Children of Chaos

Chapter 1

The principal announces the graduating senior class, the band plays the fight song, and the seniors on the field rise up in a roar, tossing their caps into the air. I try to keep my eyes on Sofie down below, but it's hard with everyone screaming and moving. Already families are swarming the field, their bodies mixing with the blue robes. Bekah grabs my shoulder and points to the crowd.

"There!" She aligns my body with her arm and I see her- our Sofie, grinning and exchanging hugs with her classmates. "C'mon!" Bekah bounds down the bleachers without waiting for me to follow. I scramble after her.

We make our way through the crowd, Bekah fearlessly making a path, smiling and "excuse me"-ing her way, while I follow like her shadow, giving people looks when they get in my way.

We catch up to Sofie, who looks enraptured talking to a girl with kitschy blonde ringlets and bright red lipstick. The girl has already unzipped her graduation robe to reveal her stylish vintage dress, and I look her up and down with scorn. I vaguely remember Bekah showing me one of her Instagram posts, captioning herself as a girl with "pin-up looks and a badass attitude". What I see is fake.

When Sofie sees us walking over, she says goodbye to the blonde and meets us halfway. The girls around us are towering in their heels - why do they think it's smart to wear heels in soft grass? - but Sofie is wearing simple flats as she always does. She doesn't have her gown unzipped, but she's wearing business casual slacks and a blouse, of course. Her dark hair isn't styled straight or curly, but falls in smooth natural waves just above her shoulders.

"Eeeee!" Bekah jumps into our friend and Sofie catches her, laughing, hazel eyes sparkling.

"What was that noise? Are you a dolphin?" she jokes. She reaches her hand to me and beckons, inviting me into the hug.

"No thanks, I'll leave the dolphin to do the sentimental stuff," I say. "But congratulations."

Bekah leaps out from Sofie's arms and looks at her with sly dark eyes. "So I noticed that was the girl from prom." Sofie looks in the direction of the red lipstick blonde and smiles.

"Yes, that was her." Normally Sofie shrinks and gets quiet when Bekah talks about girls, but right now she is grinning, her light brown skin shining with a flush.

"Seems like a nice girl," I say, nudging Sofie's arm. "Except when she told you she was 'experimenting' after she kissed you." Like I said. Fake, and self-centered.

"Not now Adri," she says, nudging back. I know she's not mad, because the smile never leaves her face. I try to imagine how it feels to graduate from the torture that is high school. Exhilarating? Scary? Free?

Sofie pulls me into a hug despite my rejection, and I notice her clutching her cap. I point to her hand. "You didn't toss your cap?"

"I didn't want to lose it! You saw how everyone freaked out right afterwards."

"Boring," Bekah says, rolling her eyes at us from the side. She grabs Sofie's arm and pulls her away from me. "It's time to change that." She starts pulling Sofie back through the crowd.

"Wait, I have to say goodbye to my teachers!" Of course she wants to say goodbye to her teachers. She's the biggest goody-two-shoes there is at this school. She graduated in the top one percent of her class and she got this scholarship giving her a full ride to any in-state school. She could have gotten into Harvard, if she tried.

"That's what the last day of school was for. Graduation is for partying," Bekah says, dragging her further. I have to push through the crowd to keep up. People give me dirty looks and I give them dirty looks back.