The End [Completed]

3

-Adam

I can’t believe I have to face this day. I wish the weather would spike up again, so I wouldn’t have to go to that wretched place. Staring at my reflection isn’t making me feel better, but I know that I must make sure I look great, I can’t have anybody seeing bruises and asking questions. My white blonde hair is in place, freshly cut and despite the warm weather, I grab my leather jacket out of the closet. One last glance in the mirror before I must leave the comforts and safety of my room and sneak past the monsters that imprison me.

Opening the door slowly, I first have a look around and stay absolutely still and listen out for any signs of movement or talking. I hear nothing, so they must be passed out from alcohol poisoning, one can only hope. As I walk through the house so small in which anybody would feel claustrophobic, I briefly peer into every room I pass to ensure that I am not heard. Careful to not even breathe loudly. Just as I reach the front door and open it I take one last look around me and take the final step outside, shutting the terrors behind me as I do. At least for the moment, I narrowly escaped another inevitable conflict.

Racing for the transport to school, the driver barely glances in my direction as I step on, and everybody else barely looks at me either, except Jake of course. “Hey buddy,” he says as I take the empty seat next to him and slap his hand in greeting. We aren’t friends, but we talk, and in high school, it helps to have someone to talk to, so you wouldn’t come across as a total freak show. “hey.” I say in reply. We don’t say anything to each other for the rest of the ride to school.

Jake and I don’t have much in common, he’s a rich preppy kid, grew up in one of the better neighbourhoods. In those houses that have regulated heating and cooling and where they are one hundred percent protected from the harsh weather conditions. Most of the kids I attend school with are privileged.

How did I end up in this type of school, with these types of people? Luck shone on me one day when there was a random draw the government was doing back when I was still in junior school. It was just after the reception of heat resources. Two months after we had received the burning fuel, the government announced that they would choose one person out of each grade at the under privileged schools, to attend high school at a privileged school where there were better opportunities to be had. I was one of the chosen. The government pays for my education for my 5 years of high school and it is up to me whether I make the most of it or not. I’ve chosen to keep my head down and avoid any sort of trouble, but that didn’t last long.

I became a target from the moment my name was announced. When I stepped into the school in 8th grade I was known as the poor kid. I had to go into survival mode. I could either become a loser and be bullied or become the bully. I chose the latter. I refused to be a victim here too.

The first jock that tried to put his hands on me, I beat up to nearly an inch of his life. put him in the intensive care facilities and I was not touched again. People feared me. I loved it. Teachers wrote me off as a bad seed, though, this was not good as I genuinely wanted to succeed in academics. They didn’t give me a fair chance, so no matter what I did or how hard I studied, they gave me a bad grade. How I had made it this far is beyond me.

I walked into English class and took my usual seat at the back of the classroom. Jake sat on my left, to the right of me was a wall to wall window. The school believed in letting in a lot of light into the classrooms, this worked for me. I paid little to no attention in English class. It was one of the classes where the teacher ignored me and barely gave me marks to scrape by, so I had given up trying. If I were to be ignored for my efforts, no matter how hard I tried, what was the point of trying in the first place?

I barely heard a word anyone said as I stared at the nothingness of the outside world and bobbed my leg up and down to the music inside my head. So, it came as a complete shock when Jake tapped my table and when I looked up, everybody around me was staring at me. I must’ve looked bewildered because there were a few snickers from some of the popular kids sitting in the front, but they shut up as soon as I narrowed my eyes at them.

“Adam,” the teacher repeated, looking at me expectantly, as if waiting for an answer to a question I had not heard. I just stared at her blankly. She let out a deep sigh and said “Adam, why do you keep doing this in my classroom?” after I repeatedly refused to engage, she gave up. As I knew she would. “Adam, you and Cattleya will team up on this project. Is that understood? I want no objections or arguments about it. Maybe this time your grade might improve.” She pulled her tongue through her teeth at me and frowned as she continued with the lesson. I glanced over at Cattleya.

She was a slight girl with long dark hair. She was breathtakingly beautiful, but she was a complete know-it-all. She pretended to be friendly with everyone, but she had no friends. She thought she was better than everybody else and I couldn’t stand her. Given, I hardly knew the kid, it would still completely suck to work with miss perfect. The only benefit to working with her, was that she was not a complete moron. So, Mrs Chapman might be right after all, I might get a better grade for this project. What ever the hell this project was.

I hadn’t noticed I was staring at Cattleya till she turned around to look straight into my eyes and catching me red handed. I looked away quickly and hoped she didn’t think I liked her or something. I did not have time for prissy little girls who feel the world is perfect.
Just then the bell rang, and I grabbed my satchel off the floor to race out of the room before she got any ideas about speaking to me. I know we had to work together on this project but right now, I was in no rush to find out what the project was.

Soon as I was out into the hall way I made my way hastily to the men’s room. I locked myself in one of the stinky stalls and just sat there for five minutes. I just needed a break from this life. the last thing I needed was to work with some snotty brat. I left the stall and splashed some water on my face, sure that I would have to skip the next few classes and just sit in the woods for a while. I left the bathroom thinking that is exactly what I would do.

But as I opened the bathroom door, there she was. Little Miss perfect, blocking my path with a snobby look on her face and her arms crossed against her chest, which was, by the way, nothing to write home about. Had she even reached puberty? I wondered. “What do you want?” I snapped at her “Adam, we need to figure out this project. I can’t do it all on my own and I need you to stop being lazy for a change and actually do the work. I am not going to flunk this class because you don’t feel like talking to me.” I nearly slapped her just then. Who the hell does she think she is calling me lazy? “Listen, you prissy little brat. Where do you get off telling me I’m lazy? Do you know me at all?” I barely whispered the words, with every step towards her I was getting angrier by the minute. She was just like everybody else, thinking they knew exactly who I was. I would not be bullied, especially by this frail little twit. She knew nothing about anything and I think it’s about time I teach her a lesson in how scary life could be. That it isn’t all prettiness and fun.