I was walking up the street to school. I kicked the muddy pavement from the rain that hit the night before. It was dark and cloudy out side. The smell of rain filled the chilling winter air. I could hear the echoing of my gray Converse against the wet pavement.

I spiked my hair today. The golden highlights faded, but you could still see them. I had a Van's black shirt and a Tilly's plaid jacket. I had dark skinny jeans and Van's Dollin shoes. They were black with purple on the sides and neon blue shoe laces.

I stared at the ground, but looked up and stopped. I thought someone was following me. I kept walking. I could hear footsteps behind me. They were faint. I was thinking about the lack of friends made me so unpopular at middle school. I only had two best friends, Sarah and Jake, but I needed more. I have known Jake ever since the beginning of 6th grade, but I've known Sarah all the way back into pre-school!

I stopped thinking because I thought that the footsteps had stopped. They didn't. I still could here them. I turned quickly, but nothing was there. I started to hesitate. My pulse was pounding so hard that I could hear in my ears. I tried to calm myself down so that I wouldn't pass out on the floor. I turned once more. I saw a swift black figure go behind the tree. I kept my eyes on the tree. I saw something peek behind it. Blond short hair drooped to the side. It looked like Sarah's hair, and it was! I pretended to act scared.

"Oh my God! Stop following me! What do you want from me?" I faked, sounding dramatic. I started to run, but slowed my pace.

I heard running footsteps and giggling. Two people jumped up from behind me. They screamed, "BOO!" It was Jake and Sarah, of course. They were following me the whole time. We all started to laugh.

"Ha! We got you, Michael! You were scared like a little baby! You should have seen your face." Jake exclaimed, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah! You were so scared!" Sarah added, still gasping for air.

"No, I was pretending so I could give you guys some happiness on this gloomy day." I explained.

"Yeah right! You were scared, and you know it." Jake said, sounding proud that he almost gave me a severe heart attack.

"Whatever..."I could see them rolling their eyes in disbelief.

No point in arguing, I thought. They didn't believe me.

Jake and Sarah both looked strangely casual today. Sarah was wearing a plastic black bow in her hair. She wore two layering shirts: under shirt was pink and the top shirt was green. She was wearing blue skinny jeans and her Van's. Her hair was extremely short. It was an inch past her ears and thin at the ends. She had a hair disorder. Jake had blond hair that was so short it was almost a buzz cut. He wore the same jeans and same shoes as me. He had a baggy shirt that was yellow and had a pink surf board across it. How could they have not been wearing jackets?!

We walked for 5 blocks and were talking about how our first day of school went. I kept starring at the ground, not really engaging in their school related conversation. They slowly drifted to another idea about Tilly's and shopping there getting sunglasses and other things.

We walked past a house that I would always wonder who lived in it. It was old and run down. Unlivable and gross. The shudders on the windows were hanging by one screw. There was a big rusty, metal gate around the whole mansion. The house was at least three stories high. The black started to fade, chipping off and turning a dark grayish color. My eyes slowly moved up each story and saw a strange looking window. It was at the very top floor, to the left. It seemed like my eyes were playing tricks on me because I thought I saw a a black figure staring down at me. There was something there that I couldn't make out. I stared at it for a few seconds. I blinked and it was gone.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" Jake asked as he stopped Sarah from their conversation. I didn't realize that I had stopped in from of the house.

"Oh, uh, nothing." I hesitated for a second trying to think of some lame excuse to say.

"Yeah, you are." Sarah added to my hesitation.

"NO! Let's get to school. We're going to be late." I changed the subject. I wasn't lying, we were going to be late. I glanced at my watch and saw that it read 8:25. School started at 8:30!

We walked fast and then started to run. We walked onto the school grounds and headed to our lockers. I grabbed my books and headed off to class.

When I sat in my desk, my teacher glared at me threw her old glasses and said with pure hatred, "Don't be late again, Michael Shaw."

"Yes, ma'am." I replied. I flashed a hint of 'scared' and pure hatred to her as well when I looked at her.

I glanced over, and saw the beautiful girl that I had a crush on ever since I started the new year in 7th grade. Her name was Natasha Archer.

Her hair was brown and long and curled at the ends. Her hair had bright blond highlights. She had a deep sapphire blue eye color with a touch of brown. Her skin was flawless. She wore blue jean skinny jeans and Van's Straps shoes. Her shirt tightened around her body. It was a spaghetti strap with a light sweeter that hung loosely on her shoulders.

I stared at her a moment. She turned to get something out of her backpack and her eyes locked on mine. I couldn't move my eyes, they were mesmerizing. She smiled a beautiful smile showing her perfectly straight teeth. She was an angel that was sent down from heaven, or some cheesy saying like that. I looked away after a moment. I stared at my paper. It stared back at me. The time that I stared at her was playing over and over like a movie clip in my mind. It was the best memory clip that I had ever seen.

The bell rang and it felt like the class time was only six minutes. I haven't learned a thing today, I thought to myself. I finished my day at school, still playing that clip in my mind over and over again. I know that I have seen it, but every time I play it, it feels like it's a whole new thing.

Sarah and Jake caught up to me after school. They looked at me like I was nuts or something.

"What? Is there something on my face?" I asked. I rubbed my face trying to wipe off anything that was on it.

"Yeah, there is. What's that expression. You look like your blushing or embarrassed. What happened in class today?" Jake asked. He had a confused look on his face.

"No, no. It's nothing." I replied with an unconvincing voice.

"Alright. Whatever you say." Sarah said with massive sarcasm.

We walked home, not saying a word to each other. When we reached our street, we all said goodbye and walked into our houses. I ran upstairs and walked casually into my room. I started to get out my homework when I heard hard clomping up the stairs. "Aw, crap." I said softly to myself. It was my brothers, Kyle and David. Kyle was 15 and David was 14. I was a year younger than them. I hated being the youngest. Everyday, they would pick on me. They ran into my room, laughing loudly.

"Hey, little bro! Why are you bothering us," Kyle would say when he wanted to get me in trouble. "Stop it! I'll call mom!" They yelled. Kyle loved to get me in trouble. David did, too, but wasn't really in it. They ran in and punched me in the stomach and scampered out yelling and tackling each other. Having older brothers sucks.

I glanced out the window. It started to poor rally hard. The rain hit the roof top like hail. The window started to fog. I wiped it with my hands. The condensation that melted on my hand was cold. I wiped on my shirt. I looked across the street, and I could see the old mansion. It sat there, old a decaying in the pouring rain. The front of the house faced me. I looked up at the third floor window. A black figure stood there, glaring at me. The figure blocked out any possible light, and didn't move at all.

I stared for a moment. I blinked and it was gone.