"So..."I started, brushing my teeth, and wearing my 'Jack Skellington' PJ's. "You like Benji, don't you?" Erica was busy brushing her hair into a ponytail, when a grin came upon her blushing face. "You do, don't you?" I giggled. She just shrugged, and turned around into her freaky rrom. I just finished brushing my teeth and headed towards the extra bedroom, and crawled into the bed...

* "it's okay, hunny, I'll be back after school to pick you up! Daddy'll be there, too!" My mother gave me a hug and drove off. I turned around and faced the new school I would soon be going to.*

I was staring at a picture that I had put in this room a couple of months ago. It was of me and my parents the day we moved to America. Whenever I look at a picture of them, the same memory floods my mind.

It was my first day of the third grade, and I hate to admit it, but I was extremely terrified of going to an American School. But, the day went by rather well, until school let out.

I went outside to where Mum told me to wait, and sat down by a large red oak tree.

After a few minutes I started to get worried, thinking that maybe they forgot about me, and wouldn't be coming back to get me...that I would be stuck right where I was forever! But, I soon saw our car coming down the road, so, I just walked to the edge of the sidewalk, and my eyes went back to the car as it began to cross the intersection right next to my new school. And then, all of a sudden, it came.

A speeding station wagon came out of nowhere, and it slammed into the side of my parents car, and I saw it...I saw it all...And I knew that nothing good would come out of this, my parents never wore their seatbelts.

It wasn't until the other car easily drove away, or when I saw the mangled up mess of my parents car. No, it wasn't until the police and ambulance came that I realized it; My Mum and Dad could be hurt, or worse...the could have died!

And once I finally realized that, I ran, and I didn't stop. I ran as far and as fast as I had ever run before...I was followed, and I knew it. But that only provoked me to run faster. Eventually, though, I had to stop, and my, shadow caught up with me.

"Cosette!" He called. "Cosette, come on! It's alright! It's okay!" The voice called. But I knew it wasn't. My parents were now just a memory, just an echo inside my head from the past. It was over now. "They are dead!" My head screamed.

Shaking my head, I just laid down and fell painfully asleep. That night I had crazy images in my brain of the ones I loved most leaving me....That, or coming back looking as wacked up as Benji does now!

BANG BANG BANG!!!

"What?" I grumbled, staggering out of bed.

"Hurry up if you want to get to school on time!" Called out Erica.

"Alright, Okay, Fine!" I groaned, heading towards the shower, while next door I could hear Joel screming at his twin.

"Benji! Get up, you fucking ass...And don't take my boxers this time!"Joel yelled.

I shook my head and began to get ready for school. After my shower, I straightened my hair and put on my black eyeliner (a very generous amount, mind you!). Then, I slid on my cargo, camo shorts, with knee high black and green socks pulled up. After tugging on a black and Green 'Green Day' shirt. and my 'Nightmare Before Christmas' Hoodie, I grabbed my abg and headed out to the front room of Erica's apartment.

"Finally!" She exclaimed, throwing a Poptart at me, then, shoving me out the door. It amazes me at how someone like her, who hates school, could possibly be this excited to go! "Hurry! The twin's called and offered us a ride!"

"And you trust one of them driving us...specifically, me?" I asked as she banged on their door.

"Fuck, Joel! Answer the door!" We heard Benji call from inside the room. My guess was that he was still probably asleep on the couch.

"Dude, I just got of the shower! You get it!" Joel yelled back. I just shook my head laughing, but hey, Boys will be boys, right?

"Fine!" Benji yelled back. "Just open the door, I don't feel like getting up!" Yep, there's Benj for you...ha ha! So, I just pushed open the door to find Benj sitting on the couch with one of his guitars, apparently trying to tune it. He was still in his PJ pants and a T-Shirt.

"So, you gonna get dressed, or are you just gonna go to school looking like that?" Joel asked his twin aster he walked out of his bedroom wearing black cargo shorts, and a black Atticus shirt. "Oh, hey!" He greeted, then turning to us.

After strumming a chord, Benji set down the guitar and escaped throgh the door of the room next to Joel's.

"Sooo...um..."Joel started, clearly at a loss for words. "Um...does that Billy still go to school here?" He asked, glancing at the photo Erica showed me yesterday. He then grabbed car keys from a nearby table.

"Billy?" Erica asked, confused.

"Yeah, Billy Martin? From elementary school?"

"Billy...OH, Billy! The quiet one?" I nodded. "Yeah, I think he does...I'm not sure, though..."

Just then, Benji came out of his room dressed in all black. "Alright, peeps, let's go!" He slid his arm's around mine and Erica's shoulders, and we walked out to the apartment's parking lot......

"Oh God, you are gonna get us killed!" I moaned from the back of the Madden Twin's beat up car. "Why don't you just stop in the middle of this intersection? It'll get this death over with faster!"

"Okay!" Benji agreed, and stopped the car.

"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR??? GO, GO, GOOOOO!!!" I exclaimed right as some fast new sports car almost crashed into us. Yeah, that just confimred it; being around these boys is like living with a death wish...or at least riding in a car with Benji driving is!!! Soon after, though, the highschool came into view. Here and there we saw people walking in. Ahh, the joys of hell!

"Alright, you may now exit the vehicle!" No sooner had Benji said this, did I jump out of that graveyard, and kiss the pavement beneath my feet.

"Hey, Cosette, slow down!" Laughed Erica, slinging her pink and black messnger bag over her shoulder. I stopped and waited for her and the guys to catch up, and as they did, the four of us begain to make our way up the stairs of doom. Erica was mindlessly blabbing to Benji about 'Gary' and his views agaisnt goths and punks. A load of shit if you ask me!

Me and Joel, however, were just ahead of them, silently walking to the front doors.