemed to be getting thicker.
 "Please just let us go home." I begged.
 Max looked disappointed but he asked his sons to untie us.
 "And are there anymore ******* in our school?" Thalia asked getting up.
 "Yes, but I think I should keep them in secret for now." Max answered.
 "Thalia you can't have believed all this shit."
 "Your mind is just too closed Winter."
 "Oh shut up, let's  go home."
 "I hope you think about what we told you and come back when it's time." Max opened the door for us.
 "We will." Thalia said, as always quicker then me.
 I rolled my eyes for the third time that evening.
 We got back in the laboratory, Cassie was waiting for us.
 "What do you research here?" Thalia asked looking around.
 "We test all kinds of theories for all kinds of people." The blonde brother said.
 I grabbed Cassie's arm and walked toward the dark corridor.
 "Bye guys." Thalia said.
 I closed the door before they could answer.
------------------------------------------
When I dropped Thalia at her foster parent's house I was alone with Cassidy in the car.
 "What did they tell you Cass?" I asked. "That you are a ********* too?"
 "No." She said. "I was just a stupid bloody kid who believed in her nightmares and now sees monsters everywhere."
 I watched her through the rearview mirror, she had dropped her golden hair and it was loose over her shoulder. She seemed to be so sure that everything they said was true. I don't even believe in God, how could I believe in all that madness? I have to admit a part of me screamed it was true since he showed us that mark, but the logical part was stronger.
 We got to the closed condominium where Cassie's house was. I was there once years ago in Thomas's birthday party when we were all friends.
 The doorman let me in and I followed the streets until the Walker's home.
 "Can you walk me to the door?" Cassidy asked me. "I'm scared."
 Something about her look made me want to hug her tightly.
 "Sure."
 We walked together and before we got to the door someone opened it.
 "Cassidy." Thomas ran toward us wearing a black T-Shirt and jeans and hugged her. "Where were you?"
 She opened her mouth but I was faster.
 "I found her lost in a night club and gave her a ride."
 He finally looked at me, everything in his face looked just too perfect.
 "Thank you so much."
 "Anytime."I half smiled.
 "We tried to call her but she forgot her cellphone as always." He blinked. " Your name is Winter right?"
 "Yeah." I said nervously. "Hum, I have to go so...bye."
 "Bye." They said at the same time.
 I walked to my car and finally drove home

Chapter 2

Chapter 2
 I heard my cellphone ringing when I was getting out of the shower. It was Thalia.
 "Hello?" I answered it holding the phone with one hand and the towel around me with the other.
 "Hey Win, I'm picking you up in 15 minutes."
 "What? Where are we going?"
 "The 'Snake on Fire' club, put on some nice clothes."
 "I was just going to put my pyjamas."
 "So don't."
 "My mom will never let me go."
 "So lie."
 "We have school tomorrow."
 "Stop being a chicken, I'll be there in 10 minutes."
 Sometimes I hate Thalia, but I needed to go to make sure she wouldn't get arrested again or something like that.
 I found my mom in her room reading  Charles Bukowski.
 "Hey mom, can I go to the cinema with Thalia?"
 "At this time of night? But you have school tomorrow."
 "Please mom, she really wants me to go."
 My mom raised her eyebrows like she was thinking about it.
 "All right but don't take too long."
 I smiled. I didn't like lying to my mom, but sometimes she was too paranoid so I needed to.
 "Thanks mom, I love you."
 "I love you too." She said.
------------------------------------------
 I putted on one of my jeans and a nice blue shirt, combed my hair, putted a little make up on because Thalia would kill me if I didn't, grabbed my purse and took the elevator to wait for Thalia downstairs.
 "Hey Win, looking good" Thalia said smiling when I entered her car.
 "Yeah, whatever, why is it so important to go to a weird club on a monday night?"
 "Cheer up, it's going to be a great night." She stopped by a traffic light and lit up a cigaret.
 "Are you ever going to stop smoking?" I asked her.
 "Why should I?"
 "Because you could die, I'm pretty sure you know that."
 "I'm not afraid."
 "Of what?"
 "Of dying."
 I didn't say anything because I knew it was true.
------------------------------------------
 When we got to the inside of the club it took my eyes a while to adjust to the light inside. Everything seemed to glow in a strange neon colour, the walls, the ground, even the people. The electronic music was so loud I could feel the beat inside my chest. There were people everywhere, dancing, drinking, flirting, there were so many of them I started to feel suffocated.
 "Thalia" I said "How long are you planning to be here?"
 She was wearing a wine coloured loose, sleeveless shirt, black jeans shorts, a fishnet hose underneath it and her forearms were decorated with a hand full of all kinds of bracelets. Her face stood out from the people there because of her shiny green eyes surrounded by a lot of dark make up.
 "About one hour or two, don't worry, it won't be long" She answered, her eyes scanning the crowd like she was looking for something.
 "And what am I supposed to do? Dance?" I said mocking the ridiculous idea of me dancing.
 "Yeah, feel the moment, meet people, enjoy yourself."
 "I can enjoy myself at home reading a nice book."
 "Just do whatever you want, I'll be right back."
 "What? You're leaving me? THALIA COME BACK.WAIT." I screamed but she had already disappeared in the mass of bodies.
 {I'm in hell} I thought.
But then I recognised a face between the many others. Cassidy was there. She was wearing jeans and a back coat, witch seemed rather simple for a place like that, but I didn't blame her, I would prefer to be wearing it. Her hair was up in a messy bun on the top of her head and she didn't seem to be wearing any make up at all.
 Suddenly her eyes got wide, she looked scared, I saw tears rolling down her face. I knew it was happening again.
 "CASSIE" I screamed but the music was to loud for her to hear me.
 She ran to the bathroom in the back of the club and I followed her.
 When I opened the door  I saw her the same way she was earlier, crying and hugging her knees.
 "Cass, let me help you."
 She looked up to me, scared.
 "Please leave me alone."
 "I'm not leaving you alone this time, follow me so we can get out of here."
 She seemed to weak to say anything else so she just nodded.
 I helped her up and held her hand.
 "We need to look for Thalia first, she's with me."
 {Or was} I thought.
-----------------------------------------
 I spent about half an hour trying to find Thalia through the sweaty dancing bodies with Cassie holding my hand and following me around. When I finally spotted the back of her black hair covering most of her shirt she was standing in a dark corner talking to a incredibly skinny guy, he gave her money and disappeared into the club.
 "Thalia?" I called her, Cassie's palms were sweaty and hard to hold on to.
 She looked surprised to see me.
 "Oh hey, I was just getting back to you, I see you found Cassie."
 "Yes, but what were you doing?" I asked "I saw that guy giving you money."
 Her hand went involuntarily to her purse.
 "He owed me for something I payed for him." She said staring at the dirty ground.
 "You would never pay something for anyone. "I grabbed her purse before she could react.
 "Winter" She said calmly though her eyes looked nervous. "Give me my purse back."
 I opened it up to find a lot of tiny bags with all kinds of drugs in it.
 "YOU'RE SELLING DRUGS?" I yelled." WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"
 "I need the money okay?" She didn't look embarrassed or anything, her face was an emotionless mask.
 "You could lend it from me, I don't mind." Cassidy was now hugging my left arm like it was her reason to live.
 "I don't like owing to anyone, you know that."
 "That is not an excuse to sell drugs."
 "Whatever, let's go, I don't have anything to do here anymore."
 I didn't wait to see if Thalia was following me, I just walked my way to the parking lot.
 Outside, the dark sky was cloudy, I couldn't see any stars. The air was hot, I could already fell my clothes sticking to my body.
 Cassie had started crying again, that girl was a mess.
 "Are you really going to be mad at me for this? I wasn't using any drugs, I was selling." Thalia finally said.
 I turned around. She was sending me a cold look, like I was the one who did something wrong.
 "Selling is worse, you're ruining people's life." I tried to put as much poison as I could in my words but I'm not very good at fighting.
 "I'm not forcing them to do anything, I only sell to the ones who ask me for it." Thalia on the other hand, could make someone cry just by a mean look.
 "There are other ways to make money, you chose the easier one, witch I think it's horrible. But it's your life so do whatever you want."
 "I hate when you do this." She moved her hair, witch was sticking to her sweaty neck.
 "What?" I asked.
 "You pretend like it's my choice to stop but I know you won't talk to me until I do."
 "So you know what to do right?"
 The exact moment I said that last word Cassie screamed, pointing at Thalia.
 "THEY ARE HERE." She screamed again and hid behind me. "I TOLD YOU THEY WERE FOLLOWING ME."
 "Is she talking about the monsters?" Thalia looked more curious then confused. "She thinks I'm a monster?"
 "Cassie, it's Thalia, she won't hurt you." I said, but Cassie didn't seem to be hearing me.
 "THEY'RE GOING TO BLOODY HURT HER." She yelled in a sobbing voice.
 Before I could answer her Thalia screamed too.
 "GET OUT, GET O..." She didn't finish the sentence, her eyes went all white and she fainted, hitting her head on the ground.
------------------------------------------

Chapter 1

Chapter 1
I was hypnotized by the sound of the summer rain dropping on the parking lot's ground. My chuck taylors were completely wet from stepping on puddles.
  As I got near the school I could hear the sound of hundreds of teenagers put together in one single place. It wasn't pleasant.
 The noise was getting higher so I couldn't concentrate on the sound of the rain, it was really annoying so I only noticed someone had approached me when she grabbed my arm and turned me around.
 "Hey Winter, how are you?"
Thalia said, her dark curly hair flitting behind her, her wild green eyes staring at me.
 "It's the first day of school, how do you think I am?"
 "You must be just great returning to the place you have to go every morning, five days a week, and do the same senseless things over and over." She said ironically while she lit a cigaret.
 "Yeah, It's really fantastic" I *AFASTEI* some water from my blue backpack. "But seriously?Smoking at 9 am?"
 "Sorry 'mom'" She rolled her eyes mocking me.
 We walked the rest of the street together until the noise was almost
unbearable and we entered school.
 -----------------------------------------
 As soon as we walked in some stupid popular girls gossiped about us, probably something about our  clothes that didn't match their fashion magazines.
 It has been like this since I remember. They hate us, we hate them, I think we made some kind of silent pact the day we met to hate each other forever, no reason, just do it.
 When we got to the main corridor a thin, shaky voice got out the speaker.
 "Welcome to a new year in {insert city's name} Public High school." A really original name by the way. "This is your director, Mrs. Hedwich, I hope you study and pay attention to classes as you did last semester." I actually thought she was joking by then. "You can check your classes and your respective lockers at the secretariat as soon as I end my message. "But of course it was too late for that, everybody was already heading to the secretariat. "There are some students here and I just wanted to say that's not polite...I didn't stop speaking why are you coming?...I'm tired, just have a nice year."
 After everybody came back, I went to get my information, I just couldn't believe I was doing it one more time after so many years.
------------------------------------------
 My first class was geography with Mrs. Collins. She's a bitch.
 Thalia had science for first class so I went by myself.
 Mrs.Collins class room is full of maps and gigantic texts all over the walls, you can barely see the white colour of it.
 When I entered the class I stopped by the door for a moment and stared at each one of the junior year students sitting in the wooden chairs, trying to find someone friendly.
 Nicholas waved at me from one of the back sits, he had spent his summer vacation in USA so I was really glad to see him again.
 Nic has really deep, beautiful blue eyes, the kind you can stare all day long and not get tired of it. His hair is light brow and messy, and he's pale like paper. If you don't know him very well you might think he's perfect. It appears by the confident way he walks and by the way he looks people in the eye, that he has no fears, that everything he does is perfectly calculated, but I've known Nicholas for seven years now and I'm one of the only persons who can see him through the confident mask he puts on.
 "Hi" I hugged him "I've missed you" He smelled like pine.
 "I've missed you too Snow." Winter = Snow so unfortunately he calls me that way. I hate my name.
 I sat at the chair next to him and took my notebook out of my bag.
 "How was US?"
 "Awesome, lots of hot girls, the food was nice too"
 "Hum, cool" I felt a twinge in my stomach. "So, this class sucks" I said trying to find a pen.
  "This school sucks" He said lending me one of his pens. "How was your vacation?"
 "Basically going to therapist every day, yay."
 "Why? Did you finally explode in anger and killed somebody?" He said half smiling.
 "No, my mom was paranoid so she took me there, the therapist asked me to draw a house and then diagnosed me as depressed, simple like that."
 He laughed. I could see the window behind his head, the rain had stopped and a beautiful rainbow had replaced it.
 "What kind of house did you draw? It must have been a pretty scary one."
 "I drew a happy house, I don't know what happened."
 His smile then fade away, he suddenly looked worried.
 "Well, are you okay now?"
 "Yeah, he said I don't have to go there anymore so..."
 "Great." He smiled. I love his smile.
 Mrs. Collins, who was sitting in her desk till then, suddenly got up. She had dark brown lifeless hair, nervous eyes that made her seem crazy, antiquate clothes, and she smelled like old pizza.
  "Hello students, for those who don't know, I'm Mrs. Collins. I'm here to  teach you geography and other crap. Open on page 1 of your books and do it now lazy kids." She said in a dragged voice.
 Like I said, she was a bitch. I can't blame her though, if I was 59 and living alone with about 30 cats, I would be a bitch too.
 "I'm so excited to start a new year being called a 'lazy kid'." Nic whispered to me.
 "Me too, super excited."
  "Hey, sorry, I'm late." Thomas entered the class with his brown perfect eyes and his blonde shiny hair looking like he just came out of an Abercrombie catalog. Typical prince charming, all the girls are in love with him, except me, even Thalia had a crush on him, and Thalia is the kind of girl you don't see having a crush very often.
  "Just sit down Mr. Walker." Mrs.Collins said rolling her eyes. I found it strange that she only called students by their last names, she knows us for years.
 He sat in the chair behind me, the only one left.
  "Hey man" He shook Nic's hand, completely ignoring me, sometimes Nic is so cool to me I forget he's popular and I'm just a nerd. I guess that's what people call me since I wear big glasses and have straight A's.
 But Nic doesn't care about being popular like Thomas does, he's just very sociable, he's good with people.
 The class passed slowly, Mrs. Collins barely said anything after that, she just sat there using her laptop.
 I did the exercises and then started doodling in my notebook.
 "Hi Mrs.Evans" Mrs. Collins scared me, I didn't know she was behind me.
 "Hum, hey"
 "How was your summer?"
 I was confused, why was she pretending to be interested in my summer?
 "Fine" I showed her a creepy smile.
 "That's great sweetie, I just wanted to let you know that you're really brave and I'm proud of you."
 Then I understood it, everybody has been talking like that to me since my sister Ariana disappeared last year, it sucks because I feel like I'm an abandoned puppy.
 It's hard enough that I lost my sister but I also have to take people treating me like that.
 The belt rang and everyone got up. My next class was english, witch is my favourite and in the other side of the school.
  "I have some walking to do Nic, see you at lunch?"
  "Absolutely." He smiled crinkling the corner of his eyes. Have I mentioned he has beautiful eyes?
------------------------------------------
 I was calmly walking down the corridor when something blonde hit me.
 "Watch your way, loser" Alexis screamed, her cold blue eyes looked like they were scanning me.
 "Whatever" I almost said 'bitch' but I bit my tong not to, I didn't want to get into trouble.
 "What did you say?"
 Too late.
 "Nothing, just let me get to my class."
 "What if I don't want to?"
 "Then I'll push you, bitch." Thalia emerged next to me out of nothing.
 "Oh, did you call your drug addicted friend to help you Summer?"
 "It's Winter." I said trying to grab Thalia's arm and push her away from there.
 "Whatever." She said mocking me.
 I finally got Thalia, who was showing Alexia her middle finger, out of there.
 "She's such a bitch, you should do something about it Win." Thalia said.
 "It's not worth it."
 "C'mon did you see the look in her face? She thinks she owns everybody."
 "I know, I know, it's just not worth it okay? This is my class" I pointed at the door "Bye."
 -----------------------------------------
 The cafeteria is a large white room, where we get the garbage they call food, and try to find our place in the school hierarchy of tables.
When I entered it I was pretty sure Alexis was staring at me.
 Again I ignored her, got my meal, and sat with Nicholas and Thalia, they were already talking about this morning's incident.
 "Someone should do something about it, she has been a bitch since forever because people let her." Thalia was really mad this time.
 "People are scared of her, they won't do anything" Nic said after he chewed his french fries.
 "I'm not scared, I need a plan."
 "It has to be a great plan because unfortunately she's smart. And a smart bitch is always worse than a dumb one." Nic said.
 "Calm down" I laughed "You two are sounding really crazy."
 "We can start a revolution." Thalia said, her eyes getting really wild.
 Now she was hallucinating.
 "So Nic, any information about your trip besides 'there were lots of hot girls'?" I asked mocking him.
 "Not really, I went there to get away from my mom" Witch is a drunk idiot. "I didn't have much money because I had to pay for the hotel, so I basically walked around and crashed into clubs." He laughed.
 "You're a mess." I told him also laughing.
 "At least you're summer was better then mine, did Winter tell you I got arrested?" Thalia said.
 Nic didn't seem surprised.
 "What did you do this time?"
 "Well, my foster parents wouldn't give me money so I stole a beer from the supermarket, spent summer in *PRISÃO PRA MENORES* and had to switch foster parents again."
 "The strangest thing is I'm not even surprised, so are your new foster parents cool?"
 "Kind of, they just watch TV the hole day so I can do whatever I want" She drank the last sip of coke that I'm pretty sure she had mixed it up with vodka.
 "Congrats." He laughed. I laughed. Thalia laughed. And suddenly we were all laughing of her disastrous summer.
 I looked at the table next to us and saw a girl with messy blonde hair, she turned around and I recognised Cassidy Walker, Thomas's sister, the girl everyone called crazy.
 "Can I call Cassidy to sit with us? She seems lonely."
 "I don't know, it creeps me out when she talks to herself." Nic said. "One time I'm pretty sure she had an imaginary friend."
 "I like her, people say she tried to kill herself, that is bold." Thalia told me.
  I stared at her, she didn't seem so bad.
 "Hey, Cassie" She turned around again, her brown eyes looking right through me."Don't you want to sit with us?"
 She half smiled
 "Sure."
 She got up and sat next to me.
 An awkward silence filled the table.
 "So, how are you going?" Nic tried to break the ice.
  "Utterly wonderful, thank you for asking." She suddenly got up, getting closer to Nic's face "You have really beautiful eyes."
 Nic pushed her back gently.
 "Hum, thanks."
 I like Cassie. She laughs for no reason, suddenly cries over nothing, has angry attacks when everyone around her is quiet, and it's cool to watch how her eye balls just won't stop moving.
 "So how is trying suicide?"
 Just remembering Thalia has absolutely no control on what she says.
 "Thalia, what the hell?" I said
 She just looked at me like she didn't do anything wrong.
 Luckily, Cassie just laughed faintly.
 "It's not as cool as it looks."She stopped for while and suddenly screamed."Do you guys think there's ice cream for dessert?"
 "We don't have dessert here..." Nic said calmly "Remember?"
 "Oh, right, that's bloody sad, we should do something about it."
 "Yes, we should."
 The awkward silence took care of the table again.
 "So...I'm done eating, I have history now, witch is kind of far so I better get going." I said.
 "I have history now too, we can go together" Cassie said smiling.
 "Oh, that should be fun, bye guys"
------------------------------------------
 Cassidy and I entered the class room when nobody else had arrived. The only person there was Mr.Pintch, our old and boring history teacher.
 "You are a little early" He said "But that's okay, sit down please."
 Cassie ran to sit on one of the chairs, skipping just like a child, and I sat in front of her.
 We spent a minute in silence, the only thing I could hear was Cassie whispering the song "Wild World", when the bell finally rang.
 Tons of students entered the class, but when Alexis and her friends did I realised how much I wanted to punch them.
 "Good afternoon students, my name is Mr.Pintch, your history teacher.You can start reading pages 1 to 20 and then resume it in your notebooks."
 History could be really interesting but Mr. Pintch made everything boring.
 I started my reading, the class was in total silence, the only noise was the breathing of the students. And suddenly a terrifying scream filled the class room.
 "THEY'RE HERE AGAIN. TAKE THEM AWAY FROM ME. THEY'RE GOING TO HURT ME, TAKE THEM AWAY. SOMEBODY HELP PLEASE."
 I turned around and Cassie got up crying and ran out of the room. Everybody was in silence for a moment.
 "What are you waiting for? Continue your reading." Mr. Pinch said to us.
 I almost screamed at him but instead I asked if I could use the bathroom. He gave me the pass and I went out looking for Cassidy.
 I followed the sobbing noises into the janitor's room and found Cassie hugging her own knees and getting her legs wet with tears.
 "Cassie...Can you tell me what happened?"
 She contained a hick up and looked at me, her eyes widen.
 "I don't think you would understand, and I also don't think you could do anything to help me, so can you please just leave me bloody alone?"
 "Try me." I said sitting right between Cassie and a mob.
  "I can't, you would just call me crazy like everyone else."
 "No, I won't, I'm different, please tell me what's going on so I can help you."
  She was looking vaguely to her front, like she'd just seen an inoffensive ghost.
 "I'm so bloody scared" She suddenly said, turning to me. "They're bigger and they're everywhere. I'm afraid they'll hurt me."
 "Who are you talking about?"
 "The bloody creatures." She laughed in a crazy way "I don't know they're names."
 "Creatures?"
 "Whatever you prefer to call them, creatures, monsters, beasts, it makes no difference."
 "Cassie there was nothing in that class room."
 She looked right through me, like she was staring at something behind the wall.
 "Just because you didn't see it." She said "Doesn't mean they weren't there."
 "But nobody else saw it Cassie."
 "Yes, that's the bloody point Winter, I'm special, I am the only one who can see them."
 I really wanted to believe her, because I told her I would, but the more she talked, more I knew she was schizophrenic or something alike.
 "Have you talked to anyone about this?"
 "Yes, that's why they give me pills that I pretend to take, that's why I have to go to that bloody stupid therapist that won't believe me, that's why my parents think I'm a bloody lunatic, AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHY I WANT TO DIE."
 She started crying louder and hitting stuff with her feet, I was in shock so I didn't do anything.
 "Cassie." I tried to talk as calm as I could "I think you should try to take your pills, maybe you'll stop seeing this monsters."
 She laughed without any humor.
 "Just because I won't see them anymore, doesn't mean they won't be there, you can't pretend your problems don't exist Winter, because they do. They bloody do."
 "Cassie...I..." I was stuck, I didn't know what to tell her.
 "I know you think I'm bloody crazy now, but I don't care, so can you please leave me alone now?"
 "Yeah, I can, I'm sorry I couldn't help you Cass."
 "No problem" She mumbled, tears rolling down her face. "No problem"
 I walked out of the janitor's room, a billion thoughts filling my mind.
---------------------------------------
 The belt rang and I could finally go home, but first I had to talk about what happened with Thalia and Nicholas. And I knew where I could find them.
 In our school there's this place right after the parking lot that I don't think anyone except me, Thalia, Nic and the person who built it of course, know about. It's hidden by some trees so everybody else thinks behind them there're just more trees but actually there's a *CLAREIRA* where there's a small lake and a picnic table where we like to hang out because it's quiet and we can say and do whatever we want.
 One day after school, Thalia was really drunk and she needed somewhere to puke, so I thought behind those trees would be a perfect place, and that's how we found it.
 Basically everyday after school we sit and talk there, sometimes for hours, so I knew they would be there.
 "Hey Win, how was class with the crazy girl?" Thalia asked, she had already lit up a cigaret and it was stuck between her teeth.
 "Yeah, we're bored, just tell us she freaked out so we can have something to talk about please." Nicholas said joking.
 They were both sitting on the ground so I sat there too.
 "That was actually what I wanted to talk about." I then told them everything that happened.
 "I knew she was completely crazy" Nic said
 "You don't know Nic, maybe she's the reasonable one and we're all crazy" Thalia said.
 They always disagree.
 "Oh yeah, that's probable."
 "It is okay? You can't really know if she's crazy or she's just seeing what we can't."
 "I guess we'll never know."
 "Do you think I should tell someone that she's not taking her pills?" I asked.
 "No." Thalia said.
 "Yes." Nic said.
 "This isn't helping." I was really worried about Cassie. "I'm going home, I need to think."
 "Just leave her alone, it's her decision if she wants to be crazy or not." Thalia screamed while I walked away.
 "You need to tell someone so she can feel normal" Nic screamed.
 I just entered my *{insert car's name}* and drove home.
------------------------------------------
 I live in a tiny apartment 15 minutes away from school with my mom. We used to live in a house but there were to many memories of my sister there so when she was missing for six months we decided to move.
 My mom always complains about the space but I like it because I can be alone in my bedroom all day long without anyone complaining about it.
 "Hey mom, I'm home." I yelled locking the door.
 "Hey sweetie, are you okay? Lunch we'll be ready soon." My mom, Vivian, answered coming in my direction.
 "I'm fine, as always."
 She held my hand looking worried.
 "Did you drive safely? You seem kind of dizzy. Oh my God have you been drinking?"
 "Mom, I told you, I'm fine."
 She still looked worried.
 "Okay, take of your dirty shoes, I just washed the floor." She said "I know you don't like it when I'm over protective but your father left us years ago and now with Ariana gone it's just you and me."
 "I know mom, is really hard, I don't judge you."
  I took of my shoes and marched to my room. My mom has always been a little over protective but since my sister went missing she has been out of control, aside from the worrying she's also a compulsive cleaner.
My room has blue walls, a big bed, a table for me to do my homework, a white closet and tons of shelves filled with my favourite books.
 I dropped my backpack on the floor next to my bed and went straight to the bathroom attached to my room, I needed to wash my hands, my mom has kind of a sixth sense for noticing unwashed hands.
 The bathroom smelled like lavender, it must have been recently cleaned. I took of my black glasses and looked into the mirror.
 I still had deep *OLHEIRAS* from the sleepless nights, rouding my light blue eyes that are so huge I find them to big for my face. The blue contrasts on my extremely pale skin and my hair that is so blonde it's almost white.
 My parents were unfortunately right for giving me this name. I'm winter in person.
------------------------------------------