☆ halcyon girl - five ☆

☆ chapter 1 ☆

I had always been the weird girl when I went to public school, and now that I was returning, I'm sure nothing would have changed. After five years of attending an all girls private school in Littleton, I was officially switching back to the public school system and attending Columbine High for my last two years of high school.

I had been the new girl before. When I started at a private school in sixth grade, everyone was tightly knit with their elementary school buddies, leaving me as the extra piece in the completed puzzle. Some girls would invite me to their birthday party, or ask if I'd like to tag along with them and their friends for lunch on a half day, but no one was really close with me. I'd say I had one decent friend. Her name was Brenna Chillcott and she was a bit of a know it all, but at least she talked to me.

The morning of the first day of school, I could barely sleep. I was already wide awake by the time my alarm went off, instantly hitting it and hugging myself in bed. I was completely terrified. Only minutes later did my mom barrel into the room and shake me, presuming I had slept through the alarm.

"Lily sweetie, wake up! It's time for-" I cut her off.

"I'm already up." I gazed out my window as I lied in bed, not facing her.

"Oh. Well, start getting ready. I'll go make breakfast!" She patted my arm and left at last, leaving me to my own nerve-racking thoughts.

Eventually, I made my way out of bed. I used my hands to throw some cheap drugstore foundation over my face. I added blue eyeliner in my waterline and mascara with some pink lipgloss. It didn't look great, but it did the job. I put on a floral dress with spaghetti straps that went down to around my knees. It appeared to be fairly hot outside, but I slipped a flannel over the outfit anyways. I didn't want people to think I was a freak already. I brushed my hair and put some black clips in it to hold it out of my face. The black contrasted well with my platinum blonde hair. Having done everything I needed to do to get ready, I begrudgingly went downstairs for breakfast.

My mom had made me some oatmeal with blueberries. She was going through a health kick, trying to become her best self after the divorce, even though it happened seven years ago. She practically had to fight with my dad to have custody of me on my first day. "She needs her mama," she said, "who else will give her the courage? That new toy of yours?" I was sitting on the couch when she had phoned him in the kitchen, but I still heard his sigh. My mom couldn't get it through her head that his "new toy" was now his wife of three years. He agreed nonetheless, clearly not willing to fight with my mom anymore.

"Oh, you look so pretty! Let me get the camera!" I had not even noticed my mom was watching me eat breakfast when she ran to the closet to get her old beat-up camera. I let her take a picture of me, closed mouth smile and all, before deciding it was high tide time I leave.

I slipped on my mary jane shoes with some striped socks, grabbed my black jansport bag, and left.

At private school, it was always too long of a distance for me to bike there and I always had to beg my parents to drive me. Columbine, however, was only an eight minute walk and a five minute bike ride. I shook my bike out of its rack in the garage and started to pedal.

When I got to the school, it seemed like not a lot of people biked. The student parking lot was pretty packed. I almost got hit by an old BMW, apologizing to the driver instantly to avoid conflict. I chained my bike up to the racks and readjusted my bag on my shoulders. This day would probably be awful.

Apparently, it was a blue day. That meant I had my first, third, fifth and seventh period classes. I was seeming to adapt nicely.

Seeing as it was already about 7:20 and I still had to navigate my first class, I decided against finding my locker. I could always just lug my bag around all day, and it appeared I would be doing just that. My first class was English, all the way on the opposite side of the building.