**Martha Jacobs**

_Helen Schwartz, Helen Schwartz, Helen, Helen _Goddamn _Schwartz._

It was all Martha had heard since she started at Northwood Academy. At first she had been so shocked by what had happened the year before: a girl murdered with crazy, undecipherable things etched into her skin, tossed in a lake. It was terrible and very, _very_ scary. She hadn’t even heard about it on the news and her father certainly hadn’t bothered to do a background check on the school before sending her to study here for the next two years.

You could say she was bitter.

And grumpy, and annoyed. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about what had happened to the girl named Helen it was just that she hadn’t known her at all. So it was hard for her to be too emotional about it and her feelings were more on the scared end than they were sad. She was sick of hearing about Helen Goddamn Schwartz. But that wasn’t the only thing bothering her.

Besides how much she hated the fact that she had to attend a new school just because her father didn’t want her messing with his perfect, new family…something was very _off_. Ever since the day she arrived at Northwood Martha had been feeling a gnawing sense of dread. Normally she would have attributed it to the fact that a girl had been found dead close by but it just wasn’t the same feeling she normally had about death. It felt as though she had been cursed with a permanent, thrumming headache and waves of nausea washed over her at random times throughout the day. More mysteriously was the very soft, buzzing sound she heard in her ear every night before she went to sleep. She hadn’t felt this way since her mother’s death, and this time it was worse. If that was even possible. She got an awful vibe from Northwood, especially her dorm. And Martha was _very_ careful not to touch anything, not yet. She was scared of what she might see.

The school day was close to being over when the announcements came on. Listening intently, she wondered if it was too late to join the soccer team. She was already on the track team and she didn’t know if the schedules would conflict each other or not. Her intent was to participate in school activities as much as possible in order to distract herself from all the bad feelings. Maybe the bonfire tomorrow would be a nice way of meeting people. She had distanced herself from her friends back home so much that none of them had bothered to write her. It hurt, and Martha missed the company. 

She wasn’t too sure about her roommate, Hazel, yet. It wasn’t that she was mean or anything, she was just quiet. Of course, if Martha talked to her she wasn’t rude enough to ignore her or end the conversation quickly. But the girl hardly spoke to her first, only responded. Martha supposed she was just shy or something. Hopefully that would change as they got to know each other.

She sighed. Hopefully Martha would have the chance to get to know a lot of people.