Simplicity

Prologue

"Stop! Bailey, stop! Look at me!" Isabelle's voice pierces through Bailey's glass shattering screams. The sound of her tears pounding against the floor as they fall echoes around the cold, damp cell-like walls.

"You've got to stop," she says, catching Bailey as she relaxed; falling into her arms. Her eyes turn back to the tepid, periwinkle shade of blue that somehow lost their flaming innocence before fluttering shut, as she blacks out.

As her world closes in around her, every object levitating in the air crashes to the floor. The electrically-powered tools roar to a stop, the light flickering until it steadies, illuminating the mess surrounding them.

***

The clock clicks on for the third time, letting Bailey know that she's used up her maximum amount of "snoozes" for that morning.

"Well, hello sunshine. Glad you're up, I was about to come get you and we both know what happens when I come and get you," Isabelle says as she walks by the door, piles of laundry folded neatly in the basket she was carrying.

Mumbling, Bailey swiftly layers her pillows one on top of the other over her head, attempting to pretend it wasn't the first day back to school. Isabelle smiles as she puts the basket down, pulling up her sleeves.

She approaches the teenage girl lying defensively in her bed, tapping the air lightly one finger at a time before she's standing at the edge of the bed. Grinning, she laces her oblong fingers around Bailey's ankles.

Bailey's eyes spring open just as Isabelle tears her from underneath the covers.

"Hey! Not cool, Aunt Isabelle," she says, throwing the blanket off her head.

"You know what else isn't cool? Being late for school. Come on, get dressed."

She laughs, standing up.

"This is going to be one hell of a day,"she whispers to herself, dragging her feet over to her closet. Opening the doors, she notices the new navy blue skirt she had asked for, hanging next to the mirror with a note that read "Just because you asked so nicely. Love you xoxo,"

Trying not to smile, she pulls it off the hanger, takes out a shirt with a quote by Edward Estlin Cummings printed across the front and grabs the black blazer she had been dying to wear with it for months.

Sitting at the vanity next to her bed she opens the drawer, revealing nothing but a little lavender box with the initials J.H. scratched in.

"Hi mom," she whispers, closing her eyes, clipping the necklace together. Isabelle comes back in the room with a glass of milk and a cream cheese covered bagel.

"You don't have to go if you're not ready, sweetie. I know all of this is still a lot to handle for you," she says after putting the dishes down, pulling Bailey's hair over the chain she held tightly between her palms.

"Mom would have wanted me to go to school," Bailey mutters, standing up once again. She grabs her backpack, kisses her aunt on the cheek and walks out of the room, her high heel wedges squeaking against the hardwood.

"What happened last year, no one will remember. You have friends, right? I hear you talking about Stiles and Lydia and Isaac and Scott. He's the boy you like, isn't he? The captain of the lacrosse team?"

"Aunt Isabelle, I'm not worried about people remembering that I left at the beginning of freshmen year and I'm certainly not worried about making friends. I've been doing perfectly fine without any for this long, why start having them now? We both know what happens to the people I get close to. Besides, they aren't my friends. They're just people I've been paying attention to lately, okay? I have to go now before I'm late."