It was unusually quiet last night. He wasn't there, I'm sure of it. It was the same on the way to school. I don't think it will stay like this too long, though. He always comes back. I mean, he came back after that night, didn't he? Yeah, he did. I was in school and expected Tara to jump at me again, but then I remembered that she's not here. She's in L.A., far from my worries. Who knows? Maybe she doesn't miss me at all. Maybe she wanted to get away fro-- stop. Tara's my friend. I mean, she's my only actual friend. Yeah, there is the occasional nice person here and there, but I can't seem to be friends with anybody. It's just me and Tara. I sighed in front of my locker, and walked to class. We have to be at our assigned seats, and now I'm sitting next to the exchange kid. They might be nice, yes, but what if they're not? What if they're just an annoying asshole. Could happen. You never know, right? I sat down. No one was next to me, so I figured that they're still at the principal's office, getting info about the school and such.

The bell rang, and Mr. Walter came in. "Class, I'd like to introduce you to our exchange student, Patrick Thomson." He glanced at the door, which was still open, and a boy walked in. I was confused. What? I mean, isn't it usually girl↔girl? "Come on, Patrick, tell us about yourself." Mr.Walter said.

"Hello, my name's Patrick, as you would've probably guessed by now. I came here from Los Angeles, and I moved there from England about a year ago, and.....yeah, that's all, I suppose." He spoke a bit quietly, and he also had a British accent. The class laughed a little bit at that last bit.

"Very well, Patrick. I think you can go to your seat now. Your seat is next to Alice over there." He pointed me out, and Patrick walked over and sat down.

"Hey." he said quietly.

"Hey." I answered. I looked at him for a bit. He had ginger hair, and green eyes. Overall, he looked pretty nice, I guess.

Could you please stop staring at me? It's kinda weird."

"O-oh, sorry." I said, earning another small laugh from the others.

We did a little math's, but Mr. Walter kind of noticed that no one was paying attention, so he just declared the rest of the period a free period, and went away. Half the class instantly whipped out their cell phones, and the other half just started gossiping about shit. Well, there aren't many real perks of being socially awkward, but hey, at least there's not someone constantly talking shit about others around me.

"So, seeing as you're not really busy, can you tell me anything that I should know around here?" I jumped a bit, since I forgot Patrick was still there.

I turned to him and said "You know, I don't really know a lot about the current situation since I'm a bit of a social freak."

He laughed a bit. "Yeah....I'm not really a social butterfly, either, but from years of experience, I realized that cellphone and lip gloss addicts aren't ideally the best to ask things."

You got that right. "Could be. I guess your experience is better than mine."

"I don't really know.....you know, you look familiar. Have I seen you somewhere before?" Could he? I searched my brain for a Patrick but found nothing. Nah, doesn't ring a bell. I then remembered seeing something on the news online. Oh, yeah. My case was on the USA news page. Ain't that great? Yeah, of course it is. Hint: sarcasm.

"N-no. I don't really think we met before." I stammered, a bit nervous.

Suddenly, his eyes widened. "You're....you're the girl who was threatened by that.....that serial killer, right?" Why can't I have a bit of luck? Yeah, now I'm not the socially awkward girl, now I'm the socially awkward girl who was threatened. Fucking threatened.

Patrick just looked at me very seriously, and said, now in a normal voice, "Look, do you know where he is?" Fuck, he sounds like the police. Too much.

"N-no." I stammered. Dammit, I'm a really bad liar now. I don't know how I pulled it off at the police station.

"Alice, I know you're lying. Do you know where he is?"

"What does it mean to you?"

He suddenly had a pained look. "It's...it's nothing. I just need to know where he is." I don't know. Should I trust this guy? He seems nice, but don't judge a book by its cover. Even if it's a nice cover.

I thought for a bit, then decided. "You can come over to my house later, if you want to. I can tell you where he is."

He looked a bit confused, but smiled. "Yeah, alright." The bell rang, and I headed off to my next class. I wonder where he is now, I thought. Probably thinking up some form of torture or about his next victim. Someone suddenly grabbed my hand, and pulled me over to a corner.

"Let go!" I demanded. They turned me around, and my eyes widened.

His hand was covering my mouth, and he grinned. "Hello, little girl."