Survive (A Zombie Apocalypse Novel)

Survive part one. Chapter one*EDITED*

Part one-Five months into the past; the beginning

Chapter 1- "Just a little cough" It always starts with a cough. 

I never thought I would say this, but I was happy to be back at school. It was not like I enjoyed seeing the faces of my classmates. However, it was better to be here than be back home. Summer break was torturous. There were constant stares at my face from family and friends. It's not like they have not seen me after the incident. Sunday dinners were the worst. Almost everyone in my family were at my house. They tried to not stare but I knew they could not help it. I wonder what would happen if they saw my body? My chest in particular. Everything was going okay, a little small talk here and there. That was until cousin Annie asked a question. 

"What happened to your face, Nicolette?"  

Everyone stopped eating or talking. An awkward silence swept over the table until the adults reprimanded her. I could not blame her for asking. She was five and was only curious. So I decided to answer her question. 

"I got my lip and nose pierced." I told her.  

I knew that was not the answer she asked for but what was I suppose to say? Some bad guy hurt me? She would not understand. Not a lot of people do. The adults laughed nervously at my answer and continued talking. Throughout the whole dinner, my cousin Mikey was looking at me guiltily. He had the right to be guilty. 

So here I was back at Celestine Boarding School. I struggled to get my suitcase up the stairs to the building where the dorms were held. I walked the down the marble hallway to my room. Room 413. When I opened it, I was quite surprised; it was better than my one last year. Maybe being a senior had its perks. My room was medium size with only one bed near the wall. Ever since last year, I made sure that I got a single person dorm. I did not want people to see me changing. There was a window across the room and desk under the window. Near my closet there was a full length mirror. Across from the bed was a small T.V. with a DVR player on a stand. I smiled to myself, since I could stay up all night watching T.V.  

I walked towards the mirror and crouched down. My recently dyed purple hair was in spiral curls that brushed my shoulders. I had dark eyes that were usually rimmed with eyeliner and pouty lips that were pierced. I had brown- mocha colored skin that barely had any pimples. A lot of people called me beautiful, but that was before I got a scar that stretched diagonally from ear to my chin. It was somewhat flat and it was slightly darker than my skin tone. In the beginning when I first got it, I thought it was hideous. The plastic surgeon said it was too deep into the tissue to do anything. So I was stuck with it for life. After realizing that, I knew I had to come with terms and accept my scar. I kind of did, but sometimes I felt ugly. I used to cry myself to sleep during the first five months after the incident. I withdrew from my friends and family, since I felt that I cannot trust anyone. I stopped caring about anyone else and went into my own little world. I could not look at myself naked due to the scars that were on my chest, back and thighs. My grades did not actually drop but I did stop taking an interest in school. I dyed my hair purple and pierced my lip and nose. I started wearing dark colors especially black and purple. My personality remained the same though; rude and extremely sarcastic.  

Then I started hanging out with the wrong crowd; the kids who did drugs and drank alcohol. It's not because we had something in common. No, it was because my friends were also friends with HIM. And I hated HIM. So, the druggies and the stoners became my new "best friends." I didn't do the drugs, though. I was smarter than that. But I did party and sometime I drank. It took the pain away. I also used to play pranks on the other students. But my dear mother and father had enough and decided to send me to fucking California for boarding school. I still do not understand their reasoning for sending me to California. Why couldn't they send me to some boarding school in New York? What if something bad happened? Well something did happen, and they could not even help me, and they lived a few blocks away.