All Of Your Flaws

Part One

The town bus came to a sharp and shuddering stop. The eighteen year old sitting near the back of the bus cracked her head against the window as she jolted awake. She swore under her breath as she rubbed the spot that had hit the cold, rain-stained glass window. With a tired and grumbling sigh, Addison Harper pulled herself up from the seat she had been dozing in. The music in her ears had been loud enough to drown out everything around her. She'd been grateful, even if she had dozed off for several minutes.

The bus doors creaked open. Addison dragged her feet along the length of the bus towards the front. The driver gave her a sympathetic smile but Addison merely gave him a nod in reply. As she exited the bus, the frigid air hit Addison square in the face. Maybe her father had been right that morning when he told Addison that she would need more than just a hooded pullover to protect her from the frosty winter weather. With another weary sigh, Addison exited the bus and walked for the three minutes along the street until she came to the large and looming grey building that was the local high school and sixth form college.

Addison checked the scratched watch on her wrist. She was definitely late for her first class of the day. She slunk into the main hallway which was nearly empty apart from a few stragglers. No one really noticed Addison apart from one person. The boy who noticed her was tall with dark hair that curled at the base of his neck. He was stood near the main office, leaning against the large desk. He glanced over at Addison and gave her a lazy smile before turning back to the receptionist. Addison picked up her pace towards English. She wasn't remotely interested in the actual class, the book they were studying for her A-Level exam was one she'd read at least ten times before. She had stopped paying attention months ago. Nevertheless, she really didn't want to be hanging around in the corridors in case the Head of Sixth Form did his daily stroll of the corridors. The last thing Addison needed was another letter sent home.

English hadn't long started when Addison slid silently into the desk next to her best friend. Brigid and Addison had sat in for the past year and a half. At one point, Addison would have been there the first row staring at the board with rapt attention but that was a whole different time and a whole different world; a whole different Addison actually. The Addison who used to wear sweater vests and be able to recite Shakespeare off by heart. That really was a whole different time and world though.

As Brigid looked over towards her with a questioning look, Addison let out a small yawn. Instead of answering Brigid, she simply shrugged her shoulders as a way to say that she had no real reason as to why she was late for the lesson. Brigid just rolled her eyes, pulled her English textbook from out of her bag and threw it onto her own desk in a way that was clearly to show her irritation. Addison pulled her sketchbook out of her own bag. There was no real reason getting her English book out when she wasn't going to pay much attention to whatever was going on in the class anyway.

Addison's English teacher, a middle-aged woman who went by the name of Ms. Miller and who was about as unenthusiastic about English as Addison was, was only just setting books out on her desk when a knock on the door distracted the entire class. Addison could tell that several people were hoping that a water pipe had burst so they could be sent home or something like that. Ms. Miller called out for whoever it was to 'come on in and not spend all day out in the corridor like a spare part for God's sake'. Clearly, Miller had either gotten up on the wrong side of the bed or her coffee hadn't kicked in. Addison knew that feeling only too well.

Whoever it was out in the hallway opened the door and walked into the classroom though who it was Addison did not know. She was becoming engrossed in the quick doodle she had started at the side of her page. Brigid leaned across her desk slightly to tap Addison gently on the arm to get her attention. Addison shot her an annoyed look for a moment, Brigid had known her for too many years to know that once she became engrossed in something it was very difficult to pull her out of that trance. Doing so easily made her irritated, but Brigid just rolled her eyes at her as if to tell her to just look at what she was now nodding at.