Authors note: If you're looking for a story to get off to you're probably in the wrong place. I'm starting by building up the characters and seeing where I want it to go. Hope you enjoy it!
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"Good morning and welcome back everyone." My Homeroom teacher Mr. Kelber put down a stack of papers on his desk, I assumed it was our schedules.
"You've been here for 3 years, you know the deal by now. When your name is called come grab your schedule and locker number. I don't care what you do after that just don't get me into trouble. Jason Andrews."
I got up from the back of the class and walked up.
"You're out of here by noon every day. You must really hate this place Jason." He chuckled.
I shrugged, he wasn't wrong but I didn't really feel like talking with a strong hangover from last night.
"Locker 294-A, that's the top one." Kelber handed me my schedule and a lock.
I nodded.
"The school year just started and you're already a mess Andrews. Some things never change huh?"
I shrugged again. I didn't really care what anyone thought of me even if they were right. I walked to the back, picked up my backpack and jacket and went to my locker.
I should probably introduce myself. My names Jason Andrews, I'm 18, a senior at Woodrow Wilson High in the middle of Pennsylvania. I'm 5'5''. White and 120 pounds, no real muscle anywhere, Black short hair, green eyes, overall I'm a pretty average looking kid. Today I'm wearing a generic red hoodie, tight black shirt and some black jeans.
That's where the average ends however because I'm actually a gigantic mess personality wise, as if the hangover didn't already hint to it. I was bullied a lot when I was younger to the point where I would break down alot. Nobody was looking to be friends with me either with the bullying and psychotic episodes so I found myself alone a lot when I was younger. It didn't help that my parents were never home thanks to their business and I would find myself crying myself to sleep alone more often than not.
With such a shitty childhood I had to find a way to cope obviously. Thankfully (or unfortunately as it may be), my father despite his lack of presence in the house liked to keep his liquor cabinet stocked and there was always a carton of menthol cigarettes somewhere from whatever country my parents had just flow out of. It doesn't take a genius to figure out how to smoke and drink, especially in the days of the internet; so between the availability and the need to cope I began a rather unhealthy lifestyle at the beginning of 8th grade.
High school is where it got better I suppose. By the end of middle school I had picked up the reputation of being a smoker and drinker. This led my former bullies and tormentors to try and befriend me with my access to beer and such. Now you would think I would accept all these new people are friends with open arms and my life would be better for it. I told everyone to fuck off. If they didn't want to be my friend at my worst I sure as hell didn't want their company now. I suppose it was a result of being forced to cope with my problems when I was younger by shutting myself off from the world and thinking I needed to keep the same mentality. This trend continued into my freshman year of high school. I even evolved into a bully of sorts myself, making innocent white girls cry for no reason other than I wanted to. Eventually my reputation turned into an unstable asshole that you didn't mess with because it never ended well for you. The high school had me in the counselor's office at least once a day to "talk out my problems". It was cute how they decided to care now that I was one causing trouble instead of being the victim of it.
I threw my bag and coat into my locket slammed it shut and pulled out my pack of cigarettes as I headed for the door. I knew exactly where I could get away with smoking in this school, today was going to be an old dirt path kids used to use to get home in like the 90's. It's no longer used because there's an easier path after they knocked down a bunch of trees to make room for condos a couple years ago. I pushed the door open making sure nobody was trying to follow me and walked towards the path.
"JASON ANDREWS STOP RIGHT THERE!"
I froze, thinking I was already in trouble on day 1. I rolled my eyes and turned around only to find my friend laughing her ass off as she came running towards me.
"Jenna you're such a bitch I hate you so much."
"Same hun." She kissed me on the cheek and squeezed me. "Give me a cigarette I ran out this morning."
I met Jenna Peterson in sophomore year, I was smoking on my way to school and she came up on my side and asked to bum one. I handed her the rest of my pack and told her to leave me alone. This was her cue to tell me her life story apparently, how she had just moved to town from Cali, everyone was boring and she heard about my reputation and wanted to get to know me. Naturally I told her to fuck off again. Jenna wouldn't give up so easily however and bothered me about anything and everything to and from school. Eventually I gave in and started explaining my entire childhood to her, expecting her to run like everyone else did when they find out about me. She didn't budge however and quickly became the person I talked to about everything. I'm glad she didn't run away like everyone else; that someone in the world cared about my stupid ass. She didn't want anything out of my except being me...ok that's not completely true sometimes she would have me bully some bitch who called her out on being weird on occasion, but I gladly obliged as she was really the only person who ever worried about me on a personal level.
"I gave you a pack on Sunday, how did you smoke an entire pack in 3 days?"
"Yeah I need to talk to you about something, now give me a cig and let's go we have like 20 minutes before class."
I immediately stopped. "Tell me right now."
She pouted and did her best impression of being innocent. Jenna honestly was really hot.18, 5' 1", short natural platinum blonde hair, clear brown eyes, double D's, tight body from going to the gym. She chose to wear tight blue jeans and the school hoodie, zipped up to her chest so her low cut shirt could hang out. If I was into girls I'd be all over that. That wasn't our relationship however and we both knew it so it wasn't that big of a deal.
"Come on Jenna you know how much I hate not being told things up front."
"Well..."
"Just spit it out I've only ever been mad at you when you kept secrets from me."
"Fine I'm dating someone on the soccer team."
"Why in the fucking world would I care about that?" I threw my arms up utterly confused why she wasn't just telling me everything at once.
She took a deep breath. "Now don't be mad..."
"I'm mad that I'm standing here waiting for some irrelevant news when I could be smoking."
"Mark Houston."
My eyes opened wide.
"Yeah... see this is what I was afraid of."
I regained my composure and moved forward. "It's fine as long as he doesn't hurt you or come anywhere near me."
"Jason I've been dating him for a few weeks now and I didn't know how to tell you." She caught up to me. "He knows what he did to you when you guys were young was wrong and he feels really guilty about it..."
"MY ASS HE DOES. L O L JENNA YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME" We were finally out of sight of the school so I lit my cigarette and tossed her the pack.
"Jason..." she touched my arm with her unoccupied hand trying to comfort me.
"Jenna stop. It's fine that you're dating the guy that sent me into psychotic fits in school. I'm being completely serious too don't feel guilty about it. That doesn't change my opinion of him however and I will never forgive him for what he did to me."
She took a drag and sighed. "It's just shitty is all."
"Life's shit then you die."
"Always the positive one."
"Piss off bitch."
"Ok hun, thanks for taking the news better than I thought you would. Meet you here for lunch?"
"Yeah sure, just don't bring any unwanted guests." I glared at her making sure it was perfectly clear I didn't want that meathead anywhere near me.
"Alright no problem." She came over and hugged me again. "Need anything just text me."
She waved goodbye and she ran back to school. It wasn't a secret she was running to catch her boyfriend before class and I made sure when she looked back at me that I wasn't angry. That all changed as soon as she was out of sight and in the building.
"GOD FUCKING DAMNIT." I'm pretty sure kids on the other side of the school could heard me shouting. "ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?" I punched a tree while smoking another cigarette. I could never forgive what Houston did to me but it wasn't fair to Jenna to tell her who she can and can't date so my life just gets shittier.
I threw away my cig and walked back to my locker to look at my schedule. First period was English with Ms. Cantera, a nice way to start my day. I sprayed some body spray on myself to mask the tobacco and walked to room 205.
"Jason why are you late? It's the first day for crying out loud."
"Problems." I was still clearly hung over as I talked to my English teacher of 4 years.
She sighed knowing talking about it any further would be a waste of her time. "Row 3 seat 5. Please be quick so I can talk about the upcoming year."
I wandered over to my seat and put my head down. I didn't really care what she had to say about the upcoming school year, I would get the minimum work done for a C and that was that. I didn't care enough about high school, my parents were loaded and I could get into any college I wanted if they threw enough money the college's way. This was all just filler.
"Hey Andrews."
I turned my head and there was stupid Houston. "Piss off Jenna told me and I want nothing to do with you."
"Come on man it's pretty serious between us and I need to clear the air with you."
"Fuck off."
"Just give me 5 minutes I swear that's all I want."
"FUCK OFF OK?"
"Jason and Mark is there anything you want to share with the rest of the class?"
Houston turned his head away shutting up.
"Yes Judy, Mark over here wants to apologize to me for tormenting me throughout middle school and going as far as to put me into suicide watch a couple of times!" I loudly proclaimed to the rest of the class.
"Jason you know better to not call me by my first name and you definitely know that isn't the place or time for something like that. Disrespect me again and we can have a nice conversation together after school today."
"Sorry Ms. Cantera..." Houston mumbled
I just smiled at her and moved my hand to signal to continue whatever she was going on about. She knew I was more or less a lost cause so she left me alone as long as I did my work.
The class went by rather quickly as it was your usual first day nonsense. I wouldn't have even been in class if it was any other teacher but I knew she would have called the vice principal immediately if I didn't show up.
When the bell rang I was the first one up and B-lined for the door only to be grabbed by Houston. Persistent piece of shit, he clearly had a hidden motive as he had well over 5 years to apologize for being a terror. I assumed it had to do with Jenna.
