C h a p t e r o n e
I walked through the corridors of the main building, inhaling the surprisingly pleasant smell of school lunch. Usually when I come to school I am greeted by the smell of the sweaty athletics team and stale pizza, but today was different .I guess I shouldn’t have expected much from today because a moment later my face was pressed up against the cold metal lockers, and the books I was holding had been lost somewhere in the crowd. As the mass of people filtered out of the door, I decided to try and gather up my books and at least some of my dignity, not that crawling around on the floor was doing me any favours.
“I believe these belong to you.”
I gazed up to see a familiar face staring down at me with deep green eyes.
“Ryan?” I said, quickly standing up and taking the books from him. “Thanks”
“Why do you sound so surprised?”
Pffttt I don’t know maybe because of the fact that you haven’t spoken to me in 5 years not to mention how throughout our first half term in sixth form you have ignored me.
“Well I thought you had, you know-“
“Forgotten about you? Lex, it is hard to forget about something you love.”
He stepped closer and I felt his hot breath on my skin causing my heart to pound in my chest. He continued staring into my eyes, like he was searching for something, and I saw something I hadn’t seen in a long time. What he used to be.
“Lex” he whispered
“Yeah”
“You need to wake up.”
“What?”
“Wake up, half term is over. You need to go to school.”
I slowly opened my eyes and hazily took in my surroundings and realised that my mum was standing over me calling me to wake up. Groaning, I buried my head in my pillow in an attempt to block out her voice, only to have the covers whipped off me.
“Lex, I want you out of the house in half an hour,” she replied turning on her heel and striding out of my room.
I shivered as I felt the bitter winter air snaking across my body and flipped over to look at the time. 7 am. I was going to be late
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Running for the bus is never easy. Especially when the ground is icy and the bus driver hates you, but through some miracle I just about managed to catch it.
“Hey, Lex”
I glanced up to see Mia beckoning me over to sit in the seat next to her. Ever since primary school we have been closer than I even thought was possible. I didn’t see why she wanted to be friends with me, I mean it wasn’t like I had much to offer. With her long raven hair and piercing blue eyes, she could easily go and join the pretty, popular group, but instead she stuck with me.
“Hey Mia”
“Wow, what happened, did you get hit by a bus?” She said surveying my hair. “Or multiple buses?”
Today her hair was pinned back into a neat French plait that fell down her back, almost reaching her waist. As I reached down to pick up my phone, I felt my wavy honey blonde mess fall across my face.
“Very funny. No, I just overslept and didn’t have time to do it.”
“Don’t worry, as always, I’ve got you covered.”
She pulled out a brush from her bag and hastily put my hair into a neat ponytail. Although she was very good and efficient when doing my hair, I really didn’t like it when she did it. In fact the only person I ever liked doing my hair was my mum. The bus jolted to a stop outside the school building. Victoria Taylor Sixth Form College. As I expected nothing had changed, not even the horrible stench that hits you as you walk in, of food, which really should be illegal to serve. To make things worse the first lesson I had was P.E. Great. I shuffled through the compact changing room searching for a decent space, and was lucky enough to find one right beside the bin. My luck never ceases to amaze me.
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“How was your day, honey?”
“Fine, mum”
“When are you going to bring Ryan round again? I thought that since he moved to London, we would be seeing him much more.”
“I’ve already told you Ryan and I are friends, but from a distance, we are too old to be doing those childish play-dates.” I sighed grabbing an apple and heading towards my room
“Ok, sure. Dinner’s at seven”
Part of me wishes that I could explain to my mum how the real reason Ryan doesn’t come round is because I am unpopular. Simple as. But I knew she wouldn’t understand. Suddenly, my little sister, Ella, bounced into the room as chirpy and happy as ever
“Hello Lexie Bexie” She smiled
“Hey Ella Bella”
The thing I loved most about my sister, was that she was literally the definition of joy. Although sometimes annoying, no matter how bad of a day I had, she always seemed to make me happy. She stared at me with big green eyes, her sandy hair tangled and knotted. I tucked a lock of her wavy mane behind her ear and used my sleeve to wipe a smear of jam on her face.
“Lexie, can we play a game” she whined pulling at my bracelet
“Ermmm, sure” I stared solemnly at the faded ivory bracelet, tracing my finger over the metal anchor.
“You look sad. Don’t be sad Lexie.” She paused for a moment. “One day it was raining and daddy told me I couldn’t go outside to play anymore. I said daddy, life doesn’t have to be like that, we don’t always have to wait for the storm to go away, and sometimes we just need to learn how to play in the rain. Things might be really sucky right now, but its ok, we can learn to go with it, and things will become not so sucky.”
I looked up taken aback by what she just said. I knew she was intelligent, for a five year old, but that was the best piece of advice I had heard in my life.
“Thanks Ella,” I said hugging her tightly. “Let’s go play.”
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Author's note: Ok, so that was the first chapter of this. I didn't really want to have a cast for this story but I may do character profiles later on. This chapter isn't really exciting, but I hope you liked it anyway.
Thanks for reading x
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30 Days
Teen Fiction"Life doesn’t have to be like that, we don’t always have to wait for the storm to go away, and sometimes we just need to learn how to play in the rain." Being one of the unpopular kids in school has always been a burden upon Lex since she started se...
