Life As I Know It (Completed)

Bonus Chapter - Drew's POV

Drew's POV

           "It'll be great. You'll see," Dad was saying to me as he drove me to my first day at college. I ignored him as I stared out of the window of the car. I just wasn't in the mood to flash him a smile and tell him that he was right. That everything would be alright. Dad had practically forced me to apply, telling me I'd already wasted a year doing nothing. He hadn't stopped badgering me until I'd given in and applied. He'd even refused to buy me a car when I'd passed my driving test last year, telling me that since I wouldn't be attending college, I didn't really need one. At least that would be one good thing that I'd get for coming here. A car. Finally. It'd be arriving tomorrow, and I couldn't wait.

            We arrived at the school and headed in the direction of the office - or so we thought. The school grounds were huge and we ended up getting lost. I was extremely annoyed and irritable by the time we'd finally found our way to the office. It didn't help that Dad was with me, like I was an eleven-year-old on his first day at the secondary school. But he'd insisted. He'd been far too overbearing ever since he'd gotten his shit together and looked far enough away from his own grief to see mine. He worried, I knew that, but I couldn't help but resent how... involved he wanted to be in everything.

            The head teacher, Mrs Baker, had seemed pleasant enough – if a little stern. That just came with the job description though. You couldn't run a school unless you didn't have at least a little intimidation going on. She'd seemed very taken with Dad though. I laughed a little while I headed to my first class as I thought about it. She'd been very impressed that he was a professor and had asked quite a few questions about his job, almost forgetting that I was there, it seemed. I sat quietly for as long as I could stand, before I'd cleared my throat as I stared at the wall, pretending to be fascinated by the certificates on it. Dad had seemed relieved to get the attention of off him.

            When she'd finally dismissed us, Dad had wished me luck, but I'd shrugged out of the one-armed hug he'd tried to initiate.

            The first lesson was torture. Everyone seemed pleasant enough - it was just a little overwhelming being new and having so many stares on me. I was also a year older than all of them, and I couldn't help but feel distant from them.

            I was walking into my psychology lesson when I noticed a group of girls laughing loudly as they stared in the direction of a girl who sat at a table by herself. She had her head down low as she read from a text book in front of her.  I sat down next to her, not saying anything. One of the girls from the group who'd been sniggering came up to me after a while. She'd been going on about how some drunk guy had been at a party she'd gone to during the weekend, and how crazy he'd been when driving her home. My hands clenched together at that. That was so completely stupid - to do that. My mum had been killed by a drunk driver. And she was bragging about being in a car with one.

             "Hey," she said, smiling and playing with a lock of her hair.

             "Hi." Was all I said, feeling uncomfortable and irritated. The amount of perfume she wore was excessive and I could taste it in my throat as she leaned closer to me. I took my journal out of my bag and tried to look busy so that she'd leave. I didn't open it though; worried she'd read it over my shoulder.

             "So you're new here, huh?" she said.

             "Yeah." I played with the sleeve of my jacket and blatantly ignored her when she questioned me further. I just wanted to be left alone. She took the hint after a while and left. I felt slightly guilty, until I saw her talking rapidly to the girls she was with and gesturing in the direction of the girl who was sitting next to me. The girl sunk even lower in her seat and her face was a bright shade of red. Any guilt I'd felt quickly disappeared.