Hell On Earth

one | a middle finger

I want to get something abundantly clear- I am an atheist.
I, Colina Turner, do not believe in any god.

And yet, here I am, back for a fourth and last year of catholic school.

At least I still have my friends.

The first one to notice me is Nevah Adams, the mom friend of our group. Two years ago, I jokingly called her Mom once, and it stuck. So now, she's just Mom.

"Colina!" She calls, waving me over to the others. As usual, I'm the last one to arrive at school out of our group.
Ashton Kaltenburg, my best friend out of the bunch, doesn't wait for me to get my ass over there. She stands and runs up to me, crushing me in a hug. "Cole, there you are! I missed you this summer!"

I laugh and squeeze her back, only able to see her dirty strawberry blond hair through the glasses now squished against my face. Once Ashton lets go of me, I mange to breathe again and clean my now smudged lenses. Her silky hair used to hang down to her waist, but she chopped it off last year, and now it sweeps her shoulder, the same length as mine. Her five foot eight frame somehow towers over my five foot four one without being intimidating at all. I raise an eyebrow at her, her body now a blurry figure.

"You saw me, like, two days ago. Do you recall that you texted me and complained about how driving is so hard, then proceeded to drive over to my house and eat all of my chocolate?"
"Yeah, but that was three days ago. Not two. And driving does suck."

We make our way over to the others as we speak. I put my glasses back on.

"Does not," Lee Daino argues. For some reason, the girl loves driving. She's shorter than me at a short five foot three. She makes up for it with another two feet of terror for ridiculously tall people. Mom is also five foot three, so maybe I shouldn't talk. I'm only an inch taller than them, after all. And so is Zoe Yang, the youngest of all of us. Zoe is the same age as me, sixteen. However, I'll turn seventeen in September, so it won't be like that for much longer.

Back to the present argument, where Ashton and Lee are arguing over wether driving sucks or not.
I sigh. "I should go sort that out."

I may be the second youngest, but I'm the most levelheaded out of all of us.

Jade Tang notices me walking over to them, and slides up next to me. "Better hurry up. The five minute bell is about to ring, and we can't let them be late to class on the first day of senior year." she grins. I shoot her a smirk right back.

"Y'all." I say. "Opinions are opinions. Lee likes driving, Ashton doesn't. So what? I'm the one driving you on the road trip we have planned, remember? Lee, if you like driving, you can give Ashton a ride sometime or something. But right now-"
My voice is interrupted by the bell ringing. "That. Let's get to class on time, you two."
I grab Jade's arm and walk to the History and Language building with her, not leaving room for an argument.
I hear both girls call out a "sorry" to me.
"You better be," I reply without looking back at them. Jade offers me a smile. I roll my eyes. "Those two are something, aren't they?"

Jade stays silent for a moment as we head to our first class of the day, Mythology 2.

"Yeah," she finally says. "They are."