Fallen Angels [DISCONTINUED]

Aster

Melody beat up. Hope shut in a locker, without her phone. Kateri's notebook stolen. April threatened by Violet. Rose...who knows what! And on top of all that, a new exchange student. Except, what did they have planned out for me?

Not that I cared. Let them come at me and try to tear me apart; I'll laugh in their faces! Wreck me all you want, but you can never destroy what is Aster Greeningham!

I strode out of last period Psych towards my locker, which was quite a walk, but it would clear my head, hopefully. Down the sciences hallways.  Up a flight of stairs. Through The Maze (The main hallways of CGHS). A walk through the lower class-men's lockers. Down a flight of stairs. Across the sunny courtyard. More stairs, and finally, my outdoor locker. 

A cool autumn breeze bordering on winter tickled my face as I stared towards the bank of senior lockers. The students dipped and ducked out of the jumbled crowd, laughter and carelessness rising into the atmosphere. In a few simple months, they would be rid of Cherry Grove High School. They wouldn't look back. They never did. And neither would I, when I was finally freed from this hell.

"Hey bitch!"
I stared at my dial clasping the metal door before me, ticks and numbers blurring. I refused to answer to that vulgar name! 
"I'm talking to you bitch!"
Ugh. When would she learn when enough was enough!?
I stared coolly at Skylar Owens and grumbled, "What do you want?! Can't get enough of me?" A smirk akin to the devil's spread across my face. 
"Silly Aster! If you had any brains in that ugly shit-faced head of yours, you wouldn't give me all of this smart-ass crap!"
I blew out a long breath. In, out. In, out. This was the last person I needed to lose my short-fused temper with.
"If you have something worthwhile to say, spit it out Skylar!"
"Oh, I simply wanted to drop by to see if you've learned your lesson! All of your "friends", Clawed quotations marks were shoved in my face, "Have been harmed in one way or another! Ha, and everyone thinks you have it all! From the richest family in Cherry Grove, six loving siblings and two caring parents who can give you everything you could ever want!" Skylar's voice dripped with sickly sweet poison, making sure to punch the words that mattered most. 
"Hurry up, Sky Sky, you're boring me!" I threw back my head and laughed at the clouds above me. 
"Oh, whoops! It just slipped from my mind that while you may come from a filthy rich family," Her words became venomous, "No one cares about you and you're beat up everyday at school!" 

 This was the real one, not just some egomaniac who girl thought the world rested in her palm. She became the true Skylar that would do anything to make sure I was trapped in a living hell. The terrible thing was that it was only in front of me and no one else. I couldn't bear this any longer. You could never tell by looking on the outside, but she just knocked down my wall of steel that took years of work to build, and I could only watch as she took a wrecking ball to it, smashing it to piece, leaving me as vulnerable as a sitting duck trying to scrape together a fraction of what was left behind. 

And she wasn't done.
"The sad thing is, it never had to be this way; you and I could have been best friends, Asty!" With those final words, she dug her nails into my shirt sleeve, making sure that they scraped away more than just my bare skin. 

I leaned my forehead into the cool metal locker door to relieve some of the hurt and memories that coursed throughout my body, traveling to my limbs and fingers.

***

"Asty! Guess what! I'm moving!"
"What?! No!"
"Haha! Don't worry! I'm moving into your neighborhood!"
"Really?" Five year old Aster's face filled with happiness and excitement.
"Yeah!" Skylar threw her arms around her best friend's neck. "Now we can have play dates everyday!"
Aster's face fell a little. "But not at my house, kay?"
Her companion's azure eyes widened. "Why not? Do your parents not like me?"
"No! No! It's not like that!" Aster waved her hands in front of her for emphasis. "It's just...My parents are...acting weird...They've... started acting like they're not a part... a part of our family anymore... ever since...since Dad got the big job...but I thought everyone would be happy because of...that!" The little girl tried to string the addled phrases together, her features crumpling into confusion and sadness, small shoulders hunching over.
"Oh, don't cry Asty! It'll be OK! We can always have our play dates at my house!" Skylar hugged Aster, unaware of the plans the future had for her friendship with Aster.

***

Aster was confused. Her life was good. Great, actually. She had lots of toys to play with. She had a closet full of clothes. She even had a giant pool  (with a swirly water slide, of course!) in her giant backyard to splash around in during the summer! She had a reaaalllly big room, all to herself! She didn't have to share with her stinky older brother Chad and snotty younger sister Emory! And there were even more rooms to explore on this floor of the spacious three-story house. What she didn't get was, Why were Mommy and Daddy...so...so...
The young girl couldn't think of a decent word except far away. Why did Mommy and Daddy seem so far away? They never seemed to pay attention to her! They kept to the secretive third floor,  forbidding Aster, Chad, and Emory to sneak up there. That was where Mommy and Daddy kept their important stuff. It would be very bad if one of the children came by and messed up their work. It was for the good of the family. Or, that was what they said. Aster stayed up late many a night planning an excursion to the floor above, only to fall asleep with nightmares of screaming, beastly shadows chasing her. Nonetheless, it didn't excuse her parents' ignorance! Almost always their housekeeper, Elaine, would cook her breakfast, pack her kindergarten lunch, and fix her dinner. Yes, Elaine would sneak her sweets to feast upon; she loved, loved to take them up to her room and snack in the crook of her spacious window seat, allowing the soft rays of sunlight to wash upon her face and warm her small body. But all these joys didn't add up to why her parents ignored her. Soon, Chad and Emory would be her only friends in this castle of ice, and that was certainly not good.

The crowd of carefree seniors had dispersed and gone their separate way, and a quiet calm had settled, blocking out the calamity that had happened just seconds before. Leave it to Skylar to bring back those hellish memories! I had vowed to shut them out; how could everything have gone wrong like that?  
Skylar may be the Hitler of Cherry Grove, but she would never get what she wanted from me: surrender.