Bad Decisions: the Rewrite

Chapter 1: Just One Year

Oh, senior year. A year packed full of teenage rebellion, emotions and so many stupid decisions. You think to yourself, "Hey this is my last year of high school so I'm going to make it count!" Fast forward about two months and you begin to wish you had just dropped out.

Well don't worry, as long as you start the year off on the right foot and with a positive attitude, you'll hopefully be just fine. Unfortunately, this was not the case for Stephen Ng.

Stephen's parents were always big on self-expression and creativity, something he had nothing against, it was just a waste of time to him. Why couldn't he just tell people how he felt face to face? Well according to his father, he wasn't so good at that. That was why they ended up having a little "talk". Which essentially meant he had to sit on the couch for half an hour listening to his mother rant on about how he should take a creative arts class. Their method had worked in a way, because he begrudgingly said yes just to shut her up.

Bad Decision no.1: Letting your parents convince you to take a creative arts class in your senior year of high school

So here he found himself, 6:35, alarm blaring, with a whole year of classes and people he didn't care about.

And a liberal arts class.

As he dragged his feet downstairs, he couldn't help but notice the smug grin plastered across his brother's face. As well as his mother's worriedly cheerful smile. Their timetables had been emailed to them about two weeks prior and to his dismay, he had creative arts on the first day. During fourth period, right before lunch. He could feel the cockiness radiating off of Gavin. If only he was allowed to punch him. Instead, a packed lunch and a granola bar were shoved into his hands by his mom. She sent them both out of the kitchen with a "Go get ready, you should leave soon!"

Stephen trodded upstairs to grab his bag, his phone and anything he might need for the day. He took his car keys from his desk and his coat from the hanger it had been resting on all summer. It was just another reminder of his lack of freedom.

Gavin met him at the base of the staircase, obviously to ask what he had very morning last year. "Hey, you're driving me to school, right?"

Stephen gave him the same looked he had received not even 20 minutes ago. "Actually, you should have asked me last night. I hope the bus still has empty seats."

He made his way to the door before hearing his dad shout from the living room to intervene "Stephen, it's the first day, drive your brother won't you?"

So he ended up bending to their will, as per usual. He knew that he was too much of a doormat with them, god know it messed up his childhood. At least it didn't affect how he treated everyone else, least of all his brother. Evidently so, pushing Gavin into the wet grass on their front lawn wasn't exactly very doormat-like behaviour, whatever that even meant in the first place.

Their drive was quiet. It wasn't awkward, they just sat in comfortable silence as they switched the radio station every now and again. It was just like last year and the year before when their mom drove them and even the year before that. Hopefully this year would stay the same, nothing much had changed and it was going to stay that way.

Stephen sighed as they finally parked on the car park just outside the school building. "Are you going to pout the whole way there?"

Gavin was quick to loudly retort, almost shouting in his ear "Yes! My bag's all wet!" It was followed by a small snicker. No matter how badly they treated each over, it was never serious. Unlike the Principal's hard stare following the students enter the school. Her eyes were currently fixated on a student who had fallen flat on her face.

"Miss Lucky please be more careful when entering the school building, we have a reputation to keep up"

'Lucky' seemed to be slightly unbothered by this. "Sure thing Ms Windrow!"

Judging by her response she was probably a freshman. Stephen internally groaned. It wasn't that he hated freshmen, it was just they were too excited about everything and were annoying as they were oriented.

Speaking of oriented, it wasn't long after he had walked through the front gate that a boy pushed a stumbling kid onto him. He was going to catch him but what was the point in that? So instead his friend fell flat on the ground. Face first.

Jay was laughing a few feet away. "Dude I thought you were gonna catch him!"

Stephen ran to elbow him in the shoulder, finally bringing up the effort to be social. "I didn't last year, why would I this year?"

"Because it's a nice thing to do?" Joe caught up with them, accidentally dragging Gavin with him.

The thing was, Gavin didn't have that many friends in his year. If at all. So he stuck with his brother's friends instead. Which was annoying. Especially when Jay and Joe seemed to actually enjoy his company for some reason. Not to mention the number of embarrassing stories they both knew about him because of Gavin and his big mouth, either way, he knew they would still pick him over his brother any day.

Joe interrupted his train of thought "Hey Stephen aren't you taking a new class this year?"

"Yeah, it's creative arts" Gavin piped up, holding back a laugh. The other boys followed suit, eventually bursting in hysterics.

Turns out his friends weren't as "loyal" to him as he thought. It wasn't too much of a surprise, it was just nice to pretend.

The bell saved him from any more embarrassment at that very moment. Thankful for an excuse to leave the other three behind, he took a deep breath and pushed him self into the bustling hallways full of students dragging their feet to their first class of the day. Stephen navigated through the halls like they were memory lane. Walking past the same old lockers, climbing up the same old stairs, reaching the same Biology class as his sophomore year. The routine of high school was back in motion.

Unfortunately this routine was quickly broken. The first hour went by as slowly as it would on any day, but his next two classes went by in an unexpected blur. He barely remembered if he had listened to the droning professors who were just as unenthusiastic as their students. All he could think of was the dread that was slowly digging a pit at the bottom of his stomach.

The bell had rung for fourth period.

----____----

Hey guys, so the first chapter is out! As I warned, the story will be unrecognisable until the party comes up. I hope you don't mind.  Also the first reader cameo has appeared! I will get around to getting all of you at some point and I might ask more people at some point.

Thanks so much for supporting Bad Decisions! Truly and Dearly,

-Star Shine