[Excerpt] [Bad Boy's Guide to...] Being Not Good (Bad Boy's Guide Book 1)

Prologue

Avery

I was a morning-person – always had been. As soon as the first rays of sun were peeking through the gauzy curtains on my window, my music started and I woke up among my pillows and throws, excited to start the day.

I just couldn't help it, there was so much to look forward to; friends, family, rainbows, baby animals. Life was worth living and it was worth living loud and proud.

I sang along as I showered, got my makeup exactly right so the teachers couldn't definitively say it was there but no spots were showing, and made sure every curl sat in perfect formation. I sang as I got ready for school, adding the absolute maximum pops of colour to my uniform I knew I could get away with. I sang on my way past Ebony's room as my little sister burrowed into her pillows for 'five more minutes', and was still there twenty minutes later. And, I was still singing as I danced down the stairs to start on breakfast for my family, to be joined by my parents a few minutes later.

Dad let me pretend I was helping with his crossword as I went over colour swatches with Mum for her interior design customers and I tried to get my previous nights' homework finished. I kissed my sister's head as she finally blinked her way into the kitchen and sat her down with her breakfast with mere minutes before we had to leave.

Dad and I bundled Ebony into the car and I talked to him about my upcoming day as he drove us to school and Ebs denied falling asleep in the back seat. I was the first one out of the car with a wave to Dad before I hurried into the building at quarter past eight, with plenty of time to catch up with my friends before first lesson.

And, even though I'd been up for hours, and I got to school plenty early, I was somehow still only getting to class as the last bell rang every morning.

Davin

I wasn't even a person-person. There was no sort of person that accurately described me. I couldn't remember if I'd always been like that or if I'd once been different.

And, I didn't much care what people thought about that. I had two people I considered irreplaceable, and one I lived without fifty percent of the time anyway.

Even the sun knew better than to fuck with me at any time of the day, let alone when my alarm was going off yet again at eight-fifteen in the goddamned morning. I groaned and pressed snooze 'just one more time'. The days my dad was home, he gave a cursory knock on my door. The days he wasn't, 'just one more time' became at least five and I was falling out of bed at twenty to nine.

In the blessed dark – thank you, blackout curtains – I pulled on the first pieces of uniform I could find and was only awake enough to hope I'd put my shirt on the right way round but never decided it was worth actually checking. Two minutes later, I had my bag and I was stumbling out to the car with my clothes still mostly undone and my usual hatred for the world.

I finished doing up my buttons and my tie as I drove to school and promised myself that would be the last morning I didn't get up in time to at least make coffee. Coffee at least made humanity bearable. But, then people seemed to go out of their way to avoid me, so that made them slightly more bearable to begin with.

Finding a park wasn't difficult. There was always one park free, the one I'd parked in since I'd got my license. I didn't know if everyone else left it free because they thought I'd retaliate somehow – if I could be bothered – or if it was because it was the furthest from the school building and no one else wanted it.

And, I managed to skid into my classroom just before the last bell rang most mornings.