Part of the Plan (Book 2 in the 'part of' series)

Chapter 1 normality strikes

Chapter 1 Normality Strikes

Harlow's POV

I woke up to my phone going off with a very annoying ringtone. It was time for me to get up for school. I really couldn't be bothered to face school today. I knew that it would be the same as every other day. Things changed when Aiden went to university. I was no longer that year 7 who was protected by his brother. I guess it wasn't too bad, it could be worse. I was just extremely stressed.

I groaned as I sat up and got out of bed. I really should start to sleep in Aiden's bed. Mine was too small for me to lie on comfortably now. I'd had it since I was in year 5, I was in year 10 now. It wasn't the only part of the house which wasn't up to date. I was painfully reminded of that when I stepped out of my bedroom and stood on a nail. I was used to the pain and regret, I did this often but never seemed to learn my lesson.

It didn't take me long to get ready. I had assumed that my father had already went off to work since his bedroom door was shut. I couldn't hear him walking around. It was a normal occurrence, to wake up mostly alone. Of course, My mother was downstairs but she was probably sleeping and would be for the rest of the day. She was rather ill and so she stayed downstairs. It was mainly in case she had an emergency, we wouldn't have to bring her down the stairs.

My breakfast was a boring bowl of cereal, meaning we ran out of milk. I wouldn't recommend eating plain cereal, it's not the nicest. I looked around for some dinner money but didn't find anything. I decided just to use the money I had on my card. Even though dad worked a lot, we still didn't earn enough, so the school gives me an extra pound or so to spend on food during the day.

It was a very small walk to school but I decided to leave a little bit early. I tried to take quite a while to get there. Walking to school was practically the only peace I had. It was usually quiet other than the music which I played in my headphones. It was always tempting to just get on a bus and skip school. I knew that I would never get away with it.

I had a few friends at school, I wasn't popular, rather very unpopular. I had my friend Emi. Her full name is Emerson but she didn't like to use it since it literally translates to 'son of Emery'. She thinks that Emi is much cuter. However, I've known her for quite a while and would say that cute isn't one of the first words which come into my head when I think of her. She is sassy and outgoing. She has gotten into quite a few fights in her time here so far, yet she never got expelled.

My school was exceptionally ordinary. It was rather big and it had rather good facilities. My favourite facilities benign the workshop in the design and technology department. I really loved to make things, wood being my favourite medium. I had made quite a few things that we use at home. I wasn't too bad at it but like everything,practice makes better.

"Yo, how low can you go?" I heard a voice say from behind me. I felt a small smile immediately appear on my lips as I turned towards Emi. We had been friends since year seven when we first met. We were in the same tutor and were rather forced to sit next to each other and interact. We actually didn't like each other at first. Then we got to know eachother one day in science and our relationship stayed pretty strong after that.

"Oh wow, so original." I chuckled at the brunette as she came to walk beside me. "Lookin' forward to the day?" I asked, knowing full well that she was not. She looked at me with a deadpan look and sighed. I gave another chuckle as we continued walking on through the open gates.

"I'm cooking today." She held up a bag of what seemed to be ingredients. "Two hours in a very warm kitchen full of idiots? No thank you." That was something that we agreed on. Others in the school weren't great when it came to being decent people. Sure, they were smart but none of them treated others with much respect or care. It gave the school quite the reputation.

"I don't blame you. You see, I have workshop today." I gave a slight grin. "Same idiots but with saws and knives." She nudged me slightly with a small smile on her own face. "At least you get food at the end of it." She seemed to be thinking about my comment before she nodded.

"That's if it's edible." I gave a huff at her response. Emi could cook rather well. She just liked to experiment a lot, it usually ended up alright other than one or two disasters. We had to keep our mouths shut in tutor today since we had an assembly. It was the same assembly which we had every year at this time. I didn't mind assembly, I just didn't like the repetition.

As someone who didn't like repetition, there was a lot of it in my life. I had the same classes every week where we practically did the same thing. At break time we went to the cafeteria and hung around until it was over, usually we had a pretzel to share during that time. Then at lunch we did the same, eating actual food this time. We didn't have a choice about going outside but we usually just hung around by the hill. Then the day was practically over.

Emi lived on the opposite side of the school from me so I was once again walking alone. I wasn't eager to get home, I knew that nothing would've changed. Everything will be just as it was when I got in. Mam would be asleep, dad would be out and I'd just be sat in my room doing homework.

With my eyes cast to the ground I opened the broken gate. I opened my front door and stopped in my tracks. I could see into the kitchen perfectly from where I stood. I was surprised to see a familiar face there. "Good afternoon." Aiden said to me as he turned around from doing the dishes.