Schoolyard Games

Chapter One

 

Kate Anderson sat outside of her trailer waiting for the bus in the chilly fall air. The minutes seem like seconds, and the fast the clock ticks the more dread fills her. When she thinks about it, it tares her up. So she doesn't think about it. In her small hands was a paperback with a slightly bent cover with a picture of a half naked man with a sultry gaze. She smiled to herself as she turned the page; it was just getting to the good part. There were no life lessons hidden amongst the pages, no deeper meanings or abstract thoughts, but that didn't matter to her. They were her escape.

She pretends that she is the main heroine in her book. When she's reading she is no longer Kate Anderson, and that's all she ever wanted, to not be Kate Anderson. In the pages she's no longer awkward and gawky; instead she's smooth and seductive. In the book she's strong and self reliant, she stands up for herself. In the book she just smiles and every guy falls down to their knees for her. Sometimes she wished she could just live in the book forever, and never have to go out into the real world.

She was ripped away from her fantasy world by the sound of the screen door slamming shut. October, her brother walked out into the front yard with his hands jammed into his pockets. Kate tried not to be jealous as he walked by. It wasn't his fault that it all came so easy to him.

They had the same blood running through their veins, as close as siblings could be, they were twins. Yet still, it seemed that Kate couldn't compare to her brother.

He pushed back his messy blonde hair to slide sunglasses over his baby blues.

His clothes were in style, even if he only had three outfits to his name. They could barely afford soap half the time, let alone decent clothing, but October spent every penny that ever went to him on clothing. He wore leather and brand names, torn jeans that cost more money then Kate could even believe. Kate chose to buy her clothes at thrifts stores and spent what little money she saved up on books. She wore sweats and baggy t-shirts made for men four times her size. Some of her clothing was stained and some of it torn.

"It's fucking cold out here" October spat bitterly as he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his front pocket and lit one up. He still had another year before he could smoke then legally, but he doubted his meth head neighbors were going to turn him in. Kate hated that he smoked; it seemed like just rolling up dollar bills and lighting them on fire. "Shit. It just turned fall, it can't be getting this fucking cold already"

They were both quiet for a moment, both thinking the exact same thing. They needed to find some money to buy winter coats. They didn't say anything though; they both knew that the other knew. They just stood in silence until October's ride pulled up to take him to school, and the bus came for Kate.

Kate spent most of the day hiding in the pages of her book. It wasn't that the book was a real page turner or anything, but rather it was because when she was reading she was no longer in reality. No longer surrounded by her vicious classmates and trapped by the walls of the school.

She couldn't hide during gym. She was forced to leave her escape method in her locker and was thrown in with rest of her malicious piers. Luckily she didn't have to face it alone. Waiting for her on the gym floor was her best friend, Peter. They began to run there laps around the gym, side by side, even though she knew that Peter could run laps around her.

They almost made a ridiculous pair. Peter was a monster; he towered over normal people by at least eight inches, let alone Kate who was towered over by normal people. He wasn't just tall either, his hands were as big as Kate's face and the rest of his body matched. At least when Peter was around no one dared pick on Kate. Peter was the kind of guy who could knock someone out with just one punch. Though getting Peter to punch someone was a completely different ordeal, the boy felt bad about hurting a fly.