The Others

Chapter 1: Windhill

        As the sun crept over the horizon, Windhill High School glowed with light. How could something so horrible look so beautiful? Elizabeth thought as she walked to school with her best friend, Nicole. Her wavy, reddish, blonde hair glowed in the golden light. Her bright green eyes shone. Elizabeth Stark, Nicole Lopez, and all the other students at Windhill took classes based on intellectual aptitude, not age. It was a boarding school for orphans and outcasts. Most students didn't even remember their parents. The school was inside a village with a library, a couple of multipurpose buildings, big and small, the elementary school, the middle school, WMS, the high school, WHS, and the girls' and boys' dorms. Each of the "dorms" were pretty much huge buildings with cubicles only big enough to fit a bed and a dresser. All of the teachers, their families, and student alumni lived in the village of Windhill. Some of the current students even came from Windhill. There was one store in Windhill that was dedicated to students, where only students could trade their different "wares" such as a computer flash drive, paint supplies, or even saddle soap. It gave students a sense of freedom. That was called The Trading Post. Windhill was home to the students. During the school year, and during all vacations, the students lived their lives in Windhill. They had weekends and vacations off. "Angelina was lucky," said Elizabeth. "When she found out she was getting home-schooled, she took the first bus out of here!" "Give her some slack, Lizzy. It isn't that bad here, anyway," Nicole said, pushing her straight brown hair out of her face. "I guess you're right," Replied Elizabeth. Suddenly, a skinny, black haired boy pushed between Elizabeth and Nicole, dragging a blonde girl behind him. The boy was at least a quarter of a head taller than the girl, and about two or three inches taller than Elizabeth and Nicole. His choppy black hair was sticking up all over his head; he never did much with it after he got out of bed. The girl had whitish hints to her shoulder length blonde hair, as if it were bleached, and as she ran, she flipped her bangs out of the way to see. "Andy! Let go of Michelle! What were you doing anyway?" Elizabeth exclaimed. "I was just pulling her into direct sunlight. She could've been cold in this if-only-I-could-call-it-spring, yet this-definitely-isn't-winter weather," replied Andy. "Interesting description," Elizabeth mused. Sure enough, the morning spring sun was shining on them. Andrew Alexander was a good friend of Elizabeth, Nicole, and Michelle, ever since they were in elementary school. "Where's Sam?" Michelle asked. Sam was Andy's best friend, and he was almost always with Andy. "I think he's still in the dorm," Andy said. Almost on cue, a tall, curly haired figure tackled Andy and pinned him to the ground. Sam wasn't half the joker Andy was, but he still liked to mess with him every once in a while. Sam was surprisingly strong for his build, and he was barely an inch taller than Andy. "Sam!" Andy cried. It was more a cry of pain and terror than of surprise and happiness. After a few seconds, Sam got off of Andy and helped him up. "You never...cease...to surprise me!" Andy said through shaky breaths. They all laughed, but the bell cut them off. There were many shouts of, "See you later!", "Bye!", and "Meet you at lunch!" They all ran off to their classes.

        Michelle Rust was on her way to the stables. She loved horses almost as much as her friends. Sometimes, she thought she could hear them speaking to her, but she usually ignored it. She wasn't crazy after all. At WHS, there were "professions" of sorts that students took. Michelle worked in the stables for part of the day, Nicole took art, Elizabeth worked in the tech room, Andy took law, and Sam did sports. They did this for at least half a day, and they did regular school subjects for the other half. Unfortunately, there was no band program, so the library let them play after school, in a quiet back room, so they wouldn't disrupt anything. Not that anyone really went to the library anyway. Even if WHS seemed decent, there was one thing that made it different from regular schools. Every year on Valentine's Day, the sixteen year old students had their Betrothal. The Betrothal was a ceremony where the school tells you who you're going to marry one day, your Betrothed. After the Betrothal, you cannot have any romantic relationships with anyone besides your Betrothed. I can't believe we didn't have a choice in this! Michelle thought, But I still want know who my Betrothed is. I'm not the most romantic person in the world, but I still wonder. A loud snort interrupted her thought process. A black Thoroughbred waited in front of her. "Sassy Lightning, what have you been up to?" she said. Sassy Lightning was built for speed, like her name suggests, but she was also a little prissy girl, also like her name suggests. Michelle debated on naming her Aphrodite, though, because every stallion in the world would fall in love with that horse. Michelle bred her once, and got a little foal named Stroker Rocket. Rocket was a speed demon, and never ran out of energy. It was hard to get a hold of that little one. The oldest horse in the stables was Lucy, who was going on forty years old. There were almost eighty horses in the Windhill Stables, which made half of Windhill a horse haven. The horses were used for carriages which took people around Windhill. No cars were used there, in fact, the buses were the only motor vehicle allowed. As Michelle started to brush Sassy Lightning, her teacher, Ms. Aryn, walked up to her. "Michelle, I thought I would find you here. Rocket needs feeding and I brought you something to trade at The Trading Post." Ms. Aryn held out two shining stirrups with straps. Michelle didn't know who at The Trading Post would want stirrups, but there were some pretty strange people in Windhill. Once, a boy  traded a petri dish for a roll of gauze tape with this girl in the medicine department. He used the tape to rig his dorm for "intruders". Anything could happen at The Trading Post. "Thank you Ms. Aryn," Michelle said, "and I'll make sure I feed Rocket right away." Ms. Aryn walked away, and Michelle went to feed Rocket.