You're Next, Girl

Chapter One

The group of four were sitting at their normal spot in the morning, the left corner of the school cafeteria. It was down-pouring outside, to the point where everyone could hear the roaring drops of the rain despite the loudness of the hallways before the morning bell. The four students ignored the rain like it was nothing though, because they were all silently thinking one question.

"Where's Halie?" Breanna finally asked in a slightly worried tone, breaking the silence. "She's always on time and never absent.". 

Breanna was Halie's best friend, which a lot of people in the school considered to be ironic. Breanna was outgoing, had a huge amount of hobbies like swimming, traveling, and her favorite, music. The ironic part is that Halie is the quiet one of the group, although the group thought otherwise. While they do consider her to be the small fragile one, she is still a core friend to all of them. She makes them laugh, is always there for them, and cheers them up when they need it. They never had to do anything like that for her.

"I don't know. She probably got caught up in something, maybe her alarm didn't go off?" Nick stated. He tried to sound like it was no big deal, but the others could tell he thought something was off too. "Although, she hasn't responded to my texts today.".

"You text people this early?" Leo asked him while rubbing his blue eyes, not expecting nor wanting an answer.

"Guys, stuff happens to everyone occasionally. She's probably here just talking to someone in the hallway. I'm sure nothing bad happened." Niana said while focused on her phone.

"You sound like you don't even care about her." Breanna commented.

"Of course I do! You are all acting like she has to be here with us all the time, and besides, I probably relate to her much more than you three do." Niana exclaimed, putting down the phone.

"Height-wise maybe." Leo said jokingly. Niana was about five foot one, while Halie was even smaller, four foot ten. Niana just shrugged that comment to the side. "No witty comeback?".

"I don't need one because-" Niana paused as her eyes lit up with her face turning in a mixture of shock and confusion. The group turned to see what she was looking at, and then they saw her. 

The girl had her long black hair down today, and while her pale body was soaked due to the rain, they were shocked at something entirely different. Everyone was focused on a newly bruised black eye, and a scar on the center of her left cheek.

Breanna immediately threw her bag off the bench to make room next to her as millions of questions ran through her head, while the rest of the group remained speechless. When the girl got to the table she took the cleared spot and didn't open her mouth fast enough for Breanna. "Halie, what happened to you?!" Breanna asked, immediately wrapping her arms around the small girl and trying to hold back all kinds of emotions.

"It's nothing." Halie responded in a raspy voice.

"Did you lose your voice too?" Nick questioned. "You sound horrible.". Niana gave him a look, wanting to yell "No shit Sherlock", but decided against it and focused her eyes back on Halie.

"Halie, I need to know. What happened to you? Why do you look so different? This wasn't a person, right?" Breanna asked rapidly in a slightly calmer voice than before, although the thought of someone hurting her made her angrier. Who would have a reason, or the nerve, to attack her best friend of all people?

The bell rang.

"Halie, please tell us. We're worried if you couldn't tell." Niana said, getting up and starting to walk across to the other side of the table to the girls.