Ghosts ➸ c.h

0.1

It has been two months since the last time Calum actually entered a high school. The sight of teenagers everywhere, running to get to their lockers had brought him a lot of memories; not very pleasant ones, though.

The boy walked in the establishment, a big smirk on his face and headed to his first class in two months. He thought he'd feel anxious and he'd be worried sick, but strangely, he wasn't. He was feeling numb. Re-entering high school - a new high school didn't scare him at all.

As you may've guessed, Calum had been expelled from his old high school in New York for some reasons, so he moved to this small town where his sister lived, in Philadelphia, and was willing to go to high school again, in order to attend university in the future. Even though he wasn't the brightest student, or the wisest, he had been accepted easily in the school, probably because there weren't many people who went there.

The small building seemed old and dirty. If you passed by it, you'd think it was an abandoned church instead of an actual school for teenagers. Some of the windows were broken and the doors cracked whenever you tried to open or close them. Although it wasn't the most perfect place to study in, Calum didn't feel terrified at all. He was cool about it and I - on a personal point of view - didn't know if it was a good, or a bad thing.

Confidently, he entered his class and after introducing himself briefly, he sat in the very back, in the last seat. There was about only ten people in the classroom and none of them paid enough attention to the newbie which was weird. Apparently, geography was important for them.

Not so far for him, sat a brunette whom was wearing all dark from head to toe. She was the only one who wasn't paying attention to the teacher or to Calum. Looking at the window, she was daydreaming. Calum spotted her and glared at her, as she was some alien. His eyes travelled from her hidden face because of her hair falling, to her fingers drumming in the table and finally to her black converse full of dirt.

Feeling piercing eyes looking at her, she turned to face the new kid who was thinking about how much they looked alike physically.

"What?" she spoke with an annoyed tone, raising one eyebrow at him.

"Nothing," he answered almost immediately and leaned further in his seat. "It's just weird," he blurted, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Everything's weird, that's not new." She smirked and adjusted herself to have a better view of the masterpiece full of biceps in front of her.

"The town is sad, the school is creepy, the teacher is boring and the students are weird. It doesn't make sense and it's weird," Calum said once again. He stood quiet a moment, calculating how many times did he use the term 'weird', not taking his eyes off of the girl.

She has nice, long, bright brown hair, even though it was messy and seemed un-brushed. She wore a simple black sweater, black jeans, and black converses. She even had black nail-polish and wore dark lipstick. She had very neat features; big green eyes, straight nose, fine lips and an oval face. Her eyeliner was rapidly made, which meant it wasn't regular, but that didn't bother Calum who thought she was pretty, in her own way.

"What's your name?" he asked, getting up when the bell rang.

"Zoe," she responded in the simplest way possible.

"Zoe what?" Calum chuckled a bit but Zoe didn't show any kind of amusement.

"You talk a lot," she noticed, slowing her walk. "Find other friends, Calum Hood. I'm not one for you," she suggested and surprisingly, Calum nodded at her and walked away, leaving her alone beside her locker.

The way she talked coldly and didn't show any kind of emotion made Calum literally feel agony. He made it to his next classes and the same scenario repeated itself every time he'd enter: he'd introduce himself shortly, go sit and get annoyed for the rest of the hour; no-one would talk to him, look at him or just notice him. It was getting on his nerves and he even thought that there was something wrong with him.

At the school canteen, he saw the same girl from his geography class, Zoe, sat alone in an empty table, devouring her sandwich. He thought about how came she didn't have friends; she was beautiful for a loner. Since he, himself, didn't have any friends in this whole new creepy school full of nerds and freaks, he went to where Zoe was and stood in front of her, about to sit in a chair.

"You better not sit there, he doesn't like it," she warned in a whisper so Calum didn't catch everything. She was not even looking at the hazel-eyed boy,

"What?" Calum gasped, looking around and at the chairs.

"Oh, nothing," Zoe rapidly answered, trying to make up her lie. "Someone's sitting there."

She took her eyes off from her food and watched as Calum sat beside her, a confused expression written in his face. She wasn't normal, being all alone and quiet and also stubborn and weird. No-one was sitting with her before he came, why wouldn't she want him to sit in front of her? The whole school was abnormal, he thought.

Calum ate his lunch peacefully, his eyes traveling from the brunette to the people around him. Two or three persons were glancing at him, but that was it. No-one was talking loudly, no-one was glaring at him or at anyone; everyone was just eating. It was creepy.

Calum thought before coming here, that he'd have the same popularity he had back in New York. He thought he'd go to parties every weekend and sleep around whenever he got the opportunity. Taking in consideration the situation he was in now, all these thoughts seemed like a dream that none of them would get real. In this school, no-one was his kind of person, apparently.

"Relax," Zoe commanded, frowning at the boy. "You'll get used to their immaturity. It's been a year and I still don't know anyone's name."

Zoe tried to be friendly to Calum for once, he appreciated that. Calum nodded at her and smiled in response. He had many questions in his head but didn't want to blurt out something that might be wrong; he only knew the girl for some hours and was already shitting his pants from how weird everyone was acting.

"Oh, who is he?" Calum asked when he saw a colorful-haired guy sitting in the other chair, facing the only girl in the table.

"Who?" She raised her eyebrows in confusion, innocently.

"Him." He showed the boy with his index finger. The other guy was looking between Zoe and Calum, almost laughing amusingly.

"I don't know who you're talking about," she mumbled quietly, gulping, not taking her gaze off from Calum.

"He's talking about me, dumbass."

"Yes, I'm talking about him!" Calum almost yelled gaining exactly four girls' attentions.

"Can't you be louder?" Zoe groaned, not answering any of the questions, and got up from her seat and exited the lunchroom not saying anything else.

Calum looked at her getting out her jaw slowly dropping. He looked at his right to see the guy with green hair smirking at him and then to his unfinished plate. This day was supposed to go okay. It wasn't, though. It was scaring Calum.

-

Gif of Zoe, aka Willa Holland.

SO, I HOPE YOU LIKED THIS FIRST CHAPTER, IT'S GONNA BE A LITTLE BIT CONFUSING AT FIRST BUT THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT OF THE STORY HAHA. DON'T FORGET TO VOTE AND LEAVE A COMMENT, IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY!

xx