Added (Imaginary) Scenes from the Darkest Powers Trilogy by Kelley Armstrong-

Written by Savannah

note: The following event take place after The Reckoning

Chapter 1

Irony seemed to slap me in the face as I stepped into my new high school. Derek, Simon, Tori and I had agreed that it would be safest to attend different schools, so, here I was, facing normalcy on my own. And without even Liz, my poltergeist friend, to protect me.

During my time at Lyle House, I had wanted to be anywhere else. That was how I felt entering Sacajawea High School for the first time. Though, at Lyle House, I just hadn't wanted to be crazy. But, now, I had no time, or patience, for normal.

I discovered, in the first minute of my arrival, that I was up to my eyes in noise and dysfunction. Public High School was nothing at all like art school, besides the cliques, of course. We had the jocks, cheerleaders, Goths, thespians, skaters, nerds, school politicians, and the slightly geeky and anti-social. They walked together, ate together, and studied together. Though there wasn't much studying done by the jocks and cheerleaders.

Amidst all of this, I felt, understandably, left out. The black was fading out of my hair with every wash, but I still looked too weird for even the geeks. I didn't even want to join the Goths. Cheerleaders? Uh-no. Jocks? Ha. The thespians, though a rather tempting choice, seemed to wear a lot of makeup and talked way too loud for my taste. The nerds, well, all they seemed to want to talk about was what happened on their Xbox 360 yesterday, or how long it took to get to the highest level of World of Warcraft.

So, instead of trying my best to get into one of them, like I would have before, I decided that it didn't matter, and by lunch, I was weaving my way around tables and dodging flying food to find an empty table. It was hard, but I found an isolated spot in the back of the cafeteria that I shared only with a half eaten burger and a spilled cup of juice.

As I sat down with my tray of mush, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I opened it to Tori, who was obviously not pleased with her arrangements.

"Does it suck there, too?"

"Hi, Tori."

"Im freaking serious, Chloe. This is awful. My Neiman-Marcus gold and silver ring was stolen in gym!"

"The one that looks like a rhubarb leaf?"

"Yes! Wait, what the hell is rhubarb? Never mind. That's not even the extent of it, though. My bio teacher takes one look at me and decides that she hates me. Already."

"Oh?" I asked, checking my cuticles. A sigh from the other end.

"So, what has happened to you today, Miss I Don't Care About My Friend's Problems?"

"Nothing, really," I replied.

I hear her muttering obscenities and laugh.

"If you weren't my friend, I would probably hate you," she said seriously.

"You did hate me, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember how well that went."

She went on for a while about people she hated (including her new bio teacher whose name, I learned, was Mrs. Morgan). I half listened-half people watched. When I saw someone coming toward my table, I apologized to Tori, said bye, and hung up. I was going to hear words from her later about that, but on my first day here, I wanted to make a good impression, which was not achieved by talking on the phone when someone sits next to me.

The girl walking toward me was tall, with a fair complexion and a lot of freckles. Her subtly red, shoulder length hair loosely swung with each hurried step. She sat down, then, apparently thought better of it and stood.

"Hi. My name is Savannah. I'm guessing that you're new." She said each word distinctly and fast, like she wanted to be clear, but she didn't have time to talk.

"Yeah. Is it really that obvious?"

"No one sits here that hasn't already joined a group. Duh." She smiled. "You would know that if you weren't new. Come on. Bring your food." She turned, walking away swiftly. I hesitated, not sure why I would want to go anywhere.

Savannah sighed. "Do you want to sit here in this stupid place, surrounded by stupid people?" She smirked. "Or would you rather go someplace with actual people?"

I followed her, tempted to get away from this pit of lipstick flirtitude. She led me to a library full of people. These people looked oddly normal. Like Savannah.

"Hey, everyone this is….."

"Chloe," I finished.

"This is our new friend, Chloe, guys. We are going to welcome her and see if she wants to join us." She still had that hurried tone.

An older boy, maybe a junior, stood up from one of pleather couches to shake my hand. "Rick Donald at your service."

Something in his eyes maybe, or perhaps it was his smile that made me want to cringe away from his hand. But I took it, to be polite, and shook his cold hand. No one else stood, though. They all said hi, and went back to whatever they were doing.

"So, what is this?" I asked Savannah.

"This," she beamed, "Is righteousness."

"Whatever," scoffed a girl with long, bright blonde hair and a very pretty face, "you just didn't want to look like a loser, always eating alone in the library."

Savannah rolled her eyes. "Ignore Claire. She's a former Cheerleader. I think she has separation issues."

"If I had separation issues, I wouldn't still be here."

Savannah introduced me to everyone, then. She went around the room and told me everyone's name. There was Raven, a blonde with a big smile who seemed very friendly, Sarah, a brunette whose black clothes made her look almost Goth but without the gloom, Rick, whose sandy blonde hair made him look like a big predatory cat, Melanie, a black haired beauty with big red lips and a strained smile, George, blind and friendly, Claire, the beautiful former Cheerleader, and Savannah, creator of their group that they called The People. They refused to call it a clique, though, technically, it was. They hung out and help each other. They were all friends.

"So," Savannah said eagerly, though still kind of rushed, "are you in or what?"

"Definitely in," I said, beaming.

"Yay!" She shouted, jumping off of the couch. "New Person!"

A tap on my shoulder made me yelp in surprise and turn, right into Derek.