Hanging by a Moment

1

Chapter 1

Present

* Hey Joshua – Fergalicious!

If the speed limit is 55, why am I going 40? It's because the idiot in front of me was specifically placed on this earth to make me late for class. Sure it could have been that I woke up late and took my time getting dressed, but unfortunately only Beyoncé wakes up flawless. But let's not pin the blame on any one thing.  

I thumbed the beat of the song along the steering wheel, while mentally checking off the things I had to do today. I had to send in my application to Florida State University, I had put it off long enough.

 The fear of rejection is what had my finger hovering over the 'confirm' button.

By the time I got to school, it was ten minutes into homeroom. I signed the tardy log, and made my way to my seat, ignoring the stares that I got when I walked in. Yes I'm, late. Feel free to stare at me like I'm a serial killer.

"Well look who finally decided to grace us with her presence," my best friend Hay, said looking at me. Hay is short for Hayley,  I only called her Hayley when I needed her attention for something important.

"You had one job, one job! And you couldn't even do that," she scolded me.

"The struggle was real," I explained, "Some idiot in front of me was learning what a gas pedal was."

"Oh, so you didn't wake up late, and stopped to buy yourself a mocha frappe," she said eyeing my hand.

Crap! She caught me. Don't worry, I was prepared for this, I thought to myself as I reached over my purse, and took a frappe out of the side pocket and handed it to her.

"You're welcome," I smirked, finally taking my seat.

"All is forgiven, little grasshopper." She said snatching the plastic cup from my hand and slurping the delicious goodness. She turned around and resumed taking her notes, and motioned for me to do the same.

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"What took you so long?" Hay, questioned me. She really had a short tolerance for tardiness.

"Hankuna, your tatas Hay, I had a quiz to finish taking." I explained walking up to her and the rest of my friends. She along, with Hannah, Nysa, and Tristan were impatiently waiting for me to go get lunch. After some small talk, and the ever important greetings, we finally made our way to the cafeteria.

        After getting our prison food, we made our way into the Den, since we are all seniors we have the privilege of eating in a secluded area away from the underclassmen. The Den is the name of our safe haven, which correlated with the mascot of our school the wolf. I sat myself next to Hayley, and Nysa, so that Hannah and Wolfie, a.k.a Tristan could sit together. They had a thing for each other that they denied, so we pretended to believe them, and used every opportunity to put them together.

"So guys, when are we going dress shopping?" Hannah asked with seriousness in her tone, every time she brought up shopping for our prom dresses we ignored her.

As we ignored her for the umpteenth time, she huffed flinging her dirty blond hair over her shoulder in annoyance, and narrowing her bright, blue eyes at us.

"Seriously?" she whined, "It's in three weeks, how much longer are you guys going to put this off?"

Hayley, Nysa and I exchanged looks, and we silently agreed using our friend-telepathy that we should go this weekend.

"How about this Saturday?" Nysa directed to Hannah, "We can go down town and see what we find." Nysa said in her Jamaican accent, it wasn't as strong as it was when she first moved here four years ago, but it was still prominent.

        Hannah beamed with excitement. Maybe it was because we were finally going shopping, or maybe it was because Wolfie gave her a – you are the most beautiful girl in the world- smile. The world may never know.

My phone buzzed, and I reached into my back pocket and saw a text from Danny saying,

Danny: Josh asked me to prom!!!   Smiley face, with happy emoji.

I texted her back sarcastically with,

 Me:  I am so surprised, who would have thought you boyfriend would ask you to prom?  Surprised emoji.

Josh and Danielia have been going out for a year now. So I was surprised he actually, asked her I just assumed they we going together, being in a relationship and all. They make each other better people, and I adopted Josh as my brother a long time ago. If you make my girls happy, I won't kill you, that's what I always say. Well actually I don't always say that but maybe I should start.

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Before I could take my key out to open the front door, my sister came running out to greet me.

"Hey Laiyah." She half sang half spoke.

"What?" I asked, cutting to the chase, I knew she had something she wanted to tell me. Why else would she run outside to greet me?

She blushed and looked away, confirming my hypothesis.

"Maya, what is it?" I asked starting to get annoyed.

"Guess what?" she said.

"What!" Now I'm officially annoyed.

"I got an A on my Spanish test." She replied.

"And?" I was losing my patience with her, and she could tell. Suddenly she stopped walking, and pulled my arm, jerking me to a stop also.

"What!" I screamed. She was being weird  so she either did something  really bad or is in trouble with auntie.

This time when she looked at me, a look of apology was embedded on face. I ignored it and continued through the door. Why is she acting so strange?

When I opened the door I got my answer.

"Hi," a strange, yet familiar voice said. That voice, the voice! It angered me.

I looked up bewildered at the person standing in front of me with wearing a hesitant smile, a storm of emotions came over me and I mentally told my heart to chill with the drum line. With all the strength I could muster I spoke coldly, sending ice through the word.

"Leave!" is all I said...it is all I had to say.