Touch Me

-1-

Chapter One

Claire

They say in order to raise a stable child, the presence of both parents is advised, but not for my family apparently. When I turned 8, I stopped seeing my parents. Not that they abandoned me, no.

My parents both work at a very high profile law firm and when I was 8, they both got a promotion. That promotion sort of split my family into two parts. There's my Mom and Dad, and there's me, Claire Willows.

So, with that being said, imagine my utter surprise when I come down, Monday morning, all ready for school and I find my parents at the dinner table for breakfast.

"Hey guys." I say, nervously while grabbing an apple from the table.

Dad barely looks up from his tablet, while mom gives a feeble smile in reply.

I shake my head, sighing and turn towards the door. Of course they won't talk to me.

Taking a deep breath, I open the door and walk out, off to west point high. Let me tell you a little bit about my school, it's not a stereotype, thank God.

There's no queen bee desperate to make everyone's life hell, there's no dumb jock who's fucked half the school girls, there are no cafeteria eating chart. I don't know if anyone knows this but real life isn't always a popularity contest.

"Hey! Move out of the way, dude." A driver yells, his car speeding right past me.

"I'm sorry!" I yell back.

Yep! My school is totally normal.

Taking a deep breath, I walk through the front doors of west point high, heads down, moving through the bustling crowd of students while trying to locate my locker.

Once I reach there, I'm met with an auburn haired chick, with light green eyes and a heavy frown on her face. Taking a deep and very nervous breath, I walk towards her, hoping I'm not in another pickle today.

"Kelly." I whisper, feeling my heart rate quicken.

"Claire." She calls, roughly. "Do you have it?"

You might be wondering what "It" is. Well, yes my school isn't cliche but every school has at least one kid who does a few people's homework for a couple of bucks. But I don't collect money. Kelly doesn't really like me and she's very initimidating.

"Hey!" She yells, snapping her fingers in my face. "I'm talking to you!"

"Y.. yes. Uhm. I did it. It's here, but I haven't quite completed it..."

"The fuck do you mean, you haven't finished it yet? You had all weekend, and the paper is due today. What the hell did you do during the weekend because you sure as hell don't have any friends and don't even say parties, who would invite you to any?!"

I could feel my face turn red in embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

"Like hell you are. Where's your paper?"

I searched my bag and held it out as she snatched it from me, got a pen from her bag and crossed out my name from the front page, replacing it with hers.

" There. Now you'll fail the paper instead of me. Maybe that'll teach you to keep your word." She sneered, walking away.

I could have sworn I heard her mutter "Bitch" under her breath, but maybe I'm overthinking it.

I turned to my locker and tried taking in deep breaths to compose myself. Today is going to be a really long day.

Evie

Waking up Monday morning with the same routine was painful. I'm the middle child of a family of three kids. My older brother Joshua and my baby sister Joan who both never shut up early in the morning.

Josh starts his day playing his loud metal music from his speaker, it's actually become our alarm, I'm surprised the neighbors don't complain. Then his damn music becomes the start of Joan's yelling and my mom screaming at him to turn his music down. Dad has learnt to ignore everything but I get a literal headache each morning so it's no surprise that I always hurry my morning chores and quickly dress up to get out of the house.

There's a loud horn outside and my mom screams my name almost immediately.

"Evie!! Corinne's waiting for you!"

"Coming mom!" I scream back, grabbing my bag and running down the stairs, to the kitchen.

"Here, I packed your sandwich for you to eat in the car. You're so skinny, you'd disappear at this rate" Mom scolds, handing me a brown lunch bag.

I roll my eyes at her exaggeration. "You're too much, Mom." I say, kissing her cheeks.

"You love me still. Now go!"

I head out of the kitchen and find dad at the dining table. I greet him, kissing his cheek and head out.

"Tell Corinne to drive safe." I hear him yell as I close the door.

I walk towards my friend's black camry, signal for her to open the doors and slide into the front seat.

"Good morning, beautiful." She says with a grin on her face.

Rolling my eyes, I say, "Shut up. Dad says you should drive safe."

She gives an exasperated sigh, making me giggle. "I knock down a stop sign one time...."

She starts her engine and drives us off to school, while I rest my head on the window, eyes closed.

Almost immediately, I feel the car stop and Corinne nudging me to get out. With a deep sigh, I grab my bag and get out of the car. Once Corrine is sure her doors are locked, she swings her arm around my shoulder and we walk towards the front door of west point high.

"Are you ready for another day in hell?" She asks with a shit eating grin on her face.

Rolling my eyes, I mutter a short "Screw you" before walking through the doors.

It was somewhat difficult to get to our lockers, thanks to the regular crowded hallway but we made it anyway. I grabbed my text book and shoved my jacket in it just as Corinne nudged me.

"Eye Candy, 3 'o' clock."

I turned towards the 3 'o' clock direction and caught sight of a curvaceous, auburn haired beauty. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach almost immediately. Kelly Price. The girl I've been in love with since forever.

"I can see your drool, Evie. Stop it."

I checked my lips immediately, but feeling no traces of saliva, I smacked Corinne's shoulder playfully.

" Don't tease me like that."

"Hey! Relax. It's not like she notices you or anything."

"Corinne....."

"What? It's true. She barely notices anyone except the people she can screw over. What do you even see in her? She's a horrible person. Look at what she's doing now."

She points at Kelly who's cornered a frightened girl to her locker, her face contorted in an ugly scowl.

"Not even 5 seconds in school and she's already bullying someone."

Sighing, I turn to Corinne who has a huge frown on her face. "I believe that beneath all that bad girl vibes she gives, she's a really good person. Don't ask me how I know. I can just feel it. I'm almost never wrong about these things, you know? Maybe she's just too scared to open up to someone."

Corinne takes a minute to process my words, staring at Kelly, before muttering a quiet "Maybe."

"If only she'd notice me."

The bell rings, bringing me out of my reverie and I sober up, close my locker and head to class, arm-in-arm with Rinne.

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