Broken // Bellarke

3- Fresh start

It was early September, the sweet scent of summer was still in the air, and today was the first day of school. Most teens enjoyed the first day; some looked forward to it, others didn't mind, but me? The mere aspects of today terrified me. Raven and I were seniors this year, though we missed the last two months of junior year, and I was scared I had missed anything important.

She had decided to start over at the new school with me the moment my decision had been made, and we had spent the rest of the summer helping me move in with my brother. Convincing Marcus to leave me to explore the world had been more complicated than I ever thought. He had grown to love me like his own daughter, and it took a few weeks for me to persuade him this was best for the both of us. But, in the end, I knew he was happy to finally travel, even if it wasn't with Mom. He was finally starting his healing process, focusing on himself and slowly moving on. I would surely miss him, but he would call, and this way, we both had our best shots at happiness again.

I hadn't slept much last night, and all my things were packed and ready, so I wouldn't have much of a choice but not to back out, although last-minute jitters were starting to kick in.

"Murph? I'm going to school!" I yelled to my brother, picking up my backpack.

"Mkay, bye!" He answered nonchalantly from the couch, where he lay on his phone. It hadn't taken long for me to cope that Murphy didn't do much of his days apart from partying all night and staying on this couch all day.

Dad had had a well-earned life, and Murphy had gotten his share of the money not long ago when he turned 18 and lived easily off of it. He kept telling me he would get a job and earn income, but I doubted he had even tried.

I sighed. He needed a girlfriend, I thought. That would make him question his life choices and maybe even make him shave once or twice a month.

I hurried down the residence stairs and walked onto the parking lot. A car honked, and I turned to find a white Mercedes rolling towards me. Raven stopped a few meters away, and I ran towards her, climbing into the passenger seat.

"Hi!" She exclaimed, practically jumping from her seat in excitement. "So, are you excited?" I stared down at my lap silently. "Well, I am! Did you know this new school has an INSANE robotics program and many other activities like cheerleading, dancing, fencing..."

I nearly laughed. Did Raven see me as the cheerleading type? She looked back at me with twinkling eyes, and I smiled at her enthusiasm. She turned on the music and sped off towards our new school a little too fast for my taste.

<3<3<3

The morning went by in a blink of an eye; we were given our timetables (with barely any classes together), went to a few of them(luckily, no teachers introduced me to the class), and soon enough, it was lunchtime.

My locker was fortunately just a few feet from Raven's, which relieved me greatly when I first learned so. I stuffed my books inside and rushed over to her.

"You ready to go?"I asked, jutting my chin to where I assumed the cafeteria was.

"Oh," she pursed her lips, "well, the thing is, the robotics club has their first meeting today at lunch, so I'll have to join you later, sorry." She sent me a look of apology from where she crouched beside her locker, picking up a few more books.

"Oh, that's fine." I assured her, though I felt a pang of disappointment. I understood how important this meeting was to her, but I would have liked my best friend to be there for my first day at this new school, especially since her social skills were much more developed than mine.

<3<3<3

I sat alone at a table, nibbling silently on my bread and sketching a mystical-looking tree without aiming for anything, just going with my imagination. I didn't mind being alone; in fact, I mostly enjoyed the freedom of solitude, but sometimes I envied Raven's ease at making friends. She could just make a sarcastic comment, and three people would come rushing at once with an urge to befriend her. Sure, being in a bubble gives you time to think, but occasionally, you get a little tired of it, and having only one friend could be problematic sometimes.