A disastrous book

Chapter 16: Guidance counsellor

Riley 2.0's POV

I make my way through the sea of students, their heated and curious gazes directed at me did not help my original plan to blend in and be invisible.

Just act normal Riley, no one will suspect that you are an insane person who can't seem to remember anything from the past four years and thinks we are still in 2014.

How could they know, right?

Last thing I remember was running away from home, from my abusive parents and landing my first job as a waitress. As much as I enjoyed it, the work, the freedom, it wasn't enough for me to find an apartment and put food on my table. I had to find another job. That's how I ended up working as a stripper. Selling my dignity for a warm bed and food. Not just that, but I also wanted an education. A real one.

I never had the chance to attend school. My parents thought it would be a good and affordable idea if they just homeschooled me. They both used to teach, and at first, it wasn't bad. It was actually tolerable.

But as I got older, they started drinking more and experimenting with different drugs. That's when it started to get ugly.

I was fourteen when it first happened. I had answered a question wrong, and my mom slapped me. She froze after she realised what she had done, and immediately apologised and showered me with kisses, saying that it would never happen again.

I have never heard a bigger lie in my entire life.

First it was a few slaps and insults, but then it became more and more violent. Then it involved rulers, belts, sometimes a few broken beer bottles...

And it wasn't just for making a mistake anymore, it was for whenever I breathed in their direction, looked at them the "wrong way"... they just needed any excuse to let their frustration out on me. The lessons became less and less frequent because of their inability to stay sober for more than two hours, which was something I was grateful for, because it meant I wouldn't have to see them as much, but at the same time I wasn't getting the proper education that every teenager should get.

How else would I be able to get out of this hell hole?

That's when I decided that I needed to get away. I needed to experience school before it's too late.

That's what brings me here, sitting in a slightly uncomfortable chair in a small office.

The guidance counsellor's office.

I had no idea what that job meant, but I'm guessing it was to guide students throughout their school year.

Yeah, that made sense.

I waited a couple of minutes before the door opened and a young woman holding a thousand folders clumsily entered, shutting the door with her right foot as she hurriedly made her way to her desk and plopped them down on it with a tired sigh.

She ruffled through the papers messily scattered around until she found the one she was looking for. With a satisfied smile she took a seat on her chair and took off the glasses resting on top of her reddish hair and put them on.

"So, Riley is it?" She asks with a kind smile and I instantly warm up to her as I give her a nod.

She seems nice.

"Ok, it says here you were home schooled..." she goes through the folder and asks me a few basic questions and I try my best to reply to them without sounding off.

Once done, she puts the folder down and leans forward, resting her intertwined fingers on the desk with a warm smile plastered on her face.

"Okay Riley. Since you are new to the whole "high school experience", you will probably feel a bit lost at first. Things will probably not make much sense, and I'm not talking academic wise. I'm talking socially wise. Teenagers crammed together eight hours a day for four years tend to come up with a specific social norm. I know you've probably never spent that much time with people your own age, so you probably won't understand how to interact with them at first, which is completely normal. That's why the principal has assigned me to find you someone to sort of guide you through it. Give you a school tour."