Chapter 1

Rachel meets the new kid at school and gains some hope for maybe finding a way out of her recent rut that she has been stuck in.

I had to get out of there in a hurry. I grabbed my jacket, slammed the door, and began walking down the street. It was raining out. I could feel each drop of rain slowly dripping from my hairline down my face. After a few moments, my emotions got the best of me and I couldn’t tell the difference between my tears and the drops of rain. I watched my feet angrily stomp in the puddles that formed along the sidewalks. I made it a few blocks down the road and came to an intersection. I glanced up and noticed someone walking towards me.

“Rachel! Oh my god, where is your umbrella?!” She shouted as she started running over to me. I looked up at her and shrugged my shoulders.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” She asked as she tried to hold the umbrella over both of us.

“It’s nothing, I was just taking a walk,” I replied. She went to speak again but hesitated. It was obvious that I was lying but she wasn’t going to feed into it. We continued to walk down the road towards a small convenience store. She struggled to close her umbrella and I walked into the store before she could even notice. A few moments later she came running in looking around to see where I had gone. I went over to one of the coolers and grabbed a bottle of water.

“That’s all you’re going to get? Get whatever you want, it’s my treat!” She said excitedly. I walked over to the candy isle and grabbed a small candy bar. I placed my items on the counter and she paid the cashier. I snatched the candy bar and threw it in my pocket and grabbed the water bottle.

“Well thanks Jess, but I’m going to head out now,” I said as I walked out of the store. She went to stop me but decided to let me through. I opened the door and headed back out into the rain.

Jess is a good friend of mine. Well, was a good friend of mine. We still talk but it leads to a lot of awkward conversations. She tries to be friendly with me but it only goes so far. When she is with her group of friends, I usually don’t exist to her. That’s okay with me though, because I have noticed recently that I think I prefer to be alone. I walked down the road and got to the end of the block. I looked around wondering where I should head to. I could go home but I really don’t want to deal with that mess, but I don’t really have any other options. I let out a long sigh and started walking back home. It was still raining pretty good. At this point I was dripping wet from head to toe, it started getting uncomfortable.

I made it back to my house and stood on the front step for a few moments before heading in. I prepared myself and opened the front door. As soon as I open the front door I could already hear the yelling

“RACHEL?! IS THAT YOU? RACHEL?!” My father yelled from the other room. I continued making my way in hoping to go straight to the stairs to my room. When I reached the bottom of the staircase, I could hear someone approaching.

“Rachel! Where the hell did you run off to?” My father asked.

“Just took a walk,” I replied.

“You are soaked! You are dripping water all over my floor! You need to go get changed and get back down here so we can talk,” He said as he walked away. I began going up the stairs and headed to my room. I closed the door and took my shoes off. There was already a small puddle forming under me where I was standing. I ran over to my dresser and pulled out some clean clothes and quickly threw them on. My hair was still dripping wet but I didn’t really care. I went over to my bed and laid down on top of my blankets. I had every intention of going back downstairs but before I knew it, I drifted off into a deep sleep.

I jolted up in bed, unaware of what time it was. I looked at the clock, it was 8:47am. I jumped out of bed and ran over to my dresser and threw some clothes on. I quickly ran to the bathroom to brush my hair and brush my teeth. I took one more glance at the clock and it was already 9:02am. I was going to end up stuck in detention for being late again. I ran downstairs, grabbed my bag, and ran out the door. I started quickly walking down the street. About halfway there I regretted not grabbing my jacket, I could see my breath. I finally got to the school. I let out a long sigh as I walked up the steps. I opened the door and walked over to the desk to sign in.

“Late again, Ms. Baker?” The office clerk said as she raised an eyebrow. I looked at her and shrugged my shoulders.

“Let me see here. Honey, that is your third time being tardy this week. I am going to have to give you detention. Be in room 204 right after 9^th period,” She explained as she handed me a detention slip. I shoved the slip into my pocket and quickly headed to my class. I walked in the class and everyone just looked at me. I put my head down and walked to the back of the class towards an empty desk and sat down.

“How nice of you to join us, Rachel. I would start writing these notes down if I were you. The test is tomorrow,” Mrs. Howard said with a smirk on her face. I pulled out my notebook and began writing some of the notes down from the board. I looked over and noticed somebody unfamiliar sitting in a desk. He was slim and had dark brown hair. His hair was a little long and reached about halfway down his forehead. He was wearing a black button up shirt and jeans. Our school is small so not recognizing someone usually means they are a new student. I glanced over at him one more time to see if I knew who it was and before I could look away, he turned and looked right over at me. I quickly turned away and didn’t look at him again the rest of the class. The bell rang and everybody quickly started filing out into the hallway. I threw my notebook in my bag and on my way out of the room, Mrs. Howard stops me.

“Rachel, how have you been?” She asked

“I’m fine, thanks,” I replied softly

“I know you have been struggling since your mother passed, but if you need anything please don’t hesitate to talk to me. You have also missed a lot of class so come see me if you need anything,” She said with a worried look on her face. I faked a smile and made my way out of the room.

My next period was gym and of course I didn’t have my sweats with me so I sat out for the period. I sat against the wall in the gymnasium and doodled on my notebook out of boredom. After what felt like a century, the bell finally rang. I made my way to the cafeteria for lunch. I wasn’t very hungry but I still got on line to grab a small lunch. While on line, I grabbed a yogurt and an apple. I paid the cashier and headed towards my usual table. I looked up to grab my chair and noticed the new guy was sitting at my table. I was used to sitting there alone so I was a little thrown off. He was by himself eating his lunch. I slowly pulled my chair out and awkwardly sat down across from him. He finally looked up and noticed I was sitting near him.

“Oh, hey,” He said with a small smile on his face. I smiled back and began opening my yogurt. I was never very good in social situations. I have always been awkward and quiet. I tried keeping to myself and eating my food but I couldn’t help but cautiously look around the room.

“You didn’t look very good in class today,” he said nervously as he continued eating his food. I didn’t know how to react to that statement and without thinking I gave him a nasty look. I pushed my chair out and grabbed my apple. Before I could walk away, he quickly swallowed his food and stood up.

“No, no! Wait! Hang on one second. I didn’t mean that the way you took it. I just meant that you looked like you were having a rough day,” He said quickly.

“Please, sit down and eat. If you don’t want to be near me then I will go sit somewhere else. You don’t have to go anywhere,” He pleaded.

“No, it’s fine, you can stay,” I said as I sat back down. He gave me a sideways grin like he knew that he had won and then sat down. We were both silent for a few moments until he spoke up again.

“So, how has your day been?” He asked

“It’s fine,” I said awkwardly. He nodded his head and continued to eat his food.

“I am sure you know this but I just moved here and I know absolutely nobody and it doesn’t seem like anyone is really up for talking,” He said with a confused look on his face. I felt bad so I decided to try and continue the conversation.

“That’s kind of how everyone is around here. Where are you from?” I asked

“I moved here from Minnesota. This place is a lot different compared to where I lived before,” He said

“You’ll get used to it quick. It’s not like there’s much around to get used to anyways,” I said. He just nodded his head and continued eating.

“Oh, my name is Craig by the way. I kind of forgot about that part,” He said as he smirked.

“Rachel,” I responded. He put his hand out across the table with another sideways smirk on his face and I quickly shook his hand and went back to eating. A few moments passed and he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He placed it on the table and I could see it was his class schedule. He faced it towards me and looked up at me.

“Do we have any other classes together? I know we just had economics together but it would be nice to see a familiar face around here,” He said. I grabbed the paper and read down the list.

“The only other class we have together is creative writing which is 9^th period,” I gave him back his paper. I was surprised to see that he was taking creative writing. That was one of the only classes that I enjoyed throughout the day and the class was pretty small to begin with.

“Do you enjoy writing?” He asked.

“Yeah, of course. That’s kind of why I am taking that class,” I said jokingly. He just grinned and nodded his head

“Fair enough,” He replied.

Before I knew it, the bell rang and I had to gather my things to head to class. As I started walking away, Craig quickly grabbed my attention

“So, I will see you 9^th period?” He asked. I nodded in agreement and began walking down the hall.

It felt strange to have talked to anyone at any point of the day. Even as awkward as it was, it was still nice to have conversation. The next couple of periods went by extremely slow. It felt like time just wouldn’t move. I always looked forward to 9^th period because creative writing was one of the only classes I felt comfortable in. Finally, the bell rang and I quickly headed towards creative writing. I quickly grabbed a seat and took out my notebook. I began looking for my homework assignment as Craig walked in. He waved as he passed by me and sat a couple of seats behind me. I pulled out my homework assignment and put it on top of my notebook and waited for class to start. Our topic for the day was poetry. We went over all the different kinds of poetry and the themes that exist in them. I remained amused the entire period and before I knew it the bell rang. I grabbed my things and pulled out my detention slip and threw it in the trash. I knew that skipping would just result in more detentions but I would face that demon when it happened. Before I could leave the room, Craig stopped me.

“Hey, so I was wondering if you wanted to go over the poetry homework at lunch tomorrow,” He asked.

“Sure, sounds like a plan,” I said as I left the classroom and headed towards the exit. I opened the door and of course it was raining out again. I quickly started walking down the street towards my house. I lived close to the school. Luckily it was only a quick 10-minute walk. I finally got home and went straight to my room. I had to change my clothes again because of the rain. I changed into some comfortable sweatpants and laid down on my bed to begin my poetry homework. The night dragged on and before I knew it, it was 12:04am. I put my things away and got ready for bed.

I woke up to my alarm going off next to my head. It was 5:45am. It had been weeks since I woke up that early for school. I crawled out of bed and hopped into the shower. I got dressed and headed downstairs. I still had plenty of time to I decided to make a quick breakfast. As I poured my cereal into my bowl, I could hear my father coming down the stairs. He stopped at the end of the stairs and looked confused.

“It’s 6:15 in the morning and you are awake, dressed and eating breakfast? I haven’t been able to get you to wake up at a decent hour for school in what feels like forever,” He said still puzzled.

“I actually think I might have somebody to talk to at school. They are new and they are in my creative writing class too,” I said as I sat down with my cereal.

“Well that’s good honey, it’s been a really long time since I have seen you try talking to anybody,” He said sincerely. I smiled at him and continued eating my cereal. I started trying to remember the last time I hung out with anyone and I couldn’t even remember. I isolated myself from just about everyone that I talked to. It wasn’t that many people to begin with but it still was something. It was exciting knowing that I would have someone to talk at some point rather than just sitting around bored. I finished my cereal and threw the bowl into the sink. I grabbed my bag and headed towards the door.

“Have a good day,” My father said as I pulled the front door shut.

Author's Note

Please be aware that this is a very rough edit but I want honest feedback please! Let me know how to improve it and if it keeps your attention. Thank you!