Junior Year

Chapter 1

The grey sky stared at me like it was waiting for something. It felt like it wanted something, something I could give, but I had nothing. In fact, I had some requests myself. Number one, I want to go back to New York. Number two, I don't want my parents to get divorced. Number three, I don't want to go to boarding school, just because my parents don't want to deal with me. Yes, I know you have requests, but I have some too, I thought to the sky.

I had spent the last twelve hours traveling and mourning the loss of every single thing that's familiar to me. In those eight hours, I cried, slept, but mostly thought about everything I had left behind: my home, my school, my friends, and my parents. I also thought about what I was looking forward to: nothing. My mind was blank when I thought of "all the exciting things I was going to do" like mom suggested I do. Oh dear father, if you could just, not sign the divorce papers and act as if you didn't know mom was having an affair... Even if I really wanted this, I knew this would only be unfair to my father, and I love him too much to not give him the chance to be happier somewhere else.

I was born and raised in the Big Apple and I absolutely loved it there. I spent some summers with my friends and cousins in California, but there was nothing better than an early November morning in New York: wake up around six in the morning, get ready, and have breakfast with my parents before leaving for school with my best friend, Annie. I would pick her up every morning before school (well, my driver would) and we would talk and catch up on homework before we got to school. I can remember so clearly the day when Dave, our driver, stopped abruptly in an attempt to not crash the car in the famous NYC traffic, and all my coffee fell on my biology notes. Not my best day, to say the least.

My memories were disrupted when the train stopped. Where am I? I swear to God if my parents sent me all the way to England, just so that I go to a crappy boarding school because they don't want to deal with I'm going t-. My internal monologue was interrupted by what I saw: a man in a black suit and tie waiting for me, with an iPad with my name on it, Piper Stone, in Times New Roman font. At least, I wasn't going to have to wait for a cab to take me to school. I was getting up from my seat when I realized that no one was getting off of the train. I was the only one in this section of the train that was staying here. For everyone else, including myself, this place looked like the middle of nowhere; but for a student at Aston Prep School, this was the first sight they had of a new school year. When I got off the train, the man in the suit had already taken my bags and was just waiting for me.

"Good day, Ms. Stone. I'm William. Your father asked me to pick you up here, at the station so that you could get to school safely and without complications." William said with a smile on his face. He looked around the age of thirty, but his voice hinted that he was older than that. Good for him.

"Thank you for picking me up," I said, trying to make this less awkward than it already was. I had always been shy, and most people thought I was rude. But now, after everything, I have started to not care what people think. When William figured that I didn't have anything left to say, he picked my bags and started walking to the parking lot. We didn't have to walk long before we found the shiny black car. Good, it looks comfortable enough.

"How long do you think the car ride to Aston is going to be?" Just when I finished talking, I realized the tone I was using, it made me look like a spoiled brat, but before I could excuse myself, William answered.

Smiling, he said, "It's going to take around an hour, it's not that far, seeing as how far the school is from any city." Great, I really will be in the fucking middle of nowhere. I just smiled at him and got in the car.

The car ride was just perfect, even if I didn't want to admit it. William didn't try to make conversation, and he let me relax. He didn't even look bothered when I slowly put the wall between the front side of the car and the back seats. I was able to listen to my podcast, then when it got too boring for me, I changed to some music. I loved reading, and the vibes that the weather and the car ride were giving me were perfect for some reading, of course, I couldn't do that because I would get car sick, and today is just not the day for that. I was able to go through my phone for a while and check everyone's social media. Annie had posted an Instagram story of her, Sophia, Carter, and Luke playing golf and drinking, ugh, I wished I was there. After her story, there were many more to come: Sophia posted the same thing as Annie did, Aaron had also posted a video of his view from Central Park with the song Do I wanna know? By the Arctic Monkeys in the background. After that, I checked Snapchat, wow what did I miss? I had twenty-four snaps from my friends and other people I knew. What was going on in New York? I opened Cole's snap because if something was going on, it was probably because of him. "Pip, I really hope this is the first snap you open. I know it looks like there was more going on but I swear it didn't." What the hell? By the choice of words I knew he was talking about a girl in a picture with him, that looked compromising, but who was that girl? After some quick snapping, I finally found the original picture: Cole and Mia kissing. You could see it so clearly. I could feel the tears in my eyes, burning and begging to be displayed, but I forced them back in. I broke up with Cole for this reason: distance damages relationships, and I had my parents as an example.