Tammy Banks and Tori Burks walked through the crowded halls of Victoria School for the Gifted. It was a private school, so all of the students had on a very strict uniform: plaid skirt and white collar shirt for girls, navy pants and white collar shirt for the boys. The school was extensively exclusive, and sat high up in the hills of Tulsa, apart from the rest of the city with high arching gates and acres of forest land around the properity. It was school for the young geniuses of the world; the future millionaires and actors. In this school, the students really were smarter than the teachers, which often presented with the students with disrespect and hatred for them, but sometimes, one particular teacher stood apart from the rest and was a wonderful teacher.

Tori stopped in front of a classroom door and looked in as the substitute for Mr. Almode explained for the fifth time that day to his class why Mr. Almode was gone, pain and grief written all over her face.

"It is absolutely tragic, isn't it?" Tammy murmured. "Mr. Almode was a such an admirable teacher."

"It is rather dire. I'm going to miss him." Tori said, still watching the substitute. She turned to Tammy. "I think you will agree when I saw we all."

They continued down the hall to the bathroom. Everyone else had since emptied the halls and found their way to various classrooms around campus, but the two girls had a hall pass and were in no danger of trouble from school authority.

"You know, they still haven't located certain parts of his body." Tori whispered to Tammy, her eyes downcast. "To think that a murderer is out in the open, free is quite frightening." She continued, and shivered.

"I know what you mean. This person must have wanted Mr. Almode to experience as much anguish as possible. I can scarcely belive that they actually killed his family too." Tammy said to Tori. "And Daddy said that these were some of the most grusome murders that he has ever had to investigate."

Tammy's dad, Dave Banks was the town sheriff, a retired FBI agent who just couldn't seem to get away from all the violence, even after the family had moved here from L.A. He had been put in charge of investagating the murder of the Almode family, but so far, they were making no progress on the case

"Daddy said the murderer did it with an ax. An ax! Can you imagine? Whoever had the effrontery to do that must be completely psychotic." Tammy shuddered and opened the door to the girls bathroom.

Her and Tori went inside and posed in front of the large, shining glass mirror that hung above the pink marble sinks. Tori reached into her designer bag for her compact while Tammy re-applied her mascara with smooth, fluid strokes.

Tori laughed lightly. "Speaking of psychotic, you should have seen Claire Hatchett in class today. She's is dressed in black, despite whate the regulations of dress code state, probably out of respect for Mr. Almode or something of the like. And her makeup...." She set down the compact and stared at Tammy seriously. "You can't even tell what she looks like because she wears such caliginous eyeliner." Tammy sighed. "She presented her oral report today on Criminal Psychology and was elucidating appalling accounts of murder to the entire classroom. I really do believe that she is quite terryifying."

Tammy giggled, then turned serious once more, and put her mascara away. "I understand. She did not even shed a tear at Mr. Almode's funeral. Not one tear! Daddy said people grieve in their own ways, but she did not even look the slightest bit melancholy. She was his class assistant, and from what I heard, they were quite close."

Tori gazed intensely at Tammy's reflection, suddenly feeling the bathroom becoming a lot smaller, and a lot more threatening. "They say she killed her family you know." Tori put down her compact again and stared at Tammy. "Remember that capacious house fire on Line street years ago? That gorgeous Victorian home? That was her family."

Tammy's eyebrows raised. "Whoa. I did not know that! It must have been before we moved here. Why does everyone think she killed them?" she asked.

Tori zipped up her purse, with a flourish, and grinned at Tammy. "Because she's the only one who surv-"

She broke off as a stall directly behind her opened and a girl with dark hair, dark eyes, and an equally dark expression stepped out into the light of the bathroom. Everything from the hair band placed in her hair, to the flat shoes on her feet was black, contrasting sharply with the paleness of her skin.

The girl stared at them with a blank look on her face, then glared, her large dark eyes narrowing ito two slits.

Tammy let out a small, nervous cry, and stumbled into Tori. "Claire, hi. We didn't know you were in here...." She edged closer to the door.

Claire's eyes seemed to stare right throught them, her gaze was almost hypnotizing.

"I take it you didn't." Claire said looking Tammy right in the eyes. Then she turned to Tori and the corner of her mouth went up slightly. "Little girls shouldn't use such big words, Tori Banks. They don't make you any more intelligent than you were before."

The half of a smile that Claire was giving her slid off her face within seconds, and she approached them quietly, keeping her eyes locked on them the entire time.

When she was standing no more than two feet away, the bathroom was suddenly plunged into silence and all that could be heard was the radiator making it's usual whining sound. Tori's heart was pounding so hard in her chest that she thought it would burst, and She imagined that Tammy was probably experiencing the same feeling. She grabbed Tammy's arm and headed for the door.

"Well, see ya." she said shakily. Her and Tammy flew out the door in a rush of expensive perfume and designer clothes. Claire could hear them pounding down the hallway, probably running for their lives.

Claire looked sadly at her reflection in the mirror. No compassion flickered in her dark eyes for the two girls. She brushed her hair back with her shaking hand and felt her throat tighten, thinking of the words that they had said about her. Again, she was being outcasted, hated, by everyone, but what no one knew, what no one would ever know, is that her actions were justified.

"Mr. Almode got what he deserved. They all did."

He had been searching for it for about 20 minutes and couldn't seem to locate it anywhere in the house, and they needed it for a show that day. If he couldn't find the extension cord, they may as well kiss this gig 'goodbye'.

Zac flounced down the stairs in a rush, and almost knocked into Taylor, who sucked in his breath quickly in suprise. Zac stared up into at his brother's startled face with big brown eyes and smiled. "I put the extension cord in the refrigerator about a half an hour ago."

Taylor shook his head and crossed his arms as he looked at Zac's eager expression. He sighed and angled his head so that he was facing the living room, where his brother was still searching for the cord.

"Ike! It's in the fridge!" he called.

"Thanks Tay!" Isaac called back from the living room, and they could hear him head into the kitchen.

Taylor looked at Zac again, "Humor me Zac: Why did you put the extension cord in the refrigerator?"

Zac chewed intently on the gum he had been chewing, deep in thought. "Well, it had been plugged in for a long time and when I picked it up, it was really hot. So I thought I'd put it in there so it could cool down before the show."

Taylor closed his eyes briefly. He always thought he brother was a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Now he was sure.

"Are you guys ready to go?" inquired a female voice.

All three brothers looked up to see their mother with the car keys dangling in her hand. Her keychain had grown so large with so many different keys and keychains that it looked like a small handbag from a distance, clutched at her side.

She held the door open for them and ushered them outside, "Your dad's already got the equipment over at the school, I'm just transporting you three there this time."

The three boys were a local band, known as the "Hanson Brothers". They played as many gigs as they could and really enjoyed what they did. Lately, the had been sending more and more of their independant cd, titled "MMMbop" to record companies, hoping to get signed, but no such luck, the third rejection had just come back today. The hope was still alive though, and the boys knew that if they kept on trying, one of these days they would get signed.

Taylor, Zac, and Isaac went out the door and eagerly jumped into the white van, Isaac in front, toteing the extension cord.

Diana, their mother pulled out of the garage and out onto the quiet, familiar street, reaching down to turn on the familie's favorite radio station.

"Hey mom, how far is this Victoria High School?" Zac asked.

"It's only a few minutes away. And it's not exactly a high school. They have grades 6-12 there." Diana answered, then hummed along with a tune that was playing.

"Oh. It's a private school right? For the really smart kids?"

This time Isaac answered him. "Yeah Zac, we know for sure you could never go there."

Taylor snickered in the back seat.

Zac remained puzzled. "What do you mean, Ike? We're home schooled. We don't go to private school."

Isaac and Taylor laughed. Diana hid a smile as she caught sight of Zac's face in the mirror.

"I'll have you know, Zac scored higher on his math test this morning than either of you." She said.

Their smiles faded.

Zac still remained perplexed. "We had a test this morning?"

This time Diana started the laughter and even Zac joined in.

"Wow! Is that it?" Ike cried suddenly, looking out the window at a building that was appearing from behind all of the trees. The building was huge. Stones and marble decorated the front of the school, with strains of ivy trailing down the walls.

Taylor marveled at the sight. It was truly a prestigious looking school, and he could even see iron gates and security guards milling around the grounds. Students milled around the front lawn in small groups, most of them were girls he noticed with a grin.

His smile faded as he noticed one girl, near the driveway of the school, standing all by herself. She was dressed all in black and frankly, looked rather scary. The girl had a sad expression on her caked with makeup face, her dark eyes were trained on the sidewalk before her. As scary as she was, Taylor couldn't help but be intrigued by her, and he couldn't stop staring.

The girl looked up and noticed him staring at her. To his surprise she didn't glare, but simply looked taken aback, almost in awe. Then this weird look appeared on her dark face and her large eyes grew even wider.

Whoa. What's with her?

He quickly turned back to the front of the van, shaking his blond head, not wanting to look back. No one else had seemed to notice her, but he absolutely could not forget the look on her face. He didn't know why, or how, but a very strong voice in the back of his head was screaming for him to 'stay away'.

When he looked back at her, she was gone.

"Give a big round of applause for our special guest performers, the Hanson Brothers!" Mr. Carlten, Victoria High principal said as the three brothers came out on the stage. He stepped his pudgy, balding body aside and motioned them onto the stage with a grin on his face.

Claire sat silently as the other students clapped and whistled, her hands folded gently in her lap. She lifted her head slightly to get a better view of the performers.

There he was. The boy she had seen earlier. He walked over to a keyboard, looking down with a smile, in his own little world, apart from all the clapping and cheering, and then suddenly, he was back again, looking out into the crowd as he introduced himself and his brothers.

Taylor. What a beautiful name.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the annoying whispers from her fellow students that were sitting behind her. She looked to both sides of her out of the corner of her eyes, and found both of the auditorium seats next to her were empty, just like always. Tammy and Tori and some other girls like them were sitting not too far away, and they were talking eagerly with each other, occasionally pointing to Claire and making motions with their hands.

She could hear their voices echoing in her mind then, mingling with the voices that were usually in her head: "She's such a freak." "She's a psycho." "She's so scary."

Much to her dismay, she found herself saddened by this. It shouldn't matter what they thought, but yet, she still hurt. They were hurting her all the time with the harshness of their words, and the pain they caused when they steered clear of her in the hallways, or didn't sit by her at lunch.

They should all be punished.

It would only take a second to turn off all the lights in the gym, set the whole place on fire....run away with the Taylor, that beautiful boy....

She turned her attention back to the stage. The beautiful boy had started singing, and she felt her heart ache in response. He had the most soulful, wonderful voice. The tune went through her, it felt almost as if she was part of the song, the music.

HE didn't think I was scary. He would love me if I let him know me. And he, would never betray me with someone else. Mr. Almode led me on, let me think that I was special. Called me: "his girl". And then he went home to his wife and daughter every night and didn't even think of me. He didn't quite understand that I didn't want to share him.

She clenched her fists and drew her mouth into a frown, forgetting about the concert momentarily.

I bet Mr. Almode is sorry now.

She remembered the look on his face as she murdered his wife and little girl right in front of him.

"I told you I wanted you all to myself!" she had shouted at him as she swung the ax, spots of red landing on her pale face, her dark hair falling into her eyes.

"Stop! Please! Stop!" he had cried.

When she got tired of him crying, she simply stopped the problem with a swift blow of an ax, right across his neck. He was a big man, a football coach, but she managed to drag him to the nearby river and dump him in.

She unclenched her fists and listened to the beautiful boy sing some more, trying to relax before she did something that she would regret later. His blond hair fell across his face, getting in his big blue eyes as he sang.

No, this boy would be good to me. He said it himself: The day has come to where I never thought of anyone quite as much as I think of you. That's how I want it. I don't want him to think of anyone but me. And obviously, he agrees. He was singing to me. This boy is all mine. All mine.

Chapters 4-7
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