Beta of Beacon Hills

Chapter 1

It was the morning of the first day of my sophomore year. I was sitting on my bed with dried tears and was trying to glue together the mess of wood and strings I had laid out on the blanket on the floor.

I didn't care that I couldn't play the instrument again after what Gladys had done to it, I just needed it to be okay.

I heard a knock on the door and scrambled to hide the pieces under my bed.

"Wake up, Melarey! We need to get going!" Nathan raised his voice to make sure I heard him.

I checked the mirror to make sure I had no glue on my jeans and my black T-shirt looked decent enough under the warm brown jacket that uncle Bobby had gifted me for my sixteenth birthday a few months ago.

"Mel!" Gladys roared from the stairs.

"I'm up!" I shouted back in the same hoarse tone she had used.

I could almost feel her glare travel up the stairs and through the door, hitting me right in the face.

I did a quick simple braid and put it over my shoulder. I took my school bag that had been resting beside my go-to duffel bag with all my basic essentials.

I rushed down the stairs, the Wellers waiting at the door with annoyed expressions. Upon reaching them, I was confused when they didn't open the door to go into the car.

Suddenly, Nathan ripped my bag off of my shoulders. I rolled my eyes at the realization when he zipped it open to check that it only had the school stuff in it.

Nathan nodded at Gladys when they made eye contact and Gladys turned to me.

"You need to get yourself a job. From now on you buy your own stuff."

I had been with them for little over a month and the only thing they had bought me was the food that they were required to feed me by law.

With that we left the house and they took me to school in complete silence. I was fine with that, I had nothing to say to them that wouldn't get me punished or thrown back into the orphanage anyway.

Before I could jump out of the car at the school, they locked the doors and warned me to not cause any trouble. Once I got through the school's blue double doors, I let out a huge breath of relief.

Unlike most students, The Beacon Hills High School was home for me. I had some of my favorite memories in here and the school had been one of the very few constants in my life. I also loved to learn and of course, I had Bobby here.

Speaking of, there he was, walking by basically still half asleep with a mug of coffee in his hands.

"Coach!" I cheered, walking towards him with open arms.

"Don't call me that!" He mimicked me.

I laughed as he gave me an one armed hug. He didn't like me calling him anything that seemed formal the same way that he didn't let anyone else besides me call him Bobby.

"How ya doing, kid?"

"Better now that I'm here. What about you? You look like you just crawled out of the Eichen House!"

"Oh, that would be a vacation compared to this hellhole." My uncle grumbled.

He took a sip from his mug and scrunched up his face. "I have about a gazillion things I have to get done before the first bell rings. I woke up late. I have no idea where I put all of my start of the year syllabus. All the kids, besides you obviously, are stupid! Someone gave my phone number to Greenberg! My coffee has gone cold and it has NO alcohol in it! My day is officially ruined. Ruined!" He walked away at the end, giving his coffee to a random student and yelling to god knows who.