Glass Facades

Chapter five

"Willow, honey get up." My aunt's voice came out as if I was very far away from her.

"Huh? What's happening?"

"Well, I'm assuming your alarm never went off and that's why you're still sleeping. And also-"

"Too many complex phrases, simplify, please." I groaned.

"Okay, if you don't get your butt out of bed in the next ten minutes you will be late for your very exciting first day at Whiteridge High."

"Oh, right." My aunt threw some clothes on my face and took the covers off. I groaned for the second time in ten seconds and dragged myself to the bathroom in the hall.  

I didn't end up going to school that day Jayden had said I was gonna get enrolled, in fact, I was only going to start attending school a week after that. There had been trouble with some of the paperwork, for a second I feared my aunt was gonna realize how fishy the situation seemed and demand I called my mother. Thank god it never came to that.

Downstairs a very sleepy Jay was trying to pour milk on some cereal. Spoiler alert: the milk bottle still had the lid on. I sat down next to him and got the milk bottle from him to put in my own cereal bowl. My aunt rushed into the kitchen and while she drank coffee from a mug she attempted to put on her doctor's coat and grab her car keys.

The drive to the school was quite peaceful except for aunt Amalie's blabbering on how Jay had to look out for me and not leave me for dead as soon as we set a foot in school and Jay's occasional eye rolls.

As soon as the car slowed down close to the school Jay opened the door and ran off while my aunt yelled for him to get back inside.

"Jayden Everett! Kiss your video games goodbye 'cause you're not gonna see them for a year!" As she murmured profanities through gritted teeth at her son, she gesticulated at people to get out of her way. People literally threw themselves out the car lane trying to avoid my aunt's pirouettes as she maneuvered the car trying to park it. I sank into the passenger seat trying to make myself as less visible to everyone as possible. She finally turned off the engine and slammed the door shut walking towards the entrance whilst I followed her around like a lost puppy.

The school certainly looked different now that it was filled with people and noise, everywhere I looked there was someone either doing last minute homework or studying, others were laughing, others making out. Common, common high school.

Aunt Amalie seemed to know exactly her way around the school and I could only assume that was due to all the times she had to come talk about Jayden and his misbehaving. In less than five minutes we were standing in front of Principal Pearson'office. One of the secretaries asked us to take a sit in the waiting lounge until the principal was ready to invite us into his office.

"Send them in please, Natalie." We heard over the intercom and the lady got up and opened the door for us.

"The principal is a friend of mine so I'm pretty sure we'll have no problems." My aunt winked at me as we entered the office."Hello Stuart, thank you for having us."

"Amalie! How are you? I haven't seen you in a while." A guy who looked too cheerful to be a high school principal sat gleaming at us from his seat. His greying hair was slicked back and his blue-collar shirt was sticking out of his pants from one of his sides.

"Well Jayden hasn't gotten into trouble lately, we should be thankful."

"I agree. And who's this young lady?"

"My niece, Willow. I talked to you about her remember? I was hoping I could enroll her."

"Oh Willow, yes." He stretched his hand and shook mine then he sat back down in his leather chair with a groan.