Screaming ↣ Billy Loomis/Scream

0.3 >> the first day

I insist on going to school. I decide I need to make a good first impression, and nobody really knows me anyway. Unless somebody announces I'm related to a dead girl, Ill be fine. Nicolle and Erin tried to convince me that going to school today wasn't worth it, but at this point, post traumatic stress was the least thing I wanted to talk about,

It  was a small town where everybody knew everybody, so word about the murders spread like a disease overnight. This also meant the school was packed with reporters, and apparently my name escaped as one of her family members. A bony reporter with brown highlighted hair, pencil eyebrows and a tacky smile came up to me. "Hi, are you Dana Becker?" She asks. Erin and Nicolle are dragging me away, but people are still looking over to reporters competing for a word from me. 

"We aren't taking petty interviews right now." Erin hisses, taking me by surprise. She strings along me and Nicolle into the building, and we go to the main office to pick up my schedule.

"Hello, uhm, my name is Dana Becker, I came to pick up my schedule." I smile at the receptionist. She smiles back and hands me a sheet of paper. Erin and Nic already got theirs mailed, and we compare. "Cool, we have biology and English together." I say. Maybe today wouldn't be half bad, and I'd learn to deal with my grief. Easy enough right?

Until we walk into biology. Erin sits ahead of me, and Nic sits to my right. Billy is behind me, and I pray he forgot about the dare. I push my bag under my desk, as Mrs. Brighton starts to take attendance. "Randy Meeks?" she questions outward. A kid in the back of the class says "Here." She goes through the attendance list, calling names. "Erin Loomis?" Erin gives a half hearted grunt, following her brother doing the same thing. It's so painfully obvious they're twins. "Casey Becker?" She calls out, before she catches my eye and then the empty seat diagonally for me. 

Half the classrooms gaze wanders to me, and I can feel the eyes in my back. She doesn't say anything else, and I'm kind of sitting there, frozen. The time me and Casey went ice skating and she kept on tripping but it was okay because she ended up hogging all the cones meant for fourth graders to keep steady. The time we got chased by geese at the park and we had to climb up a structure to escape their wrath. Us dancing to Buddy Holly by Weezer when we were 16 two years back and talking about Steve Orth. Tears are forming in my eyes.

I feel a hand on my back all of a sudden, and it's Billy's. I get up, and Erin shoots me a confused look. "Can I be excused?" I ask.

"This is the first class of the year, sweetie. No." She says, continuing attendance. I sit down, tears still threatening to spill as the back of my throat does that straining thing when you're trying not to cry. I put my head in my hands, not caring whos looking, not caring that Nicolle is rubbing my back. I let my hair mop around my arms like a shield, and I try not to sleep through the 30 minute long introductal lecture. 

~~~~~~~~

"C'mon. You should eat with us today, you're one of us now after all." Erin says, her and Nic basically pushing me towards the fountains in the courtyard. Billy, Stu, a blonde girl and a brunette leaning on Billy are already there. I'm about to abort mission and settle for the third stall on the left, but Erin waves and smiles, and the blonde girl waves us over. "Dana, this is Sidney, Tatum, and Stu. Sid, Tate & Stu, this is Dana."

I sit in between Erin and Nic, pulling out some baby carrots and ranch to start working my way through. They're talking about the murders, and I'm trying to zone out on the ground and the way my carrots are crunching. "Yeah, Casey & Steve were completely hollowed out. Takes a man to do something like that."

"Or a mans mentality." Tatum says.

"How would you even gut someone?" I find myself saying. I haven't talked the entire conversation out of fear I'd punch Stu or Randy. There's a small silence, until Stu actually answers.

"You take a knife," he says calmly, like its nothing. "And you slit 'em from groin to sternum."

I shift uncomfortable, Nicolle death glaring him. Billy speaks up as Sidney looks just as freaked out as I am. Other than she doesn't know what it's like. "It's called tact, you fuckrag." 

"I heard he put the liver in the mailbox, is it true that he put the liver in the mailbox, is it true ya put the liver in the mailbox?"  Randy mocks. I get fed up enough that me and Sidney stand up at the same time, walking away. She walks beside me, even though I'm not sure why. I feel bad for kissing her boyfriend, and I'm not looking to immediately become her best friend. I have Nicolle and Erin to help me die inside.

"Hey, I just wanted to say I know how it feels to lose somebody. My mother... Well she was murdered last year," Sidney stops me. Oh god, how was I so inconsiderate. I know nothing about her. "And you never truly get over it, but it gets better. I mean, me and you have the most incredible douchebag friends."

I smile at her, looking back to Billy hitting Stu in the gut and Tatum doubling over laughing at something Erin said. "You're right, aren't you." I sigh. "I just... Ever since what went down in my old town, my cousin has been there for me. She's the closest thing I've ever had to a sister."

"I can't deny who my mother was, but you can't wallow in it, right?" She gives me  an understanding grin. "This is a fresh start, and you should take as long as you need to get better."

I just hoped she was right.