School ran relatively smoothly and Samantha could not have been happier. Her morning classes consisted of Math 10 and Geography 10, rather simple classes for Samantha; it was Social Studies and English classes that she dreaded the most of all. Seeing as it was the first month of the semester most of Samantha's teachers had been rather generous with their workload so the classes moved along quickly and painlessly, just the way Sam liked it. She suspected that by mid October things would really pick up and she just hoped that the teachers did not spring some surprise pop quiz because she detested them the most. She preferred to be prepared for everything and when someone interrupted her flow it really derailed her flux, but so far there had been no surprises and life at Wellington High was moving along as smoothly as it could for a first year student. Before she knew it the bell signally third period lunch was ringing and the students headed off to lunch. Sam found herself fighting to get to the cafeteria as half the school spilled out into the halls with the same intend to feed their hunger as Samantha. However she was not surprised to find Tristan standing near the front of the line by the time she got there. The girl lucked out in having a class right next to the lunch room for second period class and Samantha partly despised her for this, only slightly, not enough to break up their friendship. "Hey Trish, you really are a luck devil, have I told you that?" She inquired, slightly jealous of her friend. Tristan gave the girl a broad grin; "I told you you should have taken an art class with me the first year." Tristan remarked, crossing her hand in front of her chest and giving a stern nod. "Maybe next year." Samantha remarked, shaking her head at her friends attempt at seriousness, "Could you get me a burger while I hold our table?" She asked as she retrieved a ten-dollar bill from her pocket. "Sure thing." Tristan took the bill and glanced at the buffet that was quickly approaching, "You want some pudding too?" She inquired pointing a selection of plastic container filled with black and brown fluid that slightly resembled something pudding like. "Ummm..." Samantha thought for a second and asked her stomach if it was courageous enough to test the substance and it grumbled in agreement, "Sure, Butterscotch and make sure there is lots of ketchup on my burger, please." She reminded her friend. "As always, girl." Tristan agreed with a grin, "Have I failed you yet?" Samantha thought about this before answering, "Well... there was that one time you put relish on my burger." She wrinkled up her nose at the thought of the green matter that her friend was known to cover her burger and hot dogs in. Tristan's face grew long, "That was when we were like thirteen. You're never going to let me live that one up, are you?" She moaned in despair. Samantha gave the girl an evil grin, "Maybe when you're twenty." She stated with a laugh, "Then I'll think about it." Tristan playfully swiped at her friend, but a metal rail, installed to keep the kids in line, kept her from her prey, "I'll get you later." She jokingly hissed. "Later then." Samantha waved to her friend before pushing her way through the crowds and out onto the patio outback of the school. She quickly spotted the picnic table that the two of them had claimed the first day of school. It was set at the far end of the patio under a large tree where there was a lot of shade. She started towards the table when she noticed two girls where already seated at the table and Samantha frowned at the sight. "What do you two think you are up too?" She angrily inquired as she stormed over to the table. One of the girls was seated with her back against the table and her legs crossed. Her triangular face light up the moment her eyes set upon Sam, "Samantha!!" The girl exclaimed cheerfully as she jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around the girl's neck. "Hey Lisa." Samantha returned the hug. Lisa was a small ball of energy that always seemed to be bouncing around and was never going to stop. She was a spunky girl who always wore her short brunette hair in small pig tails to either side of her head that would bounce along beside the girl like a pair of surreal little cheerleaders cheering her on and she also wore a lot of pink. Like today's ensemble, which comprised of a bright pink skirt, matching pink turtleneck that came up to the girl's chin and pink runners. Samantha glanced down at the girl's bare legs and wondered how she managed to go around without something covering her legs in such crisp weather, but learned years ago not to question Lisa about her cloths or anything else for that manner. Lisa suddenly held up a strange looking little pink stuffed toy before Samantha's eyes, "Look what I found at the mall yesterday!!" She squealed while waving the thing in front of her friend. Samantha needed to step back to get a good look at what was bouncing around in front of her nose. It appeared to be a small plush creature of some sorts, but she was not quite sure. It was a little bigger then Lisa's hand and had a big floppy oval head that was twice the size of its squarish body. There were four tiny round lumps coming off each side, which Samantha presumed were its arms, if you could consider them arms. The toy's strangest feature had to be its eyes, they were so large that they nearly covered its entire head and made the creature looking like it was permanently petrified with shock. Samantha could not blame it seeing the way Lisa shook the poor thing around. She figure if the creature was alive it would probably have had a heart attack by now, "Uhhhh...What is it?" Samantha regretfully asked, giving the thing a curious look. "Oh no..." Said a small dismal voice from behind Lisa. "You had to ask." She stated with sign of dread in her tone. Samantha looked around Lisa to see a girl sitting at the table; she had short sleek black and pink hair and was gelled so it curled outwards at the back of her head. This was Beth and she was the newest member to their little group and the darkest. She wore an odd black dress covered with lace around the fringe and a black lace pull over that covered her rather pale arms. Her legs were covered in spider's web stocking that were torn in all the right places and a pair of think purple-rimmed glasses we perched upon her tiny nose. She also had several earrings in along each ear and even on in her nose, which made Sam cringe at times. Beth had her nose deep in a book, which Samantha immediately knew was Stephen King without reading the title. Not because of the girl's attire or persona, far from it, it was just a feeling Sam got from certain books. She did not understand how she always knew what it was that Beth was reading. It was as if she got an image in her head from the book and this new one was giving off rather haunting images indeed so she simply figured it must be Steven King for he was the only writer that made her feel so ill at ease, "Hey Beth, What ya' reading?" She inquired, trying to strike up a conversation with the girl. The truth was she did not know much about Beth and was always interested to learn more about the new girl. Beth had just showed up at their table one day a week into the school year and asked to join them. At first they were all too afraid to refuse Beth from joining, but after some time they realized she was an ordinary girl with many of the same interests as themselves, just a different way of expressing herself. It still struck Samantha as odd that this Goth girl would want to hang out with them, but for now she was just glad to have another addition to their circle of friends. Elizabeth slowly turned her head away from her book and gaze up at Samantha, "'IT.'" She stated then held up the book to Sam so she could see the cover. It was worn, cracked and black with only two blood red letters on the cover read 'IT' and she noticed right away that it was defiantly by Steven King. Under the title was a picture of a sewer grate with a set of long green clawed fingers snaking between the bars. Samantha was almost certain she could see the creature on the cover moving within its murky cave. "Is it interesting?" Sam inquired, not really sure she wanted to know what it was about, but found she could not tear her eyes off those glowing red eyes staring back at her from beneath the sewers. Beth simply shrugged, "It's alright." She remarked as she returned to her page and started reading again. Samantha noted that the girl was well into the later half of the rather large book so she figured it was more then just 'alright', but considered not saying anything and allow the girl to finish her book in peace. "It's dark and rather creepy." Beth continued, startling Sam slightly, "King really loves to feed on children's fears. Makes me wonder what his childhood was like." "Probably someone with a lot of issues with the dark." Samantha noted as she rounded the table. Her eyes finally breaking free of the book to return to Lisa's new toy, "So I take it Lisa has already subjected you to her new toy?" She inquired trying to change the subject from the book. Beth's eyes drifted from the book to the toy and back up to Sam. There was an unmistakable twitch in the girl's eye that only appeared when Lisa was around, "You could say that." She stated simply then turned back to her book. "Come on! It's great!" Lisa exclaimed then gestured to the toy, "They're called Meephit and they are so cool." "Sounds like me think of Mephitis or Mephistophelean to me." Beth stated in a low mutter. "Mephisto what?" Sam blinked down at the girl in bewilderment, "Doesn't he have something to do with dreams?" She inquired curiously. "Morpheus is the lord of dream." Beth corrected her friend, "Mephistophelean means something that is like the devil or fiendish." Lisa hugged her toy, "Blinky is not a devil." She protested, "He is friendly, he can even tell you your horoscope and everything. Here I'll show you." She proceeded to open up the stuffed creature via a long slit under the creature's neck. Samantha watched in slight repulsion as Lisa produced a small, thin, pink coloured device from within the creature's chest. A devise that reminded Samantha a lot of the small calculators that they used to use in grade three. Lisa dropped the stuffed toy to the table like some kind of discarded skin. The sight of the stuffie staring up at her with its insides removed made Samantha shudder. The more she tried to tear her eyes from the sight the harder she found it to be. Beth suddenly reached out and flipped the stuffed animal over so it was face down, when Samantha glanced up at the girl there was a knowing smile upon her face then her eyes drifted back to her book. Samantha sometimes wondering about Beth, there seems to be some kind of secret connection between Samantha and the girl that even Sam could not quit understand. She always seemed to know what was on Sam's mind and would make silent gestures when Samantha was distress, just like she had just done that moment with the stuffed creature. Sam was actually amazed she did not see the girl standing outside of the woods earlier that morning after her incident with the toad. She was not sure if she would have been happy to see Beth at that moment or terrified that she would be there. Samantha was shattered from her musings by Lisa shoving the device in her face. She did not realize that the girl had been talking the entire time and she was now trying to show Sam something on a tiny screen upon the surface of the devise. "Huh?" Samantha rubbed her head, "Sorry, I guess I spaced out for a moment there." She explained sheepishly. Lisa gave her friend a concerned look, "You alright?" She inquired with worry painted across her usually cheerful face, "You have been spacey more then usually lately." She remarked with a concerned tone. "I'll be fine." Samantha stated then took the device from Lisa's hands to get a better look at it, "What is it you were trying to show m-" The moment both of her hands touched the object she felt a spark of energy race through her fingertips. From the corner of her eyes she noticed Beth's eyes break from her book and watch her with heightened interest. Sam glanced back at the device curiously, it had a tiny screen contained two lines of words and there were several small dark pink buttons under it. Most of the buttons Samantha recognized as numbers and letters and a few of the zodiac symbols, but there were a few other symbols along the side that she did not recall ever seeing before. The small screen was flicker and flash as letters scrolled across its surface. "'A good friend will be joining you very soon.'" She read as the words passed by. "Sorry I took so long." Tristan called out from across the patio with a tray of food in her hand. She came to a halt before the table and glanced at her friend as they stared up at her, their jaws slacked, "Do I have something on my face?" Tristan asked as she wiped at her face. Samantha looked down at the device in her hands in disbelief, "It just guessed, like those Magic Eight Balls." She let out a nervous laugh, "Right?" Tristan sat down next to Samantha and glanced at the toy, "What's that thing?" She inquired curiously. "It's a Meephit." Lisa stated worriedly, "It's supposed to tell your horoscopes, but when I gave it to Samantha it told her the future." "That's silly." Tristan took the toy from her friend's hands and stared at the screen, "'Virgo - You are likely to experience some troubles at home so stock up on some ice cream and wait out the storm.'" She read then glanced at her friends, "This doesn't say anything about me." She handed the device over to Lisa who stared at the screen in bewilderment. "But Samantha wouldn't lie." Lisa remarked in distress as she shook the toy in an attempt to change the message, then glanced at Samantha, "And if she did that would mean she knew Trish was coming." She stared in awe at Sam and her eyes began to twinkle, "Can you tell me my future?" She exclaimed excitedly, "Pleeeaassee..." She begged. "She's not a fortune teller, Lisa." Tristan stated coldly as she passed a burger over to Samantha, "It was probably a fluke. For all you know she saw me out of the corner of her eyes which is how she knew I was coming." Samantha nervously laughed, "Yeah, just a fluke." She bit into her burger and stared at the device that now lay in front of Lisa. Was it just a fluke? She wanted to try the toy again but was afraid to ask. Samantha continued to munch on her food, not noticing that Beth was paying extra close attention to her that lunch hour. ***** To be Continued . . .
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