The Secrets We Keep.

Chapter 1.

"Miley, wake up!"

"Hmmmmm."

"Come on, we're gonna be late for school!"

"Hmmmmmm hmm hmmm hmm hmm."

Splash!

I wake up with a jolt.

"What the heck, Bennet?!" I scream at my annoying brother who has decided to drench me in cold water!

"Well, you wouldn't wake up, I had to do something!" He says, without a hint of remorse on his face.

I sigh and pry the ,now wet, blankets from my body. I give my brother the best glare that I can muster and wordlessly point towards by bedroom door. Ah, but you see, despite my brother being one of the smartest children in our grade, he really has a knack for acting like a complete idiot.

He gives me a bewildered look as if to ask: 'what?' I mean? Hello? I'm telling you to get the heck out of my room! But, I just woke up. And telling him that requires energy, which I do not have so I give him a pitying look and get off my bed to walk to the bathroom.

Whilst in the shower I think back to how discontented I am with my life right now. And on top of that, it's my last year at Baltimore high. Yay-freaking- hoo. I sigh as I think about all the kids at Baltimore high who teased me simply for being who I am. Simply for not conforming to the norms of society. The norms that seem to dictate their lives.

The water drums into my skin and I sigh, thinking about how all I would like to do is just stand in the shower for a whole day,with nothing but the drumming of the water on my skin to focus on. But, alas, life, as always, has other plans for me. I jerked a bit when a resounding boom resonated through the bathroom.

"Miley, hurry up!" Bennet screamed, again.

I groaned and got out of the shower, towel-dried my hair and then proceeded to wrap the towel around myself. I walked out of the bathroom and to my room which had just as much character as I did, which would equal to zero character, if you must know.

I opened my closet and grabbed a pair of dark blue skinny jeans as well as a tank top. I hastily dressed and left the house to go sit in the car. Bennet came into the car and sat by the drivers side, and all he did was grumble about how girls always took their sweet time, thinking that the world must stop for them. I rolled my eyes at this and looked out the window, watching the trees and houses roll by as we drove past them.

In less than 20 minutes, the car came to an abrupt halt, welcome to Baltimore high;a place of mass torture, where you are picked on simply for being original. And not trying to dress to impress and all that jazz.

As I stepped into the school I was tackled by none other than my best friend Tshiamo. Tshiamo and I met in freshman year and did not like each other at all. And in tenth grade we bonded over -wait for it- a book. That's right, we were reading the same book and since then we've been pretty close.

Tshiamo grabs my elbow and steers me in the direction of the office, where we would get our timetables(schedules). Oh , and another thing about Baltimore high? Yeah, we don't have lockers. Nope, no lockers. So basically, we have to haul our very heavy bags from class-to-class. I know, tiring right? Yeah, well, like I said, life. It has different plans for us. And I hate the plans that life has for me but anyway.

"So, guess what?" Tshiamo says.

"What?" I say , only mildly interested in what Tshiamo had to say, because knowing her, it had something to do with the latest piece of gossip and I wasn't interested in that.

"Nick broke up with Hannah." Who's Nick, you might ask, well, he's Tshiamo's crush. Tia, has been crushing on Nick for a very long time. Like kindergarten kinda long.

"Oh, ok, well, I feel kinda sorry for Hannah, but she knew what she was getting herself into. " I say, because it's true. You see, Nick has a reputation, which seems to prefer him. He's most notorious for his use of women as mere objects for sexual gratification. He uses women, dumps them, and repeats the cycle,all whilst feeling no remorse whatsoever. So, if you ask me, I don't know what Tia sees in the guy. He's a walking, breathing heartbreaking machine,that's for sure. And if you don't believe me, all you have to do is look at the trail of broken hearts that follow him.

"Miley! That's not very nice you know! I mean, I'm sure Nick had his reasons, you know..." She says trailing off. Seriously? I want to say, but I don't. Instead I opt to keep quiet. You see, trying to make Tia see that Nick isn't really a nice guy is like trying to tell a blind person to see. Both not very effective. So, I've learnt,that when it comes to Nick, whatever opinions I might have of the guy, I ought to keep to myself. I see that we stopped in front of the office and open the door to go in. Once inside I greet Mrs Trichardt warmly and she does the same. She already knows my name and surname so she proceeds to me my timetable (schedule), I thank her and head outside to wait for Tia.

Tia comes out of the office a minute later and we compare our timetables. Turns out we have:
English.
Maths.
And accounting together.

We proceed then to our homeroom class, which we have together, too.

"Miley, I know you don't like Nick but he's a really good guy. Trust me, I would know." She says, whilst tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. I bite my lip and choose to still say nothing. School just started and I really don't want to fight with her. She senses this and sighs and begrudgingly changes the topic.

We enter homeroom and then proceed to go to the back of the class where we usually like sitting. I pull my glasses from my school bag, wipe them, then slip them on. My view immediately coming into focus, everything seemed brighter, the lines and textures of things more defined and the sloppy writing on the board a bit more...discernable.

"So my brother asked about you, miles!" She says, remembering the crush i used to have on Declan. Usually I would blush and act like a complete giggly girl, but I don't. Instead I give her a blank look.

"So?" I say, really wondering what the big deal is.

"So?So? Are you serious? Aren't you the least bit curious about what he asked?" She says, seeming a bit exasperated,I take a sharp intake of breath, adjust my glasses and turn back to her.

"Ok, I'll bite. What did he ask?" I say, I mean, I don't really wanna know but I can tell she really wants to tell me.

" Well, he asked how you were, and I said you were doing fine and then he asked why you don't come over as much as you used to and I said well because you're busy ya know. And then he said is it because you have a boyfriend and I said maybe. But like, he looked totes jealous. " She says with an animated expression on her face. I laugh. Only Tia.

"That's nice Tia," I say and then add, "but I don't think he was jealous so you can calm down now, okay?" She gives me a forlorn expression and then shakes her head. At that exact moment the teacher walks in. I must say though, she looked like a beast. She looked fierce and scary. And strict. She had a pixie cut that was blonde with a smeltering of brown highlights, she had big bulging blue eyes and paper thin lips. Her clothes looked like they came from the 70's. Like seriously,and not once did she smile during her introductory speech. Talk about creepy.

"Good morning class, I am Mrs Nabaum. Let's clarify a few things, shall we? First of all, I am not your friend, you will treat me with respect. You will always be on time for homeroom, if not, you will suffer the consequences there of. Don't test me. I'm not nice. Carry on doing what you were doing." With that she pulls out her chair and sits down to take attendance.

"Roubanheimer?"

"Present."

"Moodley?"

"Present."

And on she goes until she's done with the attendance register.