C h a p t e r 1 :

A First Look

Faye Foreigner

--

My arm was itching again. This was officially the third time this week it has done that. I'm not quite sure, exactly, what it is that is making my skin crawl like it was. But I didn't like it in the slightest, nor did my stomach, apparently, because it turned uneasily each time I scratched my irritated skin.

"Miss Foreigner, since your arm seems to be very important to you right now, why don't you tell the whole class what it is that makes you so entranced by it," Mrs. McCarthy, my chemistry teacher, snapped, annoyed and agitated. "I really don't have the time for this right now!"

I swallowed, resulting in feeling a scratchy, dry scrape. I stood up, my stool screeching against the tiled floor as I pushed it back and looked her right in her icy eyes. "I think -- can I go to the nurse?" I asked instead.

"Of course," she responded, adding in a sneering tone of voice, "as soon as you can tell me why."

I bit my lower lip and started making my way towards her, but she cleared her throat, "I believe I did tell you to announce it in front of the class, did I not?"

I froze in my place, stiffening up and staring blankly at her old and wrinkled face, which held a triumphant gleam.

I felt eyes on the back of my head, but heard nothing other than the occasional shifting of a body on the stools, or even my own heartbeat.

"Well," I started shakily, turning around with all the courage I could muster up and held my arm up, "it seems I have some sort of problem with my arm."

"It looks swollen," one of my classmates snickered, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "Stop embarrassing her, Mrs. McCarthy."

I recognized almost immediately who it was that spoke. My heart did backflips in my chest all the way down to my stomach, finishing it's act off with the famous butterfly dance. I knew who it was that was talking. It was Kenneth, or more like Ken to everyone else. He was the epitome of handsome, as it would be put.

I swallowed, wincing slightly when my arm started prickling uncomfortably from it being itchy again.

Mrs. McCarthy put her hands on her hips and stared at Ken for a long heartbeat. After a moment, she turned back to me and stormed to her desk and wrote me a nurse's pass. "Here."

I took the pass hesitantly before thanking her and quickly making my way outside the classroom and into the hallway.

As I passed through the hallways, I stopped short at a trophy case filled with this year's awards from contests and competitions. I looked at one plaque with a picture of the girl's basketball team. I was in there, right in front, crouched down. By blonde hair, mixed with brown and black, was up in a high ponytail and I had a wide smile on my face.

Instead of going to the nurse first, I walked into the girl's bathroom and set the piece of paper on the sink. I glanced at myself in the mirror as I turned the faucet on for cold water, deciding that warm water may make it sting from how much I've been scratching it.

I pushed my arm under the running water, my tense shoulders relaxing when the cold liquid splashed across my dry, red skin. "That feels amazing," I muttered. My hair fell around my shoulders when I bent my head to look down at my the progress of my arm.

I brought my free hand to the soap dispenser, waiting for the sensor to go off and release some soap into my palm. Once it did, I brought my hand back and scrubbed the soap onto my arm, blowing a strand of hair away when it moved to my face.

After I felt like I got most of the irritation out of the way, I washed my arm off once more and then dried it off.

I grabbed the hall pass and looked down at it, my eyes tracing over the sloppy signature Mrs. McCarthy put on the line and debated whether or not to go to the nurse. I suppose I had to, seeing as I needed to get it signed by the adult receiving the student and their pass.

Sighing, I pushed my way out of the bathroom and turned to go down towards the nurses office. I hated having to go there, and usually avoided it whenever I possibly could, but I didn't have much of a choice when I asked to go. My arm was beyond the point of being able to care for it the way I needed to.

I did not hear the footsteps behind me, but there were some because I heard the familiar voice call, "Faye!"

"Ken?" I questioned in confusion, turning around and facing the direction of him. He came to a halt a few feet away from me and smiled, making my stomach drop to my feet. "Oh. Um .. Hi?"

"I'm hurt," Ken teased, his blue eyes twinkling with playfulness, "that you sound and look more confused than happy to see me."

"Get off your high horse," I shot back, a smile rising to my face without my consent. Damn, it's hard not to smile around this guy. "You took me by surprise, of course I'm confused."

He chuckled and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, "Well, that is true. So," he continued, his voice dropping the playfulness and filling instead with a more serious tone, "how's your arm feeling?"

"Terrible," I responded, moving my arm. "Wait. Why're you out of class?"

"Why aren't you in the nurses office yet?"

I narrowed my eyes at his cheeky grin. "Touché, Kenneth. Touché."

Ken chuckled again and glanced at me, head tilting. "Do you want me to help you to the nurse?"

It was a tempting offer, but I actually didn't want him to. The only think I wanted at the moment was to get some cream on this rash and have time to think. "No," I answered, shaking my head for emphasis. "I got it, I'm a big girl. Besides, you should get to where ever you need to go."

Ken shrugged, though he seemed disappointed with the response. "Alright, if you say so." He moved past me and waved. "Cya later."

"Bye!" I called, taking a left down the hall and continuing my travels to the nurse.

--

I fingered the wrapping on my arm, wishing that I declined to have it wrapped.

When I told the nurse what I needed, she recommended that I let her wrap it. "That way," she said as she pulled out a small tube of itch cream and the brown roll of arm wrap, "you're less tempted to itch it."

But now, as I sat at lunch with the nursed arm set flat on the table with the irritated side facing the air, eating lunch, I was regretting it.

Unable to scratch my arm, with the cream wearing off and my arm starting to be a bother again, I was extremely unhappy. I shifted in my chair and poked at my food, punishing my mac n' cheese for the problems I was facing.

It didn't help that my two best friends sitting on either side of me were bickering like no tomorrow.

"Faye!" I felt a hand land powerfully on my shoulder, snapping me from my trance and causing me to jump slightly. "Hey! Tell Lucy here that she's stupid to believe that-"

Lucy's pale hands slammed on the table, making me nearly piss myself at the unexpected force. I whipped my head to Lucy, then back at my other friend, Manny.

"First of all you ass-sucking piece of shit," Lucy fumed, raising one of her fingers and thrusting it in front of me but aiming it at Manny, "I can look it up right now and prove to your sorry fairy ass that I'm right!"

Manny gasped, his chocolate eyes widening in offense at the words. "I do not suck ass! You don't know anything about being gay!"

Lucy narrowed her shocking amber eyes at the comment and said in challenge, "You're not gay. You're straighter than Alex Holland."

Manny gasped even louder, nearly falling off his chair. "You cruel bitch! Alex Holland is so straight that he turns gay people straight! I am not one of those people, you scrawny-faced witch!"

"I've never seen you sucking faces with a guy!"

"I don't like any of the guys at this school!"

"Shut up!" I yelled, tossing my hands in the air and grabbing both of their shirt collars. "Shut up now or I swear to God, you'll be picking up yours teeth off this cafeteria floor! Got it?"

Lucy's perfect black eyebrows shot in the air and her red-lipstick lips quirked from a shocked frown to a smug ass smirk. "I didn't think you used violence to make peace," she mocked, repeating a sentence I said once a few months ago.

"At this point, I'll use violence to silence you two from your petty arguing," I replied dryly, gazing blankly at her. Lucy, mind you I love her greatly, doesn't intimidate me. She's scary as hell, wearing dark clothes, being a badass on the daily, her black hair always having streaks of blue, green, red, and purple depending on the day.

The reason she doesn't terrify me like she does with other people is because I've known her since second grade, when she stole my sandwich and I kicked her to the ground for doing so. After a fight on the playground, a visit with the principle and our parents, and a forced play date to try and reconcile, we decided to become friends.

Ever since then, Lucy's been like one of my sisters. She's beautiful, but she also doesn't deal with people's bullshit.

"Someone's cranky," Manny mused, rubbing his chin and smiling at me in amusement.

I glared at him and gave him a not so nice hand gesture before turning around and continuing to cruelly stab my food.

"Can I see your arm?" Lucy asked, nudging me gently. I dropped the plastic fork and turned so I was facing her and slid my arm towards her.

She blinked slightly and gently caressed my arm in her own. She took the bobby pen off the top of the wrapping that was holding it together and started unwrapping it.

"Careful," I advised worriedly, biting the inside of my cheek. She glanced up at me with a look as if to say, "Really?" before going back and focusing her attention on unwrapping my arm.

I thought it had gotten better, but apparently I was far from right. Instead of seeing pink, slightly irritated skin, I saw bloated, dangerously red. It was leaking puss again, a sign that the cream the nurse had used wasn't working very well in the slightest.

Lucy's breath caught, and she looked pale. This struck me as strange, mostly because I have never seen Lucy grow so uncomfortable around something like this. She's never been grossed out before; we watch horror movies annually. She's broken her leg, twice, and she's always chirped on how amazing and weird it was how the human body worked.

"Um, Luce?" I said quietly, wincing softly when her thumb trailed over the sensitive skin. "That sort of hurts.."

She suddenly jerked her hand away as if I had burnt her. She let out a soft breath and silently rewrapped my arm and stuck the pin in between the bandages to hold it together.

I slowly pulled my arm back and eyed her, then glanced at Manny. But he never caught my pleading gaze because he was mumbling to himself about how unfairly Lucy treated him.

"Lucy?" Seeing as Manny would be of no help to me today, I returned my gaze to the sickly pale girl next to me. "You don't look so good."

Her dark eyes flicked to me, and I swore I saw a brief flicker of unease before it suddenly disappeared. I wanted so badly to ask what the hell set her off so much, but I refrained. I didn't want to interfere into her thoughts, or demand her to tell me things.

"Oh," she replied breathlessly, clearing her throat softly and giving a nervous chuckle. "Yeah sorry about that. I was just a little surprised by your arm, is all. How long has it been like that?"

"Three days now," I told her, slowly lifting one of my eyebrows. "It's nothing too bad, just some rashy skin."

"It was bleeding."

"I sort of scratched too much."

A breath of air escaped Lucy's nostrils and she nodded slowly, blinking. "Okay."

Deciding to drop it and get out of this ever so strange situation, I went back to eating my lunch. The school lunch was surprisingly okay today, seeing as it was .. Well, school food.

Manny and Lucy went back to arguing, much to my annoyance. After ten minutes of more bickering, I realized what it was that they were arguing over in the first place. Apparently Manny was claiming that a large intake of helium would kill a person instantly.

Lucy pinched the bridge of her nose and took deep breaths. She seemed to be back to normal, though her body stance seemed rigid and unrelaxed. "Manny, dear, foolish, idiotic, Manny," she began, opening her eyes and staring at our friend. "Helium will not kill you, okay? In fact-"

"Wait!" Manny lifted his hand, his voice dramatically filled with despair. "Here they come."

"Well, shit a brick Rick," Lucy said after she followed his gaze to the destination of his words. "Here come the bitches, all hideous in person."

I snorted, showing my amusement while trying to keep from laughing to loudly. The three girls who were approaching were Stacey, Veronica, and Tammy. Those three have hated us since the playground era, and in return we fought back with just as much cruelty.

"Well, well," Stacey leered as she and her lackeys approached, her artificial nose scrunching up in disgust as she raked her condescending gaze over us, "look what the cat dragged in."

"Go ride Jerry's pogo stick, Stacey," Lucy shot at her, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms. "You can't even come up with a nasty greeting."

Stacey scoffed and glanced at Veronica, who blinked her blue eyes and quickly came to her leader's defense, "Don't you have some children to scare, goth girl?"

Lucy gasped loudly, as if she wanted the whole lunchroom to hear it. She placed her delicate hand over her chest and said in fake hurt, "Oh my, my deep black soul has been stabbed by your cliché insult."

Veronica stepped forward, her eyes blazing and her cheeks flushed with anger and embarrassment. The whole lunchroom had their eyes on us, and Lucy had just humiliated her in her own game. "Why you-"

"Enough, Veronica," Stacey ordered, holding her arm out and blocking Veronica from approaching anymore. "Don't get to close. You might catch something .. Maybe you might be infected with the gay." Her dancing eyes turned to Manny, who was watching on in simple amusement.

Manny raised his eyebrows and smiled, despite the anger that boiled in the pit of my stomach. Lucy looked just as pissed off as I felt, and we were both clenching our fists.

"Sweetie, the only thing you have a chance of catching from me is the bitch slap I'll throw at you," Manny assured, winking. "I've played enough patty-cake as a child to patty your face."

Okay, that was insanely cheesy. But when it came from Manny, it was incredibly beautiful. I snickered and glanced at Lucy, who was smirking slightly as if his words were the best thing she's ever heard.

Stacey put her hands on her hips and glared angrily at Manny then decided to focus her attention on me. She calculated me, probably looking for something she could use to insult me with.

"You know, Faye," Stacey started nonchalantly, lifting her hand and looking at her nails as she spoke, "there's this rumor going around that Kenny Bear has his eyes on you." She looked up at me from her nails and smirked. "Let's see who can get to him first."

I met her gaze calmly, forcing myself to push away the urge to cut this bitch and lifting a polite smile on my face. "I'm not going to race you, Stacey. Ken isn't a conquest, nor is he an object of our battle. I won't, how did you put it, race you for him." With that, I picked up my tray and dumped it into the large trash can a foot away.

I grabbed my stuff and said goodbye to my friends. As I brushed past Stacey and her lackeys, I whispered to her, "You're stooping really low, you know. Be careful when you tread dangerous waters." I then kept walking at normal pace out of the lunch room.

--

As I entered my house, I placed my car keys down on the small oak table that rested next to the front door. It was very quiet in the house today, as usual when I was here alone.

My house was large, despite the people who owned and lived in it. It had three floors, and inside it contained of expensive furniture and appliances. The basement was mine, seeing as it went unused throughout my whole childhood, and I claimed the whole area as a teenager. The second floor, the main floor, had the large kitchen, the dining room, my parents' two offices, a living room, and a very small library.

The third floor consisted of seven rooms, one belonging to my parents, my older sister, and my older brother. The rest were guest rooms, but all of them went mostly unused, even the claimed bedrooms. My brother was 29 years old and was married with a young daughter. They lived about an hour away from here. My older sister was 24, and attended Harvard University, majoring in medical science studies. As for my mom and dad, well, it's sort of hard to be home a lot when you're two of the most successful people in America business wise. They were always traveling and working.

Still, despite how big and empty this house usually was, it was home. My safe haven, my heartland. I slipped off my converse and adjusted my bag higher on my shoulder as I walked through the entrance and into the kitchen.

"Faye!" The excited voice nearly made me piss my pants. I whirled around and saw my older sister, grinning.

"Jordan!" I shot back, laughing in relief and walking towards her. She embraced me, causing my body to instantly relax against hers. She was warm, and still had the smell of mint and lavender soap, her signature smell since she was fifteen. "Damn it, you scared me."

She chuckled, making me smile against her shoulder. It's been at least six months since I've seen her face to face, save the Skype calls every other week. "I'm sorry. I was watching Lost Girl in the living room when I heard the door open. I wanted to greet you."

"How'd you know I was going to the kitchen?"

"Because, silly, you always get a snack when you come home from school," my sister stated as we pulled back from the hug. Jordan was beautiful, and she looked a lot more like mom than I did. She had dark brown hair that she kept long enough to meet just below her breasts, bright green eyes, and, like me, freckled skin.

She knew fashion pretty well too, as she sported a pair skinny jeans, a button up white collar shirt, and, I'm assuming, white heels.

"Ah, that's right." I nodded at her and couldn't help but smile more. "I'm so happy you're here! I thought you said you wouldn't be able to come back!"

Jordan stuck her hands in her pockets and walked behind me as I continued to the kitchen, and I gestured for her to speak. I placed my bad down on top of the spotless marble island and picked a grape off its vine that sat in a bowl.

"Christmas break started early for us," Jordan told me, shrugging. "And since I didn't get to come home for Thanksgiving, and it's been forever, I decided to head home the second we were on break instead of next week."

"I'm glad you did," I told her honestly, picking a couple more grapes and popping them into my mouth. "Finals are coming up, and I need a lot of help studying for my Chem final."

"Chemistry isn't that hard if you really put your mind to it," Jordan said hopefully, opening her hand out to me.

I rolled my eyes and dropped a few grapes into her palm before reaching behind me to get some for myself. "That's easy for you to say, geekzoid."

"That isn't even a word." Jordan gave me a look, shaking her head in amusement.

"I think I should knock your pedestal down a few notches so you're next to the rest of us. The only pedestal that should be as high as yours is Steven Hawking's," I retorted, squinting at her.

"Okay, leave my pedestal alone you slug." Jordan grinned, shaking her head. Her eyes danced with joy and laughter, making me smile. It was a good feeling, after everything that happened today.

"I'm not a slug," I complained, scowling at her playfully and tossing a grape at her. It hit her on the forehead and bounced onto the floor.

"Ow. That hurt," Jordan said, snickering.

"Whatever." I stick my tongue out and push myself off the counter. "Alright, now if you excuse me, I've got to go take care of Macota."

"Have fun!" she called after me as I passed her. I went down the hallway and opened the door that led to the basement. Downstairs held a couch, a love seat, a fireplace, and a flatscreen resting above it. I turned the corner once I got down the stairs and went into another room, my actual bedroom.

I changed into an old pair of jeans and t-shirt, pulled on my rubber boots, and tied my hair up into a tight bun. I exited into the backyard using the basement doors and took a walk through the hard to get to the barn that was stationed right next to the house.

I walked up to the large barn and grunted as I slid the doors open. Instantly I was greeted by a loud neigh, excited to see me. I smiled when I saw my stallion's head poking out of his stall to watch me joyfully.

I grin slightly and make my way forward, reaching out and resting a hand on his muzzle. He snickered gently and nuzzles my palm, his soft breath bellowing across my skin. "You're a good boy," I murmured, smiling faintly.

I brought him out to the pasture so he could get some fresh air and went to work on cleaning his stall.

--

A/N:

Thoughts? Like the remake? Hate it?