When All The Walls Around Us Crumble

Prologue

Jay
~
Amber Lane high school was a place filled with ordinary people. Classified as a normal school. At least, as normal as any high school could really be.

Lunchtime is always the worst. Kids tripping, spilling their food, gossip, and saving seats. I know this from experience.

That's right. I, the narrator, am a REAL person. And I've been at Amber Lane for my entire life.

It gets kinda boring after a while though. It's your regular middle-of-nowhere town, USA. It's classified as one of the very basic wastelands of the northern hemisphere. And it doesn't help that everyone is who they seem.

Amber Lane is teeming with stereotypes, at least until this school year. All the jocks were popular stuck ups. All the cheerleaders drones and all the smart scientific people nerds.

The unwanted- at least that's what I call them- are a big group of goth, emo, punk rockers that will pound your little hides into the dust.

I thought I was one of them last year, freshman year, because I dated one of the seniors, and I had a little dragonfly tattoo on my ankle. I dressed like them too. And I was friends with most of them until that senior douche dropped me like it was hot, and ran off to some community college. So now, I sit by myself except for the first day of school when I sat by the new girl, Evie, because she sat by herself and honestly looked a little lonely.

So there are the unwanted, the populars, the nerds, and weirdos- which are pretty self explanatory-, and the lonelys (which is a club of approximately 2 people). And one more.

The snakes.

This word is only used cautiously behind their backs for one reason- they are what their name implies.

They really are snakes. This is the only group with girls only. These girls are your basic mean girls, brats, female dogs, whatever you want to call them. And they have a certain bite. To put it nicely, they bully others because they can't hang out with the popular.

And the only difference between the Snakes and the popular are that the popular are actually pretty nice, but they just don't include everybody. So if I were to accidentally knock one of the pops over, they'd brush themselves off, and say sorry, however the Snakes would cuss you off, and never forget it.

I heard a rumor go around school that the Snakes keep a book full of the people they're supposed to hate, or get back at. So far, I'm pretty sure I'm not apart of that book.

I know this because last week, Angie Lou accidentally tripped Jeanie, the main snake, and Angie hasn't stopped being tormented by them since. They have tripped, spit in her face, thrown her books on the ground, and have gone as far as hiding Angies clothes from the girls locker room.

   Evie's long blonde hair and cautious green eyes could help her sit in the football bleachers with the Populars. Her look that I've figured out to be Hers And Only Hers- basically when she widens her eyes super wide as if to take in more information, and bites her dark red, full lips was sure to get the attention of Boston Meryll and Ken Langston.

The two most Popular guys at Amber Lane.

And although Ken was sweet and perfect, he was the biggest player in our school.

Boston was more reserved, and had more of a Boy Next Door vibe. I'm his next door neighbor, and I've been crushing on him since first grade, and seeing as we are in eleventh grade, the chances of him liking me are very slim.

Thinking back, that's probably why I settled for MDB- major douche bag. I also don't want a boyfriend, ever since last year, and I don't want to particularly tell Boston.

Anyway, there's another girl that I sorta forgot to tell you about and she's sorta important.

Seeing as she's Ken's girlfriend, and my stepsister. Rewind. Last year, my mom- only 36- was still recovering from 2 years before.

My dad had heart surgery. And never recovered. My mother was crushed, heartbroken. Split open as emotionally as my dad had physically.
Then, one day, she finally dragged her self to the only good diner in Amber Lane. Two and a half servings was four star at best.

But the people there made up for it. My mom got served her usual- a large choco-mocha with two vanilla squirts and a peppermint stick with a cinnamon roll- by a hunk surprisingly only a couple months older then my mom. He claimed he was only working there so he can get back on his own two feet.

He moved from bustling Chicago, to small town Amber Lane. Apparently, he grew up there until he was 16, and he moved to Illinois. Then deciding he missed it, he packed his bags, and snatched his daughter too.

My mother fell hard, as she was always into that happy ending. And she thought it was him. I am more of a cynical myself. But my mother was right when she said he'd make her happy.

6 months later, and my mother is still smiling. She was a beautiful bride, I will admit, I just was never into maroon and beige.

My step sister was the flower girl. I was the maid of honor, wearing as much black as I could get away with- itchy black nylons, faux leather slips, a black bracelet, necklace, earrings.

And it's not that I'm goth, I just don't like drawing too much attention to myself.

Which is exactly what I was doing right at this moment. I scribbled lightly in my notebook. My black hair with blue highlights was long- almost to my waist.

My black leather bracelets shifted as I changed angle of my strokes. I was drawing my mother's bouquet. Yellow irises, light pink violets. Purple forget-me -nots, and white roses. Unusual. I would use this for water coloring later. But so far, I'd keep it simple.

And that's when I remembered that my ear buds were still in- Christina Perry's voice vibrating my bones. If my ear buds were still in, and I could hear normal conversations, maybe someone was yelling at me, trying to get me to pay attention.

"Jay!" My chemistry teacher snapped. "You can finish that in detention." I rolled my eyes, and went back to drawing when she turned back to the board.

I flipped her off after she wasn't constantly checking to see if I was paying attention. I heard a snicker.

Bewildered, I looked around for who had made that noise? Then, still snickering, Evie stuck out her hand.
"I'm Evie. That's was awesome." I shrugged, ignoring her and went back to drawing. I already knew who she was. I felt a little bad, but again, shouldn't Evie be hanging on to every word our chemistry teacher was saying?

In the brief and frankly limited conversation we had shared that first day of school, I had asked her what her favorite subject was. "Chemistry." She had said. So why wasn't she paying any attention?

Then, I felt someone's presence beside me. I took out my ear buds, and stared at Evie now besides me, a small smile tugging at her lips.

"Hey. Do you wanna be friends?" I smirked at her choice of words, not hearing them strung together in such a way since kindergarten. I guess she thought I was smiling at her, because she threw me a wide smile.

And I guess that was the beginning, because that day at lunch, she sat by me, and waited for me after detention.
"What are you still doing here?" I snapped. She smirked.

"Ah, so she does talk." Her arms were pulled protectively around her waist. She was leaning against the front lawn's tree. Her backpack at her feet, her hair in a quick top knot, and her eyes sparkling with mischief. She was definitely not what i had expected before. A car horn sounded. I whipped my head to where the noise came from. In a silver convertible, was Maycee. My step sister.