Nowhere to Run

Chapter 1

Elliot Kayden. That's me. Just a regular old teenager trying his best to fit into "school society" while also trying to be able to get into a good college. I was a new kid to Rosalina High and I was in my senior year, pretty soon I'd be applying for places like Princeton, Yale, Stanford and Cornell.

I began to attend Rosalina High because my mother got a job in New York further from my home town, Denver, Colorado. My sister, Faith, was in college, so she was still in Denver. I hoped to have a new change at Rosalina High, to have a fresh start. Unfortunately whoever decided my fate thought my past and future wasn't done with me yet.

I had arrived at my new school, prepared for a whole new experience. I had my black and green glasses on, slightly covering my deep ocean blue eyes, my obsidian black hair tousled and scruffy, as per usual. My favourite navy and black scarf wrapped itself around my neck, shielding me from the cold biting wind. My jacket was blue as the base and black for the sleeves, a couple of wristbands falling just past my wrists. I was wearing my usual black skinny jeans and black converse were occupying my feet.

I shifted uncomfortably, I was never really great at social situations, and I didn't feel safe around people I hadn't known a little bit about. A woman, about mid-twenties in age, was approaching me. "Ah, you must be Mr. Kayden," She greeted me, "I'm Miss Brannigan, the senior student coordinator at Rosalina High, come along the class is waiting."

She guided me along to a classroom, one that was furthest down the hallway. Miss Brannigan knocked and she was welcomed in. The classroom inside, was an English class, it was evident from the amounts of students reading Hamlet while the teacher quoted the play and paced back and forth. The English Teacher snapped the book shut at the appearance of Miss Brannigan. "Okay everyone; I would like you all to welcome a new student to our school. His name is Elliot. Please make him feel welcome to our school. Elliot, would you like to tell everyone a bit about you?" She asked, indicating to me.

I nodded nervously, "Um, hi! I'm Elliot Kayden from Denver and, I, uh, don't really know what else to say..." Miss Brannigan smiled, "Alright, why don't you sit over there, next to Emily." I nodded and walked over to the girl's desk. She was dressed in all black with ripped skinny jeans, a mutated skull top, black lace-up boots, a beanie with the words "Killin' It" across the front and a numerous amount of bracelets and wristbands covering her arms. Her short blue and pink hair was the only bit of colour on her whole ensemble.

"Hey," I muttered, sitting down next to her in hopes of striking a conversation with her. "Sup?" She replied not giving me eye contact. "I'm Elliot Kayden. Nice to meet you." "Emily Fischer. Pleased to make your acquaintance," She replied, lifting two fingers to her temple and flicking them in my direction, still not giving me eye contact. She sighed and reached down to her bag, grabbing her orange covered iPod and putting her earbuds into her ears. On the screen I could just make out the type of music she was listening to. "BABYMETAL?" I asked, my eyebrows raising. "Yeah, so what? You got a problem?" Emily snapped in reply.

I shook my head and turned my attention to the board. The teacher had her name written clearly across the top, probably for newbies and freshmen students. Miss Fujioka, probably Japanese, I thought to myself with wry amusement. Faith would freak out if she knew we had a Japanese person at my school. I swear she's obsessed with the place.

I looked at notes and other things Miss Fujioka had written across the whiteboard. Reminders such as "assignments due on Monday" and "Don't forget to bring your books" filled one side of the board. The other half was filled with sentences and lines from Hamlet as well as other numerous amounts of Shakespearian plays.

I gazed absentmindedly around the classroom, the class was an interesting bunch of students. I could tell almost instantly which clique was which. The Plastics or Queen Bs were all gathered at the back left corner, probably gossiping about stupid girly stuff. The nerds and geeks at the front, jocks in the back right corner. What I found particularly interesting though, was the group surrounding Emily and I. I couldn't assign them to any one stereotype. They were all obviously friends, by the way they chatted with each other and interacted. I was bewildered by them. There was girl with blonde hair tied up into a tight bun, who looked very uptight, socialising with another girl with dark autumn hair who looked like she had ADHD. Behind them a pair of guys were talking idly, the pair of them joining the conversation with the two girls.