Lily

Chapter One

"Wake up, you're gonna be late, "
        Ugh. School. Yay. Time to go do the same thing I've been doing since the first day of kindergarten.  Wake up,  skip breakfast (due to the usual morning insults from my dad),  drive to school,  come home,  avoid my dad some more, get yelled at for not being a part of the family,  eat dinner,  go to bed.
         I've always been an outsider to the rest of the human race,  so I only have one friend,  who I think is pretty awesome.  Her name is Trish, and she volunteers to teach younger kids self defence.  Cool, right? We met at the beginning of freshman year,  and haven't really been apart ever since then. 
        "Get up Now. " My mom repeated. "You know how your dad gets when we're not out the door on time, "
         This finally breaks me. Ever since he lost his job,  he's been mean.  He hasn't hit my mom or I, yet.  He just yells. A lot.  About little things that don't even matter.  He never let's you forget anything you do wrong.
           I finally get up and head to the small bathroom I have to share with my mom.  I brush my teeth, wash my face,  and tie my brown hair up in a messy knot, not bothering to brush it. I pick out my standard outfit,  a plain t-shirt,  jeans,  converse,  and my signature mismatched socks. That's the thing about being the person nobody notices,  you don't have to worry about what you look like.
            I manage to slip past my dad, who's in our tiny living room,  watching reruns of the football game with a drink already in his hand,   without being noticed,  silently opening the door and closing it behind me. My mom's in our car, an old, beat down minivan, waiting for me. We drive to my school quietly,   watching the outside, not uttering a single word.
            When we pull up to the schools main building, a big tan rectangle with a stripe of our school colors, teal and gold, around the middle.  I hop out and walk up the steps to the door, passing groups of kids talking loudly. When I enter the building the hallway  is crowded with every type of student imaginable.  Nerds, jocks, cheerleaders, wallflowers, stoners,  skaters, goth kids, drama obsessed freshman acting older than they are, and faceless people in the crowd, just like me.
            Walking through the hallways here is like trying to propel yourself through the ocean with a battery powered fan.  It's hard to make it to class without being stepped on.
             I finally make it to my classroom just as the bell rings, a shrill buzzing noise. My usual seat in the back of the class is still open,  so I speed walk over. The teacher isn't here yet, as usual. The poor old lady can hardly walk, so kids are still talking.  Just when I was getting my books out,  I felt a tap on my shoulder. Annoyed, I turn around too see Trish.
"Hey," I said,  relieved it wasn't some random bubbleheaded girl asking what we did yesterday in class. "I thought you were sick,"
     "I am, " she said,  her voice gravelly from built up phlegm in the back of her throat.  Her mom's obsessed with perfect attendance. And punctuality. Trish only gets one of those. She cleared her throat. "So how are you? "

"I'm fine, " I say.  Trish is the only person who knows my fear of my dad, and what goes on in my house.

"Lily, when are you going to stand up to him?" She asks me this all the time,  and every time I give her the same answer:
 
"Soon."