Chapter 1

‘Aliyah Rae May?’
Mr. West looked at his papers whilst a deep frown was forming on his forehead.
‘Yes. That’s my full name.’
Mr. West took a pen and marked something in his file. Ali, all this time thinking about home, stared at the empty blackboard behind him. Kill me now.
‘You know, your name sounds a lot like Elija’s.’
‘Yeah, but it’s actually pronounced A-LI-A.’
This was probably the fifth time that day that Elija’s name was mentioned. It was about time she figured out who this Elija-person was.
‘He’s a strange boy, that Elijah. For what I’ve seen, he doesn’t have many friends and you barely see his face. Strange, very strange kid.’
It was as if Mr. West could read minds.
‘Well, I think you’re ready to go, Miss May. If you ever need me, you know where to find me.’
Mr. West closed his file and directed Aliyah to the door.
‘Mr. West?’ Aliyah looked down at the floor, ‘Do you think I’ll fit in?’
‘Good question, miss May, but no, I don’t think you’ll have any problems. I peronally think people will enjoy a happy spirit in this sober place. I bet people will think you’re an amazing young lady.’

Aliyah shut the door to her locker. The past few weeks were hard. She wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for her bestfriend, Claire. Claire was a pretty populair girl but she, as Mr. West had suspected, loved the happy spirit by her side.
‘Ugh, we’ve got chemistry next period. I really don’t see what’s important about mixing liquid stubstances together to form a solid or something like that.’ Claire almost dropped her books but magicaly caught them in mid air.
‘Tell me something. What were the properties of the atom that formed a chemical bond to create chemical compounds? Did any of that make sence?’
‘Not at all. We are so doomed.’ Claire sighed loudly. ‘can’t we just go home?’
Aliyah nodded. Then she looked up and noticed Melissa was walking towards them.
‘Hey Melis! How are you doing?’
‘Fine. I just think this was a bad idea.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘well, you know Ethan right?’ Aliyah nodded. ’Apparently he asked me on a date and apparently I said yes.’
Aliyah rolled with her eyes. Ethan was the bad boy of the school. He went through chicks like a kid with a bag of his favorite candy.
Not that Melissa was much better. Mellisa had anger mannagment problems which made most boys afraid of her. You’d never no when she could get mad.
Not that this mattered to Aliyah and Claire. Melissa could actually be a pretty fun person to be around and she had respect for everyone.
‘You do know that Ethan will just chew you up and spit you out in no time.’
It was Claire’s nature to always take part in the conversation.
‘Yeah, I know but it’s worth a try. You never know when he could change.’
Melissa didn’t seem very sure about her answer but you couldn’t blame her.
‘People don’t change, Melis. I can speak from experience. Remember that guy in high school? I thought he changed but he was just really good at acting.’
All three girls could laugh about that one. Parker was one of Claire’s exes and he wasn’t particulairly someone you’d like to meet.
‘To change the subject: have you heard about Winston?’
Suddenly Claire’s face went worried.
‘No. Did something happen again? Like last week?’ Aliyah could already read the answer from Claire’s face. ‘That place already creeped me out and now that al these weird things are happening, I don’t even want to hear about it.’
‘You’re right,’ Said Melissa,’But maybe we should get to class. I don’r really want to fail for Chemistry.’

As Aliyah walked home, small drops of rain fell down to the ground. This instantly ruined her mood. Aliyah hated rain. It didn’t really bring up great memories.
After walking for ten minutes, she was completely soacked. Her mood wasn’t changed one bit by the fact that across the street she noticed Elijah sitting. As usual, the shadow of his hoody covering his face. Aliyah remembered the words from Mr. West. A strange guy. Aliyah couldn’t help but wonder who Elijah actually was. There was obviously a reason for his mysterious behaviour.
But that was not something she was worried about. The only thing she wanted was for her to be home. Dry and warm. Aliyah continued walking and so she didn’t notice that Elijah had stood up and slowly followed her.

It wasn’t untill she was almost home that she noticed someone was walking behind her. Aliyah turned around and saw Elijah casually leaning against a wall. She couldn’t handle it anymore. She didn’t know what it was about him but Aliyah had to figure out what Elija was hidding and most importantly why he was following her.
‘Why are you following me?’
Elijah looked up and for the first time Aliyah could see his face. She also got why he wanted to hide it. A large scar went from his eyebrow to his cheeck. It probably explained his last name: Luchadó, fighter. It was interesting to see. The scar didn’t make him look any less handsome. Probably even more then without.
Another thing Aliyah noticed was his eyes. They weren’t at all as what she had expected. His right eye was blue and his left dark brown. It reminded Aliyah of a wolf.
‘I don’t know.’
It wasn’t an answer Aliyah expected and it definetely didn’t have any use to her.
‘You do know you’re making me paranoid like that, right.’
Elijah shrugged, stood up and started walking in the same direction Aliyah was walking in just a few seconds ago.
‘Wow, wow, wow. You think you can just walk away like that?’
Aliyah had to run a bit to catch up to Elijah. Meanwhile, he had taken his hoodie off. Now you could see his face even better.
‘I just had to go in the same direction.’ Elijah shrugged again. Probably a habbit of his.
‘No, no. I saw you across the street. Don’t think I’m stupid because I’m not and I know damn well you were following me. Just admit it and I’ll leave you alone.’
Aliyah hadn’t expected this behavior of him so she wasn’t really herself either.
‘If you’re so desperate to know why I was “following” you. Why don’t I just show you why.’
‘Ah, I knew it. You were following me… wait… show me?’
Elijah turned around, causing Aliyah to almost bump in to him.
‘Yes show you. Is that not what I should do?’
‘Uhm, I don’t know. I only just met you really.’
‘Just follow me. I promise I’m not going to pull out a knif and stab you to death. I’m not a psycopath.’
‘Well you do seem like someone who would pull out a knife any moment.’
Elijah rolled with his eyes and turned around and started walking. Aliyah saw that this was the only way she was going to figure more out about him so with a bad feeling in her gut, she followed him.