Welcome To My Life

I was walking through a dark street in Baltimore, Maryland. People were nowhere to be seen and I was enjoying the silence around me. I suppose it wasn’t exactly strange it was this quiet as it was about 3 in the morning. I couldn’t fall asleep and decided to go discover the town I had moved in to only yesterday. In a few hours my first day at my new high school, Dulaney High, would start so I should probably be asleep right now, but I didn’t really care. I didn’t even want to be here anyway.

My parents thought it would be good for me after the incident, a different school, different city, even a different state. Too bad they couldn’t be bothered to come with me. No, instead they forced me to live with my aunt and uncle and their son Jack. I was pretty sure my parents had just wanted to get rid of me.

I didn’t necessarily dislike these people; I just never really connected with them either. My uncle made quite a lot of money, being the manager of some insurance company. Therefore they never had to worry about money, unlike my parents, and they always gave Jack anything he wanted. You could say Jack was kind of a spoiled brat who was used to having things his way and didn’t really take no for an answer. Even when we were little he always had cooler toys and had no problem rubbing them in my face.

Actually, the only thing we had in common was that we were about to go to the same high school, probably be in the same class as well. I knew Jack was quite popular, because well, that’s what having a lot of money makes you in this day and age. I had never been even remotely popular, or even had real friends for that matter, and didn’t expect it to happen at Dulaney High either. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have to count on Jack introducing me to his friends either. Though his mom made him promise he’d show me around I could tell he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it.

After wandering around Baltimore for about 45 minutes and thinking I might be lost, I recognized the Starbucks at the end of the street my aunt and uncle lived. Their house wasn’t hard to miss; it was without doubt the biggest one on the block. I quietly unlocked the door, tiptoed back to my room, changed into my pajamas and got into my bed. I stared at the empty white walls of the guest room I had been assigned. I had yet to decorate the room with the posters and photos I had brought, though I wasn’t even sure my aunt would let me. She made it very clear my stay was only temporary. Despite my uncle and aunt being rather nice to me, I still felt sort of unwanted at their house. Sleep finally started to kick in and somewhere around 4 I finally fell asleep, only to be woken up by my alarm two hours later.

I would’ve given a lot to be able to stay in my warm, comfortable bed, instead of having to go to school, deal with people. Even worse, people I didn’t know and most likely had no interest in knowing. I dragged myself out of bed, kneeling next to the box that still had most of my clothes in it and went through it to find an outfit for the day. I settled on black skinny jeans, a plain gray top and my black Vans. Couldn’t go wrong with such a casual outfit.

Although I wasn’t planning on or expecting to make any friends, it still wouldn’t be such a bad idea to at least try to dress nicely to make a good impression. I straightened my hair and made the effort of putting on some make-up. I would usually wear a lot heavier make-up but I chose not to today. I didn’t want people calling me an emofreak on my first day at a new school. Once I was sort of satisfied with how I looked, I shoved the schoolbooks my aunt bought me into my schoolbag, grabbed my iPod and earphones and left my room, heading downstairs.

I found my aunt, uncle and Jack sitting in the kitchen having breakfast.
“Ah, there you are” my aunt said as I walked into the kitchen. “We wanted to wait for you, but couldn’t wait any longer as Bassam and I have to go to work.”
I was used to just making myself a sandwich and eating it on my way to school and hadn’t realized my aunt and uncle had the habit of having breakfast altogether.
“Sorry” I muttered, putting my bag down and sitting down next to Jack. I grabbed some bread from the plate in the middle of the table and covered the slices with Nutella.

After I finished breakfast, my aunt and uncle quickly cleared the table before they left for work, while Jack sat down on the couch to watch some TV. I hesitated before I sat down next to him. Jack hadn’t been very talkative since I got here and I figured he wasn’t too thrilled to have me around.

“So uhm… what time are we leaving for school?” I asked him after his parents both left for work. I had been told Jack would drive me to school, reluctantly probably.
He shrugged, looking at his phone. “In 5 minutes I guess” he said shortly.
“Okay” I replied and after that we just watched TV in silence, until Jack turned it off.

“Let’s go” he said, making it sound more like a command than an invitation, but I got up to follow him to his car nonetheless.
We got in his expensive looking Audi and Jack drove off. We didn’t say a word to each other the whole ride to school, mainly because we didn’t have anything to talk about. I didn’t really care about whatever he was thinking about and he didn’t seem to care about what was going on in my mind either. Jack drove on to the high school’s parking lot about 10 minutes later and parked the car.

I was just about to get out of the car when he grabbed my arm.
“Hold on” he said, pulling me back in my chair. I looked at him.
“Look, I’m kind of popular around here and I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t fuck that up” Jack started.
I raised my eyebrows at his rather harsh words. “Excuse me?”
“Well, you don’t exactly fit in here, Liz. Especially not with my friends” Jack shrugged.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I scowled.
“You’re kind of… How do I put this nicely? A freak, I guess?” Jack muttered.
“That’s your way of putting something nicely?” I asked him.

I felt tears coming up. No, I was not about to cry. Not in front of Jack, not on my first day at a new school. Even my family thought I was a freak, how could I expect anyone else to like me? Sure, I had my problems, but I wouldn’t call myself a freak.

“Look, I don’t mean to insult you or anything, I just have a reputation to uphold” Jack said quietly.
“Yeah well, don’t you fucking worry about me, Jack. I won’t interfere with you and your friends. Just pretend like I’m not even here” I spat, swinging the passenger door open and jumping out.
“Liz…” I heard Jack say behind me, but I ignored him and rushed into the building.

Before I searched for the administration, I went into the first ladies room I could find, to make sure I didn’t look as bad as I felt right now. I forced myself to breathe slowly in and out to calm myself down. Once I felt calm enough, I went back into the school’s hallway and tried to find the administration.

When I turned the corner I noticed Jack in the middle of the hallway, surrounded by a group of boys. I halted, not feeling like running into him. I noticed a sign saying administration behind him. I sighed. I was going to have to pass Jack and his friends in order to get there. Well, if I’d just ignore him, he would probably return the favor and I should be fine. I continued walking, speeding my pace and walking past the group of boys.

I noticed one of Jack’s friends looking at me. For a second I locked eyes with the brown haired boy, until Jack noticed me and I quickly walked past them to the administration.

Notes

I felt like starting a new fanfic, so I did :) Let me know what you think!

Title credit for both the chapter and the story goes to Welcome to my life - Simple Plan