The Missing Piece

Hope

The blaring monatomic sound of my alarm wakes me up at precisely 7:00. I want to just lay in bed and skip one day. All I want is one day to myself where I don’t have to go through the motions. But I know I have to push these thoughts away and get right to my routine if I don’t want to upset mother.

I quickly start getting dressed and head downstairs. I’m running a little bit late, but I think I can still slip out before mother realizes.

“I thought you had left already.”

I tense and turn to face my mother.

“I wanted to make a couple of changes to my paper this morning, and time got away from me. I’m extremely sorry, Mother.”

“Let me see the changes."

I internally panic. I hoped she would have just let it go. 

“Can I show you when I get back from school? I’m already running quite late as it is.”

“Show me the changes now.”

I cringe at her cold tone and sigh, defeated. I take out my paper and hand it to her.

She reads it quickly and looks up at me with a cold look.

“This is the same paper you last showed me.”

I hang my head and murmur a quick apology. What happens next is something that completely takes me by surprise.

I feel something connect with the side of my face. I’m caught off guard and the force of the blow sends me to the floor.

I raise my hand to my stinging cheek as I look up at my mother. Tears are welling up in my ears.

“Don’t you ever lie to me again. Now go to school, and you better not be late.”

I scurry to gather my belongings and race out of the door. All the way to school I hold my cheek and think about what happened. I’m so lost in my thoughts that I don’t notice the person coming right around the corner of the hallway.

I run into something and I’m thrown to the floor for the second time this morning.

“Shit. Sorry. I didn’t see you.”

I look up into the most beautiful green eyes. He’s holding out a hand to help me up. I take his hand and he helps me up. I immediately start gathering the objects that I had dropped.

“Here, let me help you. My name’s Aiden by the way.”

I look at him, but continue gathering my scattered notebooks.

“This is the part where you tell me your name,” he chuckles.

“Hope.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Hope. Is this your first day here?”

I don’t say anything. I don’t exactly know him, but he’s in two of my classes. I know that he hangs out with the wrong kids. And I know that I can’t be anywhere near this guy. So, I mutter a thanks and take off to my first period class.

The first half of my day goes on just like every other day. I just go through the motions and put on a face so no one will ask questions.

“Hey, Hope,” someone says from beside me.

The voice startles me and I jump. I hear a deep laugh as I turn to look at him. I immediately regret it. It’s that guy from earlier. What was his name. Adam? Austin? I can’t remember.

I give him a small smile and turn away.

“How’s your first day going?”

I feel annoyed at this. We’ve had at least two classes together since Jr. High.