Chapter 3 Another day, another school

Cat Callingham. That was my new name my mom chose for me. How she comes up with these names, I still don't know. How she managed to have an ID card for me within three days was all even a bigger mystery. My mom had secrets, that I knew. She said it was to keep me safe. I don't know if I believe her or not. I was old enough to know the truth. But mom never told me.

I put my brown hair in a messy bun. I was late for school. Or almost late. My hair, now dark brown instead of brown-blonde as I had it dyed yesterday, after mom gave me the locket. I put on some mascara but nothing more. I didn't go to school to make new friends or to attract guys. I just want to finish high school, so I can go to college when I turn eighteen and not have died for good before that time.

'Hurry up Carmen. You will be late for school.' Mom yelled from downstairs.

When I came down, mom gave me a sandwich to eat in the car and some lunch money. I ate the sandwich while my mom was driving. It was a ten minute drive and the whole way we were silent. When she parked the car we sat there for a minute.

'Mom, is it really safe this time? What if David finds me again? I have 10 months left before my birthday. I don't want him to find us. What if the scientists find out I'm not really dead? What if...'

'No, stop Carmen. Don't do this to yourself. I want you to have a great time at school. Learn something. I will keep you safe. No one knows who we are and were we are. You are safe. Now go.' Mom handed me a few papers. 'This is all you need. Bring it to the director or administrator, then everything will be fine. Go, Carmen.'

I sighed. There was no winning from my mother. I gave my mom a kiss on the cheek before I got out of the car. I had my backpack and the papers and went inside. Another day, another school. I will always be the new kid, wherever we go. Great.

The hall was filled with teenagers, ready for school to start. Stupid happy people. I ignored everyone and went straight to the administrations office. I slammed the paper on the desk, making the woman look up.

'Can I help you?' the woman behind the desk asked. The woman looked like a nun. She was wearing a black long dress with a white board and a headkerchief.

'Are you a nun?' I asked. 'You look like a nun.' I frowned at her. I thought it was strange to see a nun here at school. Was this a school or a church?

'You are new here aren't you, girl? Cat Callingham.' She read out loud. The way she said my name, made it clear she didn't like me already. 'Catherina, you have to respect the people of the church. You can't just ask someone if they are a nun. Earning respect comes in both ways. This will be the first warning. Don't disrespect me again, you wouldn't like it.'

My frown only grew. 'Yes, I'm new here. I am so sorry.' I didn't like this lady at all and I just met her. 'I had to give you this in exchange for my class schedule.' I was waiting impatiently for her to give me the schedule. I didn't want to be late for my first class on my first day. She clearly took her time.

'I will walk you there. Follow me.' The nun motioned me to follow her. The hallway was a lot emptier now. Then the bell rang. Great, now I was late. The nun opened a door and everyone stared at me. Nooooo, stop looking at me. 'Mr Cooper, this is your new student Catherina Callingham.'

'It's just Cat.' I tried telling the nun.

'I was talking.'

'Sorry.' I rolled my eyes, what got the attention of a few students and they laughed.

'Well, you can sit over there.' Mr Cooper pointed towards an empty chair next to a boy with brown hair like mine. Well, mine was dyed. I didn't say anything to him and he didn't either. I got through the whole lesson without even to say anything. Just my luck this time. The next lesson was given by another nun. She was a lot nicer than the other.

By the time it was lunch time, I walked to the canteen looking for food. The choice for lunch wasn't great. I had some veggies in red sauce and a bagel. The veggies were awful and the bagel dry and hard, but I had to eat something. I couldn't eat it all because it wasn't eatable anymore.

I got up to throw away the rest when suddenly the ceiling came crushing down, right in front of me. If I had taken one more step, I should have been crushed to death. I had fallen on the floor. I was scared out of my mind. I could have died again. Stupid curse.

'Oh my god, are you okay?' It was the boy from my first class. 'It could have hit you. Are you hurt?'

'I don't know.' I was checking myself for injuries, but couldn't find anything. 'I'm fine.' I told him.

He shook his head. 'This school is literally falling apart. First we lost a few teachers and now the ceiling is coming down.' He offered his hand to pull me up. I grabbed it. He pulled me up. I was shaking on my legs. 'You're really okay? You are really pale.'

'I don't know.' I said honestly. Another strange accident. Right?

'Come with me.' The boy motioned me to follow him. A teacher came to the scene. He looked at me and then at the piece of ceiling and just picked it up and went away with it. Not even asking if I was okay. I followed the boy to another table. I didn't bother of taken the food with me so I left it on the floor. 'Hi everyone, this is Cat. She was in my English class this morning.'

'Oh, You were almost crushed by that ceiling. Are you okay?' One of the girls at the table asked.

'I don't know.' I said honestly. I really wasn't sure how to feel right now.

'I should have screamed so loud.' another girl said.

'I am Niko by the way.' the boy introduced himself. 'This is my twin sister Penny.' Pointing to a girl next to him. 'And my younger brother Remy. And Julia is Penny's friend.'

I sat down at their table. 'Hi.'

The girl introduced as Penny, gave me the half of her chocolate donut. She was an exact copy of Niko, who was currently trying to open a bottle of water without any succes. 'Don't eat the food here. The cooks aren't really cooks. It's a wonder that nobody died yet.'

'She almost did.' Julia said.

'Thank you for the donut. The food was indeed really bad.' This was a million times better than the food I had earlier. I had not to forget to bring food from home tomorrow.

'Told you.' Penny smiled.

I had to ask them something. This school was just too weird. 'What's up with all the nuns around here?' I saw the nun that helped me this morning standing on the other side of the canteen. 'She really doesn't like me.' I said pointing towards the nun.

'Well, last year the director stopped working here in the middle of the year. He went working at another school and took half of our teachers with him. The teachers that stayed did their best covering and making sure everyone got their lessons, but it was too much. So the priest offered to help out. He is the new director and some of the nuns are the new teachers. Some are okay, but don't misbehave around her. She is no fun at all.' Niko was explaining everything to me that happened last year around here. The things that I missed. 'And where did you move from?'

'I moved a lot my whole live. But I recently moved from Dove Valley, Arizona. It was okay there. At least we didn't have weird nuns at our school.'

'Catharina.' We totally missed the nun walking past our table. She was standing right behind me and she didn't look happy. 'This is the second time you are disrespecting the nuns here. Don't make it a third.'

'Yes, ma'am.' I had to try real bad not to giggle. When she was out of sight, I rolled my eyes again. 'I told you she didn't like me.'

They all laughed.

'What did she mean by the second time? What did you do the first time?' Julia asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. 'I just asked if she was a nun, because she looked like one. She didn't like my question.'

'You asked if she was a nun?' Penny was laughing out loud. 'I like you Cat. You are fun to be around. Tomorrow you will sit with us.'

I thought they were fun too. At least I wasn't lonely at lunch anymore. Now I had these guys to sit with. After ten minutes, I found out I had my next class with Penny and the other with Julia and Niko. Their brother Remy didn't say much. He was a year younger than the rest. When I asked why he didn't sit with his friend, he laughed like I asked something funny.

'These guys are my friends, my family, my everything.' Remy answered.

I thought it sounded really sweet. Its just like me and my mom. We were all we had. There was no one else to help us.

'Cat?' Penny was saying something, but I didn't listen. 'Cat?' then she was shaking me.

'What?' I asked confused.

'I called your name like four or five times already? Are you coming? Lunch is over.'

'I think I was lost in thoughts.' I say back at her. But the truth is, I wasn't used to be called Cat. In my mind I was still Carmen and I will always be Carmen. This Cat person wasn't me. It's sad that my new friends never will know the real me. But then again, for how long were we staying this time?