Chapter 1 - Another Ordinary Day

Ringggg. Ringggg. Dang it. Of course the alarm clock has to ring right now. I wake up to see the sun shine down on my face. Thankfully, today was the last day before heading into winter break. More time to hang out with my friends, boyfriend, and I can’t forget my family’s annual ski trip. I look at the time, and realize that I’m totally running late for school. I get up from bed, grab the first clothes that I could grab in my drawers and rush into the bathroom.

Desperate to make it to class on time I don’t eat breakfast and I hop into my car. I step hard on the gas pedal and start driving as fast as I can. As I arrive at school, I look at the time, 8:09. Great, I’m late. This probably is going to get me another detention slip and a lot of scolding from my teacher and mother when I get home. Not to my surprise, as I walk through the door of my first class, my English teacher is already scolding me.

“Elle! Do you know what time it is?!” my teacher angrily yells at me.

“Yes, I know sir, I’m sorry I’m late,” I reply.

“Well sorry isn’t going to save you. Detention after school!” he says afterwards.

I walk to my seat next to my best friend, Jane. She smirks at me as I open up my bag to get my notebook and pen for class.

“So what was it this time? Did Ben keep you up all night again?” she whispers to me.

I could only glare at her, and grab a piece of paper to reply to her question.

No. Was helping out at the hospital last night. Mom.

As I pass the piece of paper to her she looks up and looks at me sadly. Honestly it makes me more angry than happy that she gives me her pity, but I ignore it and point to the whiteboard. Prompting her to pay attention. As a student, I wouldn’t say my academic performance was bad. My main flaw as a student would have to be my tardiness. I have no regrets though. A girl needs her sleep!

As class continued the teacher gave his usual, “We’ll have a pop quiz next class” spiel, and then the bell rang. I got up, and Jane took my arm and linked it with hers.

“Welp! I’ll do something stupid next period so we can go to detention together later!” she says happily.

“Are you stupid? Why would you do that?” I ask her.

“We were supposed to go to the mall after school today! Did you forget? Plus I don’t want to wait for you as you go through detention. I might as well do it with you, cause the more the merrier right?!” she says as she giggles.

I couldn’t help but laugh. If anyone asks, yes we are two total nutjobs, and whenever we’re in the same room together, people think we’re high. But, that’s what I love about our dynamic. Nothing could get through us. As we were walking towards our second period, I felt someone grab my waist and bring me in closer. I turn around to see Ben. I smile and hug him back.

“Hey beautiful, how was last night?” Ben asks.

“Mom is doing better, but I overslept today which made me late for class. Now I have detention and I can’t get out of it.” I sigh with disappointment.

“Babe don’t worry. You want to get some ice cream after detention then? I’ll wait for you,” he replies.

“NO! Elle is mine today! We promised to have a girls night tonight!” Jane interjects. Ben and I look at each other and laugh.

“Jane don’t worry, I’ll always remember…” I pause for her to say the next phrase with me.

“Sisters before hoes!” Jane and I yell together. We couldn’t help but burst into more laughter. Ben looks at us like we’re high again, but he quickly giggles afterwards. The 2 minute warning bell rings and all of us went our separate ways to our next periods.

Several classes later, and it’s time for lunch. I wait outside the cafeteria since that’s where Ben, Jane, and I meet to go get lunch before our last classes of the day. I grab out my phone to listen to music, but before I could I heard two kids walking by me.

“Oh my gosh did you see that?!” one kid said with excitement in her voice.

“Yeah totally! They were totally making out!” the girl next to her replies.

“Wasn’t that Ben and Jane from period 4?!” her friend replies.

I didn’t hear the rest of their conversations. I run to them and they look at me with a startled expression.

“Where are they,” I ask with confusion and hurt clearly in my voice.

“They’re by the bleachers,” the girl replies to me sadly.

I look at her to only get sad eyes in return as I bolt to the bleachers to confirm this rumor. As I stood 5 feet away from them, not only did the rumors get confirmed, but my heart was shattering to pieces. I wasn’t sure how to react, but I stood there to see if any of them would push away from each other. Watching for another minute, I realized that this act was totally consensual on both sides. I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of seeing me cry, so I held my tears in when I walked up to them, clearing my throat.

Of course the first thing they decide to do is jump in fear. Both of them realizing that I caught them in the action, they cry to me.

“Elle! This isn’t what it looks like!” they both state at the same time.

“Oh because I was standing here for about a minute straight, and none of you guys had the audacity to pull away,” I replied with a calm voice.

They looked at me and I picked up my feet and started to run. I ran as fast as I could, and before I knew it, I was lost. Weird to say, but I genuinely have no idea where I am right now. I look up to see a building covered in vines with an old rustic look to it.

“Elle! Wait!” I hear them from a distance. I look around, and I know that I have nowhere else to hide for now. I take the rusty handle to my hand, and pull it as hard as I can. The door opens and I run in and slam it as quickly as I can. When I don’t hear their voices anymore I look around to see this place covered with books. Like a forgotten library, the books were filled with dust, the floors creaked, and the air still smelled of paper. Everything in this space is still, quiet, and peaceful. The scene of this space was enough to forget what just happened, as I admire the beauty of this old, warm place.

I then walk to the first aisle my eyes laid on, for exploration. I take my fingers and place them on the dusty books as I slid them across the aisle. As I got to the end of the aisle, my eyes were fascinated to see a section of yearbooks. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what our school looked like, so I picked up the red and gold yearbook that was sitting in the middle of other yearbooks.

Star High the yearbook had written across its covers. Weird. This school isn’t currently Star High right now. Maybe this was the name of our school before becoming Harrison High?

I open the yearbook, and that is the last thing I remember.

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