A/N: I decided to change this story to 3rd person and edit it a little as I wasn't completely happy with some bits.

Chapter One: Mysterious Staring Girl

"She doesn't speak I'm afraid" Ben hoped he wouldn't have much of a fight with the Principal over it.

"Since her mother died you see they were very close until that day..."

"Yes thank you Hayden, that's true, selective mutism. She does see a therapist and as you can see from the transcript from her old school she's a student with amazing grades."

Don't try too hard Dad he'll think something's wrong with me. So very true.

The Principal looks at her transcript again. Her grades are great just a shame about the rest of the transcript. Fights mostly, a few smoking on school grounds, the occasional tardy and the one time she got caught drunk in a bathroom.

"These behaviour problems how are they being addressed?"

I think we've cracked him Dad he seems interested could it be my seriously high IQ? I doubt it's my mysterious nature.

"Violet's a very good student intelligent and dedicated. These little issues are being worker through with her therapist. She may not speak up in class but I can assure you she is learning and she is going to behave."

Apparently since I don't speak I'm also invisible.

They've been talking about her like this, like she's not actually in the room, since they arrived.

Or maybe I'm not actually here. I'm sure I'm sitting in this room with my Dad and Hayden. I'm sure I walked through the door and even shook hands with the Principal. Maybe I became invisible after that.

"Oh what is it this time Mr Langdon?" A voice says from outside the Principals office. It's the receptionist talking to a boy who's just walked into the area outside the office. He's tall and wearing a dark coat. Violet looks at his face as he hands the receptionist a slip of paper; he's sullen and looks like he'd rather be anywhere else. He sits in a chair with his back to the glass of the office so that Violet can't see his face anymore, just his blonde hair. She looks at the back of his head and he must feel her staring at him because he turns around and catches her. He raises an eyebrow at her and she turns back to look at the Principal, only to see he is looking at her expectantly.

Good luck dude, I have no idea what you want and no way of answering you.

"Violet? Are you listening?"

No Dad I'm staring at a mildly attractive guy over there.

She nods.

"Good" The Principal closes Violets file and places his hand on top of it; "so as long as you continue with your therapy, you don't make trouble and your grades stay consistent, Westfield is the school for you."

Good I guess, as you're the only school that seems to want to accept me.

"Thank you so much Mr Olsen, I promise you Violet will be an asset to this school." Ben stands and so does Hayden, shaking the Principals hand and they all walk to leave the office.

She sees him as they leave. He's lounging in the chair his dirty blonde hair a mess and a look of distain on his face. He's wearing a big sweater and ripped jeans with worn converse and reading a book. But she can't see what book it is. He catches her staring at him again and looks her dead in the eye. This time she raises an eyebrow at him and he grins in reply.

"Mr Langdon I really don't want to know what it is this time but come in anyway." Mr Olsen beckons the boy into his office. Violet leaves with her 'family' and they exit the school going back to the big house with too many rooms. Which Violet suspects Hayden plans on filling with children.

Her first actual day at Westfield arrives and she prepares herself for the onslaught of weird looks and comments. She's not expecting to make friends it's a difficult thing to do when you can't communicate with people. She collects her schedule from the office and heads off to her first class pushing through the throngs of students in the halls to English Lit. As she gets to the room she hands one of the notes the receptionist gave me to distribute, to the teacher who reads it and sighs.

"We've been reading Othello so if you haven't read it I suggest you do that and just try to get what you can out of the class today."

Othello why wouldn't I have read it?

"And if you can sit over there that'd be great." She points to a table at the far side of the room by a window, so Violet goes and sits down. The room slowly fills with students, some of which notice her but most ignore don't. The guy she saw during her meeting with the Principal last week walks in, his nose is in a book and he sits at the back of the room. Then a girl with long dark hair sits next to her and sighs before taking a lip gloss and mirror out of her purse and begins applying it.

"I'm Leah." She extends her hand. Violet looks at it, her nails are perfectly manicured and a bright red. She takes her hand and pushes her schedule towards Leah pointing to her name.

"Violet. Mr Olsen told us about you and how you don't talk. Weird." She takes her hand back and places her make up in her purse. The teacher starts the lesson and Violet drifts though it doodling in her note book.

When the bell rings she packs up her stuff and heads to her next class, Math. She hands over another note and sits at the back of the room by herself working though an evaluation test the teacher gives her. She hates Math it's her worst subject but she manages to get though the test and soon it's time to head to Chemistry.

The Chemistry teacher is busy looking for something in a draw when she walks in so it takes a while before he notices her. The class begins to fill up and she eventually hands over another one of the notes. He scans it and tells her to sit with Tate and points in front of him, basically at the classroom.

"He means me." The voice comes from her left and when she turns it's that guy.

Mr Langdon. Tate Langdon.

He's sat at a lab table by himself behind beakers of coloured liquid.

"Bit of a stupid thing to say to a new student, tell them a name but don't point the student out." He says as she sits next to him."So I'm Tate and you're the mysterious staring girl. Who doesn't talk." He takes a notebook and pen from his bag and sets them on the table, leaning down to write something. "Interesting lab partner choice some would say." He looks up at her from his notebook with a grin on his face.

Ok well I'm not complaining about it so far. It's not like looking at dimples hurts my eyes.

They spend the rest of the class in silence carrying out the experiment and writing notes. They finish their work before the rest of the class and clear their equipment away waiting for the bell.

"What other classes have you got today?" She passes him her schedule and he notes her name. "Violet. Nice name." He studies her schedule and then passes it back to her. "Good luck in History Mr De Luca likes everyone to answer questions." He pushes his notebook towards her. "You could write down stuff and I could read it out for you if you sit next to me." Violet looks down at the notebook then back up at Tate. His eyes are pitch black and searching her face for an answer.

I barely even nod at people and you want me to write stuff down for you to read out? But there's something...different about you.

So she grabs her pen and writes 'Ok' on his notebook. He smiles and as the bell rings he packs his stuff away and says see you after lunch.

Might make History a bit more interesting especially if I write crap down that he has to read out.

After chemistry Violet day dreams through an art class pretending to care about how one shades fruit in a bowl. Then she leaves for lunch which she spends walking around the streets surrounding the school smoking and listening to her iPod. Taking a few bites of an apple before heading to History. When she walks into the class and hands the teacher the obligatory note, she looks for Tate but he isn't in the room. But Leah, the girl from English Lit is, and she beckons her over.

"I saw you smoking as you left school." She says when Violet walks over to her. "Do that on school grounds and you'll need a ventilator to breath." She waves her off and Violet is seriously tempted to light a cigarette right now and blow the smoke in this bitches face but then a voice from behind her says something better.

"Hey Leah, how's that clap clearing up? I heard Danny gave it to your Mom too hope she's ok."

Tate's vaguely funny as well as cute then. Shit good thing I don't talk or I might have said that out loud.

Instead she smiles at Leah and Tate leads her to a table towards the back of the room. They spend the class in silence again with Violet writing answers to questions in her notebook when Tate prods her. He answers for her but never for himself. They don't pay any attention to the glares Leah occasionally gives them. At the end of the class Tate hands Violet a piece of folded up paper and leaves quickly. She unfolds the paper and finds a phone number on it underneath the words 'Text me'. Violet folds the paper back up and shoves it into her bag.

I don't really text but I might text him. He's funny and cute so it could be fun.

She gathers her stuff and heads to the gym.

Great fun won't be had but hopefully I won't drop dead from the experience.

As she walks towards the locker room she starts to feel the panic rise in her chest.

It'll be ok; I can just run into the bathroom and change. No one will notice that, I've gotten away with it for years, I can get away with it here.

She walks into the locker room and sees groups of girls in various stages of undress all chatting. She scans the room and eventually finds the bathroom over towards the right. She moves past people trying to look inconspicuous and ducks into the bathroom finding a stall and locking the door behind her. Violet takes her gym kit out of her bag and pulls it on with the addition of a long sleeved t-shirt and leggings. She pulls her hair into a ponytail and decides that she has enough time before the class starts for a smoke. So she pulls out a cigarette and lights it smoking it quickly.

Don't want to get caught on my first day.

She hears girls chatting as she flushes her cigarette butt. She opens the door to walk out of the stall and sees that it's Leah, in her gym clothes with the addition of three vacant looking lackeys. Leah sees Violet in the mirror she's checking her make up in; she glares at her then sniffs. Her eyes widen and she spins round to face Violet.

"What did I tell you about smoking on school grounds?" She stalks towards Violet her hands on her hips. Violet stares at her feigning a confused look.

"Oh I forgot you don't speak. Do you also not hear? You do not smoke in this school." She reaches out and slaps Violet across her face. It's hard and stings she seems to have experienced with this kind of violence. But so does Violet. She pulls her arm back and punches Leah right in the nose. There's a screech as Leah clutches her face. Violet smiles and turns to rush out of the bathroom but a hand grabs her long hair and yanks her back, one of the lackeys. She pushes Violet into a wall and her head hits it, the sound reverberating through her head.

"You bitch her nose is bleeding!" Several kicks to the backs of her knees means Violet's now on the floor and being kicked in the ribs and back by several different pairs of sneakers. It occurs to her that she's not going to be able to fight her way out of this. So she decides she best just take it and start planning her revenge. That's when Violet hears a chuckle and sees Leah standing over her with something metallic in her hand. The sneakers stop kicking her and instead hands grip her body pinning her down on the floor. Violet feels her hair being pulled up its loose in the ponytail, then she hears the snipping. Leah's cutting Violets hair off. She struggles in the lackeys grips but they just chuckle and grip her tighter. When Leah's finished cutting Violets hair she kicks her square in the back so she fall right into the floor and the group leave the bathroom.

Violet lies on the floor for a few minutes before slowly moving, wincing, to look at herself in the mirror. Her hair now falls somewhere in between her shoulders and chin and it's uneven. There's also a cut above her eyebrow. She don't bother looking at the rest of her body yet, just stare at herself in the mirror for a few moments before carefully picking up her bag and walking back into the stall to change out of her gym clothes. After that she walks out of the bathroom and the locker room. She walks out of the school and heads home. As soon as she walks through the front door she head straight to her bedroom where she stays for the next three days, feigning sick to her Dad and Hayden and trying not to let them see the cut on her head. Hayden asks her why she cut her hair and she shrugs. They leave her alone and she plans her revenge. Her notebook will be full in a little while with the most deliciously nasty things Violet can do to Leah.