Landslide: Before (Book 1) (GirlxGirl / lesbian/ LGBTQ)

Chapter Eight

I'm feeling generous, so here's another update! Please comment and let me know what you think so far! Seriously. 

Summary: the one with the soccer ball

EIGHT

School started the Tuesday after Labor Day. The past week had gone without incident. I spent most of my time at Barks N' Recreation's. Violet was no longer training under me, but she still worked closely with me. We had enough workers to cover the most important areas - the pods, daycare, and the extreme cases. Which left Violet with me taking care of the dogs in the pods. She was a fast learner and became a much needed pair of hands. All the chores were completed in record time leaving us to take our time during walks and playtime.

Despite working closely together, Violet and I still rarely talked. The few times I had attempted conversation she would answer me curtly and continue on doing her work. It didn't bother me, not really anyway. It was nice to have the company, even if that company was a silent and brooding red head. I'd grown used to her snarky comments and her indifferent attitude. Honestly, it was a nice constant to have. No matter what I was feeling those days I went into work, I could always count on Violet to be her sarcastic self. I appreciated it in a weird way. Not many things in my life had remained the same during the summer, but she did. She became a nice reminder that when things change and give way and disappear, there becomes room for new things, experiences, people.

The first day of school was a bust, like always. Nothing spectacular happened. Charlie and I rode together that morning but quickly separated. I went to Carmilla and Aurora, who were hanging out at our usual rockwall near the entrance of the school. Charlie ran off with a mumbled excuse about having to get to work. She had been increasingly distant since our conversation on my bed. I hadn't seen much of her at all, really. She'd eat dinner with us silently, taking the criticism from our mother and the barely soothing words of our father. I had been meaning to talk to her, but whenever we were alone she would leave with a lame excuse or change the subject drastically.

I sighed and shook my head mentally reminding myself to try harder to talk to Charlie. For now, I had to take a deep breath and prepare myself for my first day as a senior. A nervous knot formed in my stomach, but I took my steps toward my school despite the protest from my body and mind.

Our high school was small. It wasn't one of those grand high schools that was spread out like a college campus or even exceeded more than two floors. My grade - the senior class - would be graduating with less than 100 students, the smallest ever to leave Elmsfield High School.

Elmsfield High School was a two floor old brick building with a large square courtyard in the middle of it. It had several picnic tables scattered throughout it and a few small trees for shade, but other than that, it was nothing impressive. No one really used it except for lunch, but it was a privilege for upperclassmen to use. Everyone else was forced to sit in the brightly lit cafeteria that smelled like burnt pizza and sweat. It really wasn't that appetizing to sit in there.

Unfortunately, I didn't have many classes with Carmilla and Aurora. My parents had pushed me to take college level classes in hopes that I would score well enough on the exams to get college credits for them. It was wishful thinking really, but I'd much rather please my parents than constantly fight with them.

Carmilla and Aurora were both in my study hall at the end of the day, though, which I was thankful for. We had the study hall with a biology teacher, Mr. Kaminski was nice and pretty relaxed with his rules. Most teachers made it a silent study basically forcing us to sit in our seats and do our work. But Mr. K allowed us to talk as long as we kept the volume low so he could get work done. The room we were in had large circular lab tables that we could sit at in the back of the room, which was where Carmilla, Aurora, and I ended up.