Another Dark Day,

Chapter Ten

As I entered the office, I was comforted by the surprise of no-one turning to stare at me or make remarks of 'Lacey's new replacement'— as I experienced on the bus. The space was quite big for a office, much larger than what I was used to at the previous schools I'd attended. As I scanned the room I spotted a desk to the far left of the office and a series of chairs lines in rows. There was already a student talking to the assistant sitting behind the desk, so I sat in one of the chairs and waited for my turn. Once she was finished I approached her and introduced myself. 'Hi, I'm Rebecca Jackson. I'm new here.' 'Hello' she replied. 'Yes, we were told you would be coming in today.' 'If you'd just come with me,' she said, getting up at an extremely fast pace. 'I'd like to introduce you to one of the helping hands here at Mannix High.' 'This is Ava Claire, she'll be your go to person if you need anything until you get yourself settled in. Ava, this is Rebecca.' Ava was quite the opposite to me. Tall, dark hair and skinny. Whereas; I'm average height, have blond hair and have a medium weight. She assessed me as we waited for her to respond, giving me a discrete glance up and down. After I received the 'approving look'— like I was possibly worth the time to talk to— she smiled and said with a slight high pitched voice 'Hi Rebecca, it's so nice to meet you! Welcome to Mannix High.' I put on the best smile I could manage at the time and tried not to jump to too many conclusions about my new 'buddy' I was to be paired up with for my first day. 'Here's your schedule, looks like you've got first period English with me in T50. It's right this way.' As we turned to leave the office assistance gave us a brief wave goodbye, then turned to return to her desk where there were more students waiting in line. I wondered if it was always so busy in the office, compared to my other schools this place was a mansion. We'd barely have to wait 5 minutes to be served by the office assistant. Ava pulled me back to reality when she attempted to give me a rough rundown of what I'd missed in the first few weeks of term. I wasn't that nervous about the time I'd missed, after all.. I'd had a lot going on as it was. But my mind kept wondering back to Lacey, trying to imagine her walking these very same halls and what classes she may have attended. It was then I noticed her bestfriend Sarah, walking the corridor in front of us. I was going to wave to her and say 'hello' when Ava snickered under her breath. 'Look who it is, perfect Sarah McDonald.' I laughed in response, unsure of what Ava was narking about. Sarah seems perfectly nice on the bus this morning, one of the only people who's looked and acknowledged me all day. Besides Ava, but then again she didn't really get much of a choice. 'You know she was best friends with that girl who went missing a while ago? Lacey Smith. Boy, she was another cup of tea entirely.' I wanted to speak up in defence for Lacey, not that I knew either her or Sarah that well: but they've both been through a lot and for all I know, Lacey still could be going through a great ordeal. But then I thought better of it and wondered if I could possibly question Ava later about the disappearance of Lacey, without hinting that I was interested too much. 'Here we are!' she said. 'First period English.' 'Yay!' I said enthusiastically and followed her into the classroom.