Watch your back

Chapter 1:

Great. First day of tenth grade. Phew. I can't wait to get out of this prison, I'm now in tenth grade, 15 years old. The bullying gets worse each year. Ever since sixth grade I've been bullied... and since my dad died...

It was a sunny afternoon, just an ordinary day, or so I thought. Lying in my bed, texting my best friend Alex, making summer plans since 8th grade was nearly finished. I hear muffled sobs, what is that? The familiar shuffling of my mom's slippers coming up the steps to my bedroom. The sobbing gets louder. "Mom? Are you okay?" I rush out of my bedroom, worried, to find my mom standing there buried in a pile of tissues, held in her hands covering her red teary face. "I-It's your father" she struggled to say "What about him, mom??" Scared, I repeat myself "Mom??" She hesitates, before saying, "he was-sh-shot in the chest, hunny I'm sorry, dad isn't going to live." She takes another breath "he's in the hospital now, we need to go see him before-" She lets out a huge sob, I join in. I was shocked. "lets get in the car."

It felt like the longest drive of my life. My face felt like a big red balloon waiting to pop, I'd been crying so hard. I just wanted to die. We arrived at the hospital and checked in to see my dad. "Rory Bruce" I said in the clearest voice I could muster. "Sure thing, right this way." Said the nurse, very blankly. "Dad!" I cried out. There I saw my dad lying in the hospital bed, barely alive."Aude...sweetie.." He whispered. "Dad.." I said at such a low voice level it was barely audible. "Aude, I want you to know, that I love you." Tears welled up in my eyes, "I love you too Dad.." I whispered while leaning down to kiss him on the forehead. "And...I need you to have this-" he struggled to pull out a blue pendant from his pocket and very carefully placed it in my hand. "What's this?" I said, sounding confused. "Keep it safe. I don't want anyone getting hurt, lets just say it's very special and at the end of the road it has it's place." he told me before becoming more drowsy. What the hell is that supposed to mean? He must be going crazy. That didn't make sense. I held his hand and cried. and cried. until I couldn't do anything more but say. "I love you dad. Goodbye."

I cried for days, not knowing what to do with my life. My dad, the only human being who I felt loved by, was gone. Alex? She was moving to Florida for her moms job while I'm stuck here in B.C. I have nobody. What was there to live for? Scratch that. I had to think positive. But that's not possible, is it? It's only been about a year since dad died, and I still can't stop thinking about what he said: "lets just say it's very special and at the end of the road it has it's place." Is it random B.S from the medication or did he really need to get that message to me? I guess I'll never know.

I ran down the stairs for breakfast dreading the fact that school started in 23 minutes and I hadn't eaten breakfast or changed out of my pajamas. "Hunny? There's cereal in the cupboard and fruit on the table!" Yelled mom from the living room. She was unemployed, and we were living off the money from dads will, which wasn't much. She better find work soon or we"ll be living on the streets. "Yeah! Thanks mom!" I shouted back, "Have a good day at school!" she reminded me. Oh yeah. School. I don't have time for breakfast, I grabbed a banana and started peeling it while hopping on one leg putting on my sweatpants. Multi-tasking, kinda my thing.

I hopped on the schoolbus and right away I regretted wearing sweatpants. I felt them get tugged down right to my knees. I"d been pants'd. I hastily pulled them up and pulled my t-shirt over my pants so that wouldn't happen again, all I heard was laughter, circling my head, I turned around to see Gary Fletcher, the cruelest person you'd ever meet.

"Nice underwear Audrey" More laughter. "Thanks-" I pushed him hard making him fall over onto some nerd. As I was making my way to the back of the bus, I saw an empty seat until the 2 most horrible girls pushed me out of the way and took the seat. "Whoops, Sorry." Kailey said in a sarcastic tone, she put something on the bus seat. We used to be bestfriends back in 4th grade, until I started getting bullied and she didnt want anything to do with me. Her stupid sidekick, Angie, along by her side. "Yeah Audrey, our mistake-why don't you take this seat?" Angie said in her bitchy tone "Im fine." I said sounding defeated. "Take it." Kailey pushed me into the seat where she of course put some mushy food, chilli. More laughter. I was done. My hands turning into fists I picked up the chilli in my hands and threw it in her face. "Sorry Kailey," I said sarcastically. "it slipped."