Rachel van Direstag felt intimidated as she went through her morning classes. In all three of her classes, it seemed like every student she saw belonged on some TV show about a California school instead of some backwater Washington school. She did see someone who looked like a normal student, with normal being relative. At the end of the third period, she checked her schedule once again. "Study Hall...huh?" she muttered to herself as she walked through the halls. She figured it would be time for her to go to the library. Perhaps there she'd see some students who didn't belong on some Teen Vogue magazine.
When she arrived at the library, she saw more of the same type of students that she'd seen in her classes. There was one type of red-headed girl sitting in the corner along with a few other students. Rachel stopped to look at that girl. "Melissa?" she asked herself. It sorta looked like her, but there was something off about her. Her hair was a wrong shade of red and she looked too...muscular. The Melissa Jenkins Rachel knew didn't care much for exercise, and that girl looked like she spent hours at the gym. And she looked way too buxom to be Melissa. Shaking her head, Rachel made her way to an empty table and pulled out a map of the school. She started to plan the rest of her day. She had lunch after the study hall and then three more classes before getting out at 3...
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Melissa Jenkins has a good morning of classes. In between classes, she got some cheers for entering were society despite not being the only student who had entered into were society that night. At the end of her third class, she joined the other sophomores to the library for their study hall. She smiled as she saw her favorite group of friends and moved to join them. She sat next to Trevor as he put an arm around her. As he did so, she snuggled up to him.
"Hey, hey, you know the rules," Jason said, smiling. Melissa just stuck her tongue out at him. The group just laughed as the couple separated to sit a bit more comfortably on the sofa like seat. "Seriously, though, congrats. I figured this would happen after the two of you left."
"Yeah," Alice said, "some of us aren't as blind as the others." As she said that, she glared daggers at Jason.
"I'm just glad we got to you before...um...you know," Roy said, a little uncomfortable at continuing the thought.
"The point is," Megumi jumped in, "we're all happy for you." The group nodded in agreement as they smiled at Melissa and Trevor. She sighed as she said, "I just wish the rest of the school was just as happy as you two. There's been some crazy stuff since that dance."
"Like what?" Melissa asked.
"Well, more than a few normals have joined were society," Megumi replied as she ran a hand through her hair.
"Oh yeah, I remember that," Melissa said as she recalled her trip to those woods.
"I mean, it's not THAT unusual for people to join in Halloween night," Roy said.
"Yeah, but a good number of the normal high school population joined. More than usual," Megumi said in response. "Let's just say it's got more than a few people worried. More here at the school than anywhere."
"Do you know what happened to the person who did this? Did they catch him or her?" Jason asked.
"Alice Decrux," Melissa responded, "and she tried to get away."
"Tried?" Jason asked, "They got her."
"Not exactly," Melissa replied. "A police officer came over yesterday morning and told us that she ended up taking a dive off the cliff and well...didn't survive."
The group sighed before Alice spoke up, "Well, it could have been worse. At least it won't happen again, right?"
"Yeah, I suppose so," Megumi replied, "I just got a feeling that we haven't heard the last of us."
"Oh, wait," Trevor interjected to change the mood, "Ms. McCoy talked to me this morning between classes. She wants to see all of us to prepare for this thing coming up in a couple of weeks..."
Melissa sorta tuned out as she scanned the room as she looked at the other students in the room. She spotted a black-haired girl sitting in the corner all by herself. The girl looked familiar to her. "Rachel?" Melissa asked herself as she tried to remember what Rachel looked like and if that girl was her.
"Something wrong?" Trevor asked Melissa, snapping her out of her concentration.
"Oh, um, sorry," Melissa said as she shook her head. "I thought I saw someone familiar."
"Oh, well, all right," Trevor said, "Anyway, I was wondering if you'd like to join us after school for our academic team. I think we could use someone like you."
"Oh, um, sure. Why not?" Melissa said while smiling.
"Great!" Jason said as he smiled. It was at that point the school bell rang, singling the end of study hall and time for lunch for the sophomore class. Melissa looked around for that black-haired girl, but she couldn't be found.