Hope

Chapter I

        BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. My stupid alarm clock won't shut up. I groan to myself and roll over, picking my phone up off the ground and hitting snooze. I roll back over, eyes squinting at the ceiling.
5:52am, I read off of my clock. I sit up, looking around the navy blue painted room. I pull my white sheets with rainbow splatterpaint spots up to my chin.
         I finally muster up the courage, and swing my legs off of the side of my bed and stand up. My arms stretch above my head, trying to wake up. I plug in my hair straightener and start looking for clothes. Too fancy, I already wore that this week, pajamas, I think to myself as I go through my shirt drawer. I end up pulling out a burgundy t-shirt with only a pocket on it and some skinny jeans. I throw my clothes on and brush my curly hair, making it all puffy. I grab my straightener and start sliding it through parts of my hair. I finish and unplug it.
It's the first day, I guess I should look ok, I think to myself and then put on mascara to make myself feel like I did enough. I go brush my teeth and slip on some converse. I grab my backpack and head out the door, into the still dark morning.
        I walk to my bus stop, seeing one of my only friends, Emma, is already there. I feel my spirits lift a little bit.
        "You have to change next time," she said to me. We went clothes shopping together and bought a lot of the same shirts, and I made her change out of hers because I didn't want to match her on the first day.
         "Alright, that's what I figured," I said, rolling my eyes with a small smile. More people start coming to the bus stop, staying away as usual. We wait for the bus with some small chatter, inside jokes mostly and how late we got out of bed.
        The bus comes to a stop next to us, and we get on and take our seat together. We chat for about 30 seconds then put our earbuds in for the rest of the 20 minutes we were on the bus.

---

        The bus arrives at the school, parking and opening the doors. Everyone gets off, and it drives away. We walk into the building. I take and exaggerated deep breath and Emma punches me lightly.
        We make our way to our lockers, hers isn't too far away from mine, maybe about 25 lockers away. It could be worse. I shove my backpack in, taking out the things I need for my first class. I take deep breaths, heading into my homeroom. I look around the room before sitting in a seat. I set my binders down quietly on the desk. I see some familiar faces trickling in, which is nice.
         My heart stops. Don't look at them, don't look at them, don't look at them.
        I look up for a split second, just at the right time for them to be looking at me. We make eye contact. I quickly look back down to my binders. It's too late.
        He scowls, but still waltzes his way over and sits in the desk beside me. The only thing he does is stare out the window, with his permanent straight face on to keep his "I don't give a crap" reputation. I look over at him, instantly regretting to choose where I sat.
        "Oh, uh, hey Asher," I manage to struggle out. Go away, go away, get out of here.
        "Dork," he said, followed by a snort of disapproval. I really wanted this to be the year to be good, to do good at all of my schoolwork, without any distractions. I already found distraction number one and the bell hasn't even rung.
        I pull my schedule out of my binder. I look through, trying to memorize where I'm supposed to go. He peers over at my paper, eyes widening, scowl deepening.
        "Holy crap, we have homeroom, period 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, and lunch together," he mumbled, and somehow he even looked more disgusted, looking back at the window.
"And period 9 for 3 quarters," I add.
        He nods abruptly, his head jerking in sharp motions.
        I didn't know what to say, let alone think. The bell rings luckily, and Asher continues glaring out at the window, as if he hated his life. But, his life was great. Caring mother, father with a good job, a good meal for breakfast and dinner everyday. His siblings were nice to him, he had it all. Yet he still couldn't break his stupid attitude.
The announcements come on and our homeroom teacher takes attendance, giving the first day speech. The bell rings and I start heading off to 1st period, Asher staying his ways behind me
        I speedwalk, also creating distance between us. I keep my head down, not showing my face to anyone who passes by me. I accidentally bump into someone.
        "Watch it," they snarled at me, then realized who I was. I was the most popular pick to be bullied, shoved in lockers, and get things stolen from me in the locker room. They smirked, sticking their leg out as I tried to walk past.
        I make contact with his leg, instantly start jolting forward. My face hits the ground, ankle gets twisted, knee smashing against the tile, and binder and paper flying everywhere.
He laughs, pointing at me. Someone of his idiotic friends come over, laughing as well. I get up silently, grabbing my binders and papers and instantly bolting off, face beat red.

•••

This is dumb, I can't believe I have to be with the stupid dork, I thought. I walked behind Riley, making sure to stay at least 4 feet behind her. She keeps her head down, as usual.
Gosh, that freak needs some stupid confidence, I think aggressively to myself. I couldn't help but feel some pity for her, knowing how her life was at home. The jocks exposed that.
I push the pity aside, remembering how she acted around everyone. So shy, so easy to manipulate (and I've seen more than I few people use that to their advantage), and scared. Scared. That's the word I would use to describe her best. I guess she has the right to be, with her life at home and such. I didn't have any more time to think about this as I see her sprawled out on the floor.
Stupid jocks. I think to myself. I stop, debating on what to do. A word pops into my head. Reputation. I stroll past Riley, acting as if I didn't notice her. My chest ached, knowing that was such a terrible thing to do. I couldn't be seen helping her, not on the first day, not ever.
I take a glance over my shoulder, and she rushes past me. I catch a glimpse of her face, which was madly red from embarrassment. I notice something else as the hair parted away from her face. Blood.
And I didn't help her, all because of a stupid reputation. Why are you thinking like this? The little voice inside my head says. I keep my straight face as I walk into the next class. It was dumb of me anyways, just thinking I wanted to help the most easy target in the school.

•••

I quickly make my way into a bathroom stall, fiddling with the lock. Once I make sure no one can get in, I grab some toilet paper and hold it to my nose. I let out a sigh, already so done with the school year. I bite my tongue so I don't start balling on the spot.
He didn't even think twice about helping, I think to myself. Why would he? I'm the freak, the freak that has one friend and has to lie about my age to work at two jobs, which still isn't enough. The crappy apartment isn't worth two dimes, and I'm still working my butt off for it.
The whole school knew how crappy my apartment was. I was followed home by a jock, who took a picture of the messy, small, gross apartment which 5 people live in.
My nose starts to slow down, then stops bleeding altogether. I wipe away the tears that I didn't even realize were stinging my burning cheeks. I unlock the stall and walk out, and pause to look at myself in the mirror. It's obvious I was crying, but I'm already late. I keep my head down and head out of the bathroom, hiding my face.
I walk into the class, all eyes turning to face me. I keep my eyes down and my face covered. The teacher motions for me to sit, and I do as I'm told quickly. I shake my hair out of my face for a split second, then return to looking at the floor. My knee is now bruised, which hurt as well. A small sigh escapes my mouth as I pull out a piece of paper and start copying my notes. I didn't care about what Asher or anyone was thinking, I just cared about getting out of this hell hole.

•••

I see her walk in, hair in her face. I watch her as the teacher makes her sit down. I'm about to turn my attention back to the window, but I flick my eyes back over to her as I see her push the hair out of her face, only to be covered again, as if she remembered she couldn't be seen.
But I saw something for that split second, that made me feel like a terrible person.
Blotchy face, puffy under her eyes, which had a glossy coat over them.
She was crying.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I know no one will read this, but if you made it this far, thank you so much. I really enjoyed doing this, I'll try to make it as interesting as possible and still be long, but not too long where it gets boring. Thank you so, so much for reading!