I'm a Fallen Angel

Chapter One

I watched the trees and houses pass by in a blur of earthy colors, the fringe of my rare natural silvery-white hair framed my face just so that it shielded me from the rest of the bus. I tuned out the other teenagers' loud shouts, obnoxious laughter, and crude jokes, much more content with minding myself and not listening to them.

The year is 2032, and "emo", "scene", "punk", and just those subcultures in general have been all but forgotten. I'm the only teen on probably all of the west coast that still dresses like I'm from 2007, which, according to my parents, was the year when the alternative community skyrocketed in fame and numbers.

I considered myself simply alternative. I had the classic layered hair with a frying that sometimes covered my eyes, which were a deep brown on the outside and faded to an icy blue around my pupils. I also happen to have half inch plugs, two cartilage piercings on both ears, and a septum piercing. Band shirts portraying the now pretty much dead rock n' roll era adorned my slim figure usually. The bands on the shirts were headed by men that I knew well, and thought of as family. Bands like My Chemical Romance, the unspoken leaders of the alternative music era, Fall Out Boy, the start of the whole "punk vs pop" shebang as well as Falling in Reverse, Pierce the Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, Taking Back Sunday, Bring Me The Horizon, Black Veil Brides, and so on.

It was no secret to the rest of the school that my father was the lead singer of BVB, Andy Biersack. The band broke up in the summer of 2022, not because of falling out from within, they were all still closely knit and I saw my four "uncles"- Ashley Purdy (the former bassist), Jake Pitts (the former lead guitarist), Jinxx (the former rhythm guitarist), and CC (the former drummer)- almost every day. They just figured that they were all getting older and that it was time for them to move onto bigger and better things.

Ashley had retired from playing for bands and settled down in Malibu on his own, starting his own bass guitar designing company that piggybacked off of his fashion line. Jake and Jinxx helped my dad with the guitar tracks for the songs on his solo albums before they too retired, both married but without kids. And finally, CC settled down with my mom's longtime friend, Emily. He was now a father of two kids- Katie-May, a girl who was eleven, and Sampson, a boy who was turning thirteen in a month.

As my mind started to drift further I felt a hard kick to the back of my seat, strong enough to jar me forward. "What the fuck is your hair doing, dike? It looks like two cats had angry sex on your head," I heard Hayley Foyer, the most popular whore in school, sneer from the seat behind me, followed by her friend's cackle like laughter.

I sighed and pressed myself impossibly closer to the window of the bus, turning my music up loud enough to tune out their snide remarks concerning my thick eye makeup and alternative style. Hayley's friend, Autumn Taylor, reached over and ripped my earbuds out. "Listen to what we have to say, emo. Don't be a fucking coward like your mother."

I pulled my hood up to hide the way my blue and brown eyes blazed and the angry shade of red that was creeping over my pale face. They'd never taken shots at my mother before, though I guess it was long overdue. Word had gotten out what had happened to my mother and father all those years ago. How, I had no idea, but my parents were the talk of the town for months. Sometimes I still heard their names in low whispers and quiet lunch room conversations. That was before I started going straight to the library for lunch.

Autumn grabbed my hood and tore it off my head, yanking it back so that it was holding me against the seat, almost so tight against my neck that I couldn't breath. My eyes grew wide and I clawed at my hoodie, trying to put some space between it and my throat. I could hear Hayley and Autumn laughing at my fear and attempts to free myself.

Just as black started to creep around the edges of my vision, the intense pressure was suddenly released and I flew forward, slamming my head on the back of the seat in from of mine. I heard one of girls say something to me but I couldn't make out who had spoken or what they had said. Thankfully they then moved to the back of the bus with the other sluts and fuck boys that sat back there.

I kept my head where it was, one hand rubbing my now sore throat and other pulling my hood back up. Unfortunately, what had just happened was only unusual in the sense that it was more gentle than what I usually got. That was a normal occurrence to say the least.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I sat in homeroom, mentally preparing myself for another day of hell, as per usual. It was so unfair, it was 2032 for Christ's sake, the lgbt community was completely accepted, racism was all but a whisper of the past, and yet the alternative community was still seen as a fly on the wall. Why? What was wrong with us that made us still as much of a target for discrimination as we had been 25 years ago?

I drifted off into my thoughts as the second bell rang five minutes after the warning bell, signalling for the last few stragglers in the hallways to book it the rest of way to homeroom, praying they didn't get written up for being late. I heard the morning announcements over the loud speakers, talking about how the sports teams had done in their games and meets the past week. Nothing interesting to me.

I looked up, along with the rest of the class, as I heard rushed footsteps enter the classroom. My eyes widened as I saw the obviously new student take a moment to breath in the doorway before looking over to the teacher.

"Sorry I'm late Mr... Uhh..." I noted his thick British accent. Probably another exchange student, it wasn't uncommon for our school to get new foreign students every couple of months. When people moved to the US from other countries, California was usually where they settled down.

The teacher smiled. "Mr. Abington."

"Right! I knew it was an 'A' name," the boy chuckled nervously, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Sorry I'm late, this school is twice as big as my last one and every time I tried to ask someone for help they brushed me off."

"Oh, that's alright. I'll let it slide this once since you're new but please don't let it happen again. You can take a seat behind Angel in the back." He motioned to me. The boy's eyes snapped up to me and I saw a flicker of fear before one of utter relief washed across his face, and it was obvious why.

He had black hair with red streaks in it, his fringe near completely covering his grey eyes. He wore a Motley Crüe sweatshirt, black ripped skinny jeans, a black and white studded belt, beat up combat boots with the shoelaces undone, frayed, and pulled out, and a long necklace with a weird looking symbol dangling a couple inches above his belly button. He was alternative, just like me.

He gave me a small smile as he sat down behind me and I returned it, turning in my seat to face him. I was about to introduce myself but he beat me to it. "Hi there, I'm Hayden Altieri. It's really nice to meet you."

"I'm Angel Biersack, it's nice to meet you too." I saw his eyes flash in surprise as my last name rolled off of my lips, and I expected him to freak out because of who my father was, but his reaction was a lot more toned down than I expected.

"You're Andy Biersack's daughter? Dude, that's sick, I love his solo stuff and Black Veil Brides." I thanked him with a small smile and for the rest of homeroom we talked about how his dad's job had forced his family to move to California. I felt badly for him, not beginning to be able to understand how hard it must have been to leave his home behind to move to another country.

It was nice to talk to someone who didn't immediately judge me for my looks, because he dressed the same way. I found out also that Hayden was a sophomore like me, and we had the same second, fourth, sixth, and seventh period classes together, along with the same lunch. I agreed to show him to the classes that I didn't have with him before heading to my own so that he wouldn't get stuck having to ask someone who wouldn't be nearly as nice to him as myself.

I was ecstatic about the fact that I finally had a friend.

So what do you guys think? Angel is surprisingly difficult to write, but I'm sure it'll get easier with time as I start figuring out exactly what I want to do with her personality. Anyway, don't forget to leave a vote and a comment!