Wait For Me

Chapter 1

The sound of chirping birds wakes me out of my sleep. I stare at the darkness filling my room. My eyes travel to the bright red numbers on my alarm clock reading 5:30a.m. I've been waking up before my alarm clock goes off for a few days now. I force myself out of bed and go ahead and switch the alarm off since I'm already up.  I walk over to my window and spread open the curtains, it's still dark outside, but by the time I've finished getting ready, the sun should be rising. I grab my clothes, that I picked out the night before, from my desk chair. 

My mom is awake by the time I finish showering. I hear her shuffling things downstairs, she's always awake by this hour. I don't know how she can be up and moving this early, I'm here walking with my eyes still closed. I straiten my posture and walk down the stairs. "Good morning." I say as I reach the end of the staircase.

"Good morning." She says as she sets plates on our small, round table. "I thought you'd still be sleeping." I look over to the clock on the wall, it's not six yet. I usually wake up by six, but no more I guess. My mom keeps moving in and out of the kitchen to setting the table. I make my way to the table and take a seat in my usual spot. "Did you sleep well?" My mom takes off her pink apron, revealing her nurse uniform.

I shake my head as I start eating my breakfast. "No wonder." My moms takes a seat next to me. "You look horrible." My mom is a direct and honest women, she is not afraid to speak her mind. I'm still not used to her being the way she is, the reason why that is, it's because she was never like that. She used to be really conservative, caring, and sweet. Even if she keeps denying it, the divorce between her and my dad did affect her. And it affected me as well. After my dad moved out, she became the way she is now.

My mom kept talking about how I looked, that I should cover my dark marks under my eyes, that I should blow out my hair so it won't be so matted, to add a little color to my face, and so on. Apparently, appearance is very important to my mom. She says that first impressions count and everyday after that as well. I never really cared what people thought about me, well I did before...before he came around. After him, I only wanted to impress him, no one else.

"I should go get ready." I say, trying to stop the past from coming back into my mind.

'You haven't even finished your food." My mom gestures to the plate filled with food, which I only took two bites from.

"I'm not that hungry." I state.

"I don't care." My mom frowns. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so sit and eat your food." I obey and sit down. I listen to my mom talk about her work, mainly to keep my mind from that person. My mom mostly talks about her job or telling me how to make myself presentable. We never have mother and daughter conversations, if I even know what that is. We never bonded in that way, not after the divorce anyway.

After I finish my food, I go upstairs and curl my blonde mess of a hair and apply some makeup on. I learned how to curl my hair not too long ago, I used to love my long, straight hair, but my mom got annoyed with it, so she told me to curl it one night to see  how my hair looked with a curler we bought years ago, but never used it up to a few months ago. She clearly loved it and now I have to curl it every morning. At first I didn't like it, but I got used to the new look and now when I see my hair straight, I hate it. Makeup on the other hand, I'm not very fond of it like my mom is. I was curious to try it out, but I don't necessary love it like other girls do. But then again, like my mom says: impressions count.

I make my way downstairs, with my book bag on my shoulders. "Ready?" My mom is already waiting for me by the door. We walk out the door and get in the car. My mom drives me to school every morning. Most kids my age walk to school or take the bus, but my mom says that their parents are stupid for letting them do that.

My mom says the same conversation she says everyday on the way to school.  I've even memorized it by now, I guess. She basically says that I should pay attention in school, get good grades, answer every question the teacher gives, take lots of notes, don't goof off or be disrespectful. I pay more attention to my window. I look at the dry trees with brown leaves falling from their branches. I lived in this town for my whole life, there's not much to it, just a normal, modernized town.

We arrive at the school and my mom parks the car at the front of the school. I remember on the first day of high school, she parked the car in the parking lot and walked me to class. It was embarrassing for me, I mean who walk a fourteen year old to their class?

"Behave yourself." She gives me a quick kiss on the cheek. "Love you."

"Love you, too." I giver her a quick smile and get out of the car. She drives away once I'm through the front doors and inside the school. This school is not that big, there's not many people living in this town anyway, but the school is a little packed. Most of the kids here couldn't really care about school, but education is really important to my mom and to me. 

I make my way to the library. I usually wait there for classes to begin, which is about an hour away. I take a seat in one of the tables. I'm always one of the first students to get here, my mom goes to the hospital after dropping me off, so she can't drop me off no later because she has to be at work by that time. My teacher doesn't get here at this time and his classroom is lock, so I wait here in the library. I read while I wait for the bell to ring, but I already read most of the books here,  there's not that many books here and the majority of them have missing pages, have gum in between them, and are badly torn. So there's not much to read.

I hear the creaking of the door being open. "Hey girl!" Casey makes her way to me. I greet her with a hug. I've know Casey since we started high school and I partly surprised that we lasted all the way to our senior year. I think I would considered her my best friend, but I've always been and independent girl since middle school and I didn't need friends. My mom always tells me that friends will never last, eventually we'll go our separate ways, so I shouldn't get too close with anybody, but Casey and I have already and I got used to this quirky girl.

"How are you?" I say as she takes the seat next to me.

An annoyed look takes over her face. "Why do you do that?" She says.

"Do what?" I frown. I know where this is headed.

"Why do you talk to me like if we where respectful and responsible adults?" Casey always gives me the same speech of how serious and stern I am.

"Because we are." I state. We are basically adults. We'll be graduating in a few months, hopefully.

"No. We are not. We're just seventeen, we're teenagers." Casey hates the idea of growing up and taking responsibility. I would be too, but I accept reality the way it is and there is nothing you can realty do about it.

"Alright." I give in. "How do teenagers talk?" I ask.

"Uh, 'What up?', 'What's up?', 'How it going?'. 'Sup dude.' And a lot more." She shrugs. I have never nor never would use those words, it's not proper.

"What up?" Jake appears in front of us.

"Like that." Casey points at Jake, who has a confused look on his face.

"What I miss?" He takes a seat. Jake is another friend, I guess. I met him in my junior year through Casey. Unlike Casey, he is very realistic and is a lot like me, very studious and takes mostly everything seriously.

"Teaching Tiffany how to greet." Casey beats me in speaking.

"Again?" He sighs. I nod at him. Unlike him, I actually enjoy Casey's childish attitude, even though sometimes it can get a little annoying.

"Yes, again." Casey reacts at Jake. I chuckle to myself at poor Jake.

"Anyway, how are you two doing?" He says, brushing off Casey stare.

"Or like that." I point out to Casey. She groans in response, which makes me smile, I kind of like to irritate her. The sound of the bell finally ringing bring me to my feet. It took forever for it to ring.