Chapter 001

NOVA

“Hi Mom, I am ready to leave,” I said to my mom as soon as I rushed downstairs still struggling to tie my shoelace. She was in the kitchen preparing something. I grabbed the first thing my eyes landed on as my lunch which was an apple and a bottle of orange juice and tossed it into my bag hurriedly.

“Alright” she simply said not even taking a glance at me making my eyebrows furrow in confusion

“What do you mean alright? You promised to drive me to school” I shot at her with knitted brows

“Oh did I? It must have skipped my mind” she answered her eyes fixed on whatever the hell she was doing

“Just take the bus, I can drive you tomorrow,” she said dismissively

“The bus? The fucking bus stop is thirty minutes from my damn school and slept because you promised to drive me to school” I hissed

“Language miss” she warned but I paid her no mind

“I'm quite busy right now. I will drive you tomorrow or tell the driver to drop you off” she said irritating me even more

“You said the same damn thing yesterday, why do you keep doing this to me?” I asked on the verge of tears

“I promised my husband breakfast, so I am busy,” she said happily

“Of course, your husband is more important than your child” I shot at her, she raised her eyes to meet mine finally and opened her mouth to speak but before she said anything I stormed out of the kitchen and out of the house slamming the door loudly behind me.

That is just how it’s always been between me and my mom. We don’t see eye to eye. Never really have. And as much as I love her because honestly, she’s the only family I got, she still manages to get under my skin every damn time. Today wasn’t any different.

Junior year started a few days ago and after barely surviving freshman year I decided this was going to be different for me, I was going to stay away from everyone's faces and be as invisible as I could be. And so far it has worked out well, I get to school pretty early and hide in the corner with my head buried in my desk speaking to no one.

But today I woke up pretty late and if I was taking the bus there was no way I would get to school as early as I wanted to, I would still be early but not the one where I could freely walk the hallway without having to have my eyes glued to the ground as I moved.

But now thanks to my mom I couldn’t say what was waiting for me in the four walls of Hawthorne Academy, the thought of skipping school crossed my mind. It was that bad.

All my life I have been picked on because of my size and have been bullied serially, it wasn’t something new to me, every time we moved to a different town I always had an inkling of hope that it would be different but it never was. When we moved this time I had the same hope and when my mother broke the news that my new stepfather got me admitted into Hawthorne Academy, I was over the moon everyone knew about the prestigious HTA where only the top one percent get admitted and somehow I was going to school there. I anticipated the change and had the hope that it was going to be different.

Not only was I dead wrong, it was worse, worse than I could have ever imagined. From the moment I stepped my foot into those gates it was hell after hell. I was bullied, mocked, embarrassed, and trampled on daily for the whole year I spent there. My life was basically a living hell but I didn’t dare quit or even get the courage to mention it. I kept telling myself to hold it in, and it was my ticket to get into the Ivy League university I have always wanted to attend all my life. That has somehow kept me going.

At first, it was just name calling and snickers whenever I walked through the halls and in class but somehow I bumped into Dylan Lennox spilling hot chocolate all over him and that had to be the worst day of my life, I tried to wipe the stain off with my hand and made him more anger that he emptied everyone’s drink on his table all over my head leaving me soaking wet as everyone laughed. I was somehow blacklisted just by that and everyone avoided me like a plague. No one spoke to me or sat close to me during classes or lunch, and Amelia Alistair the school queen bee took it upon herself to make my life more miserable. She and her minions poked and taunted me whenever she felt like it.

—-

As I got off the bus I took a deep breath before I began walking the rest of the way to school. With every step I took, the nerves in my stomach twisted even more. I could feel the anxiety crawling up my chest, making it hard to breathe right.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw different types of cars zoom past me, shiny, expensive, loud of different luxury brands. The closer I got to the school gate, the more my legs felt like jelly. My fingers were wrapped tightly around the handle of my backpack, and my palms were sweaty, sticky even. My heart was pounding, and I couldn’t bring myself to look up. I kept my eyes glued to the ground, counting cracks on the sidewalk and hoping that no one would notice me.