Battle Scars

two

"Amber! Get up or you'll be late!" Walt yells from out in the hallway.

I groan and glance over at my clock as my head pounds from the small amount of sleep I received.

I hate Mondays.

Five more minutes of sleep won't hurt. I tell myself.

. . .

"Amber! Get your ass out of bed now! You're going to be late!" My mom barges into my room, pulling the comforter from my body as I scramble in confusion to the sudden action.

"Sorry." I grumble in annoyance. "My head hurts. Can I please stay home from school today?"

My mom rolls her eyes and lets out a groan.

"Get up. Dad is going to drive you in five minutes. Be ready by then."

I hate it when she calls Walt "dad." That man is far from ever being my father. 

I practically slither out of bed and sigh.

I throw on some baggy clothes and grab my bracelets and backpack.

I look down at my wrists and instantly feel disgusted.

I quickly cover up my entire left arm with about a dozen rubber bracelets.

Most of them are dumb, with words like "WOWZA!" or "AWESOME!" on them, which I flip over to the other side.

I grab my earbuds, my phone, and a charger. Basically the three main things you need for school these days.

After brushing my teeth, I head downstairs and look at the time to see that first period begins in ten minutes. Shit. There's no way I'm having Walt drive me, so I guess I'll have to be late again.

"I'm going to bike to school, mom." I yell across the hallway.

I don't wait for her answer as I grab my gray helmet. I hop on my bike and exit the driveway.

As I ride, I take in the cool breeze from the fresh air, smiling through the breeze.

I may dislike my life, but feeling cold wind blow through my hair on a hot, sunny day is one of the few things that keep me alive.

I arrive at school as soon as I hear the bell for first hour. I park my bike and jump off, unplugging my earbuds and tucking them in my bag as I bolt through the gates of Westman High.

I groan loudly as I notice Veronica and her minions beat me to the lockers.

"Late again, aren't you Amber?" Veronica jokes, knowing I have no idea how to verbally stand up for myself.

"If you're late for school for a certain number of days, you can get expelled, you know that, right?" Her friends laugh at her hilarious joke as she gives me a smirk.

I choose not to respond to her and continue to walk faster, trying to get to my locker before class begins. This happens every day.

Veronica scoffs as she sees me take off. "I'm sorry, are you ignoring me, bitch?" She shouts in a snotty, fake voice to me as I hurry away from her.

I give her the finger and turn around the corner.

"Yeah, okay, go cut a little deeper, cunt!" She yells.

I can feel the anger and embarrassment gushing inside of me. I choose to ignore it and move along. No point in furthering anything with her, she always wins.

I sigh as I search for my locker number out of a zillion identical-looking lockers.

It's been two weeks into this school year and I still struggle to find my way around here.

"Hey, look, it's Amber Collins. The fish-smelling freshman!" I hear one kid whisper to another from behind me.

I look back with an evil glare and see two boys. They both look at each other and prance away as they realize I hear them.

I don't actually smell like fish. That's another rumor Veronica decided to initiate for her own popularity.

Welp. Welcome to high school, am I right?