This Is Us: Chapter One

"Accept what you are unable to change. But, change what you are unwilling to accept."

The early morning light crept through the bedroom curtains when the yelling began. Drowsily I looked to my window annoyed that the blackout curtains I paid so much for were not doing their job as televised.

Gazing at my door I listened to the noise. It was my mom and one of the men she brings home after a night of drinking. "Why are you so annoying?" She bellowed. This is normally how it goes. My mom would go out and get plastered, bring home a man, do a bunch of drugs, and have annoyingly loud sex on the couch in the living room. Then that morning while they're both coming down they will argue, and she will try to kick him out. Some leave okay. The others do not.

"Come on, let's just do a little bit more, then I'll go." I have a suspicion that the guy that's out there right now is Robert. He's one of four. Robert is one of the two I can't stand. Mainly because he would push my mom to buy more drugs so he can use more. Then he would leave when she ran out. That’s not the only reason why I don't like him. He eats all of our food. He's made advances on me in the past. Plus there were a couple times where he had physically hit  my mom. Though that's normally when I step in.

The other guy I don't like is Eric. The reason I don't like him is simple. He's one of the pimps that run around town wanting to prove that his dick is bigger than the rest. There have been times where he got my mom fucked up just so he could make money on her. I've tried telling her that she shouldn't be around him anymore, but she doesn't see anything wrong with it because he gives her a cut. A very small cut.

The others are Joey and Kaleb. Both are pretty cool. Some days Kaleb will take me to school, and buy food for the house. Joey brings his playstation over and plays battlefield with me on occasion.

"I said no!" She yelled and threw something. With an aggravated sigh I crawled out from under my blanket and picked up a pair of black basketball shorts from the floor. Sliding them up my pale freckled legs.

"Don't make me ask again, Sam!" Leaning forward, I flipped my hair over and used a hair tie from around my wrist to pull my hair in a loose bun.

My mom started screaming. "Get the hell away from me!"

I grabbed the aluminum bat from beside my door and walked out into the living room. It was cold on my hands so soon after getting out of my warm bed.

When I turned the corner the first thing I saw was Robert gripping my mom's wrist while raising his other hand to her. I rested the bat on my shoulder and cleared my throat to get his attention. "I'm pretty sure we've talked about this..."

The black man dropped mom’s arm and turned to me, pointing an accusing finger. "Stay out of this. Shouldn't you be getting ready for middle school, or some s**t?"

I narrowed my eyes and pointed my weapon of choice in his direction moving closer. "I told you that if you were ever here to be gone before I woke up, yet here you are."

Robert rolled his eyes, turned back to my mom, and grabbed her forearm. "You're going to let that little b***h talk to me like that?"

I clicked my tongue as I gripped the bat with both hands now, holding it ready to strike. "I warned you." I hissed. The moment he turned to look at me I swung. Hitting him with everything I could muster right after waking up. With a cry out, and a crack, the hard aluminum made contact with the middle section of his back. I watched him fumble and fall to all fours on the ground, struggling to catch his breath. "Go home, Robert."

He looked at me and spat on my foot, “Rot in Hell, b***h.” he said looking up angrily at me with his hazy eyes.

With an overbearing kick to the face, I repeated myself, "Get out!"

He held his face and cried out again. My mother's crying adding to the situation. Robert slowly stood to his feet before making his way out. He harshly slammed the door shut behind himself when he finally left.

I took a breath and looked at the clock on the wall. I had less than fifteen minutes to make a thirty minute walk to school. I looked at my mom. She was still crying with her back against one of the living room walls. I decided to leave it alone and walked back into my room to get ready for school.

I brushed my hair out, leaving it to fall down to the small of my back. Changed my shirt from an old raggedy black tank top to a maroon long sleeve shirt. I exchanged my loose basketball shorts for a pair of dark skinnies. I grabbed my bookbag, tossed my phone in, and laced my boots. When I walked back into the living room my mom had calmed down some. Now she was just watching the front door.

I started walking to the door, but when I passed my mom she grabbed my arm to stop me then turned me around to look at her, "Are you ok?" I asked her trying to get to school as fast as possible.

Her eyes were red and tear stained. Her features scrunched in anger. "You're horrible, Annabeth!" She slapped me. "Robert loved me, now he'll probably never talk to me again!" The house echoed back at us from her screams.

I laid my hands carefully on her shoulders, and pushed her back slowly until she fell onto the couch, I laid her back then touched her face.

"He'll be back the moment you get paid." She looked at me, tears welling back up. "Get some sleep."

When I finally got to school classes had already started. Chemistry is where I was supposed to be but I decided to go ahead and skip. I hid in the bathrooms neighboring the band hall.

I wasted no time and headed straight for the handicapped stall and slammed the door shut. I reached into my bag for my phone then flung the bag onto the ground away from me. I leaned against the wall, and slowly slid down it while pulling my knees to my chest. Once I was down I hid my face in my arms sobbing.

After a while, when my eyes ran out of tears to spill, I looked up before gazing at my phone. I had one missed call and one message from my friend, my only friend, Sean.

"Yooo, where are you? School is about to start and you know you can't afford to be late. Gate's already threatened you with Sat School. Hurry up and get here!" -Sean 7:15am

I looked at the time. It was already a quarter 'till ten. I typed out my response to him.

"Woke up late, you know where I am." -Ana 9:45am

I put my phone back down and laid my chin on my arms which were crossed across my knees. I stared blankly at the stall door. A minute later I heard my phone go off but I left it there figuring it was only Sean responding to me. He’s probably telling me that he was going to get out of class and come in here.

About four minutes passed before I heard the bathroom door open and someone walk close to me. When the stall door opened it wasn't Sean standing in front of me. It was Vice Principal Gates. His meaty arms crossed over his sweat stained gray shirt as he looked down at me, his distaste for me clearly showing, "Skipping class now, are we?"

I rolled my eyes while gathering my phone and bookbag. Standing eye to eye. "Felt sick." I said. Obviously lying. Gates nodded but showed no real concern as he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me out of the stall and lead me out of the girl's bathroom.

When we walked into his office I took the seat I normally do, the one closest to the door. His office was small, barely decorated, and hardly anything on his desk besides his computer. Although I guess it should make sense that there's not too many things in here considering that he just got the job last month. With this student body his hands have been a bit full. I curiously asked, "When are you going to put a poster up or something?"

Gates sat at his desk. His stomach looked like it was falling out at the bottom of his school assigned gray button up, from the result of the shirt being two sizes too small. His hands laid resting on a calendar that had been laminated and was probably glued to the wood. His fingers intertwined. He kept watching me with those beady brown rat eyes. "The moment when you and the other kids alike stop being delinquents. Probably won't ever actually get the chance." I rolled my eyes and looked away from him. "So what fight did you get into now?"

I looked back at him confused. "Huh?" He simply pointed to his cheek and I knew what he was referring to..

"You're horrible, Annabeth!"

"Robert loved me, now he'll probably never talk to me again!"

"He'll be back the moment you get paid."

Shrugging my shoulders I looked down at my hands. "It happened before school."

Gates sighed and leaned back into his chair. "Okay," he said as if it were a question.

"It wasn't much of a fight."

A pen clicked and the computer monitor booted up, Spoken very distantly he said, "Right..." Then some typing, and some pen scratching. "Well, what I can punish you for is your tardiness and skipping your first period. Let me make this simple," I looked up at him and awaited my sentence, "two weeks of Saturday school."

I grabbed my bag and stood, "Cool."

Gates cleared his throat. When it got my attention he pointed back to the chair I was sitting in before. "Sit back down, I'm not done." I did as I was ordered and looked at him expectantly. Knowing Gates he's going to make me wash the entire gym floor with my toothbrush or something like that. "You're going to put on the cheesiest smile you can come up with, show up here at six AM sharp tomorrow morning, and you're going to show a new student around."

"You're kidding."

Gates shook his head and leaned forward onto his desk. "Nope. I'm really not. I'm going to put her in all of your classes and you're going to walk with her to each and every last one. You're going to sit with her at lunch. Talk to her between classes like she's your best f*****g friend."

I was seething. "Why?"

He paused while he rummaged through papers and held up a pink slip. "Because, if you don't I will suspend you and make sure you have to repeat your senior year."

I clenched my jaw as I glared at the overweight, sweaty slob of a vice principal. "No." I stood up and opened his office door.

"Don't be late"

I looked back at him once more before slamming the door shut, "F**k you."

Author's Note

You can find the complete story on Wattpad, just follow the link on my profile (This story is still in the process of writing, updates are every Saturday- starting May 27th, 2017)