Going Nowhere

Run For Your Life - Chapter Two

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Excuse the mistakes

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"Miss White!"

My head snapped up from the notebook I had been furiously doodling in to see my English teacher, Mrs. Matlock, staring at me with immense irritation. Quickly, I shut the notebook and swept it into my lap. "Yes?" I asked, feigning attentiveness.

"Can you please answer the question?" Mrs. Matlock replied, and from the smug look on her face, I could tell that my teacher knew that I hadn't been paying attention the entire class. It wasn't my fault that talking about motifs in Moby Dick didn't hold the same excitement as drawing a crappy rendition of an octopus in a notebook.

"Um..." my voice trailed off as I searched the chalkboard behind Mrs. Matlock in hopes for a hint on what the question was asking, but there was nothing. Just as I fumbled for a bullshit answer, I was literally saved by the bell.

The whole class jumped out of their desks and started to collect their stuff, and I pointed up and shrugged at Mrs. Matlock. She scowled, and I just smiled apologetically before sliding out of my desk. I scooped my notebooks up into my arms and slung my backpack strap over one of my shoulders.

I filed out of the room behind a stream of students eager to get to the cafeteria for lunch. I, however, pushed against the current and up a level to my locker. I twisted the digits of my combination into my lock, and then my locker swung open.

I dropped the notebooks and folders from my backpack into the locker and grabbed the supplies I would need for my classes after lunch. Then, I took my paper bag lunch from the top shelf of the locker and slammed it shut. I started down the hallway towards the school courtyard, where I ate lunch every day.

I didn't really have any people I would call friends at my school, since RJ and Ethan had graduated last year. They both went to community college fifteen minutes away, so I still had my best friends, but not at school. That meant I spent a lot of time by myself, usually in the library or in the courtyard.

It wasn't always like that, though. When I'd first started dating Carter a little over two years ago, I had plenty of friends. However, as the relationship between Carter and I got more and more toxic, I pushed everyone away. I guess that's how I met RJ and Ethan.

I'd been having a semi-mental breakdown in the girl's bathroom when two unfamiliar guys walked in. Even though I barely knew them, Ethan and RJ had made me feel a million times better, and they probably helped me gain the confidence to break up with Carter a few weeks later. Plus, we all discovered our mutual love for music, and Hardly Human was born.

I hopped down two flights of stairs and opened the door to the mostly vacant courtyard. There were a couple potheads lounging across the grass, and a group of underclassmen girls huddled together and gossiping. I walked past them all and settled under my tree.

With my legs sprawled out in front of me, I plugged my headphones into my ears and picked a song at random on my iPod. The corners of my lips curled up into a smile as Adam Gontier's voice filled my ears, and I settled into the punky sound of Three Days Grace.

I pulled my worn spiral notebook out of my backpack and grabbed a pencil. As I took a bite out of my turkey sandwich, I flipped to the most recent song I had been working on.

Ever since I started singing, I had been writing songs. It was a way to get what I was feeling onto paper and out of my system. Hardly Human primarily was a cover band, but I could speak for all of us when I said that we wanted to start playing our own songs. That said, RJ and Ethan had no idea that I was writing anything.