Ambulance Oh - Two

Chapter 1

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

The vibrating of her phone on the wooden nightstand awoke Jackie from her sleep, ushering her involuntarily into a brand-new day.
It always takes her a few minutes to muster the willpower necessary to push herself out of bed, bleary eyes blinking rapidly. An exhausted grumble to nobody in particular escapes Jackie's dry lips as she took in the sun shining through the thin curtains.
Even though it was nowhere close to her eyes, she still runs a hand along her forehead in an ingrained movement from a while back. Her dirty blonde hair is now much too short to be any sort of an inconvenience. It had earned her about a week or so of ridicule across town, but most people had moved on to other gossip. Apparently there were more important things to discuss than that blonde girl's stupid-looking men's haircut.
As she slowly rolled over onto her back, an uncomfortable pressure made itself known -- a spiral notebook, residue from a long night of studying for a test she knew she was going to fail anyway.

Counting herself lucky she didn't impale herself on one of the many pencils scattered across her bed, Jackie slowly got to her feet. Tawny amber eyes dart around as she walks over to her closet in the early morning light, careful not to trip over something and kill herself. That, honestly, would be a really stupid way to die.
After a few seconds of deliberation, a loose T-shirt emblazoned with the local rescue squad's logo was taken off its hanger, followed by a pair of jean shorts that displayed her legs extremely well, as well as probably violating the school's dress code. In theory, that is; nobody ever enforced that. Besides, the September weather hadn't quite let go of summer's temperatures yet.

After a lightning-fast shower, and after a breakfast at the small table at which neither parent was present, Jackie shrugged on her backpack and headed out the door -- nearly tripping over an empty bottle.
Trudging along the dirt road to the school bus stop, Jackie had plenty of time alone with only her and her thoughts.
Which, generally, sucked pretty bad.
The near-constant stress of tests, quizzes, and homework was getting to her, as well as the very real threat of failing high school -- sure, the year had only just started, but the multiple D's and couple F's didn't quite bode well.
As the bus, finally, trundled up to her stop, Jackie had to mentally brace herself to climb up those dirty steps and into a seat.

Besides, she might even be able to catch a few minutes of sleep.

—

A/N: Well, hi! Thanks for finding my little story! Just a few things you should know:
There will be plenty of dark themes, like violence, abuse, self-harm, mental issues, and more. The appropriate warnings will be added at the beginning of each chapter. Please note that the author (that's me!) will make every effort she can to not fetishize these topics, but instead treat them with the severity they deserve.