Chapter Text
"Juliet, wake up! You're going to be late for school!" She woke to her mother banging on her bedroom door, voice scratchy and shrill, "If you aren't ready when your brothers and father are ready to leave, you'll have to walk!"
She let out a soft snort as she sat up, "I'm up, calm down!"
Her mother scoffed on the other side of the door, before her footsteps faded down the hall and back downstairs. Julie waited another moment before she got out of bed and began rushing around her room. She'd fallen asleep at her desk again, and her back ached something fierce, but she didn't have time to worry about it. Besides, it was a pain that she was used to, it was welcome in a strange way.
A few minutes later, and she was standing at the bottom of the stairs, haphazardly pulling on her favorite pair of roughed up Converse. Her backpack was slung over one shoulder, and she wore a plain outfit of jeans and a graphic tee, with a flannel wrapped around her waist in case she got cold. Her hair was a tangled mess of brown waves, but she couldn't find her hairbrush, so she opted to run her fingers through it and leave it be.
"Finally, it took you long enough."
Julie glared up at her older brother, Ron, who stood in the entrance to the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal. He had a condescending grin on his face, like he was expecting Julie to take the bait. But she wasn't an idiot, if she said anything rude in retaliation, he'd go and blab to their father, and Julie would be the only one who'd get in trouble. That's how it always was--Neil Witwicky's boys could do no wrong, but that daughter of his? Talk about a black sheep.
Ignoring the sneer Ron flashed her way, Julie shoved past him and into the kitchen to grab an apple. She didn't have time to make herself something to eat, and she already knew that her family hadn't saved anything for her. They never did. But it was okay, she'd hopefully be able to grab something at school, if they got there on time.
Her eldest brother, Ben, and their father came downstairs just as Julie was leaving the kitchen, making her knock into them and sending her tumbling to the ground. She groaned, cheeks burning as she heard Ron snickering behind her, while their father simply admonished her for being in such a rush.
"God, Juliet, do you always have to make a mess of things?" Their father sneered as he stepped around her, while Ben grabbed her arm and helped her up.
"Sorry, I-I didn't see you.." She muttered, scooting past Ben and out of the kitchen, shouldering her backpack again as she headed outside to wait on the porch.
She checked her watch, and upon realizing there was still 15 minutes until the normal time they left, she hopped down the porch steps and rounded the side of the house. They didn't have any neighbors on that side, so she often used it as her smoking area. Her hands shook as she plucked a cigarette out of the carton she'd stolen from her mother's collection, slipping the cancer stick into her mouth and lighting the end up. Her lungs burned as she took a deep, shaking breath in, a plume of smoke falling from her lips on the exhale.
She knew it was a bad habit to have, but she couldn't bring herself to stop. It helped her, in the most dangerous way possible, and it was one of her mostly closely guarded secrets. God knows what would happen if her family found out, she'd never hear the end of it, despite her mother doing the same thing she was doing.
Her head thumped back against the siding of the house as she took another drag, staring up at the sky as she let her thoughts drift away. For a moment, she didn't have anything to worry about, her shoulders slumping from their usually tensed position. Everything was okay, for just a moment--
"Jules, it's time to go, come on!" She heard Ben call out to her, and she cursed, her peaceful moment broken.
"Coming!" She yelled back as she stamped out the cigarette, searching in her backpack for the bottle of hand sanitizer she kept in there and slathering it on her hands and arms. She'd rather smell like that than cigarettes, and it was easier to say that she was scared of germs than it was to say she was a smoker.
Once she was relatively sure that the smell was as covered up as it it could be, she headed back around the front of the house, just as her brothers and father were stepping out of the house. As soon as the car was unlocked, she slid into her usual seat in the back, behind the driver's seat. Ben sat in the passenger seat, and Ron sat beside her. It wasn't ideal, in any way, shape, or form, but Ron didn't bother her--their father was strict about how they behaved in the car.
10 minutes later, they pulled up in front of the local high school, Tranquility High. All the kids clambered out of the Oldsmobile, muttering goodbyes to their father before they rushed into the school, heading their own separate ways. Ben and Ron went off to their friends, while Julie headed straight to the library.
She had books to return, and more books that she wanted to check out, and she had plenty of time to get it done before the first bell rang. Julie spent a lot of time in the library, she even ate lunch in there sometimes. It was better than sitting alone in the cafeteria, in her opinion. She even had a little corner that the librarian jokingly said she had claimed.
The school day passed as slowly as it always did, with Julie giving almost every class her undivided attention..except for art. It wasn't a subject she liked, or was skilled at, and she'd much rather have a free period. But her parents had made her choose between art and gym, and anything was better than gym.
Julie was expected to have nothing less than a B+, while her brothers were able to skirt by with C's. Hell, Ron had gotten a D in English last semester, and their parents had said it was fine! Her mother told her that she was held to a higher standard because her parents knew she make something great of herself, if they pushed her hard enough. Julie thought that was bullshit.
But finally, finally the last bell of the day rung, and all the students rushed to get out of the school. It was like a herd of wildebeests had been turned loose on school grounds, and were trampling each other to get out. Julie hung back at her locker, because she didn't want to get caught in the wave of hormonal teenagers. She shoved the textbooks and junk she didn't need for homework into her sparsely decorated locker, and once the hall had cleared, made her way out to the parking lot.
...Only to find her father's car nowhere in sight. Had they left her behind again? Of course they had, she shouldn't even be surprised anymore.
Scoffing, Julie's hands tightened around the straps of her backpack as she trudged across the parking lot, "Guess I'll be walking home. Again."
It wasn't a long walk home, but it was more so the fact that she was so easily forgettable to her family that upset her. Time and time again, they proved that she meant next to nothing, yet still expected nothing but the best from her. Something burned in her chest, furious, and somehow both hot and cold at the same time. She shoved that feeling down, stomping on it until the flames died out, because she knew it was only a matter of time before she proved that she was so much more than they thought she was. It was all about biding her time.
Her eyes were glued to her shoes as she walked down the sidewalk, eyebrows furrowed together as she grumbled under her breath. In fact, she was so lost in her own mind that she never noticed the yellow Beetle that seemed to be watching her.