I groaned as my phone sang out my alarm tone. "You don't need him; I'll help you get over it..." I quickly turned off the alarm and dragged myself from my warm, single bed. Wobbling like Bambi on ice, I surveyed my appearance in front of the mirrored wardrobe door. I looked awful, as usual. My life had become studying, binge watching shows and music, often meaning I didn't sleep until the small hours of the morning. Or at all. I pulled at my short, springy locks which I'd dyed the night before. I hated my natural hair it was just, so boring. With a sigh, I pulled on my mostly black school uniform and started to apply my usual definitely-against-regulations make-up while waiting for the straightening iron to heat up. I felt lazy, curling took too long but I couldn't leave the house with my hair in a mess. Once my eyes were thickly lined, my bags hidden and my hair better than it was I ran for the door, hoping I hadn't kept Ada too long.
I found Ada walking to the meeting place at the same time as me. "Ada!" I smiled as she walked up to me. "Oh My GOD, Cal! A new boy is transferring into sixth form!" She squealed at me. I shrugged, we were in our last year of secondary, sixth form would be our next step. "So? What's the big deal Ada?" I asked as we started across the fields that would take us to The School Of Hell. Ada rolled her eyes at me. "He's Australian Callie! Like Luke and Michael and Calum!" I stopped walking and stared at her. Michael, Calum and Luke were in our year at school. We'd known Calum and Michael since year six of primary and met Luke a year later when we started secondary. By some unfortunate miracle they had kept their attractive accents. "Wow, that's unusual." I whispered, earning an eyes roll from Ada. I was wrong, for our schooling lives, this was pretty standard.
The rest of the walk to school consisted of more gossip and music. Our lives, to an outsider, seem normal. Happy even. But the fact of the matter was that life, the universe as a general perhaps, seemed to be against all teens. I was fortunate enough to have amazing, supportive friends. Michael and Calum had once belonged to that group but recently they'd gotten it into their heads they were better than us or didn't need us anymore. Luke has always sneered at us but he was civil enough for us to get by without a physical fight. Not that I wouldn't fight the jerk.
When we got to the gates, we went our own ways to class. "See you in religious studies." I called as I headed over to the History block for first period. The teacher was nice and I liked history so, other than the presence of Luke Hemmings, it was a good lesson. I walked into class to find we had a supply teacher. Brilliant. That meant Luke and Michael could tease me throughout class because the our teacher couldn't stop them and supplies didn't even try to. I took my normal seat by the window at the back of the room. "Hey Calla. Ready to 'teach' us?" Luke smirked. He never paid any attention in class and always copied my work. I rolled my eyes at him and pulled my books out. I sank into my chair just as Michael showed up, soaking wet from the rain with a leather jacket on instead of the school blazer. I sighed, remembering how he'd been when we were friends. How he could always make me laugh and understood, or at least tried to, what I was going through. What worried me most was what he may have told Luke about my friendship group. As the lesson began, I put all of my focus on the teacher, trying to ignore Michael and Luke as they snickered and passed notes. History often when on like this, the only thing that would occasionally change was Michael's hair colour or mine. By the end of class I'd made decent enough notes to share when a piece of paper fell in front of me. I recognised Michael's handwriting immediately and rapidly scanned it, shocked to see what they were talking about. I turned to Michael, angry at this new betrayal. "What's this?" I asked, slamming the note down on his desk as he packed up. His face paled when he saw what I had. "Wha....How did you get that?" he stuttered, trying to take the note from under my hand. "You threw it at me!" I hissed, angry at the fact Michael wasn't even trying to justify this. I pulled the note from the table and slipped into my pocket. "Lily please, I-" I turned around and slapped him around the face with such a force he ended up on the floor, his black fringe flopping in front of his face. "You don't get to call me that anymore. Stay away from Ada or I WILL show her this!" I spat at him before leaving him on the floor, just like he had done to me a lifetime ago.
