Slender Haven High School: It Was All A Dream.

She gasped frantically as her eyes rushed open. Realizing she was on the ground she quickly pushed herself up. Sitting on the dirt and brushing off the grime off her clothes. Shadows couldn't see a thing. Her hand rested on something metal. She picked it up and flipped a switch. The flashlight shone in front of her. It's light illuminating a number of trees before succumbing to the darkness again. She wasn't sure where she was or how she had gotten there. Standing up she did notice one thing.

No sound.

Not a bird, or bug. No animal noises. No breeze to make the trees' leaves shake or the branches creek with movement. It was still and quiet. Then a dread came over her. A sick feeling that made her stomach drop. The sudden realization that despite the lack of sound, she wasn't alone. Her primal senses kicked in and told her, RUN!

She rushed through the trees. Stumbling over rocks and downed branches. But luckily never falling. Looking behind was not an option. The only thing her fear let her focus on was running. She could feel it anyway, getting closer. She didn't know what it wanted, but she knew she didn't want to be around when it found her. Up ahead was an old cabin. She rushed up the wooden steps and tried the door. It opened right away. Quickly shutting the door she felt a little safer. Though logically she had no real reason to. As she moved the light around she could see the makeup of the place. It was a large room with what looked like two other rooms on the opposite end. One had an open threshold, probably for the kitchen. The other had an ajar door. The whole place looked abandoned save a few basic furniture pieces. She turned to her left and found a desk with a chair. As she walked up to it Shadows could see a tiny shiny object. She reached down and picked up a flashcard. Examining it for a second she put it in her pocket.

Then there was a large bang on the door. Shadows quickly turned her attention to it. The door started on fire. Smoke filling the air. It made her cough. Getting worse as she ran to another room. She fell, unable to breathe properly from the coughing. She glanced up and in front of her was the horror. A tall, faceless man staring back at her. She wanted to get away but she couldn't move. Before it was all she could do to keep herself up and breathing. Now helpless she just tried to breathe. She could feel the heat from the flames now. Nothing left to do.

Shadows sat up in bed. Trying desperately to catch her breath. She was greeted by a smoke filled room. Shadows quickly flew off her covers and ran over to her automatic toast making machine. She turned it off. Unplugged it and popped the toast. She ran over to the only window in the room and opened it. Sticking her head out to get some fresh air. Once she did she jerked her head around trying to assess her new location. Then she remembered. She was in her dorm room at her new school. She turned back inside and saw unpacked boxes of her belongings of home. A picture of her family sat on the adjacent desk. Shadows put her hand to her head and calmed her breathing. 

“Come on Shadows. It was just a dream. You just need to get used to your new room at your new school and....” Her eyes shot open again. She looked at her clock next to her bed it read 7:55am. “Oh my god! I'm going to be late for orientation!”

Shadows flailed around her room for a while before haphazardly changing into her new clothes. Flinging her pajamas onto her bed she announced:

“I'm ready for school!”

She looked at the floor and noticed something had fallen from her pajamas. She reached down and picked up a flashdrive. The same one from her dream.

“How weird.” She said. “Wait! I need to get to orientation right now oh my god I'm going to be so late!” She hollered before grabbing the burnt toast. Finally rushing out of her room and down the hallway.

***

In the gymnasium were all the students. New and old. The school was huge and it took a little while before Shadows finally made her very late entrance in. Despite the size of the building the amount of staff and students paled in compassion. In front of her was the sign in table.

"Uh...hi. My name is Dark Shadows." She said to the teen at the table.

"Well this should be easy. You are one of two people I haven't crossed off yet." the teen said.

"Well great. This is my first day. I'm sorry I'm late." Shadows apologized.

Well you are actually one minute from us closing the doors. Mr. Mann doesn't like late comers. So you are in luck! My name is Life." she introduced.

"Oh, nice to meet you Life. I'm Dark Shadows." She paused. "....oh I guess I just said that." Shadows blushed.

Life laughed. "It's alright. We have all shapes and sizes here. Just be yourself and I'm sure you'll do well."
Life handed Shadows the yearly notebook, her course schedule, and name tag. "You better get going. The orientation is about to start.

Shadows quickly walked down the center aisle. Bunches of chairs sat in rows on either side. There were far too  many for the number of students present. One boy sat in the back all by himself. His feet were propped on top of the chair in front of him. Seemed to not have much of a care as to what was going on.
At the head of the giant room was a large stage. A couple adults (most likely the teachers) sat in chairs as stiff as boards. They weren't moving or even acknowledging anyone's presence. Despite all the noise by the other students. It was kinda creepy.
She finally sat down in a seat next to a few others. Two girls, upperclassmen were talking and giggling about something with each other. Shadows was about to start a conversation but the lights grew dim and the stage ahead was lit.
A tall, thin, man in a suit walked up to the podium. The room seemed to become darker. And the lights focused on the man. Every student drew quiet and their attention went strait to the him. The teachers each put on a mask or hood and everything seemed to get fuzzy. As if Shadows couldn't see right. She couldn't even see the face of the man at the podium. She felt sleepy and unable to keep her eyes opened. And everything went black.

"Wake up freshman!" A girl hollered. Shaking Shadows by the shoulders.

"Man I thought I was bad." A boy chimed in.

"Thank goodness the principle didn't see her fall asleep like that." Another girl said. "She would have gotten in trouble for sure."

Shadows blinked her eyes open and saw three new faces. "Oh...I'm sorry. I must have dozed off. What happened?"

"Orientation is over." The boy said. "And you slept though it."

Shadows blinked at the boy, still trying to get her mind back in order. He was the one who was sitting in the back.

"Not that I'm surprised. The guy can either be scary as hell or plain old boring." He continued. "Sometimes he catches you off guard and you end up jumping out of your skin. Other times it's so predictable he's coming your way."

The girl who was shaking Shadow's shoulders was now gripping her in a tight hug. "Hi there! I'm Joie! I'm just so happy that you didn't get in trouble!" She finally let go of Shadows. "We hardly have any freshmen this year. I didn't want you to get into trouble. They have a one strike policy."

"One strike?" Shadows questioned.

"Yeah you get one goof up. Then you get detention. And you don't want that." the other girl added. "I'm Izzie. He's Zander." She pointed to him.

"Izzie is the student class president." Joie explained.

"Oh...." Shadows said. Still a little unsure as to what exactly had happened.

A sudden loud screeching, fuzz sound echoed in the auditorium. Shadows covered her ears. The others glanced up at the speaker until it stopped.

"What was that?" Shadows asked.

"The damn speaker system is on the fritz again." Zander retorted. "The principle likes to make daily announcements but we'll be damned if we ever hear his voice. This entire place is falling apart."

"It's probably time for class. We better get going." Izzie added.

Joie picked up Shadows' class list and looked at it. "Oh oh oh! Can I help her find her class?" She asked Izzie. "We both have a free first period. As part of the welcoming comity of the SHHS student body I need to formally guide her through the school." Joie announced.

"Sure. Just don't be late to psychology. Mr. Kevin has a surprise for us apparently." Izzie said.

"Alright! I get to show you around now!" Joie grabbed Shadows' hand and the lead her into the hallway.

***

About forty five minutes later Joie had shown Shadows a good chunk of the right wing of the school. Everything from the research lab run by Hooligan, a senior. To the cafeteria were the nice Miss Blue prepared their food. She showed her the various classes. And talked on and on about all sorts of things. 

"Our school mascot is the Hornet and the colors are black and white. But I guess you knew that already with your uniform and all. If you see any odd graffiti just ignore it. We have a few jokers around here who like to spray paint their symbol all over. Nothing gross or offensive. Just weird stuff. There is a lot of weird stuff here. Oh! No one is allowed in the tower and anyone who is smart stays out of the woods at night. Did you get all that?" Joie asked. 

Shadows nodded. "Got it."

Joie and Shadows approached an open hallway in the center of the building. Just beyond it, and a few floors down was a courtyard. "Oh and we have the courtyard but almost most nobody goes in there except maybe the janitor."

Joie continued talking but Shadows noticed someone standing alone down there. A girl wearing the uniform, clearly a student. She had long dark brown hair and was carrying an umbrella. She looked up at Shadows. She then got a quizzical look on her face. Then started jumping up and down waving her arms. As if she was trying to get Shadows' attention. Shadows politely waved back. The girl seemed to get all excited and she danced around a bit.

"Who are you waving to?" Joie asked.

Shadows looked at Joie oddly. "The girl down there." She pointed. But the girl in the courtyard was gone. 

"You saw someone down there?" Joie asked. 

"I thought I did." Shadows responded. "This whole place is kinda weird huh?"

"Yup. But you get used to it." Joie responded. "Zander says it's just because it's an old school but Izzie and I think....." Joie stopped herself. "Well that's actually something I can't tell you about. Not yet at least." She smiled at Shadows. 

Joie looked at her watch. "Oh wow how time flies. It's almost time for second period. Now, I'll take you to your class and you can make lots of friends okay?"

"Alright." Shadows agreed. Joie was a lot more talkative than she was used to but she liked her enthusiasm. She wondered what Joie was about to tell her before she stopped herself. When they reached Shadows class, Joie put her hand on Shadows' shoulder again. This time being a lot more firm and with meaning.

"Shadows. I like you. And I just hope you have a good time here. But remember, things are not all what they seem here. So just be careful and make sure you don't go where you aren't suppose to. We only have so many students here. We need as many as we can get." Her tone was very serious. Much unlike the rest of the time Shadows has spent with her.

"Okay! Have a good first day!" Joie said cheerfully. She walked down the hallway humming. 

Shadows turned to walk into her classroom when she noticed an odd symbol on the closed door. It must have been that graffiti Joie was talking about. She moved closer to examine it when the door flew open. A shadow stood in the door frame. It nearly scared Shadows half to death.

"Oh hey there." The woman greeted. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you.....much." The woman laughed. "You're early. What's your name?" 

"Dark Shadows, miss." She responded.

"Well well Shadows, you can call me Coyote. All the kids do. Come on in, you can help me set up the cooking stations for each table. Today we're going to be making cupcakes and muffins for the Boss."

"The Boss?" Shadows asked.

"Oh yeah sorry. I mean the principle." She corrected with a huge smile on her face.