If looks could kill, Maddy would have undoubtedly ended up in prison for murder, a cold-blooded assassin.

It was the guy from the bus, that cocky, arrogant jerk.

"Yeah. Me," he retaliated, striking back with the same deathly glare, his uneven lips pressed into a thin line.

Maddy could feel the tension in the air between them becoming tangible enough to be cut with a knife, just like she could feel the eyes of the other three students drifting from her to him and back to her.

Well, at least the rest of the students who were stuck in detention minded their own business.

"You guys know each other?" asked the blonde-haired cutie.

Maddy finally looked away, chewing on her bottom lip and biting its edge, a bad habit of hers.

"Yeah, you could put it that way, I guess," answered her much-hated enemy, his gaze still burning her like scorching hot fire.

"Carter, dude, where were you?" interrogated him the strawberry blonde girl.

"At the bathroom, Mia. Want some details?" he hissed, finally looking away.

"Not if it wasn't the girls' bathroom," Mia picked at her nails indifferently, but a smirk played on her perfect lips.

"As if you don't know Carter," teased the blonde guy, his deep blue eyes brisk and full of mysterious implications.

"Said Logan," cut him the girl with the voluminous curly hair, voice filled with sarcasm.

"Oh, come on, shut up!" Logan elbowed her playfully.

Maddy sighed. It's two hours. Two whole frickin hours. Ugh, damn it, can't I just disappear or something?

She tried to keep her eyes focused on her dirty Oxfords, but they just wouldn't listen, sparing the ebony-headed asshole furtive glances from across the classroom. Well, he certainly was getting a shifty glimpse of her every now and then too, and the way they rolled their eyes at each other was just so childish and immature.

"Hey, who is that girl?" asked Logan in a low tone, but loud enough for Maddy to hear him, curiosity colouring his voice-he seemed to have noticed the death glares the two of them had been shooting at each other across the classroom.

"I don't know," answered Carter, his jaw set.

Maddy tried to ignore him.

"Umm..." The curly-haired girl stepped forward, reaching out a hand towards Maddy. "I'm Sia, nice to meet you."

Maddy stood there like an idiot for a second, completely struck. She wasn't exactly a social butterfly; quite the opposite: she was introverted by nature-maybe even anti-social-and terrible at making new acquaintances. Vaguely realising she had been blankly staring at Sia's hand for this whole time, she clumsily stretched her arm to shake it awkwardly. "Hey, I'm Maddy."

She heard a snort, coming from no other than the ebony-headed idiot.

"I'm Logan," introduced himself the blonde guy, gifting her with a charming wink that made her melt under his cobalt blue gaze. She just nodded, unsure of what to say.

What is going on? asked a little voice inside her head, confused and freaking out at the sudden call to appear sociable.

The strawberry blondie-Mia?-didn't bother to move from her spot, sitting all comfortable on top of one of the desks, made of cherry.

"Mia," she just muttered, provocatively raising a perfectly-shaped brow.

She scrutinized Maddy from head to toe, and the girl vacantly remembered what she must've looked like after getting drenched in the rain that morning. Mia's cat eyes drilled into her face, like a wildcat staring at a mouse.

Meaning her next prey. Maddy swallowed thickly.

"And I assume you already know Carter..." interfered Sia, who jumped on the window sill to sit next to her.

"You could put it that way, I..." Maddy realised she was subconsciously parotting Carter's words from earlier and shut her mouth in the middle of her sentence, then opened it again to say: "Not really, actually."

She felt so awkward she could die.

"So, how'd you end up here?" asked Sia, seemingly ignorant of Maddy's awkwardness.

"I was late. And wet from the rain. You?" Maddy lifted her eyes on all three of them, carefully avoiding Carter's piercing gaze.

"Why do you think? Isn't it quite obvious?" Mia posed the question as if she was asking how much equals one plus one. In other words, as if Maddy was stupid.

Well, she certainly did feel stupid.

"Right... You're not wearing your school uniforms," she just stated, pointing out what was clear as day.

"Bingo, Sherlock," mocked her Mia, a deliberately fake smile on her face.

Maddy thought she would gladly slap that smile off her face, but, instead, she just bit her tongue.

"Why were you late, then?" asked Mia, a new challenge flashing through her eyes.

Why are you talking to me?

"I just overslept. And then I missed the bus." Maddy instinctively glanced at Carter, only to find out he did the same. "And you? Why aren't you wearing your school uniforms?" She looked at Sia.

"We didn't really go home last night," explained Sia, her voice cool.

"Oh."

"Yeah... Hey, are you new? I haven't really seen you around." Sia definitely knew how to break the ice and steer a conversation, and Maddy was eternally grateful for that.

She was just about to answer, when Logan spoke first.

"Well, we don't really come to school either, so I guess it makes sense." He laughed a bit.

"Right, right," Sia agreed.

"You don't miss much," said Maddy spontaneously. She was surprised to see Sia and Logan laugh, and her tense muscles instantly relaxed.

"True. Well, anyways, we just came for the vaccine, but didn't even do that, at the end of the day."

"You didn't? Me neither," admitted Maddy, lying back to press her back against the window.

"Well, at least we're not the only ones. I mean, did you see the nurse today? She looked like a bloody sociopath," said Logan.

So Maddy wasn't the only one who thought that way.

"Carter? What's up, forgot how to speak?" Sia turned towards the ebony-haired idiot, raising a quizzical brow.

"His mind is still in the bathroom," commented Logan cheekily, making Maddy suppress a giggle.

Carter noticed, and he spared her a venomous look, but never really answered.

What's his problem?

"Anyways, what were we talking about? Oh, right, the vaccine. Why didn't you do it?" started Sia again.

"Umm... I just... don't like needles," said Maddy shortly, avoiding the real answer to that question.

Oh, and you know, I've just got an early trauma from when I was a kid and my mom would--

Stop, Maddy.

"You?" she asked then, forcing a small smile on her lips.

"Didn't you hear? One of the students had a seizure right after getting vaccinated. It was scary."

"Really? Who?" asked Maddy, more out of concern and fear rather than because she would recognise the student's name.

"I think his name was Ben, right, Logan?" Sia pressed a finger on her full lower lip. "Well, anyways, he's a guy with big glasses, braces, blonde hair..."

Sounded familiar.

Wait... I know that guy... He's the boy that got in the infirmary right after Lia, but then I left...

Well, she didn't just leave. She basically ran, but that was another topic.

"So that's his name," whispered Maddy, more to herself rather than to the others.

"You know him?" Sia leaned forward, looking seriously interested in any information Maddy could provide.

"Yeah... I mean, no. I don't know him, but I was right outside the infirmary when he was getting vaccinated. I heard him shouting." She lifted her eyes on Sia. "He told the nurse to let go of his hand and he was barely holding his screams... He actually cried, I think. But then I left." Maddy was staring at her hands now, tapping her long fingers rhythmically on her right thigh.

"Shit. Sounds like a scene from a movie," commented Logan.

"Yeah, a horror movie," added Maddy, slowly coming out of her shell and actually speaking.

Sia frowned. "But why didn't she let go? The nurse, I mean... why didn't she-"

"I'm bored, you guys," whined Mia, a pout on her plump lips. Then she smiled devilishly. "Wanna get out of here?"

"Huh?" Sia looked confused.

Mia jumped off the desk she was sitting on, stretching an elegant hand towards the window to pull it up.

Maddy's eyes widened, then they thoroughly scanned Mia's face, trying to weigh up her expression and fathom whether she was joking or not.

"We're on the second floor, genius. I'm not jumping out the window," said Sia categorically, her tone mocking.

"We're not jumping off the window, you dummy. See that tree over there? You just have to jump on that branch and then simply climb your way down. It's a piece of cake."

Yeah, ain't no way.

Maddy observed the tree's thick branches, like extended hands reaching out for the glossy window, and she gulped her fright down. She wasn't afraid of heights, but, looking down, she didn't want to know what would happen to her with one single trip, one single slip.

Besides, Mia was most probably talking to her friends. Not her.

"No. They're gonna call our parents, and I can't have that." He finally spoke, and Maddy jumped a bit at the sound of his voice - she had almost forgotten he was there. His voice was set in concrete, there was no question mark in it. She lifted her eyes on him, and when their glances met, she spied an unfathomable emotion buried deep inside his eyes. They were black, that was clear to her, but now they looked so dark she wondered how he could even see in front of him.

Everybody has a chapter they don't read out loud, Mads... her brother's voice echoed hollowly inside her head, cutting her like a knife. He always used to tell her that.

"Fine," spat Mia, and Maddy blinked, drawing her gaze away from his. "What about you guys?" She turned to face Sia and Logan.

"Mia... It's two hours, we've done this before. Can't you just wait?" Sia spoke slowly, as if trying to knock some sense into the strawberry blonde girl.

"Let's just stay," agreed Logan.

Mia looked heavenward with resentment. "Boring."

The door opened so suddenly that Maddy let out a gasp, and the air current hit her with force, pushing her dark brown hair backwards in a twirl.

The nurse's figure appeared in the doorframe, alongside a boxy, rectangular-shaped man in a costume, who resembled a body-guard. The caretaker, Mr. Rob, was following them, his head bowed, shoulders hunched.

"Hello, kids."