Chapter Text
The screaming down stairs has been going on for a good hour and a half; my mother was yelling at my father because he had yelled at her and brought up cheating and that I wasn’t really his daughter. I’m now just sitting in bed waiting to see what is going to happen, is she gonna leave and leave me with him or is he going to leave? I heard something slam and then heavy footstep coming up the stairs; my mother had left. I coward in the corner on my bed waiting, but when nothing came I got curious. I mean, whenever they argue something ends up happening, and when it doesn’t it is a little weird. I climbed off the bed slowly, not to make a lot of noise and tip toed to the door. I pulled it open slowly and stuck my head out to see all the doors closed and the house silent.
I walked out of the room just to be shoved against the wall beside my door, “You are so fucking nosy.” He had my hair around his fingers as he held my head forcefully against the wall, my cheek was starting to ache as he put more pressure against it. “Why aren’t you asleep you dumb brat?” I couldn’t say anything, my throat was refusing me the option, “ANSWER ME!” I winced as he yelled in my ear, “I..I…I couldn’t sleep from all the yelling.” His eyes narrowed as he shoved me to the ground, making me land on my knees. The sound of my knees hitting the hardwood floor was loud, I was sure they would have bruises. He yanked my head back and took a deep breath, “I was unaware I had to cater to you, to be quiet while you’re sleeping.” I shook my head and opened my mouth but he tightened his grip, “I’m not finished,” I was shaking, pure fear was consuming me. “Harold!” My mother’s voice echoed through the house as she ran up the stairs to where he was holding me, “Let her go!” She reached for his hand but ended up getting a back hand to her left cheek, making her fall. My father tossed me away from him as he turned to my mother, “Kelly!” My eyes widened as I stood up and went after him, I was unaware of my actions until he had turned around and grabbed my face. His left hand had wrapped its self around my jaw, his thumb was right above it as his fingers dug into the right side of my cheek, “How dare you try to challenge my authority!” I could feel the soreness in my face already and I knew for sure I’d have huge bruises to deal with. “Harold, leave her alone!” He released my face and turned toward my mother; she looked at me and motioned with her head for me to go in my room.
I was reluctant but went in there anyways; I didn’t like leaving my mom with him. My father and my mother have been married for a good twelve years. When I was born, they agreed to wait until I was a little grown up before getting married. I was my mother’s flower girl, the wedding was perfect. Our family was like all the others until I hit twelve years old and my dad found out that my mother had cheated on him before I was born. From then on the yelling, the screaming, the drinking, everything went downhill. I climbed into bed and sighed, my cheeks hurt; I groaned as I remembered I had gym tomorrow.
My door creaked open, waking me up, followed by a light touch on my shoulder. “Sweetie, time to get up.” I rolled over and looked at my mother, just to see she had a black eye and some other bruises, I went to say something but she covered my mouth and shook her head, “Get ready before you’re late.” I nodded and sat up. I hated how my mom didn’t want to talk about what happens, she avoids the subject and moves on. I climbed out of bed as she left the room; it was oddly silent in the house and quite cold. I went to my closet and changed into some jeans and a long sleeve shirt. I put on some makeup quickly; I was running behind, but not by much. My hair was easy to straighten seeing as it already was straight; My raven black hair was down to my lower back as my green eyes complimented it perfectly. I did the rest of my routine before I slipping on my pull-over sweater and grabbed my bag. I jogged down the stairs coming face to face with my father. “No later by 4. You come straight home.” I pulled my eyebrows together, which he thought was a challenge, “What, not good enough for you? Huh?” I shook my head backing up, “Stupid bitch, get back here!” He grabbed my wrist and yanked me, getting two inches from my face, “Don’t you ever fucking challenge me!” He shoved me, making me land on my hip, pain shot through it and down my leg, almost bringing tears to my eyes. “Hurry up, you’ll be late for class.” He smirked and walked away. I lifted myself up, limping to the door; today wasn’t going to be a good day.
While I walked to school, Hannah and Michael caught up with me, “Hey girl, why so glum?” I looked up from the ground and shook my head, “Not glum, just tired.” Which was true, after the whole thing with my dad I hadn’t been able to go to sleep. “Yeah sure, anyways…” I cleared my throat and sighed, “So, how was your party?” This subject lightened Hannah’s mood and darkened Michael’s. “Oh my god, it was huge! Everyone was there!” I laughed and nodded looking down, “Well, almost everyone. I really wished you’d come.” I sighed, looking at Michael, “What’s got you so down?” He shrugged and looked up at me, “Nothing. Hey what happened to your wrist?” I looked down and saw that my dad had left a hand print on my wrist. “Oh, I hit it on the counter yesterday.” He narrowed his eyes and shook his head, “Yeah, okay.” I sighed as Hannah stayed quiet knowing not to push the subject anymore. “Test in Chem. today, you ready for it?” She was looking at me smiling, “Unlike you, chem. isn’t my favorite subject. So no, I’m not.” We laughed as we walked onto campus, “Michael!” We all turned to the right to see Olivia, the nicest girl to have been born, waving Michael over, “I’ll see you guys later.” He rushed off not even taking a second look back.
“They hooked up at the party, he doesn’t like talking about it.” I laughed and nodded, “Did you hook up?” She giggled and looked away from me just as Sarah and Rebecca walked by, “Look Bec, it’s the hoe of the party.” They both laughed and continued walking, “Hannah?” She was red faced and staring down at the ground, “I slept with Trevor.” I froze, “Football quarterback Trevor?” She nodded slowly and sighed, “After it was over I’m sure he went to them and told them every detail.” I felt bad for Hannah, she’s had a crush on Trevor since fourth grade and when she finally gets her dream night with him, it’s ruined. “I’m sorry.” I gave her a hug, and in the midst of that hug, I caught a man staring at us. He had blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes, and right beside him looked like a female version of him; them both being equally amazing looking. Hannah pulled away and wiped her eyes, “Let’s get to English.” I nodded and looked behind her again to seem them gone.
“Can anyone recite the first line for me?” Mrs. Connor was droning on about Shakespeare as I stared out the window not looking forward to gym next period. “Miss Myers?” I turned to the front as I heard Sarah snicker to Rebecca how I wasn’t following along, "One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun." Mrs. Connors smiled and nodded, “Good job. Sarah, you’re up next.” I turned to Sarah to see her panic as she searched her page for the line I had just read; I rolled my eyes as I looked back out the window. The bell rang shortly after Sarah started to read the page, “Got away with this one Miss Scott, You start tomorrow.” She groaned and slammed her book shut, “Enough Sarah.” She rolled her eyes at Mrs. Connor and walked out of the room. I got up with my books and made my dreadful trip to the locker room.
I unfortunately didn’t have this class with either Hannah or Michael, so which meant I’d be silent the whole period. As I was sliding my shorts on Olivia from three lockers down came up to me, “Hailey, what happened to your hip, looks painful.” I looked down to see a huge bluish green bruise the size of a tennis ball on my hip, “Oh, I hit my hip on the counter last night.” She nodded slowly and looked up at my face, “Alright.” She backed up before turning all the way around, heading out of the locker room. I need to start covering these bruises up, they are getting too noticed. I shut my locker before slipping on my jacket and shoes. “Come on girls, let’s head out to the fields.” The rest of the girls in the locker room groaned and walked out the door with Coach Spooner following behind, “Myers, let’s go.” She was standing at the end of my row glaring at me, “Just tying my shoe ma’am.” She shook her head and crossed her arms.
“One mile run today. You’ll be partnering up with Coach Kyle’s class.” Coach Kyle’s class was filled with football players, soccer players, and weight lifters, so naturally all the girls squealed with delight. “Morning Norah.” Coach Spooner turned and laughed, “Speaking of Coach Kyle.” He laughed as his class joined ours in line, “Do your warm ups.” There were equal amount of boys as there was girls so everyone pared up, me being the last one seeing as I wasn’t popular or well known. “Hi.” I was doing my toe touching when someone walked up, “My name’s Wyatt.” I turned to my left looking up; a tall, black haired boy with what looked like grey eyes, and extremely handsome, “Uh, Hailey.” I stuck my hand out as I stood upright, “Nice to meet you Hailey.” I smiled shaking his hand, “Not to be rude but, I haven’t seen you before.” He laughed and shook his head, “My brother and I just moved here, today is our official first day.” I nodded and looked at Coach Spooner to see her motioning for us to go to the mile start. “We better go.” I pointed to our class and he nodded, “That would be best.” He laughed and started to walk toward our coaches, “What class are you in?” he looked down at me and laughed, “Weight lifting.” I nodded and looked down, the weight lifting class was almost as worse as the football class. “You?” our class consist of the gymnastics and aerobics class, “Aerobics.” He raised his eyebrows and smiled, “So I should be keeping up with you then?” we both laughed “Doubt I’d be faster than you.” He shrugged and waited beside him, “Alright, how this works is you run the mile together. If one of you stops for a breather, the other stops as well, no leaving the other behind. GO!”
Everyone looked at each other before Trevor and Abby started running, “Come on.” He started running, looking back at me. I jogged beside him, while keeping my head down, “So, where did you move from?” He looked down at me and smiled, “We’ve always lived here, we just moved schools.” I nodded and sighed, “That’s pretty cool, why’d you switch?” He laughed and turned around, running backwards, “You’re nosy.” He laughed again as I rolled my sleeves up, “Can’t help it.” I laughed as he watched my actions. His face hardened as his eyes stopped at my wrist. I quickly pulled my sleeve down and sped up, “Hailey!” I didn’t stop as I sped up, but didn’t get far; He grabbed my arm softly turning me around. “Hailey, what happened?” We were the last people still out running, and I’m sure they weren’t waiting. I squared my shoulders and looked up at him, “Nothing, I hit my counter.” He narrowed his eyes and inclined his head, “Your counter is the shape of a hand?” I ran my hand through my hair and turned, “Don’t worry about it.” He stood there as I ran to the end where neither of our classes were waiting.
I went into the locker room to see it completely empty, which meant the classes were still outside. I sighed as I went to my locker and changed into my clothes; I needed to go somewhere. I took a deep breath as I pushed the locker room doors open and quickly walked to the library, my sanctuary. I went to open the door when it was pushed open and two people came out. The door knocked my books out of my hands before I got to look at the people, “I am sorry.” Hands went to my books as I reached for them, “It’s no problem.” I looked up to see the two blondes from earlier, “Oh.” I grabbed my books from the boy’s hands and stood, “Do I know you two?” They looked between each other before back at me, “Not to our knowledge, do you?” I shook my head and smiled, “I don’t. My name is Hailey.” I stuck my hand out and the boy grabbed it, “Derek.” His hand was replaced with the girls, “Darla.” I smiled and looked at my watch, “It was nice meeting you, but the bell is going to ring soon and I need to return these books.” They nodded and smiled, “It was nice meeting you too.” They said it in unison before turning and leaving the building.
“Good morning Hailey.” Joan smiled up at me before grabbing the books from my hands, “Morning.” While she scanned my book I couldn’t help but think how weird those two siblings were. I shook it off and walked to the stacks to get another book. “Good morning darling’, how may I help you?” “Nah, I’m going to just roam the stacks for a book.” His footsteps came towards where I was, the voice didn’t sound familiar, but for some reason it gave me the feeling of being calm, like I knew him. He rounded the corner and immediately started to look at the books. He wasn’t real tall, he had his black hair cut short, and his arms were a little bulky, “You know it’s not very nice to stare.” He was looking at me now, his hazel green eyes boring into mine, “Uh, sorry. You just reminded me of someone.” He laughed and walked toward me turning back to the books, “Sorry, but I don’t play for your team. But I’m sure you’ve seen my brother if I look familiar.” My brows frowned which made him laugh, “I’m gay.” I shook my head and sighed, “Who’s your brother?” He laughed and turned toward me, “Wyatt.” My eyes widened as I took a step back, he sent him to talk to me no doubt. “The name is Jasper or Casper, whichever.” He stuck his hand out and smiled, “Hailey. Why Casper?” He shook my hand and smiled wider, “I’m the whitest one out of my family.” We both laughed as the bell rang, “Well I got to go.” He nodded as I passed him, “Nice meeting you by the way.” I turned and smiled, “As to you.” I quickly walked out of the library and up the stairs to my math class.
I plopped down beside Michael and he inched away, “What’s up with you?” He shrugged and turned to me, “What’s up with you?” I pulled my brows together and pulled the sleeves down on my jacket, “What you mean?” He rolled his eyes as he took his trigonometry book out. “Michael, what?” He shook his head as Mr. Jones cleared his throat. “Take out this weekend’s homework and pass it to your neighbor.” I took out my homework and handed it to Michael as he handed me his, which was extremely organized compared to my mess of work. Michael didn’t talk to me through the whole class which made me worry that I did something to make him mad at me. Lunch was just as quiet between the three of us as trig was between Michael and I. “Test next period, you ready?” I shook my head at Hannah and sighed, “It’s going to be bad I think.” She laughed and popped a grape in her mouth, “You think that about every test.” I shrugged, “Hey.” I hadn’t realized someone was talking to me until Hannah, wide eyed, tapped my leg and pointed behind me, “Mind if we sit with you?” I turned around to see Derek and Darla, “Uh, I suppose.” Hannah made room scooting closer to Michael who’s expression seemed to harden as he was forced to scoot next to me. “Uh, I’m Hannah.” Hannah stuck her hand out to Darla smiling, “Darla, and this is Derek, my brother.” Michael and Hannah shook their hands and instantly started talking, but I wasn’t interested in shopping or fixing up old cars. I let my eyes wonder the courtyard until they landed on Wyatt and Jasper, they were sitting on a planter laughing, but I swear I could see Wyatt glancing in this direction, “You know them?” I turned to my left to see Derek inclined toward me looking at the brothers, “I just met them today, you?” His face hardened as he shook his head, “No.” He leaned back and put himself back in Michael’s conversation. I checked my watch and decided to get up, “Where you going?” I looked at Michael and shrugged, “Does it matter?” I picked up my food and backpack and walked away from the group. I had two more classes before I had to go home, something I did not want to do, I wonder what he’d find…
“Oh, sorry.” I blinked and looked down to see my stuff on the ground, “What happened?” I looked up to see Jasper, “Sorry, I was walking backwards and when I went to turn around I slammed into you.” My brows frowned as I bent and picked up my stuff, “Alright.” I slid my backpack back on my shoulder and went to walk away when Jasper cleared his throat, “Uh, how did you not know what happened?” I turned around and shrugged, “Deep in thought.” I waved and continued to walk away, “Hailey, wait!” I just wanted to be alone, I worked my jaw as I turned around, “Yes?” He smiled and came up to me, “Wanna hang with me? Wyatt went to class early and left me alone.” I sighed and smiled, “I was actually gonna go to my class. What do you have next?” He took out his schedule and passed it to me, “You have chemistry with me.” He smiled and took the paper back, “As does Wyatt.” I froze, he’s the last one I wanted to talk to. “Really?” He nodded and smiled, “Well let’s go to class.” He linked his arm with mine and tugged me toward Mr. Randal’s class.