Chalk It Up To Fate

Chapter 1: Marshall

"Oh my god stop!" The blonde swats my shoulder, giggling. I look down to where she hit me then look back up at her. What is happening? I've never even met this girl. Her southern twang brings my eyes back to hers. "You're so funny." She runs her hand down my arm. Is she flirting with me? I bring the drink to my lips and take in the surroundings. The stars are glittering on the clear night with the moon shining on the barn behind the blonde. To my left, a different girl starts approaching. The bonfire highlighted her tear stained eyes.

"Can...can we go?" she asks with slurred speech. I respond, but I can't make out what I am saying. The devastated look on her face afterward reveals that whatever I said was not what she wanted to hear. The girl turns and stumbles away from me. The blonde to my right makes a snide remark, now pressing her chest against my arm. I can't hear what she is saying, only watching the girl walk away with a pit in my stomach. The blonde takes my face in her hands, turning my attention to her.

"Marshall" she says.

I stumble back. "Marshall!" she yells louder. I shake her off of me.

"Marshall!"

I jolted up in bed to my stepmother–Sarah–staring back at me.

"Are you kidding me?" Sarah berates. "What the hell are you doing? We've got to go!"

She turns, heading down the hallway before yelling "You've got 10 minutes before I leave you!"

I run my fingers through my hair, letting out the breath I've been holding. That dream felt so real. I shiver trying to get the pit out of my stomach. I turn to my nightstand and say goodmorning to a picture of my mother, one of the only momentos I have of her, and stand to get ready for school.

After a quick brush through my frizzy hair and getting the grime off my pearly whites, I get the courage to look in the mirror.

I'm not a total mess as I take in my jeans and plain tee. I pick up a strand of my light brown hair, deciding it's going to stay limp on my head, just barely hanging past my shoulders. I take in my blue eyes, which reminded me so much of the sad ones I faced in my dream. Hers was lined with makeup, making them pop. Today, I couldn't bother with the stuff.

"Time to go Marshall, I'm not going to be late for work on my first official day!"

I run down the stairs where I meet Sarah, critically taking in my outfit with a grimace on her face. "What?" I ask incredulously.

She sighs, grabbing her keys. "When I married your father I was so excited to have a girl."

I followed her out the door. Sarah continued "but what I expected and what I got are two different things." She finished. I smiled. "I'm better than what you imagined huh," I said.

"Oh definitely," she smiled back, getting into the driver's seat.

"You know I love you but it wouldn't kill you to humor me once? Wear a dress? Makeup? Do your hair?" She looked over my outfit one last time before putting the car in drive.

"Hey! You only gave me ten minutes. I was under pressure!" I exclaimed with mock annoyance.

Sarah turned to me, giving a pout before turning back on the road. I hear horror stories about step parents, but Sarah is as good as they come. I don't remember much of my mother. She died when I was five years old, leaving me to fend for myself against my father. He is a complicated man. My dad does not know how to take care of anyone other than himself, so when my mother died, he did everything in his power to get someone to take me off his hands short of putting me through foster care. No, if he gave me up, his reputation would be ruined.

I spent the majority of my life bouncing from town to town, watching my Dad try to sell off whatever new product he invented. In the 17 years that I've been alive, he has yet to make a worthy product, or a worthy father. The best decision he ever made was marrying Sarah and arguably the worst decision she had ever made.

Sarah and my dad dated for 6 months before tying the knot. They had the definition of a whirlwind relationship. He was romantic and sweet in the first year of their marriage, but by the second year, had drained all of their savings to launch his new product: a weight loss patch. Although the idea of losing weight without working out is great,the product is a complete rip off. Half of his buyers found out that it didn't work, while it gave the other half of his customers a rash.

Once Sarah found out, she promptly left him. She moved out of his house and found a vice principal job in her hometown Carolina, Georgia. When she made the move and asked me to come with her, I cried happy tears. I had only met Sarah's parents once at the wedding, and the house she bought was across the road from them.

Sarah is the closest thing I have to a parent, and I was glad that she wanted me as a daughter, but my father did not even object to me going with Sarah. That...that was a hard pill to swallow. Although I knew my dad saw me as a burden, the confirmation stung.

We pulled into the school...my new school Carolina High. I've always been a bit of a loner. Dad and I have never stayed in one place long enough for me to truly make any friends so I stopped attempting to after middle school. Yet, because of Sarah, I get to spend my last two years in the same place. The thought of making new friends isn't as unappealing as it used to be, and that sudden realization sent a wave of anxiety down my spine.

A knock on the window of the car pulled me out of my own head.

"Come on!" Sarah's muffled voice rose, before turning and rushing to the building.

I huffed and stepped out of the car. We had an hour before school actually started, but Sarah being the vice principal prompted her to get here sooner.

I caught up with Sarah, and she wrapped her arm around me as we walked through the door. She pulled me to her side and whispered in my ear, "Don't be afraid. I have a good feeling about this year." She brushed a piece of hair from my face and that gesture in itself made me want to cry. "You and me kid." I looked at her, suddenly grateful for her support.

We walked into the office, and Sarah gave me one last hug before heading further back. I stopped at the front desk and introduced myself.

The secretary barely looked away from her computer when she said, "Have a seat."

I turned and sat down in one of the chairs lined against the wall. A little while later, she came back around with a piece of paper in her hand.

"This is your schedule, locker number, combination, and student ID. Don't lose this. Does everything look ok?"

I took a quick glance, not really caring what was on it. The normal core classes seemed fine, and nothing looked different than what I've been working on at other schools. I looked at my electives hoping to find some blow off class like P.E. or Art. My eyes bugged out at seeing Journalism instead.

I got up, "I'm sorry but Journalism? Like yearbook? School newspaper? Can't I just take P.E.?"

She looked at me, then my schedule, her computer, then back to me. "Sorry hun, it's not a big school. The only other elective available is Band. I can put you there instead?"

I shook that idea off immediately. The only thing worse than interviewing classmates is wearing silly hats and embarrassing myself in front of the entire school.

"Journalism is fine then," I sighed.

"Ok then! Move along, you got thirty minutes to figure your way around before the bell rings."

And with that, she went back to her computer caring less and making me wonder if I ever existed in the first place.