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Clear Mount High School was just as normal a high school as one could get in a community of eleven thousand people. The only thing wrong with the place was that because it was a small town, there was nothing to do outside the high school, and there wasn’t much to do there either. Me? My name is Colin Towler; I’m sixteen years old and I’m a sophomore at Clear Mount High. The only thing that separates me from the numerous gray two-piece uniforms is my blood red hair, which just so happens to be my natural hair color. At the beginning of the year and all the time before that I had no idea why, and because it was different I was picked on my students who I thought were lucky to be blonde and brunette. Then I found out about myself from a new student. Her name was Mari, and she changed my life.

~CHAPTER 1~

It was 2:30 in the afternoon, 6th Period, and Colin was lounging at the side of Clear Mount High School in a patch of shaded grass. His school bag was being used a pillow. Just as Colin was drifting from simple rest to dreams he felt a slight nudge of someone’s foot against his. He looked up to see Claire, one of his friends, in her school clothes and a messenger bag over her right shoulder.
“That’s weird, for a second there I thought I was dreaming, but you’re still wearing your clothes,” said Colin, raising an eyebrow to compliment his tone.
“Ha Ha. You big dummy, what’re you doing out here, don’t you have a class?” Claire said kicking Colin’s leg, a signal for him to move over to which he complied.
“I got a feeling that something bad’ll happen.” He said looking up through the swaying branches.
“What? You’re out here because of a hunch?” she said looking at him as she sat down in the grass.
“Pretty much,” he mumbled. He gave a weak smile as she threw him a grueling look.
However, just as Claire was about to go into another one of her lectures a soft boom sounded from one of the upstairs classrooms. A minute later five students opened the windows and leaned out of them, coughing and taking deep breathes.
“Isn’t that your-” Claire began.
“Yep,” Colin said, getting to his feet. Then, ignoring Claire’s bewildered expression, rain over to the window. “Oi!” he yelled up to the students, “What happened, we heard something like an explosion,”
“The sub-teacher mixed the wrong chemicals together, and wham! Purple gloop everywhere!” yelled one of the boys, waving his hand back toward the classroom.
“Well you better head to the locker room and shower it off; I’ll go get the janitors!” Colin yelled back just as he jetted toward the nearest doors and inside, quickly followed by a recomposed and suspicious Claire.

It took two hours, and a total of five different mops and buckets, to clean up all the slime inside the classroom and surrounding hallway. Colin was helping out as well; his punishment for skipping class. He didn’t mind though, because he was the person who brought the janitor to the classroom, although he could’ve gone without the smell, it reeked. Fortunately for Colin though the sub-teacher was asked not to teach at the school ever again.
After he was done, Colin went to meet up with his friends in the Common Area. Dan, Kate, Claire, and Andy were all talking about something, but Colin never found out what because when they saw him Kate had changed the subject to shoes when they saw him.
Colin had always been the fifth wheel of their little group, Dan was always in a relationship with Claire and the same was true for Andy and Kate. Colin, on the other hand, had never been able to hold a relationship very long; the girls always dumped him because they’d be picked on. Colin’s hair was naturally blood red in color, and for some dumb reason it was always the reason for people to pick on him. Dan told him it was because they were jealous because the school code prohibited dying one’s hair. Colin was happy with that explanation, but he never openly said it due to the fact it would make him seem arrogant.

At about five o’clock they had somehow wandered over to the miniature cliff by the water tower next to the school, and were in the depths of a political debate when Colin’s cell phone went off. They all looked at him, then at their watches. The only time Colin’s phone went off was when they called him, or his parents, and they were there. They all laughed in embarrassment and got up. Colin whipped out his phone and told his parents the usual then the five friends said their goodbyes.
Just as Colin was about to go down the hill-side of the cliff he felt something and turned around. Claire hadn’t moved, and was staring at him.
“Something wrong, Claire?” he said with an innocent smile.
“Yeah, it’s been bothering me all day,”
“What is it?” he asked, turning to face her. Claire wasn’t usually the one to talk about things that bothered her, not to Colin at least.
“Earlier you said that you had a bad feeling about your last period class, then BAM! An explosion sets off in the chem. Lab,”
“So what?”
She looked at him with an ever increasing intensity that gave Colin a slight twinge. “You’re hiding something, there’s no possible way that you could have known something was going to happen unless you set it up to make it that way,” she pointed at him like a detective to a suspect. “Admit it; you had something to do with the sub-teacher messing up!”
Colin laughed. “You’ve been reading too many mystery novels, Claire. Besides, how could I have done anything, I was with Dan during lunch and was in all of my classes except my last one,” then a sudden thought occurred to him. How did he know something would happen? He just thought it was his mind telling him to skip his last class because he was tired from P.E, but now that he thought about it something was off.
Claire seemed convinced, however, and sighed. “Sorry, Colin, I guess you’re right,” she smiled at Colin, which made him smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
Colin nodded, and turned to go with something new to think about.