Photo: Raven played by @vivadrag on ig

(Raven's POV)

I frowned as I neared the empty classroom I used for the school newspaper- usually it was just me, my coffee and my laptop, but today an awkward girl I vaguely recognised stood leaning against the door, her nose buried in some book. I craned my neck slightly to try and see if I recognised the title, but it seemed like an old crime novel- not really my thing. I looked up to see the girl had noticed me craning my neck to see and I quickly straightened, clearing my throat to regain my posture. She looked a tad sheepish, eyes darting over me and the whole corridor rapidly.

"Can I help you?" I asked, scanning her and then the door of the newspaper club. Maybe she was lost? I hadn't ever seen her in the corridors so she may be new.

"I was told to just show up? For the school newspaper? Have I got the wrong room? Sorry!" The girl squeaked, fumbling to put her book away. She dropped her bag in the process, the contents spilling out. I sighed and leaned down to help her with her stuff that was now all across the corridor.

A new member? The headmaster never tells me anything, although I can't blame him, I suppose. Even I forgot this was even a club; it had been just me for so long. Nobody even reads newspapers anymore, let alone writes them. I barely bother printing any now, I just publish my articles online. Even I admit it's a waste of paper. When I took over this club it was already dying, but now it was truly dead.

I was so determined to keep the club going for so long because of my passion for writing, but nowadays it's just part of routine and just another thing to slap on the university application. The love I had for writing had sort of whiltered over the years after seeing the papers I put so much time and effort into being thrown away without even a second glance and even stood on. The only use for my paper was in the art room where they used it to not get paint on the tables... It was demoralising and at some point, I just accepted it was a dead hobby. Which is why it's confusing to see somebody standing outside the club room, a room that had been empty for so long and forgotten about by even me.

"Oh sorry, of course, come right in. I'm Raven, I'm in charge here, I guess... Well technically I was the only member, so of course I was in charge." I explained, opening the door and ushering her inside.

"Oh right." The girl nodded, before pausing for an excruciatingly long time "I'm Ashley by the way."

"Right. Nice to meet you Ashley- laptops are over there, just get started on writing an article about whatever you want really, I'll just be over here." I gave her some instructions, since she looked so lost, before getting started on my own work.

It was sort of awkward. I didn't really know what to tell her to do. It wasn't like I had any particular structure to my newspaper sessions- sometimes I didn't even work on the paper here. I'd do it at home or at a cafe, it's not like anyone would notice my absence. Ashley looked like a lost puppy in the serpents cage. She kept glancing at me every ten seconds with a panicked look in her eye. At first I thought it was fear, but I'm not particularly scary- I'm lanky and wear dark clothes, but not scary.

I decided to just ignore her. I was currently covering an exposé on one of the french teachers- apparently he's been cursing in french and insulting students for years without anyone noticing, but a french exchange student called him out on it. Not exactly world news but about as juicy as the news stories for this town gets. It wasn't an incredibly small town, but it was small enough that I could probably name the mothers of half the people in my year group- they all happened

to be on the PTA board that raised money for school clubs. I had made enemies with a few of them as they had tried to close down my club.

Of course I understood their argument, there was only one member in the whole club and it was essentially a waste of resources since the printed copies basically just ended up being recycled or littering the courtyard. It stung a little, but I still fought them with every fiber of my being- it was a creative outlet and I have a human right of freedom of speech, or something along those lines. Maybe now that there's more than one member they might let me off the hook a little. Afterall, that's a one hundred percent increase in members in only one day. A pretty misleading but encouraging statistic.

I sipped on my almond milk and vanilla coffee, engrossed in my work as I wrote my article. I really should inquire about an interview with said French teacher and get his side of the story, at the moment the article seems very one-sided. Writing about such mundian things really drained me, but I loved the paper too much to let it officially die, so I'd cover pretty much anything- it's not like anyone would read it anyway.

"Is there anything specific you want me to cover? I don't really know what to write about." Ashley piped up from where she sat, looking extremely red.

"Somebody needs to cover the graffiti found this morning on the school entrance- you saw it right?" I asked, remembering the image of red cartoon versions of the headmaster with a penis attached to his forehead.

"Oh yeah- okay I'll do that." Ashley nodded, starting to type on her laptop, before she paused again, "Do you think I could cover that incident at the swimming pool afterwards?"

I raised an eyebrow. Usually I didn't cover stories like that since the school got touchy about it- insensitive or something. Ashley, however, looked keen and hopeful that she could cover it and I couldn't see why not. I'm like 99% sure even the headmaster doesn't read this stuff anymore and if we came under flame, I would just say I won't publish anything else like it in the future.

"Sure, but make sure you get my approval before uploading." I warned, "The stories we cover are usually mundane, I never get to cover interesting stuff so I've been waiting for something exciting to come along."

She nodded, smiling a little too widely about my approval before dashing to grab a laptop and sitting down, writing with her tongue sticking out her mouth slightly. It was quite funny to watch her fingers flitting over the keyboard excitedly as she worked and I felt the awkward atmosphere that had settled over us ease slightly.

Around twenty minutes into Ashley and I typing away on opposite sides of the room, the door flung open with a bang, a blur of bright red falling into the room gasping and shrieking. I immediately stood up in surprise and Ashley did the same, walking closer to me to get a better look. It was pretty alarming and all the red made it seem like the person was badly injured.

I quickly realised it was a girl in our year- Phoenix- she was in my english literature class (or so the legend says, I had never actually seen her in the class). Rumour has it she was the culprit behind this morning's graffiti incident too. Your classic rebel in many ways except very glamorous and rich. Apparently her parents are two successful Chinese lawyers, never home and always abroad with cases, so she basically has free roam.

Rumours about her were always flying around hallways and I had covered quite a few incidents of hers before. I had covered so many in fact that it made me wonder how she was still here. Surely she would have been excluded by now? However, I suppose she's not just an average student. Everyone who studies here is your average person, except Phoenix. She's rich, glamorous, a wild card. People are attracted to exciting new shiny things, but I think she's purely a novelty. Like fast fashion really, the Phoenix trend will die out sooner or later.

Phoenix was panting as she leaned against the now locked door and I cleared my throat to try and get her attention- the girl was oblivious to everyone around her half the time. I wouldn't be surprised if she had no clue who I was- despite me being one of only fifteen people in her english literature class.

"Oh sorry." Phoenix panted out, still breathless, "I thought someone was chasing me. No one was there, but the lockers were banging and... I must sound crazy."

"I think we found that exciting story you were looking for" Ashley pointed out, helping Phoenix off the floor.

After half an hour of interrogation of what happened to Phoenix in the corridor, I was convinced she was either bullshitting us for the fun of it or genuinely crazy. However, Ashley was hanging

onto every word Phoenix said. It was starting to annoy me that some delinquent thought she could waste my time for fun.

"Look, Phoenix, I've got things to do- articles to put out. So, If you're going to sit there and lie to us for kicks then I haven't got the time and, quite frankly, you can leave." I snapped, pointing to the door.

Ashley looked shocked and turned to me with wide eyes while Phoenix looked like she noticed my presence for the first time since she'd burst in, all guns blazing. I ignored both of them and continued to stand up straight, despite my pounding heart and stoney glare. I wasn't usually a confrontational person, but this is my safe space, where I can relax and be alone. Write alone. Now, I have not just one new person, but two, and one of them is spouting some bullshit about apparent paranormal ghost activity at 5pm in a boring highschool. Unlikely time for it to happen, if you ask me, even if it was real.

"You don't believe me? Why the hell would I lie about this- make myself look crazy for no reason! I saw something and I'm sure as hell that I saw what I saw. I'm not lying to you. I thought you would've been into this kind of stuff, you being some spooky goth girl and everything." Phoenix gestured to my outfit.

I was wearing a black turtleneck sweater with a yellow nirvana shirt on top of it with black shorts and black thigh high socks with black platform doc martens. My lips were filled in black and I had a yellow belt on to match my shirt. This was a lot more colour than I usually wore- it was usually plain black, but I wouldn't call myself goth. Was I a goth? I just liked black because it was simple. Everything goes with black, it's appropriate for all events.

"Sorry, I suppose you wouldn't lie. Phoenix has ​never​ lied before. You can't expect me to just believe there's some ghostly wind banging on lockers and personally targeting Phoenix Kaye. Of course, you ​must​ be telling the truth. It definitely doesn't just sound like a simple breeze scared a badass so much she sprinted through the halls like a baby. " I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes at her.

"I'm Ashley, by the way." Ashley piped up, sending Phoenix a weak grin.

I may have been a little harsh, but I hated people who disrupted other people's learning and Phoenix was always doing this. Every day I'd walk into English and my teachers would have to ring people to find out if Phoenix was coming to class, her graffiti this morning meant my teacher

was late because she was dealing with the issue so the eleven year olds wouldn't see the phallic cartoons. It was just tiring, her stunts always disrupting my day. Now she thinks she can come in here and disrupt my writing.

"I'm Raven and we both know you're Phoenix." I gritted out, looking at Ashley's puppy dog eyes. I picked up my almond milk coffee and took a couple of sips as silence fell over the three of us.

"I'll just have to prove it to you" Phoenix stated definitively.