Saving Grace

Chapter One

May 19th

    The clock never stops ticking. All around me kids and teachers alike are shaking their legs and checking the time on their watches or phones. They can't wait to get out of here.

If they only knew.

    For most teachers, Freshmen, Sophmores, and Juniors there are aproximately twenty six minutes left of school until the Fall. But for myself and the rest of the senior class, there are twenty six minutes left of school for good. I'm sitting here willing the clock to stop - or at the very least slow down.

    Twenty three minutes remain. Mrs. Nelson at the front of the room looks just as ready for this year to be over as the students. I can't say I blame her. It must be hard dealing with all these ungrateful teenage brats all day. Most of them don't realize how good they have it. They don't think about the kids that go home and don't know where their next meal is coming from. They don't think about the kids that don't have a place to go home to at all. They don't think about the kids that hide out in their rooms all day because they have parents that are constantly at each other's throats.They don't think about the kids whose issues are far worse than anything you could imagine.

    Tick. Tick. Tick. That damn clock just keeps on ticking. Nineteen minutes. Every second that passes brings us that much closer to walking out of this building and never coming back. Every second that passes brings me closer to having to go back to that house. And I'm not ready for that. I'm not ready to be trapped there for the whole Summer. Or longer.

    Seventeen minutes left. I sit in the back of the classroom every day in every class. No one looks at me and no one talks to me unless they have to. I'm the quiet girl that everyone has learned to leave alone. Because why bother trying to make friends with the girl that barely speaks and doesn't give two shits about her appearance? I don't mind. It's better this way.

    It's not like I've never had a friend. Sydney Mays and I were as close as two young girls could be when we were little. But things happen. Things that no 13 year old should ever experience. Things that make you push away every person you've ever been close with because you don't deserve them. Things that change you. Sydney has found new friends since then. Nice girls that don't blow her off because their lives suddenly get....... Well, let's just say complicated.

    Eight minutes. Wait, weren't we just at seventeen? My classmates are getting antsy. Most of them are out of their seats now talking and laughing with the friends they will inevitably lose touch with once they don't see them here every day. That's one good thing about being invisible I guess. You don't ever have to miss people. I sometimes miss myself, the person I was before, but I barely remember her. I've been through too much. That girl is gone.

Thump! I look up from the notebook I've been doodling in for the past hour to see Ryan Philips staring down at me. Figures he'd be the one to bump into my desk. "Whoops! Sorry.... Uhh....What's your name again?"

Ryan has always seemed like a decent enough guy. We were partnered up once for an English assignment Sophmore year. He tried to make idle chit chat with me but I was careful to keep the conversation on our work. Still, it was nice that he tried. "Grace," I tell him.

"Right! Grace!" He makes an aha! motion as he remembers. I give him a small nod without meeting his eyes and return my gaze to my notebook. He takes the hint and throws me a polite wave. "Well I guess I'll see you around." Not likely seeing as it's the last day of school. "Oh, and by the way," I'm startled as he turns back around to add something to this awkward encounter. "You're a really good artist." I can't help but blush a little as he gives me a genuine sort of smile and strides back over to his friends.