Half Life

Chapter 1 (Ebony P.O.V)

'Times up, please finish your sentence and put your pens down' bellowed Principal Henswork, while wiping his sweaty brow.

I quickly scribbled a couple more words before putting my pen down and leaning back in my chair, relief flooding through me as I finally finished the last of my end of year exams. I was finally free from this jail and I couldn't wait to have three months of doing nothing. I glanced over to Sage who had her head on the table after giving up trying to fill out the paper fifteen minutes ago. 

'Sage' I whispered tilting my head towards her and trying to wake her up before anyone noticed that she had dozed off.

Startled she shot up her knee banging the side of the table, 'Huh' she said a little bit too loud her voice filling the previously quite exam hall. Her cheeks immediately turned bright red as she realized her mistake, meanwhile I had my hand over my mouth trying to stifle my laughter at her misfortune.

'Sage Turner, please stay in your seat after the students have exited the building I want to have a little talk with you' Henswork yelled from the front of the hall. As Sage sat back down in her chair she gave me an evil side ways glare, however I knew that she didn't mean it. Sage and I had been inseparable since primary school which was when I had moved into the area and we started going to the same school. At first people were surprised that we had became friends because we were so different.  We are both quite tall (however I am technically taller but Sage would never admit it) and slim however I am olive skinned and have light blonde hair with brown eyes while Sage is more pale with dark brown hair and blue eyes. Apart from the physical differences I also have a normally mellow temperament compared to Sage who is like a gun and you don't know when she will go off. 

I quickly scooped up my stuff before pushing back my chair and standing up. Before looking over at Sage one more time mouthing 'sorry' in her direction, I then quickly scooted past the rows of tables and left the hall breathing in the fresh air after spending three hours in a stuffy closed up box. 

It had dawned on me that I was going to have to walk home by myself so I didn't bother staying around engaging in small chat and just chose to head straight home before I got caught up in the rush of students fleeing school. Normally I would walk the longer way home to my house which goes past Sage's house, however because she was stuck at school, probably in detention I took the shortest way home possible.

.............

'Mum I'm home!' I yelled, throwing my bag down by the stairs and kicking off my shoes before walking into the kitchen to grab some afternoon tea. After pondering for a couple of minutes deciding between a cookie or the last slice of cake, I choose the cake placing it carefully down on a plate and walking into the living room.

As I sat down on one of the large chairs and reached for the remote to turn on the T.V I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. 'Mum?' I said lifting a forkful of cake into my mouth. The footsteps increased in pace, and it wasn't long before she rounded the corner grabbing me in her arms and hugging me like there was no tomorrow.

'Mum....  is everything alright'  I said placing my cake down on the side table, worry creeping into my bones as I took in her strange behavior. Her grip on me only tightened and I started to feel a little claustrophobic and out of breath. I knew that her strange behavior couldn't be about Dad because he had left when I was 5 and I hadn't heard of him since. After a little while longer curiosity overtook my initial surprise and I pried her hands off pushing her away so that I could see her face.

My mum was extremely young compared to most of the other mums at school, however looking at her now it seemed as though she had aged 10 years since I had last seen her when I left for school this morning with Sage. Her normally perfectly styled blonde hair was all over the place as though she had run her hands through it at thousand times and her blue eyes were clouded with tears. Cold spread through my bones, mum never cries in front of me I shakily thought to myself, not even when Dad left.