Roses and Cherry Blossoms

Chapter 1

"I miss you mama, I miss you papa." I whisper, clutching the necklace with my right hand. They gave it to me for my seventeenth birthday, only a month ago. The two silver chains meet a tiny, barely identifiable butterfly at the bottom.

The necklace was the last thing they gave me, only two weeks before the accident.

"Evangeline Rose Jasper! Get down here right now, we have to leave!" My grandma shouts from downstairs, her decades of smoking clear in her voice as she coughs every few words.

"Okay Grandma!" I yell down to her, grabbing my new light pink backpack, I put a few flower pins on it and hanging from one of the zippers is a tiny stuffed bunny. It is so cute!

My black Mary Janes are brand new for the occasion, under them are my sheer white tights that have more opaque sections in the shape of little hearts all over them. I also have on a carnation pink tennis skirt and I am wearing a cropped black cardigan as a top, it ends right where my skirt ends, so no one can see any of my tummy.

Most of my light brown hair is down, my natural waves reaching about an inch above my elbows, the front pieces are pulled back with a white ribbon.

I throw on my black jacket and race down the staircase and rush out the door, getting into my grandmother's silver Buick where she is waiting, the car already running.

The drive is silent, as I expect it to be.

She drops me off near the doors, giving me a nod in place of a goodbye.

Evermore High is a larger school, built with red brick to be four floors high, black metal gates surrounding the structure.

My schedule was sent to my school email a few days ago, so I have it pulled up on my phone already.

I have time before my first class, so I rush to the bathroom and lock myself into one of the stalls.

The floor is probably dirty, but I fall down to it anyway. Hopefully no one has been in here since they cleaned the bathrooms last night. At least I hope they clean them daily.

Grandma and Grandpa get mad when I cry. They say I should be over it by now.

Now that I am alone, I let the tears pour down my face.

It has only been two weeks since I lost Mama and Papa. Since their date night ended with a drunk driver stealing them from the world. From me.

Mama worked from home, she was always with me, she never let me be alone.

Now, after seventeen years, the only two people I have ever known are gone.

Grandma and Grandpa don't like me, I know that much. They only took me in because I have less than a year before I turn eighteen and as they say, 'for some reason our daughter loved you'.

Mama never let me go to public school, claiming that no one would understand my disorder, or that she didn't want me to get attached to a teacher I would only have for a year, or a friend that may end up moving away.

She never wanted me to experience loss, knowing how much it devastates me.

Like the time when I was four and let my Care Bears VHS tape fly out of the car because I didn't realize what would happen if I opened the door to a moving vehicle. I cried over the loss of that movie for days.

They left me all alone. I know they didn't want to, but they promised they never would. They promised me they would come back home.

But here I am. Alone.

When the bell rings I force myself up.

I stop and look in the mirror, my eyes are red and puffy, but I walk out of the bathroom anyway, not wanting to be late on my first day, to my first class. I still need to put my jacket in my locker. I have never used a locker before!