until the dawn

one

"Estrella Dawn Salas." The school counselor, Mrs Pearson greeted, taking out a file from a cabinet and placing it on her desk. She stood behind her desk looking down at me and sighed, what does that mean?

"Mrs Pearson..." I said, greeting her back. This was something unusual for me, not speaking to the school counselor, but getting pulled out of English just to have my weekly session with her. It was currently 13:59, so I was missing the last period of today, although I can't complain, English isn't the most captivating subject ever, so this was a nice reason to skip class.

"It says here that you've been skipping class a lot in the last month, does this have anything to do with your sister?" She asks opening the file. God I hate this topic, ever since the whole incident happened with my sister it's all everyone speaks about, just reminding me even more about what she went through.

"Mrs Pearson I really don't wanna talk about this, every time I come here we talk about the same thing over and over again. I don't know how therapy works, but isn't it supposed to help you with your problems, not make you feel more shitty about them?" I ask bitterly, trying to change the topic, the last thing I'd like to do right now is talk about my sister.

"Estrella I need you to trust me, trust that I have your best interests at heart and I want to help, truly. But when you're shutting me out and and getting in all sorts of trouble, helping you is a challenge." She tries saying warmly, almost making it sound as if I'm a burden. I roll my eyes and shake my head, why am I even here?

Silence fills the room before she says, "You've been skipping class, arriving late, not doing your homework or assignments, not showing up to any of the clubs or societies you joined." I frown at all the things she lists, how does she know all that? "I know the incident that happened to your sister effected you a lot, but my dear that is no excuse to be doing all this. Instead of trying to get better it seems like you're just letting yourself down, letting everyone down!"

I sigh, taking in everything she said. Just because I'm slacking a bit at school right now doesn't mean I'm letting anyone down. I look at my watch again, it's only 14:09, when is this day going to end? 

Mrs Pearson lets out a loud breath, trying to calm herself down, "I know this past month has been really hard for you, all your teachers understand that but I'm afraid you've just been getting in too much trouble..." I haven't even been getting in trouble, what is she on about? Yeah I've skipped class and been late but everyone does this, and I mean everyone. "You unfortunately have detention this afternoon, I hope you go to it because it will be beneficial for you, you can do all the homework you haven't done in this time."

My eyes widen, what, detention!? "Mrs Pearson I know I haven't been the best student lately, but I think you're overreacting, I don't need detention!" I say, slightly raising my voice, standing up out of the chair. "Please, I just wanna enjoy my Friday! I can't enjoy it if I'm gonna be spending 4 hours, staring at 4 walls doing the most boring homework ever, with people I'm not even sure go to this school!" 

"Estrella you brought this on yourself, now own up to the consequences of your actions! I don't want to hear anything else you have to say!" She spits out angrily, pointing her knobbly fingers at me with a big red ring fitted tightly around it.

Before I get the chance to state something else, I get interrupted by the sound of the school bell. Ugh, now I really do have to leave. Mrs Pearson looks at me one more time before walking around her desk and opening the door, signalling for me to go to detention. I just sigh and walk out of her office, already thinking about how boring detention is going to be.

I decide to stop at the bathroom quickly to prepare myself for the longest 4 hours of my life. As I'm walking through the hallway of Oak Hill High, I see 2 familiar faces head in my direction. Noa and Trinity, my 'bestfriends', I'm not sure if I can still call them that. We've been bestfriends since the beginning of middle school and now we're all Juniors. 

"Hey Stella, are you okay? I got worried when Mrs Pearson's called you out of class like that." Noa asks, giving me a warm smile. "Yeah, she just told me that I have detention for skipping class and stuff, which sucks ass but whatever."

"There's this party tonight if you wanna come, it's at Max Ashwell's. We hope you can make it since you haven't been to one since, you know..." Trin adds, creating an uncomfortable tension around us that you could literally cut with a knife. We haven't really hung out since the incident with my sister, Carmen. I sort of distanced myself from them, I didn't really want to see anyone after everything with her. This caused the trio to turn into a duo, sad isn't it?

"I'll try and come, I don't know, I'll decide by tonight" I try and lighten the mood, showing them a smile. "Yeah I've got to get to detention now, uhh, see you tonight maybe?" I say, lightly waving at them before continuing walking to the bathroom.

Once I get inside I look at myself in the mirror, making sure I don't look too bad. I find an empty stall and immediately lock it before pulling out a cigarette from my pocket and lighting it. I know smoking is bad for you and whatever, but it sort of calms me down, like weed does but I don't have any on me right now and I definitely don't wanna show up to detention high.  

I sigh, pulling the cigarette to my lips and taking my last puff, savoring this moment before I walk back into that hell. I can't wait til this day is over so I can sleep, and tomorrow's the weekend which lights up my mood a bit, maybe I'll even go to Max's party. Do I want to though? Max is such an airhead that annoys the shit out of me because he thinks his all that, when in reality his just an average white guy that plays sports and has rich parents. I'll think about that later, right now I have to get to detention, I assure myself before throwing the cig on the floor and trample on it, making sure that it's been fully put out.I unlock the stall and walk out the bathroom, heading to the detention room, hopefully I'll make it in time so I won't have to spend extra time here. 

I eventually reach the room and open the door, scanning the room to see which lucky people made it here today. I can only spot a few people, Jade Davis, Theodore Ayad and Max Ashwell. There's 1 more girl sitting at the back of the class, with sunglasses on and has a mop of curly light-brown hair of her head that falls to her shoulders, I love her hair. 

I walk in and sit down at one of the desks in front of the class, the desk in front of Max's. Why the hell did I choose this seat? "Funny seeing you here Carmen, I mean Estrella." Max states from behind me and I turn around, looking him dead in the eye. Did he really just call me by my sisters name? "Oh very funny Max, why don't you keep your little comments to yourself huh?" I express, trying to hide the fact that what he said hurt. I can tell this is going to be a very long 4 hours.

AUTHORS NOTE:

First chapter done, how do we feel about it? I hoped I introduced Stella in the right tone, so she doesn't come off in like a bratty type of way. Soon you'll find out what happened to her sister so I'm super excited for that. I don't know when I'll actually update this again but let's hope I do better at updating this than I did with my old book. Anyways I hope you guys have a good rest of the day/night, bye lovies !

11/06/2022

Wordcount : 1451