Heya! So I just finished the Gone series so I'm fairly new to this corner of the Fanfiction community, so most of you probably don't know me. Well, let me just say that I hated Brianna's death as much as the next guy(or girl) maybe even more, but who really cares? Anyways, but after I go past the initial shock and anger and sadness, I came up with this story idea and I was like, why not? What do I have to loose?

Anyways, so, I know in the story it said that her parents took her back in, but we're going to say that, after having her back for six months(Becaust that's approximately how long after the FAYZ coming down that this takes place. Give or take.) her father decides he just can't except having a lesbian around the house, so they send her to this new school. Headline Academy! So read, and enjoy, and I'll talk a little more at the end.

Oh! One more thing. The description implies that this is about Dekka dealing with Brianna's death, and it is, don't worry, however, I don't focus a whole lot on that in this chapter because right now she has other things on her mind. However, next chapter, I promise the real coping starts! Just bear with me!

I don't own Gone, because if I did, Brianna would not have died! (Neither would Jack and Orc and a bunch of other characters, but most importantly Brianna!)

Enjoy!

One would think that, after being separated for over a year, because they decided boarding school was for the best, that the Talents would have opted to have their daughter at home. Sent her to El Dorado High School, but no. Instead, they had sent her straight off to Butchersville, West Virginia to attend Headline Academy. Lovely name for a town, lovely name for a school, and an even lovelier uniform. White, long sleeved button up under a black, snug fitting sweater, boasting the gold and black crest of Headline Academy over the right shoulder, and the tie, striped with the same two colors as the crest. A plaid skirt with a similar color pattern and black knee-socks, with black shoes. Charming.

Well, at the very least, it beat out the Coates Academy uniforms.

The car pulled in front of the large building, and came to a stop as the driver said, "Headline Academy."

She handed him a wad of money, and exited the car.

There wasn't another student in sight, but the girl figured that was because they were all in class, or, at the very least, behind the giant walls that separated the majority of the campus from the rest of the world.

Through the front doors, which lead her into a large, open space, with a long counter on one side and a large screen on the wall of the other with couches and chairs and tables set up in the middle. Behind the counter she could see desks and doors that lead to other rooms, or maybe they were hallways, she couldn't be totally sure. Standing at the end of the counter, leaned over something, with a pen in hand, was a man.

So she navigated her way around the furniture and approached him.

"Not wasting much time in causing trouble this year are you, Chris?" She thought he was talking to her at first, and was about to inform his that she was not this "Chris", but, luckily, someone else beat her to the response.

"It's not my fault Mr. Bolding has it out for me!" A girl, who could only be Chris, argued, coming up beside the man, and staring at his paper, tapping her knuckles against the counter thoughtfully. She looked maybe thirteen, and wearing the Headline uniform, but somehow seemed to be getting away with the sweater being slightly too big, and her tie being pulled far too loose. Or maybe she wasn't getting away with it, maybe that was why she was in the office now.

Or maybe it was her hair. It was a rather odd style. Half of it was shaved, so that only very short, buzz-like pieces of dark brown hair were there, but then, at the top of her skull, it stopped being short and brown, and turned into a long swoop that only barely stayed out of her eyes, and was far to yellow-looking to be natural.

"It doesn't matter though, because Mrs. Garder says that state law says they can't do anything about my hair unless its an unnatural color, or inappropriate, and, technically, it's neither." A smile curls up her lips. "So what are you doing?"

"Paper work, now shouldn't you be getting to class?"

"Shouldn't you be helping the puppy?" Chris counters, giving a pointed look at the girl standing a few feet away from the counter. It was the first time that she was allowed a good look at the girl's face, and it was a bit surprising. The unusual hair cut and multitude of earrings in her ears all gave off a rather hard look that contrasted significantly with her soft facial features, and pretty, crystal eyes. "T'sup!" She called over, giving her head a sharp jerk back.

Unsure of exactly how to respond to the gesture, the girl simply nodded acknowledgment, which made Chris snicker and mutter, "Puppies." before announcing that she did, indeed have to get back to class, and left.

The man glanced up briefly, before returning to his paperwork and saying absently, "Charming, isn't she?" Not quite sure how to respond, she just remained silent. After a few moments of this, the man glanced up at her, dark eyes curious. He was a broad man, with curly, black hair, and a cleanly shaven face that looked rather childish. "You're not mute are you?"

"Excuse me?" Did he just ask if she was mute?

"Guess not. You just don't talk much then." He smiled. "I get it, I wasn't much of a talker when I was young either. Didn't have much to say. What's your name? So I can go get your schedule."

"Dekka...Talent."

He nodded, turned around and disappeared through one of the doors. A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed before he returned with a paper in his hand. "Spell that with two k's?"

"Yeah."

He motioned her forward, placing the paper down on the counter, face up. She came closer, and looked as he pointed to the schedule. "This here is your locker number and combination, and because I always get asked this, Yes, we have lockers here at Headline because its easier to have a pace to keep your stuff here in the main building, than having to run back across campus to your room every time you change classes, or trying to carry everything with you all day. Some people end up doing that anyways, but this way its their choice not just because we don't give them any other options."

"Neal, there's a call for you on line one," an aged woman called from a doorway in the back corner.

"Tell them to hold, I'm busy."

The woman glanced at Dekka, gave an understanding nod, then disappeared again. Neal rolled his eyes. "For some reason when a new semester rolls around I become the busiest man on the staff. Anyways, this here is your room, I'll tell you how to find it when I'm finished. Moving on, this is your class schedule, the first column is your A schedule, the second is your B. Today is an A day, which means you go to the classes on your A schedule, tomorrow you'll go to B. It sounds confusing, but you'll get used to it after a while." He tapped the counter thoughtfully, examining the paper. "That seems to be it. Any other questions, well, almost any kid in the school could answer. When you get out of your first I suggest asking around about Fish."

"Fish?"

"Yeah, ask anyone. They'll understand."

"Right, Fish. Okay then."

"Mrs. Monk's room is on the second floor. Go up stairwell C and the end of the hall that way, down to your left and its the last door on the right."

Dekka nodded, and turned away to leave. "Oh! And one more thing!" She turned back. "We don't get new students around here very often unless you count the new class of kindergartners ever year. Anyways, because of this, the kids are going to try and get as much of a kick out of you as possible, so, just try not to give them too much ammunition."

It wasn't a joke, that much she could tell from his tone and the look on his face. "I'll keep that in mind."

She found the stairwell rather quickly, it was sort of hard to miss, with a large C pinned to the door. Mrs. Monk's class was even easier to find with the help of the man's instructions.

However, convincing herself to go into the classroom was an entirely different story. It shouldn't have been that much of a problem, after all, she had endured far worse, but something about not knowing what she was walking into, because she couldn't see in, considering the window was covered by black construction paper, was unsettling. So she stood, and tried to convince herself she was being ridiculous. It was just a room, after all.

A room that she couldn't see into. A room that could be filled with any number of horrors. She was sure she'd seen in all during her time in the FAYZ, but that only served to prove a long standing point, anything was possible, and anything could be behind that door.

She was snapped out of her stupor, however, by the sound of rapid footsteps. She turned in time to see someone come racing around the corner at the end of the hallway. It was another girl, this one with shoulder-length, dirty blond hair that was pulled up into a rather sloppy ponytail. Her ponytail wasn't the only thing sloppy about her appearance, however. Her white under-shirt stuck far out form under her sweater which was twisted at such an impossible angle, it was a miracle the girl wasn't being choked by the collar. One on her socks was pulled half-way up, while the other was still bunched around her ankle, and her shoes had not been tied, instead, the laces had been stuffed into the sides of her shoes. As she ran, she was tugging her tie into place, while trying to keep a firm hold on the books in her arms.

She came to a screeching halt in front of Dekka, who didn't even flinch, ironically enough. She was scared of walking into a classroom, but not of the prospect of getting bowled over? The girl cocked her head, and smiled up at Dekka, a gesture that made her hazel eyes sparkle brightly. "Hello! You must be new!" Not even a trace of uncertainty in her voice. She was completely convinced that it was a fact. Was it that obvious? Well, to be fair, Dekka did have a very distinct appearance, most people would know if they had never seen her around before, but was that really a solid back-up for her theory?

"What makes you think that?"

The girl doesn't even seem to be faced by the clear annoyance, or at least, she'd thought it was clear. Instead, her grin grew wider. "I know everyone in this school. Plus, nobody stands outside Mrs. Monk's door debating on going in." She finally seemed to grow satisfied with the state of her tie, and reached out to turn the handle of the door, before pausing, "You are in Mrs. Monk's mentoring first period, right?"

Dekka double-checked her schedule, then nodded. "Cool. Come on, then." It sounded like an invitation, for the most part, but there was a barely detectable edge that almost made her think it was intended as a command. Whatever it was, Dekka moved to follow the girl in, that was when she noticed another strange thing about the girl. She had obviously run to class from wherever she had been, and, admittedly, if Dekka had tried to run even the stretch of the hallway, it was fair to say she would have been fairly winded, but this girl didn't even seem to be phased by the run at all. It was the closest thing to a super power you got in the regular world, or at least, I was in Dekka's opinion. "I'm Lauren, by the way, or Lauren Rose, if you like."

"Nice of you to join us, Lauren," a woman, who was seated at a computer behind a desk at the very front of the room, commented before Dekka could reply. The woman was young, that much was clear, with pin-straight hair and dark eyes, that never looked up from her screen. The room itself was rather curiously set up. No neat rows of desks like she had grown used to at Coates Academy. No, the desks in this room were clustered into small groups of five around the room. Two desks side by side, slide to face two other desks side-by-side, then a fifth set up at one end, facing the other four. No all of the students were seated in chirs, either, a boy with long, soft dark hair was seated on the edge of the end desk, and at the group beside theirs, a girl with whitish hair was sitting cross-legged atop one of the desks, braiding the pitch-black hair or a girl who was so thoroughly engrossed in a book that she didn't even seem to notice.

"Sorry," Lauren apologized, the sheepishness that most students showed when arriving to class late not even hinted at. "I slept in late, no thanks to Dark and Twisty over there."

She sent a glare towards the back corner of the room, and Dekka was surprised to recognize the undeniable haircut of Chris. Her back was to them, but judging from the shake of her shoulders, she was laughing, along with the dark-skinned girl beside her. In the seat across from the second girl was a boy with blond hair, with a curious peppered look to it, seated comfortable in his seat, with one foot against the edge of the desk, while he propped his elbow on the knee. It was rather clear that the boy was holding back a smile.

A smile crossed Mrs. Monk's face, but she didn't look up as she said, "Just have a seat...and fix your uniform, please."

"Come on," Lauren whispered, tugging lightly at Dekka's arm. "We have an empty desk."

So she followed, glancing at the faces of the other students. At a group at the front of the room was a duo of girls who couldn't have been older than six or seven, and at a group next to them, was a group of four, heads ducked together and hands making strange gestures. One of them, a boy with messy blond hair, kept glancing up in her direction, before returning to gesturing. They looked to be around eleven, twelve at most. Aside from them, and Dekka, Lauren, and the boy in the back, the rest of the room seemed to consist of students in their early teenage years. Thirteen or fourteen on average.

The end desk at Lauren's group was occupied by a pile of books and binders. Or, at least, it was until Lauren passed it and shoved the binders over onto Chris's desk, before dropping her stuff onto the desk across from the girl, which had been left completely barren.

Chris just laughed, and lifted her head to say something, before her eyes fell on Dekka. "Hey! It's you!" She grinned.

"You know her?" The girl beside her wondered, raising an eyebrow.

"I saw her down at the office."

"Why were you at the office?" Lauren wondered. She was seated sideways in her chair, one foot in the lap of the boy, who was tying her shoe, while the other was propped on the chair so she could tie it.

"Mr. Bolding," she and the other girl replied together.

Lauren laughed. "Really? You don't even have his class this year do you?"

"Nope," Chris shook her head, an act that made her swoop of blond turn into a sort of half-halo. "Apparently that doesn't detour him from trying to get me on house arrest or something." Then her eyes fell back on Dekka. "I never caught your name."

"Dekka."

Chris bobbed her head, then pointed at herself. "Chris." Then she jerked her head in the direction on the girl beside her. "And this is Shanea."

"Not to be mistaken with Shalea. That's my sister," Shanea added, then seemed to realize she hadn't offered a greeting, so she jerked her head in the same manner that Chris had used before as a greeting. "Yo!"

"The Dark and Twisty Twins. The likeness is creepy, huh?" Lauren joked.

The boy pushed her foot out of his lap, seemingly unconcerned with the girls' conversation as he looked from the empty desk, to Dekka, who had yet to take a seat. "You can sit, you know? The chair's not going to explode or anything."

He spoke as though he had known this girl he had just met all his life. Like they had been friends all their life. A feat that Dekka herself had never been able to accomplish. Another example of a normal super power, she mused, no making a move to sit.

"No, it'll burst into flames," Shanea laughed. "That's far more entertaining."

"And you wonder why they call the two of you the Dark and Twisties." Laruen rolled her eyes as Chris and Shanea high-fived, both laughing at the annoyed look on the boy's face. Or maybe the really though that a chair catching fire was funny. Maybe they thought fire itself was funny. The brought forth rather awful memories that Dekka had to shove away quickly.

"No I don't," Chris was arguing when Dekka came into focus. "I wonder why Rose calls Shanea a Demon Spawn."

Lauren smiled, but didn't get to respond, because at that moment, as she stood and set to work tucking her undershirt into her skirt, a cat call sounded from across the room. The reaction was instantaneous. Ninety percent of the room groaned. Chris huffed, slumped back in her chair, and rolled her eyes, and Shanea's face turned from amused to annoyed rather quickly. Lauren, like everyone else in the room, looked across the space to the group of boys, where the boy seated on the edge of his desk was grinning mischievously. However, Lauren was beat to the punch. The girl with the book snapped the thing shut with such force made a very loud pop that startled those around her, but it was nothing compared to the sharpness of her words. "Would you knock that off!"

"Knock what off?" He wonders, spreading his hands innocently.

"Flirting with everything that breaths!" She huffed.

Andrew gave a derisive laugh. "Silly Julie, I'm not flirting with her!"

"Yeah," one of the other boys at his table piped up. "Even Andrew knows when his case is that hopeless!"

"Okay, first of all: Shut up, Tristen. Second of all: Just because she's a GAP Girl, doesn't mean she doesn't want a piece of this!" He gestured to himself, and earned another collective groan.

It was a fair assumption that he was not referring to the store, however, much more about the phrase GAP Girl couldn't be drawn, because the reactions varied. Andrew said it casually, like it was just something you said, as common as calling someone a person, and Lauren seemed to emphasize that impression by her complete lack of reaction, although, she also hadn't had much of a reaction to the original cat call, so maybe she was merely very good at being impassive. Chris, on the other hand, slumped into her chair even farther, and her face took on the first look of embarrassment she had seen since arriving at Headline. Shanea's face grew even more irritated, if that was possible, and she plopped her chin in her hand, and shot a glare in his direction.

"I wouldn't want a piece of that even if I wasn't a GAP Girl," Lauren replied, casually readjusting her sweater and flopping down into her seat.

Dekka had a very strong urge to ask what a GAP Girl was, but the man's warning rang in her ears, like an alarm. Don't give them any ammunition. New slang developed very quickly, so it was very likely that, in the year she had been in the FAYZ, new slang had cropped up in the community. Well, a whole new universe of slang had cropped up in the phase only days after it happened, so it wasn't just likely, it was a fact, and chances were, Dekka hadn't even brushed the surface of it all. So, wasn't it a high possibility that asking what the phrase meant could be considered a stupid question? Most definitely, and asking stupid questions qualified as "giving them ammunition".

So she remained silent, and took a seat, because the boy at their group was still watching her, and she figured continuing to stand there may also qualify.

"Sure." A grin split Andrew's face as he said the very unconvinced word.

"You make me nauseous," the dark-haired girl, Julie, sighed, rolling her eyes as she opened her book back up.

"Nauseous?"

"Look it up."

Andrew threw back his head and laughed. "Uh...No!"

Mrs. Monk held up her hands silently, and the room fell dead silent, like someone had flicked a switch and put them all on mute. "Thank you," she said quietly, looking around the room, then back at her computer screen, a deep frown etched across her face, and her eyebrows knit together. She came around her desk, crossed the room, and stood behind Chris, who tilted her head back to look, but the woman was not focused on the younger girl. Instead, her dark-eyed gaze was on Dekka, who she was frowning at in concentration. Then, just as Dekka was contemplating asking if she could help her, or suggesting that she take a picture, since that lasted longer, the woman spoke. "Are you Dekka Talent?"

Dekka blinked. "Yes."

She nodded. "Okay, you must be new." Wow, they must have sensors around here or something. "I'll handle all that in a moment." It sounded more like she was talking to herself, so Dekka opted to stay silent. Mrs. Monk frowned, looked around the room, then finally, her gaze settled on the youngest girls at the front of the room. "Emmeline! Kara!" The two girls jumped, and looked at her. "Where are the twins?"

One of the girls, with just-past-shoulder-length blond hair, replied, "No idea. They didn't show back up yesterday."

"And no one picked up when we tried to call their house," the other, with short hair that appeared to have been died a dark red color, added.

Mrs. Monk's frown deepened. "They didn't drop did they? I mean, I know their parents were a little apprehensive about having them away last year after what happened with.." She trailed off, a pained expression taking over her features, then recovered. "Well, at any rate, it's rather silly to give up a full ride to a school as good as Headline just because of one streak of bad luck."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Monnk," a new voice assured. All eyes moved to the doorway, where two girls, who could only be sisters, stood, and the sight of them hit Dekka hard, like a pew thrown against her chest, knocking the wind out of her. (1)

Because these faces weren't just identical to each other.

Okay! So! I know his is rather short and all, but I couldn't resist ending it on that note, and adding anything would have been to much, it already seems a bit random, I know, but fear not, every scene had a specific roll(whether to introduce characters, or foreshadow, or something else that will be important later on.) I promise! So, the slang used in this story will all be explained later, but, for those who think they know what it means, you can take a gamble in a review! And I know a lot of you are probably confused about the age variation in the class, that was not poor planning on my part, I'm going to explain that too, at a later time!

Any other concerns you may have you are welcome to point out. I'd be happy to explain, or correct it even.

1) Haha! Did you catch it?

Anyways, because I'm in the habit of doing this(Mostly because I find it helps with reviews) at the end of every chapter, you'll find questions, or challenges, or both. You don't have to take the challenges or answer the questions if you don't want to, but I do award Reader points for correct answers! And all readers points are kept up with, and at certain check points throughout the story, I will offer a prize to the author with the most points(The prize will vary). I do this, because I like the interaction, and I'm a very competitive person myself, so I always like getting a chance to win something every now and again on this site, so I figure there are others on the site that like it too.

SO! Challenges!

First and foremost! Who are the new coming sisters? It's the big one. Thirty points to the first one to figure it out, because I'm not sure how many of you peek at reviews after that for answers. However, I do offer ten points to everyone after that who gets it right, and five points guessing, and not getting it. (It's the thought that counts!)

Second! What do the slang words mean? For guessing Puppy, at the beginning of the chapter(by Chris) I will give 10 points for the first guess, 5 for every one after, and 3 for effort. For GAP Girl, I'll give 20 to the first, 10 to everyone after, and 5 for effort.

Third(and final!) Shanea and Chris are known as the Dark and Twisty Twins, so who's Dark and who's Twisty? I have an idea, but this one is actually open for discussion, so, 10 points to everyone who makes a suggestion!

So I hope you enjoyed! And I'm glad you've made it this far. I hope you'll leave a review! (I certainly have given you plenty to say if you feel like taking my challenges!)

Thanks a ton! Dreamgazer86 OUT!