(REWRITING) What Not To Do

5- Do Not Fall Behind

It's literally been a year, and I am so sorry! I'm the worst. I suck.

Life's been a crazy mess, especially trying to finish Hollow. But, now that Hollow is nearly finished, I will be devoting a lot more time to WNTD.

Thank you for coming back to read this update. I promise you won't regret it, I've got a lot in store for this book. I'm planning on having updates ready every other Thursday.

Also, if you haven't already, please check out my new 2018 work Glass Pavement. Updates for that book are Saturdays.

Happy Reading :)

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I pushed the school doors open with a yawn. My long, black hair was tied into a messy bun that I had thrown together in a rush. I had on a baggy sweater, jeans and my torn up converses. My mind kept me up half the night, trying to figure out what Jaxon and Grams could have been talking about.

I knew it had something, or everything, to do with me. I couldn't imagine anything that they'd want to hide from me. We never kept secrets from each other.

I rubbed my tired eyes that I had neglected to camouflage with makeup. I made it to my locker and rested my head against the cold metal, letting my eyes fall closed. I was so tired, I could probably fall asleep right there in the hallway.

The bell rang and I jumped up with a start. After a moment, I relaxed and my eyes drooped again.

"Get to class, Abbott." I turned to find Ms. Casey, one of my math teachers from a previous year. She'd caused me a lot of suffering and stress through my year in her Advanced Algebra class.

She, like many of my other teachers, was extremely disappointed when she realized that I wasn't even remotely as smart as Jaxon.

I rolled my eyes and went off toward my first class. I wandered into the classroom and dropped down into my seat.

"Well, hello there, Sunshine." I turned to find Grant with an annoyingly happy expression on his face.

"Don't call me sunshine." I muttered.

"Rough night?" He leaned towards me, unfazed by my sour mood. He just kept staring at me with a stupid smile on his stupid face.

I shrugged, leaning back in my seat. "Couldn't sleep."

He nodded, not pushing any further. One thing that Grant had learned throughout our four years of friendship was that if I didn't want to talk about something, I wouldn't.

It was good that he knew that about me because I was definitely not in the mood to be pestered with questions.

Mr. Reid began class, and it took every ounce of energy in me not to fall asleep right on my desk. My arm was propped up on my desk with my chin resting in the palm of my hand.

His receding hairline was shrinking with every passing day. It amazed me how he maintained more hair on his upper lip than on his head. His mustache moved when he talked, wiggling around like a worm.

I imagined it crawling off of his face and making a break for the door. I wanted to make a break for the door.

Mr. Reid continued to drone on, giving a full and detailed description of the events leading up to the Berlin Wall. Unbelievably, I actually knew what he was talking about. The day before, I had read two chapters of the book and outlined them.

That, of course, was before my brother came home and made me lose precious sleep over-thinking everything. Now, I couldn't even form a complete thought without my brain turning to mush halfway through.