chapter one

 

CHAPTER O N E.

 

It’s never easy moving from one place to another especially when you’re young and still have a lot to discover about the things around you. It’s kind of like taking an animal from its natural habitat and putting it in a glass bowl or in a cage. She was happy where she was. She had many friends that loved her, she went to an amazing school, got incredible grades, and most importantly, she was happy. But in the end her family decided to head on out to somewhere else because of some problems they were having. She was completely devastated. She didn’t know what to do. How she would tell everyone didn’t even cross her mind. When moving day came, the whole town had frowns on their faces. It almost seemed as if there was a dark cloud hovering over everyone. She vowed that she’d never forgive her parents for making this decision. And to this day, it’s still true.

 

Our story begins with a girl who was taken away from her one true home…

 

[5 years later]

 

“RYLEIGH! GET UP OR ELSE YOU’RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!...” Jennifer Jameson yelled up the stairs to her daughter. “…again…”

 

“Is she still not up?” Jesse asked as he turned the page of his newspaper.

 

“No…I don’t know what happened. She used to love school.”

 

“Please don’t start that again! I don’t wanna hear her complaining about Virginia!” Cayden covered his ears complaining about having to hear his sister complain.

 

“And I don’t want to hear you complaining about Ryleigh complaining.” Jesse stated.

 

Cayden rolled his eyes and then his expression quickly changed to an excited, hopeful look. “Hey, if Ryleigh’s not up soon, can I dump a bucket of ice cold water on her?”

 

“That’s where it’s headed…” Jennifer muttered under her breath not intending for anyone to hear.

 

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Ryleigh groaned and rolled over putting her pillow over hear head droning out the sound of her mother’s voice. “No school…don’t wanna go…evil…”

 

A few minutes later she heard her bedroom door open. Though Ryleigh didn’t think too much of it until she felt someone rip her pillow off her head and then pour a bucket of freezing cold water on her head. “GOOOOOOD MOOORRRRRNIIIIIING RYLEIGH!” Cayden shouted and quickly ran out of Ryleigh’s room to avoid her rage.

 

“F**K!” she screeched. “GOD DAMNIT!”

 

“Hey, it’s your own fault you didn’t get up on time!” Cayden popped his head in her doorway one last time. Ryleigh slowly turned her head towards the door, her face filled with anger, wrath, and vengeance. He quickly ran away again.

 

“Oh Cayden James how you will pay…oh how you’ll pay…” Ryleigh stated truthfully through her gritted teeth. Glancing quickly at her clock, she realized that she only had ten minutes to get ready for school and still eat breakfast. So she quickly went into her bathroom to dry herself off, went back into her room and she grabbed a pair of jean shorts and a white t-shirt. Ryleigh brushed through her dirty blonde hair hurriedly and then ran downstairs to get a quick breakfast ready to eat in the car on her way to school.

 

“Look who finally decided to get up.” Jesse smirked at Ryleigh as she got a sandwich bag and filled it with Fruit Loops.

 

“Why’s your hair all wet?” Jennifer asked with curiosity. “I didn’t hear the shower running.”

 

“Did you not hear me scream?” Ryleigh asked. Jennifer shook her head no while she furrowed her eyebrows.

 

“Oh, well, I just decided to take a last minute, ice cold bucket shower.” Ryleigh glared and Cayden who tried hard to avoid her gaze. Jennifer followed her eyes and then sighed deeply.

 

“You didn’t…” she directed her question at Cayden.

 

“What didn’t I do?” he asked innocently.

 

“Dump water on your sister’s head.”

 

“That? Oh yeah, that I did.” Cayden smiled proudly.

 

Jennifer rolled her eyes and sighed. “Just get to school and we’ll talk about it when you get home.”

 

“Fine…” he muttered and then they both headed out to Ryleigh’s car.

 

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After Ryleigh dropped Cayden off at his school, she began the fifteen minute drive towards hers.

 

It was the last week of school until summer officially started. The last three days Ryleigh would be taking her finals. She’s never excited about them, though on the brightside of taking finals is that the last two days are half days. So her summer starts earlier than Cayden’s. That thought always seem to brighten Ryleigh’s day up a little bit more.

 

Back when Ryleigh’s family lived in Virginia, she had more friends that she knew what to do with. But now that she lives in Kentucky…Ryleigh doesn’t seem to have a single friendship with anyone like she did in Virginia. The only time she would talk to someone, was if the teacher said that they would be doing an activity in class that required well…talking to people. Although there was one girl in her biology and English class Ryleigh would talk to every once in a blue moon. Her name was Alice Collins. She was your average, happy-go-lucky girl who could brighten up pretty much anyone’s day.

 

Ryleigh had about five minutes when she pulled into the school’s parking lot to get to class before the final bell rang. She parked her car in her usual spot and then headed towards the building. While she was at her locker, Ryleigh grabbed the necessary materials she would need for her first class which was U.S. History, a required class for all juniors. After U.S. History was gym class, one of Ryleigh’s least favorite classes and then a twenty minute advisory. Usually after advisory a zombie takes over Ryleigh’s body for the rest of the day and she’s completely out of it until sixth and seventh hour with she has with Alice who generally attempts to make conversation with her about pretty much anything.

 

Ryleigh moved silently through the day taking things as they came and went. She didn’t seem to notice that she was in biology until Alice walked in and took a seat next to her.

 

“Hi Ryleigh!” Alice greeted her cheerfully.

 

“Hey…” she mumbled her response.

 

“I hear that the biology test is going to be super hard. But I do fairly well in this class and so do you, so I guess that it shouldn’t be too hard. What do you think?”

 

“I don’t think it’ll be that bad if you study enough.” Ryleigh stated.

 

“Yeah, you’re right…if you study then it won’t be that difficult.” Then there was a moment of silence until Alice gasped.

 

“I just thought of a great idea!” Alice exclaimed with a huge smile on her face. “We should study together for biology and English!”

 

Ryleigh was taken by surprise from her outburst, but even more taken aback from her proposal to study together. She’s never studied with anyone before, even when she lived in Virginia. She’s always done just fine on her own.

 

“Alice, I-“Ryleigh was immediately cut off.

 

“Oh come on Ryleigh! It’ll be fun! Thursday after school we could go over to someone’s house and eat food, study, maybe watch a movie…it’ll be like a study party of two.” Alice begged. “Although I wouldn’t suggest my house because my parents will be home working so we’d have to be quiet the entire time.”

 

Ryleigh just stared at Alice with a blank expression trying to figure out what to say. She didn’t want to say no because it sounded like she put a lot of thought into it. Ryleigh sighed. She though for a few more minutes and then answered.

 

“Ok…we can study together on Thursday. And yes we can study at my house. My parents will be at work and my brother is currently away at college.” Yes, Ryleigh did in fact have another brother other than Cayden. His name is Benjamin but more commonly known as Ben. Ben is three years older than Ryleigh (Ben twenty; Ryleigh seventeen) and is currently a student at the University of California.

 

“YAY! Awesome! I can’t wait!” Alice squealed causing Ryleigh to wince. “Oh, and do you drive or take the bus to school?”

 

“I drive,” Ryleigh answered. “Why?”

 

“I’d need to drive home with you because I take the bus. Strangely enough my parents don’t trust me enough to drive to school…or just to drive anywhere really. I guess they think I’ll run away to some foreign country and become a druggie or something.”

 

“What made them think that?” Ryleigh giggled.

 

“I think it has something to do with my brother…he kept on getting suspended for skipping school, and then kept on getting arrested drinking and driving, and smoking weed and a whole bunch of other crap. So I guess they think that his badness rubbed off, or will eventually rub off on me and they think that that’s exactly what’s gonna happen to me.” Alice explained. “Which it probably won’t because I’m practically a straight A student who wouldn’t have the guts to skip or do anything illegal.”

 

“Wow, really? Where’s your brother now?”

 

“Military school,” Alice stated simply with a couple small nods of her head. “I’m actually surprised he’s not in jail...but anyway, so you think you can give me a ride?”

 

“Of course I can.” Ryleigh smiled.

 

“Thank you!” Alice said gratefully.

 

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The end of the day quickly ended and Ryleigh rushed to her locker and grabbed her stuff so that she could go and pick up Cayden from the private high school their parents decided to send him to. She got there at the pick-up just as Cayden and his friend Max were walking out of the building.

 

“Hey guys, how was school?” Ryleigh asked them as they got in the car and buckled their seatbelts.

 

“Boring.” They both said at the same time.

 

“Oh come on! Something interesting must’ve happened.” Ryleigh urged as she pulled out of the parking lot.

 

“Jimmy stuck twelve raisins up each of his nose holes today at lunch!” Max exclaimed. “It was sooooo funny! And when he sneezed, his boogers were purple!”

 

“That’s...lovely...” Ryleigh scrunched up her face. “Oh, and Cayden, mom’s not happy with you about what happened this morning, so I’m going to take Max home so you don’t get into any more trouble.”

 

“But Max always comes over on Wednesdays!” Cayden complained.

 

"What happened?" Max asked no one in particular, but still looking for an answer.

 

“Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Ryleigh mumbled, completely ignoring Max.

 

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“No buts Cayden! You’re grounded until further notice!” Jennifer scolded her youngest son.

 

“Come on! That’s completely unfair!”

 

“How is it unfair? You dumped a bucket of water on your sister’s head while she was in bed. What do you want me to do? Congratulate you?” Jennifer asked sarcastically.

 

“Well you should! I got her up!” Cayden argued.

 

“Whether you dumped water on her head or not she would’ve gotten up because I would’ve gone up there to get her!”

 

“But-“

 

“End of discussion!”

 

“And every time your wrong and Ryleigh’s right, you owe her ten bucks.” Jesse said.

 

“WHAT!? Now THAT’S unfair!”

 

“I don’t think it is,” Ryleigh beamed. “I could always use some extra cash.”

 

“That is a little steep Jess,” Jennifer stated. “I think that being grounded from the TV, computer, the phone, friends, hanging out with friends, going places, sports, and fun is good enough.”

 

“WHAT!? What am I gonna do all summer then?!”

 

“Chores, chores and more chores,” Jennifer smiled. “And, you’ll also be doing Ryleigh’s chores.”

 

“Ooh! I like this punishment!” Ryleigh exclaimed.

 

“All for dumping water on Ryleigh’s head?” Cayden protested.

 

“We also got your report card in the mail today.” Jesse said. “You failed English and you got D’s in physics and algebra I.”

 

“So while you’re not doing chores, you’ll be in summer school.”

 

“OH MY GOD! THIS SUMMER IS GONNA SUCK BALLS!” Cayden shouted as he stormed away.

 

“So Ryleigh, what are you planning on doing this summer?” Jennifer asked, ignoring Cayden’s rage.

 

“I don’t know...I’ll probably be working down at Hollister...I really, really miss Ben so I might go and see him for a week or so.” Ryleigh suggested.

 

“Really? That’s a long way to travel all by yourself.” Jesse walked over and stood next to Jennifer.

 

“Yeah, I really don’t want you driving to California all by yourself.” Jennifer said. “What if we got him to come here instead?”

 

Ryleigh let out a loud, sarcastic laugh. “Now that’s funny! After we moved here, Ben swore to me that he’ll never come back here.”

 

“He never said that to us.” Jesse eyed Ryleigh.

 

Ryleigh crossed her arms over her chest. “He was 15. Three more years until he could move out. I would’ve gone with him but he forced me to stay here with you guys. Ben hated it here. More so than I did. That’s why he’s in California.”

 

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Jennifer walked away. Jesse and Ryleigh just stared at the floor.