Chapter 1
Scarlett Phillips was your typical nerd. She got straight A’s throughout her first three years of high school. She was involved with various clubs and activities, none of which could be described as anywhere near “cool”. She was even in choir, band, and orchestra. And to top it all off, she had glasses, braces, liked comic books, video games, and loved to read. For years she had been tormented by her classmates who called her a geek or a dork. Whenever she would raise her hand someone would call her a know it all and if she ever actually did her homework in study hall someone either copied her or called her a try-hard. Scarlett had put up with the teasing for most of her life, ever since she got glasses in the second grade. Well now she was fed up with it. Scarlett’s family was moving because of her dad’s job so she took the opportunity to reinvent herself. That summer she got her braces taken off and decided to go a step further. She practically begged her parents for contacts and she bought herself a new wardrobe to replace her khaki’s and blouses that she previously wore. Her new style included plain blue jeans, a variety of band t-shirts that displayed startling logos, and of course her new leather jacket than she had beaten up to look worn. Instead of shoulder length hair that she used to pull into a bun every day, she cut it all off. Her light brown hair was now a crew cut that was shorter on the sides and longer and spiked up front. Her parents weren’t too pleased with her transformation but she could care less. She took on the attitude of a tom-boyish aloofness and mixed it with a tough exterior in order to make a new attitude to match her new style.
Emery Lawrence had always been slightly distant from her peers. She didn’t like other people. She thought talking to them was exhausting and overall unnecessary. She kept to herself due to slight shyness but mostly due to an overall lack of caring. She drags herself through school each day fearing whenever her she got grades back. Emery always felt like she was never good enough, especially when it came to her parents. Her parents were very preachy about certain things: grades, appearance, and especially behavior. They scolded Emery when she acted out which somewhat caused her shyness. Emery’s dad was especially strict and she avoided him as much as possible. As soon as she got home each day Emery tried to drown out the world with music, wearing head phones of course because her parents always tell her to stop blaring her noise throughout the house. Emery felt mostly indifferent when her parent told her they were moving. She wouldn’t really miss anyone, except for her girlfriend. Emery had been dating Desirae for almost a year. She, of course, never told her parents and only got to meet Desirae in secret. Emery’s parents wouldn’t let her date guys; they would have a cow if they knew about Desirae. Emery was almost sure she loved Des, but she would never admit it, she was too afraid that Des would reject her and then leave her. Emery felt better playing it safe than expressing her feeling and risking everything.
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In late July Panic at the Disco had a concert in Pasadena California. It was a muggy night but that might have been because of the crowds of people were all trying to squeeze into the arena. The arena smelled of cigarettes, even though smoking was prohibited, alcohol, a multitude of drinks were spilled making the floor sticky even before the opening act, and lastly of sweat. Most of the monstrous crowd headed for the floor space in front of the stage while the rest of them, about one third of all the people, made their way to their seats.
Emery shuffled along with the smaller crowd until her and Des found their seats. Emery had told her parents that she was going with Des, who Emery said was a friend of hers. Emery just left out the romantic side of their “Friendship” Emery’s parents reluctantly agreed. That meant Emery and Des got to be alone for the whole night and enjoy the great show. The two of them couldn’t be more excited. One of the main things they had in common was their love of music so they thought a concert would be the perfect way to spend one last night together before Emery moved.
