The Girl and Her Lost Souls

Chapter One

AMELIA

THE FIRST TIME it happened I was walking towards the theater department where I had a presentation due. I heard noises that sounded like someone crying coming from the right of me in an unoccupied classroom. The teachers never used it for actual teaching but storage instead. The only time anybody has been allowed into the room is if they were a teachers aid or an office aid, but the student's regularly found the place to grope each other and make out. I stopped in my tracks to listen. The crying was faint, but it was there. It was nothing more than a sniffling noise and a whimper.

When I entered the classroom, a boy was sitting at one of the tables with books scattered in front of him. He had his head tilted downwards looking at his lap, and his hands were on the table in front of him. Even though he wasn't standing, you could tell he was tall. He had brown hair and long eyelashes that projected shadows on his cheekbones. The t-shirt he had on was a bit baggy and long for him, but other than that and the tears that streamed down his cheeks, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"Excuse me, are you okay? I'm Amelia. I heard crying in the hallway, and I don't mean to disturb you, but I wanted to make sure everything was alright," I said. When I spoke, he jumped in his chair, jerking his head towards my direction. His eyes were a startling blue, and his hair fell on his forehead in a sweeping motion.

"You can see me?" He asked. His voice was gravely but hoarse from crying.

"Of course I can see you. You're sitting out in the middle of a classroom, and your sniffling is loud enough to hear in the hallway."

His face turned into solid puzzlement at my statement. I noticed that he was actually very cute. His skin was a perfect tan color and clear. Those eyes, I thought. Those eyes are the perfect shade of blue. His eyes reminded me of the ocean, and his tears reminded me of the waves on the shore. The tears had stopped, but you could tell that he had been crying. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed and his eye's darted towards the door.

Before he could start towards the door, I said, "Are you sure you're okay?"

He turned his eyes back towards me and said, "You shouldn't be able to see me. Nobody has ever acknowledged that they've seen me before."

"Well... some people can be jerks. I realized that my first day of high school. It's the way that kids are."

"No, that's not what I mean," he said while standing up abruptly. I was right about him being tall. He towered over me by at least a foot.

"Then what do you mean?" I asked, confused.

Just then, I heard a loud bang coming from the hallway. Before I started walking towards the door, I told him to wait while I checked out what was going on. When I walked out of the door, I found that the noise came from one of the security guards Mr. Ladin, that patrolled the halls now and then. He had dropped a series of books that he must have obtained from a teacher.

"Good morning, Mr. Ladin. How are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm fine, Amelia. Just come to drop off some of these books for Mrs. Adaline. I always do favors for the pretty lady," he said. He was right; he was always doing favors for Mrs. Adaline but only because he wanted to get in her pants. As creepy as he is, Mr. Ladin has been my favorite out of the two security guards that patrol our halls. He caught two kids bullying me my freshman year, and took the both of them to the headmaster's office to find proper punishment. I was later called into the office to confirm the story, and they ended up having detention for the rest of the week. Before I could respond to him, he added, "Aren't you supposed to be in class? It's your senior year. You shouldn't be skipping. I don't usually let kids off the hook for being late, but if you go right now, I won't write you up or take you down to the office."