Chapter 1

"We going to - partey!"

It was almost six o'clock on a Friday evening, the early September summer sky a lazy shade of periwinkle. The weather was still aggravatingly warm, a dry kind of warm that made me feel certainly restless about when my friends were going to come pick me up so we'd spend the evening in our other rich friend's pool party - if she didn't have a last minute change of plan. I spent the afternoon lingering close to the door, the windows, munching on snacks and listening to music while I anxiously awaited them.

But when Shelly Courtney pulled up in front of my house, looking adorable and extremely hot in her black Infiniti that she had gotten on her sixteenth birthday just before the holiday, the rain had began drizzling a bit and it was way past the time she'd promised. Shelly's pale blonde hair was smoothed back in a tight pony tail that bounced off her shoulder-rich and silky. Her thin, pale lips were stretched into a smile and I could tell as she rolled down the car window a little further that she had on that purple twin tank top both she and I had gotten few weeks before we turned sixteen together. I bit in my lower lip to tune down my smile a bit but I knew it wasn't going to help. I missed Shelly and the others too much during the summer holidays that I'd spent across the country at California, at the mansion my grand parents once lived before they both passed away.

"Shelly!" I gave a guttural squeal, not doing too well in hiding my excitement at seeing my childhood or - going to see my childhood friends.

The screen door of my house slammed shut behind me and as I stepped off the front porch and out the portico, I heard mom shout a muffled, "Have fun with the girls!"

Oh. I was planning to have fun. Not too much fun but a little more than I'd done my entire life. I gave a little excited giggle. "Thanks mom," because I was feeling drowned with the energy and excitement that filled me.

You see. It was going to be a new school year that September, when I finally was sixteen and was going to be a junior in school. I then had a lot of dreams, hopes and expectations of what I wanted to do that school year and running for / becoming the junior class president was just one least hope of the extremely long bucket lists I had stuck in the deepest part of my head.

You know, I had been boring all my life as a teenager. All I ever did was study all the time and have less fun like all my friends were doing. I was odd, just as my friends and every other person viewed me. That school year, I wanted to have fun. Make new friends. Have part - ey after part - eys. Have a boyfriend. Becomes as cool as my best friends. More daring and to top it all get it down with some boy who was willing to ask me out first and love me. I was the only one between my friends who hadn't even gotten my first kiss. Shelly had gone farther than most of us, actually, but really, I needed to step up my game and stop being the little girl I used to be.

"Hurry. Hurr -y ," Shelly drummed her fingers anxiously on the steering wheel, still managing to habor a slight grimace and a beam and still coming off looking good. Her small, button-like nose wrinkled delicately and the sun rays peeking out behind my house roof, made her aquamarine eyes appear more blue. Like blue - blue. It was glittering like diamond and almost compelled me to continue to gaze into it. Tiny beads of the drizzling rain drops that settled on her tanned skin - from the car window - made her appear like a healthy golden goddess.

I shuddered uncontrollably as I reeled faster to meet her, while trying to control that gut wrenching thump going on in my chest. My backpack containing the things I needed for the party that my parents wouldn't naturally allow was cladded tightly to my shoulders and throbbing slightly. One look at Shelly always reminded me that I could never be as pretty as she was. Nice. Social and bold, too. She was perfect all the way, at everything and I was nowhere near that. She was everything wrapped in a roll.

"You're late!" I announced as I gently stepped into the car's cool air and turned to check if anyone, people that could have been Shelly's cool friends and not mine were seated back there since she was used to giving friends ride. At the absence of none, I beamed furiously and just remained myself. That excited part of me.

"Sorry, Lisa. At least I'm here now. . .and guess what? I missed you girl," Shelly squealed, and held her arms out. "Bring it in!"

A broad smile took over her thin lips as we leaned into each other and engulfed ourselves in bone crushing hugs, squealing into our necks. Barely any space between ourselves, except for my backpack. Shelly smelled sweet, just like the atmosphere of the car. Her fragrance of expensive perfume and body deodorants, light and sweet, made my toes tingle in my flat shoes. I loved and missed inhaling her scent, and could identify her body smell from anywhere in the world. I and Shelly had been best friends for as long and as far as my kid brain could recollect. Right from that moment I enjoyed watching that cute girl with colorful dresses, bows and clean shoes in kindergarten class that everyone enjoyed flocking around to become friends with. She was bold, smart, inquisitive, caring and very nice and she just happened to choose me as her best friend out of the other cooler kids that'd do anything to be her friend.

Shelly leaned into her seat, the smile traces still lingering on her perfect face, but her lips parting, "Wow! You look stunning, Lisa!"

"Thank you!" I blushed feverishly, feeling blood rush up my cheeks.

I did look stunning and I knew it. Perhaps it was spending the summer holidays over at California that had caused me to blossom or made me realize my beauty. Boys over at California, Beverly hills had always whistled called each and every time I went out for my morning jog to shed a little bit of pound and keep fit. I wasn't very used to getting all that attention. I knew I had blossomed, just as my mom said. Yet, I knew I wasn't as pretty as Shelly. Before I left for the summer holiday, I always had to use my glasses but that was before I got lenses which revealed my huge eyes and long lashes. Unlike Shelly who had thin, slim lips, mine were love shaped and plump. I had a left side cheek dimple which appeared with each and every movement of my mouth while Shelly had two side dimples. My hair was chestnut brown and wavy from having air-dried during my preparation for the party. Every single strand of my hair was my most priced possession.

My hair texture and super resistance to any form of humidity was something all of my friends envied, including Shelly and that always made me feel good when someone having a bad hair day turns to take another look at my hair and say something like: "Why does her hair have to be that perfect?"

"This semester," Shelly was saying, in arrogant assurance. "I'm definitely going to get you a boyfriend. Perhaps, that new dude that transferred to our school last section. I heard he's single."

I grimaced in embarrassment. "How are you sure he doesn't have a girlfriend?"

As I buckled myself to the comfy seat, Shelly gave me a slightly wicked smirk, eyeing me skeptically. "I have my ways you know. I always do."

"Oh, yeah," I scoffed. "You're an idiot."

Shelly pouted, "Harsh."

With a sigh, I leaned into the seat and eased my head onto it. I felt giddy on the inside, and nervous too. Andrew Penna was a senior that transferred to our school the previous section, and was in the same class with my brother, Dane. Though he was hot, playful and was a jock, with that kind of look that makes your head turn at angle 90 to get another view of him, I still didn't feel right about him. There had to be a reason he transferred to our school in his Junior year. Sometimes, he always had dark brooding look and moody atmosphere evolving around him. Most days than not. I couldn't tell if I wanted Shelly to pair me up with him.

"Just wait till the others see you," Shelly muttered to herself, smiling amusingly.

"Can't wait to see them either," I confirmed.

"So?" Shelly started, wanting to fall into a conversation. "How was your trip to California?"

"Good," I cackled. "I almost forgot how fun it was, since you know. . .my grandparents died. Now that I'm sixteen, we finally were able to read my grandparent's will which mostly was our main purpose of going there."

"What are you getting?"

As Shelly ignited the car and hip hop blared from the radio, she turned the car in a semi-circle back in the direction she'd come. And I looked through the back windshield at my house once more. The house was kind of amazing. Through the car's window, I caught the image of Dane's tall figure now standing on front porch, right hand akimbo and eyes trailing after the car much to my best friend's ignorance. Suddenly I felt bad for my brother, having to stay grounded at home while I'm out having all the fun. Behind him, our huge house stood. It was four rooms with each bathrooms, and two living rooms. We lived on the rich side of the town even though we didn't really appear rich. People in town always described us as too humble.

"You know," I stated, with a curt shrug. "A lot of responsibilities. Including my grandparents house in Canada which I don't have access to till after college."

"Great," Shelly laughed hoarsely, "Just cool."

The car glided smoothly down the silent street with such serenity that I suddenly began to feel light headed, dizzy and very giddy. The rain drizzling had stopped over the minutes I'd joined Shelly in the car, and the cloud had now darkened as the sun began to set, hiding behind huge puffs of light pink clouds. I dug my nails into the seat's comfy leather and fluttered my eyes shut, smiling peacefully because I felt good. Never felt better. For some reason I felt like it was going to be one of the best semesters ever and no one in the world could stop me from having fun.

Shelly bellowed ferociously. "Let's go parte-ying!"

"Woot!" I called out, laughing, joining in her crazy act and throwing my hands in the air.

With hip hop music blasting loudly and adrenaline surging through our veins as the car glided smoothly out of my street, the pink-yellow clouds hovering over us and zooming past as the sun slowly began to set - we couldn't ever forsee any evil ever befalling we happy, giggly girls in the next few minutes. That evening the sky was golden, beautiful and the street was silent just as it always was and it felt like good lucks and fortune was in the air for the two of us based on our emotions at that moment, but guess we were just wrong. At the edges of the dark pink clouds there were brilliant white patch, like a turning page catching the sun. The rest was dove grey with a subtle hint of purple and pink, just enough to announce the coming sunset.

Seconds before that moment, I turned Shelly's profile and asked. "So what about you? How was your holiday?"

"Uh!" Shelly groaned and threw her head back. "Not much partying in the city this time. They really cracked down on my fake ID's."

"Oh."

"But," Shelly drawled, "I at least had enough fun with my college boyfriend, I guess. Smoking up. Going to the gym. I saw a lot of broadway shows and believe me. . .Rosie had no idea I did all these stuffs, which just makes it cooler."

Saying nothing, I shrunk in my seat and fiddled with the thin edges of the seatbelt that straddled me carefully to the seat, willing and expecting Shelly to speak on. And she did speak on. Filling me on all about she and her boyfriend's little adventure at the college of Harvard, which she made sure to put down to the least details. Shelly Courtney had recently just turned sixteen less than two months earlier and she was way wilder than most nineteen years old I knew of. She had lots of Instagram followers than I could ever manage and was one of the most pampered teenage girl in our small town with the richest parent - which was her father and her very young step mom that were never around. So she was free to travel anywhere she wanted in the world. Just at sixteen, she already had hot Instagram influencers hitting up on her. Just like her current college boyfriend at that time - Jack Gilbert who studied at Harvard. To be honest, I thought Jack really was a flirt and pervert and that he didn't deserve her. Not that I had a say in their relationship, but I knew Jack wasn't worth all the love she gave him.

The both times I met him could prove my valid point.

"How is he though?" I decided to ask her, "Jack?"

"Uh!" Shelly squealed, seeming hesitant. "He's cool."

I nodded and leaned back into my seat, feeling slightly repulsive. Then we just listened to the music playing in the car. We had barely made it out of my street at that moment. We were at a point where our side of town was separated from other the side by numerous trees that formed a small forest. And at that time Shelly was nowhere close to maintaining the speed limits because according to her, that part of our town - with the town's cemetery close by was always spooky and no one wanted to stay there for too long, especially not teens or kids.

Shelly increased her speed, or at least that was what I thought. It felt as if we were surrounded by more than hundred trees because I suddenly began to feel claustrophobic and my heartbeats choking. I clutched hard at the seatbelt and furrowed my brows tightly, my breaths suddenly raspy as I gazed out the window. The dark trees sped past us, and the spaces between them looked like the dark eyes of BEKs, startling me.

"Do you feel that?" Shelly sounded desperate enough for it to leak from her voice.

"Yeah," I confirmed, "Like something's about to-"

I was cut off before I could even complete my sentence. An eerily big black blur sped in front of the car and Shelly - in panic - ran it over. Looking back now, it felt as if it was that night the whole calamity began. One moment the road was there, wide open and safe, the next there was a loud bang against the bonnet, a probability that we hit and most likely had killed something with a life. A deer? Probably not. Shelly almost loosed her grip on the steering wheel and the car almost skidded off the roadpath, the tyres screeching like terror-filled weasels as the car came to a sudden halt and my heart pounding erratically.

"What is that?!" Shelly sounded terrified.

I gasped, exhaling heavily through my slightly parted lips. "I have no idea."

Eyes wide and hair whipping about, I gazed around and back into the trees and could swear I saw two gleaming red eyes shining in between the dark woods and glaring at us but when I blinked and looked again, it was gone as if it hadn't been there in the first place.

And then. . .bang!

My heart almost leaped out of my mouth when the shrieking black blur came against my window again, this time - very violent, with gleaming red eyes and outstretched paws that scraped noisily against the window.