steal the world // five seconds of summer {discontinued}

one

There are few things in the world that are worse than being awake at seven o’clock on a Monday morning and knowing that you have to go to school. At least, that was what I believed. Having to attend school at all was pretty high up on that list of things that sucked, but then they made you wake up at ungodly hours to do it as well. The whole thing was just cruel.

If that wasn’t bad enough, I’d forgotten to set my alarm and I was running so far behind schedule that I actually contemplated just going back to bed and forgetting the whole day. I quickly surveyed my appearance in the mirror and decided that I could get away without a shower before throwing my hair up into a messy bun.

Less than five minutes later, a miracle in my books, I was downstairs and ready to go. Just as I’d shut the front door behind me Luke’s car pulled into the driveway. It was really convenient having friends that drove because otherwise I’d have to get up even earlier to catch a bus; I think I would give up on school altogether if that was the case.

“You look like shit, Rae.” Liss told me, turning to look at me as I slid into the backseat of the car.

“I’ve only been awake for ten minutes Liss, give me a break.” I rolled my eyes at my best friend and observed the two blondes in the front of the car.

I had been friends with Luke and Alyssa Hemmings since I was four years old and had first started primary school. As kids, the two of them had been inseparable; when I went up to speak to Liss on the first day of kindergarten, that meant I had to speak to Luke as well. I remember being really confused by the fact that the two of them looked exactly the same except that Liss had longer hair. They were both beautiful in that idealistic kind of way, even at such a young age, with their light blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

Luke had been a somewhat chubby kid, but as he got older he grew into his body. Now he was a gangly mess of long limbs and good looks that caught the attention of virtually every girl in school. I won’t even go into what happened after he got his lip pierced (it involved a lot of girls squealing and swooning).

Liss, on the other hand, had always been gorgeous. For as long as I could remember I had been envious of her looks and her confidence in herself. Physically we were polar opposites; she had short blonde hair and mine was long and dark, she had a tan that most girls would kill for and I was so pale that it bordered on translucent. Where she was tall with curves, I was barely average height with no discernable shape. The only physical similarity that we shared was the colour of our eyes, and even then mine were a much darker shade than hers.

After I’d gotten over that initial shock when I first met the two of them we got to talking and we haven’t really stopped. I almost didn’t view them as friends, but more like family.

I rummaged through my backpack and let out an exasperated sigh when I couldn’t find my cigarettes. I’d been looking for a way to take the edge off and soothe my anxiety and now I was starting to get jittery.

“Luke, can we please make a quick stop at Gloria Jeans?” He quickly glanced over at me, most likely noting the way I was fiddling with my hands and tapping my leg, before nodding and turning back to face the road. “Thank you.”

Twenty minutes later I had enough caffeine to kill a small child and we had arrived at school. I trailed behind Luke and Liss, nursing my coffee while we tried to find any of our other friends. I wasn’t the least bit surprised to find Ashton waiting by our lockers and I had a fairly good idea where Mikey and Calum were if they’d even bothered to show up today.

Luke, Liss, and I split so we could each go to our respective lockers, granted they were all within a few meters of each other. I held out my coffee and without a word the curly haired boy took the cup which allowed me to look through my locker for the books I was going to need. I had just found my history text book when I heard Ashton coughing and sputtering from behind me.