Remmington's School for Troubled Teens

Chapter 1

This was the 6th foster home that I had been kicked out of this year.

My mom died when I was 11 and well my dad. He was a drunk idiot who I don't speak of because of the terrible things that happened in the house on the corner.

No one wanted a teenager with scarred wrists and a broken heart.

Hell, no one wanted a teenager.

But me, I didn't care. My walls were built too high and too strong to allow myself to care. Love was a myth. And that was evident in my life.

Love was a fairy tale, something that society made up because without the thought of it, how long until we all killed ourselves?

"Scarlett Trixie!" I snapped out of my thoughts and followed the nurse who smelled like she owned 20 cats and had the personality of a woman who was already on her 7th marriage.

She led me down a red painted hall and examined my weight, height, blood pressure and looked for any signs of abuse on my exposed skin.

The nurse then sat me in a white room which I had seen too many times, and told me that the doctor would be with me shortly. And by shortly she meant twenty five minutes.

Twenty five minutes to think. To overthink. To overthink about the sixth time a foster parent had kicked me out. To overthink about the swirling of the cigarette smoke that was poetically detrimental to my health. To overthink about my sweet mother who hopefully watched over me wherever she was. To overthink about where she was. To overthink about the sound of my blood dripping from my wrists to the sink. Every. Damned. Day.

"Loosing yourself in thought can sometimes be a good thing. But loosing yourself in thoughts that give you a look like that is never good."

Dr. Ella. She tried. Just like every other psychiatrist and therapist. But the thing is, they say the same rehearsed lines to everyone because those lines are so vague, that anyone can apply them to their life.

"Scarlett," she sighed, "this is the the 6th home you've been kicked out of this year." Dr. Ella flipped through my chart and looked me in the eye with sorrow filled eyes.

"I'm going to be honest with you, and I think that you're a smart girl and you already know this. You're a troubled girl. You lost your way and that is understandable with the amount of trauma that you have been through. But Ackred Foster Care can't find any other homes to put you in. No one wants to take on the responsibility of a teenage girl who has been arrested 4 times for DUI's, assault and twice for stealing."

I knew that already. There wasn't anything else she could say. She couldn't sugar coat it because I could see through every Willy Wonka sugar coated lie they fed me, and she knew that.

"Well, I guess that is it then. I'll just be another 16 year old prostitute. I'll fend for myself on the alley ways of Seattle. And then, in a couple of weeks on the news, you'll see '16 year old prostitute found murdered' as a headline. So, Dr. Ella, I guess this is goodbye. At least I won't wake up at 40 with the awful realization that I have been working with 'troubled teens' all of my life and I just couldn't help them."

I could honestly care less. I wasn't going to make it to 25 anyways. Live or die I just did not care. I was almost completely emotionless. Everyone and everything I loved was either dead or just gone. There was nothing left for me here. I just didn't care.

"Scarlett. You and I both know that that isn't how it is going to be. There is a wonderful school in Pasadena, California. 'Remmington's School for Troubled Teens.' A beautiful place where you can interact with other kids your age and maybe even learn some social skills."

I rolled my eyes, "Wow sounds like fun. When do I get to go to this magical land that you speak of?" My monotone voice really giving the sarcasm a stretch.

"There isn't another option, Scarlett! You can't get anywhere in life by stealing and doing drugs! How do you think you are going to make a living?"

She was obviously getting flustered and that almost made me want to laugh. Almost.

"You know, no one really has a good time in life. They're all forced into following rules, living up to society's extreme expectations. But, there's the people like me. The ones who have fun and die laughing. It's the only way to survive without getting hurt in this world."

And honestly that's how I felt. That's the way I wanted to be. I didn't want to be trapped by society's stupid reality. I wanted to stray from the line of the marching band. I wanted to get out of the box society trapped me in. And little did I know, I would have help along the way.