The New Beginning

CHAPTER 1: 7 months before

7 months before

ALEX:

"Alex! Hurry up! We need to go now, we're going to be late!" Alexia mum shouts as she walks through the front door.

"coming" I shouts back as I grabs my bag, runs out and slides on to my seat in the car next to Oliver.

"Who's ready for the first day of school ?" I ask with a mocking kinder garden teachers voice.

I can tell by the way Oliver glares at me that he's trying not to laugh at the same joke I tell every year. Its about a three minute ride in the car, which I would usually walk but we were running late.

I look out the window and see the sunny fields of Mill valley,

When we get out of the car Mum quickly pinches Oliver's cheeks and gives him a quick kiss before he could walk into the building.

"Gosh look at my two big kids, all grown up!" Then turns to me and says "Wow I have a eleventh grader"

I don't say anything in return, I don't talk much to my mum any more, Ever since my dad died in a car accident, She shut her self down, She didn't seem to realise she still had two kids who were feeling the same amount as grief as her,

The pain of losing two parents was unbearable at times, I had to do everything, I became more of a mother to Oliver then she was, Finally a couple years ago she realized she lost her husband and was also losing her kids, she tried to make it up to me but no matter how hard I try I cant fully forgive her.

I walk straight ahead to Rose Hill Academy, Its so Old now that The blue paint of the outside its peeling and the roof has missing tiles, The inside doesn't get much better, The walls turned a yellowish colour due to the too many years it has been standing and the stair ways creek when you walk up and down them. As I look at my class time table I see my group of friends from the corner of my eye and walk the other way.

Why am I trying to avoid them?

Alicia and Molly see me as they look up from their time tables but act like they're to engaged In their conversation to say hello, my two "best friends" cant even be bothered to say hello.

Show how much they care but... am I as bad as them?

I choose to ignore them, pretend I didn't see them, go straight for class.

"Hey, Alex" Stephen says with a smile on his face, As we walk through the hall way together.

Stephen? That's strange, I don't really know him, I mean no one knows him, He's very secretive and reserved.

"hey Stephen, What's up?" I say with a fake smile

" So how was your summer?" he asks with genuine curiosity.

Since when is he so friendly?

"great! How was yours?" I say with to much enthusiasm

but he doesn't seem to notice, His eyes light up as If this is what he's been waiting for for years.

To talk to me?

He gives me a weird look, A look he gives me all the time, A look saying he knows something about me, Even I don't know and the weird thing is, Is that over the years every time I look at him, Some thing triggers in me and I get a snipet of a dream, I think I once had about me on a road and being kidnapped but I don't remember details.

The bell wakes me from my trance and we all take our seats, I decide to sit next to Stephen. The look of surprise and joy on his face makes me smile, he catches it and smiles back.