So This Is Life

Chapter 1

I wake up in the morning feeling sleep deprived before my alarm even goes off. A feeling of dread has settled in my stomach before I can even swing my feet to floor to attempt rising. My room was still a mess as a result of me not having cleaned it in days. That was okay though, it's not like anybody but me cared about it. I'd clean it later. I slung my backpack over my shoulder before slowly making my downstairs, already knowing my mother would be there, already knowing I'm nowhere near awake enough to interact with her. So I walked into the room, mumbled good morning, dropped my backpack, and flopped down on the couch. My mom was a morning person, which made it even worse. "Hey!" She said enthusiastically, "Its Friday!"

"Oh yeah," I replied brusquely.

"Are you tired?" She queried.

"Yeah."

"Did you stay up late?"

"Mm. Couldn't sleep." She didn't respond. Instead, she looked down at the dishes before walking into the other room. I sighed, relieved to finally be alone. Even though I was downstairs on the couch, my eyes began to drift closed. I woke up to my phone ringing a moment later. I was annoyed until I looked at the name on the screen- Daisy. I answered immediately. "Hey Dai," I said.

"Hey River," she replied quickly.

"What's wrong?" I asked, flinching when a ray of sunlight coming through the blinds hit my eye directly.

" I have to go to Church on Sunday and I really don't want to. I'm done with my family trying to convince me that I'm religious. I'm not," she complained.

"I know, babe. It sucks. Do you want to come over to my house?"

"You know they won't let me. And complaining about it is better," she giggled.

"Okay," I said, sighing fondly. "I'll see you at school in ten minutes."

"Okay. Love you."

"Love you too." I said, hanging up the phone. Just talking to her had already improved my day. The feeling of dread was starting to fade. I grabbed a mint flavored protein bar on the way out the door, calling out to my mom to tell her I was leaving. She didn't even have time to acknowledge what I had said before I was out the door and into the passenger seat of Rose's car. "Hey River," she said.

"Hey Rose, are you sure you don't want me to pitch in some money for gas? You pick me up every day."

"Honestly River? I don't even think you would." We laughed. She turned on the radio and a trashy pop song I didn't know the name of blared through the speakers. Rose didn't seem thrilled with the song either, though neither of us made a move to change the station. Instead, we swayed to the bet until we managed to pick up the lyrics of the annoyingly shallow song's chorus. We pulled into my school's parking lot at 7:30 sharp, giving us time to find the rest of our group and start our day.

The first person I looked for was Daisy. She and I had first, third, fourth, and fifth periods together. I would consider her my best friend aside from a boy named Brandon. He lived near me. But what set Daisy apart from Brandon is that I was, well, in love with her. I knew she didn't feel the same way about me. I mean, she was pansexual. But I wasn't her type by a long shot. Regardless, the butterflies in my stomach still made an appearance every time I was around her. It took a while, but I finally found her standing outside the English building. I smiled when I saw her and waved. She walked over quickly and said, "Oh thank God you're here. That crowd was starting to give me anxiety." I laughed before responding. "Me too." She and I looked at each other and laughed for a moment before starting the walk back to the English building for first period. Whitson Valley high school served lunch to all of it's students at the same time. Two different lunch periods was a foreign concept to everybody who attended the school.

Daisy and I walked into the classroom side by side and sat down next to each other in the back. Then came my patient wait for lunch to begin. After fourth period, I bought lunch and sat down at the table we typically congregated at during lunch hour. I was the first one there. The second one was a boy called Jack. He and I had been friendly since fifth grade, but only really started hanging out toward the end of middle school. After Jack, Rose came to take her place beside him. They weren't together, but they were closer than the rest of us were to him. After that, Daisy came to take her seat beside me, and our clan was nearly complete. We were missing only two more people. Nicole, a strikingly beautiful red head who was more athletic than the rest of us could even dream to be, and Dahlia, a curly blonde haired girl who was the tallest of all of us.

While on the topic of looks, Daisy and I were also blonde, but her hair was shoulder length with layers. Mine was boring and straight. I reached to right about where my bra ended. My eyes are a bright, emerald green that look blue from far away. Daisy's were purely, beautifully, blue. To me(and likely everyone else) they were the most beautiful eyes in the world. We all made small talk throughout lunch, nobody having the energy to strike up a meaningful conversation. It being Friday, everybody just wanted to go home and go to sleep. Luckily today(for some reason) we were allowed to leave school after lunch. After the period was over, I hugged Daisy goodbye and went with Rose back to her car. My friend from home Brandon, called me while I was driving home. He had the full day off. "Riverrr where are youuu?" he asked.

"I'm driving home! I had a half day today, chill." I laughed. He laughed too. "Well tell Rose to drive faster, I'm bored. I'm on your couch eating stuff from your pantry. Your brother let me in and just left."

"Okay, just wait, I'll be there in a minute," I said before hanging up on him. By the time I got home, he was halfway through a family sized chip bag. I didn't know how he managed to stay so skinny. He was tall and lanky by nature, but it still never failed to impress me. I flopped down next to him on the couch and let out a sigh. "You okay?" he asked.

"It's been a long week," I replied. He nodded and flipped the TV to a channel he new I liked. I would consider him to be my best friend in the world. I leaned over onto him, and within a matter of minutes, I was asleep. By the time I woke up, my mother was just getting home from work. It must've been three hours. Brandon was still sitting in the same place, with me still leaning on his shoulder. He had finished the chip bag. "You could have left me at least one," I mumbled. He jumped a bit at the sound of my voice. "I know," he said. "But those were the best fucking chips ever." Probably because they were supposed to be mine, I thought. Some strange show about farm animals was on, and before I even had time to question Brandon about it, he had already pulled me off of the couch. "Let's go to the park," he said. I agreed and we walked out the door, our steps perfectly in sync despite my legs being noticeably shorter than his.