Heart of Glass// Ethan Dolan✅

Chapter 1

"New school, new you!" my mom exclaims as she snaps the fortieth photo of me. I love her, but she's so annoying when she continues to take pictures.

"It's just school mom," I groan, gently pushing the camera aside. She rolls her eyes.

"I want to remember this day forever," she grins, looking down at the photos she has just taken.

"You really want to remember the day you dragged me to New Jersey and demand that I stay here?" I ask her. "That's good, Mom. Hilarious."

"Stop being so dramatic, Cara," she says and, this time, I roll my eyes.

"It's not like you tore me away from the place I grew up at. And it's definitely not the place where all of my friends were or anything," I remind her. She lets out a groan of frustration and suddenly I feel a little bit of guilt.

"Cara, you know that I had to move here," she says. "There are a lot of better opportunities here in New Jersey than in Florida."

"Everyone's going to hate me," I tell her. "I'll stick out like a sore thumb because I have the worst southern accent ever."

"They'll love it, Care," my mom says. "In New Jersey, everyone is the same kind of person. People want different."

"Okay, but if I get beat up, I blame you," I warn her, throwing my hands up in the air. She grins and quickly checks her watch.

"It's seven thirty. You should probably head to school," my mom recommends.

"School doesn't start until eight o'clock, Mom," I groan. I haven't even eaten all of my breakfast yet.

"Still, you have to find a parking spot, get your schedule, find your classes, and fill out all of that transfer paperwork," my mom states and I groan for at least the third time this morning.

"Whatever. I'll see you at three," I tell her, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Have a good day and try not to get into a lot of trouble while you're at it," my mom pleads and I smirk.

"I can't promise anything," I grin. I head outside to my black 2012 Nissan Altima. This car is my baby. I swear by not getting into an accident, simply because this car is the most beautiful thing I have ever laid my eyes on. Then again, she's my first car, so it's orthodox of me to say that. As I hop inside and turn on the ignition, I admire the car's interior. Absolutely breathtaking.

Silver Valley High School is located approximately five minutes away from my house, so it's still a wonder why I'm leaving this early. Thank goodness my mom gave me directions to this place because my phone's GPS sucks. My mom claims that this school is one of the best in the nation, but she also said that about my old school which had to have included half of the nation's drug dealers.

I pull into the parking lot of the school and not surprisingly, I'm one of the five cars already here. I find an empty parking space and try to find my way to the main office. I wander around the hallways for at least ten minutes until I finally find the office.

A lady sitting at the desk is carefully sorting through a stack of papers with student information on it. Her head snaps up as soon as I walk in.

"May I help you?" she asks me.

"I'm a new student here..." I tell her.

"What's your name?" she asks me. That's weird. At my old school, most adults would end a sentence addressed to me with dear or sweetheart.

"Cara McDaniel," I tell her. She slides her rolling chair over to another stack of papers and sorts through them before finally finding a stack.

"Okay, so this is a packet that you'll need to get your parents to fill out. It's just a few things the school needs to know, and also contains your lunch plan," she explains to me. She pulls out another piece of paper folded inside of a pamphlet. "This is your schedule and a map of the school. You're going to need it."