melanie.
I flick the rubble under my feet with my shoe as I stare absent-mindedly at the stones that bounce around and the dust the flies up and creates a haze around my legs.
There's a haze in front of my eyes too, as the smoke from my cigarette creates a cloud of smoke around me, and engulfs me, filling up my nose, blackening my lungs.
"Oi, I want my lighter back, Ed." Jay nudges me. He calls me Ed because my last name is Edwards, and unfortunately it caught on, and now everyone calls me Ed.
"Jay, how many times I told you? The lighter is fucking mine." I scoff and he tries to grab the lighter from my back pocket.
"Oi, fuck off and get your own." I growl as I move away. We like each other really, even though it may sound and probably look like we don't. I wouldn't call us friends though, we just smoked together at breaks and robbed each other's lighters.
"Ed, I gave you that lighter last week. You know it's mine." He moans, determined to win this argument.
I wasn't in the mood for it today.
"Fine, you can have it. It's white anyway. Probably mega unlucky. Jokes on you mate."
I toss him the lighter.
"Thanks, Ed. What a pushover you are." He teases, I groan and walk away.
The bell rings for class, so I stub out my cigarette. This would be a long first day back.
I come back inside the building and immediately hear someone being told off. At least it's not me.
Unfortunately, I have no clue where my first class is and I'm too proud to pull out my timetable, so I stroll in the direction of the shouting, because I'm nosy.
"Mate, it wasn't me! I swear you've had it in for me since day one!" A voice yells, and this voice is familiar.
"I am not your 'mate' Miss Edwards, and you have broken a school rule, so I have every right to penalise you."
I know that my sister flips him off without even having to see it, because I'm still around the corner. She is two years younger than me, and gets in twice as much trouble.
"I will be ringing your mother immediately." The principal's voice lowers, so she knows he's deadly serious.
I stand around the corner, laughing to myself. My sister will be in deep shit when she gets home. And it's only the first day.
"Oi, are you Ed?" Someone calls me and I snap out of my daze.
"Um yeah? And you are?" I ask to this small young lad, whose hair is almost to his shoulders and whose smile is about as bright as the sun.
"I'm Larry. Miss Keane sent me to find you."
I groan. Miss Keane. What a bitch, have always hated her. Of course she would send someone to look for me, so I can come back to class and she can make a holy show of me.
"Do you mind telling her you just didn't find me?" I ask, putting on sad eyes to try and convince him.
"I don't think I could lie to her, she's a bit mental, I'll just not come back and then that problem will be sorted." He tells me, but she says it in a way that makes me feel like he was also telling himself, like he was convincing himself it's alright to break a rule.
I just nod.
"Thanks, mate." I tell him.
Then my sister storms around the corner. I call her
"Chloe!" I tell and her head snaps around. Her blonde hair flicking with her skull. I was jealous of her hair, hers was a platinum blonde, where as mine was dark and almost brown and I hated it.
"Melanie? What you doing out of class?" She asks and I laugh.
"Chloe, you're out of class too." I point out. She sighs.
"I was in class, until Mr Oldfield called me out, and I didn't do nothing wrong!" She pouts.
"So you say, mum's gonna kill you though." I laugh at her misfortune. She flips me off now too. She was never a girl of many words.
Larry stands and takes the whole scene in, and Chloe finally notices him.
"Who's this then?" She gestures to him
"That's Larry, he's my mate." I lie, she doesn't need to know I only met Larry about a minute before she did.
"Hi." He simply says, not disputing me.
"I'm going outside, have you got a lighter, Mel?" My sister asks. I laugh at her.
"Not for you I don't. Anyway where would you acquire something you'd need a lighter for, lass?" I question her, like a mother.
"Fuck off Mel, you was my age when you started." She huffs.
I can't deny that. "Well, tough shit. I gave mine to Jay." I say, shrugging my shoulders.
"Here." Larry says, pulling out a lighter from his pocket.
"Thanks lad." Chloe says, and she's off again out the back door.
"Should I have done that?" Larry panics, looking at me with sorry eyes.
"If you hadn't of, someone else would've." I reassured him. He nods. And lets out a breath.
"The bells about to ring." I say. "Better go back and get your stuff."
He looks at the clock on the wall. "Thanks, I'll tell Miss Keane you weren't anywhere I looked." He says. I just smile.
He sets off and I decided I should probably show up to my next lesson. Maths. Great. I loved maths. The only subject I could get along with. It just made sense to me.
I put my timetable in my bag and set off again, off to maths.
