Emily

“Come on Emily, you’ve gotta wake up. You have to be at school in thirty minutes!”

I could faintly hear my mom’s voice from the other room over the sound of my alarm. My eyes felt puffy and tired and all I really wanted to do was stay under the warm covers and drift back to sleep. But I knew I couldn’t do that. So, reluctantly, I started to get out of bed. 

The morning sun filtering through my window made me squint as my eyes slowly adjusted to the increase in light. While trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes, I groggily reached over to my nightstand and turned off my alarm. I didn’t want to go to school but I knew I had to. So after getting out of bed I walked over to my closet and picked out clothes for the day: navy jeans, a pale blue t-shirt and my usual black leather jacket which was worn after so much use. I quickly slipped the clothes on and then darted down the hall to the bathroom. 

The reflection that greeted me in the mirror showed my violet-dyed hair in a rat’s nest, sticking out in many odd directions. I was unlucky when it came to having cooperative hair in the morning so it took me a solid eight minutes of tugging at knots that had formed in my sleep in order to fix it. After my hair was tamed and my makeup was done, I rushed down the stairs. 

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, my mom—who was in the kitchen—saw me and announced, “I made you breakfast. It’s right there on the counter,” while pointing at the end of the kitchen island. “Sorry I’m not able to make you lunch today, I’m almost late for work. Here’s some money for lunch at school” she said, handing me two, neatly folded ten dollar bills.

“S’okay mom. Thanks for breakfast” I replied, picking up the toasted bagel with cream cheese and then making my way to the front door. As I got to the door I stopped and turned back to my mom, “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I’ll be home a bit later today since I have an important club meeting” I said.

“Okay, what time do you think you’ll be home?”

“I’m not exactly sure but it’ll probably be sometime around 5:00 or 5:30pm I think”

“Alright, sounds good honey.” And then glancing at her watch, she said, “Oh gosh, you really have to get going or you’ll be late” and ushered me towards the door.

Picking up my school bag in the foyer I said “Alright, bye mom.” and stepped outside.

“Bye sweetie, I’ll see you later tonight!”

“Yup”

…

The walk from my house to my school was a relatively short stroll through the neighborhood. Today the weather outside was cold and cloudy, but it didn’t particularly feel like it was going to rain. There was a chilly breeze in the air that made me regret not bringing another jacket. 

Apartments lined the streets of my neighborhood. Most were small two-story complexes that had textured beige, white, or yellow walls with red tiled roofs. Many were also adorned with arch-shaped windows and modern style columns that added to the overall neo-mediterranean style of the buildings. 

Sidewalks were lined with numerous species of trees and plants. Bright orange poppies stubbornly grew in every garden they could find and eucalyptus and oak trees cast assuming shadows over the sidewalk. I loved the sound the wind made in the trees and turned an ear to listen.

As I was stepping over a section of the sidewalk that had been pushed up by tree roots, I heard the snap of a twig behind me. Turning around I glanced warily for what could have made the noise but nothing was there. In fact, I didn’t see a single soul on the entire street. 

Looking back at the snapped branch on the ground, I felt a bit uneasy. Unable to find any other answer, I convinced myself that I must have been mistaken. The twig was probably already broken like that, I told myself, I must have misheard. However even after turning back around and continuing my walk to school, an unsettling feeling still stuck with me. 

…

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It took me about ten minutes to get to school after leaving the house. Upon arriving at school, I was greeted by the familiar sight of the tall three-story school building, its facade painted with cream and deep red in blocky shapes giving it a contemporary look. A wide concrete pathway, lined on either side with patches of grass and small oak trees, ran up to the entrance of the structure.

I was arriving later than usual, so there were already many people roaming around outside the front doors. After weaving my way through the crowd, I reached the entrance of the school and walked inside.

The radiant red and cream-colored combination of colors seen on the facade outside continued in the halls on the inside. There were only small crowds of people in the halls at this time which was good; I wanted to get to my classroom before it got too crowded. I quickly put a few of my books in my locker and walked off to class.

My history classroom was fairly small but was still able to accommodate about twenty-five students. After passing through the doorway, I walked to my desk in the back corner of the classroom opposite the door. Dropping my bag on the empty desk next to my desk, I settled into my seat. I enjoyed this seat because it allowed me to sit in the corner and go relatively unnoticed by the rest of the class. I was not looking forward to when we would have to change seats again. 

The teacher was out of the room at the moment so I pulled out my laptop and notebook, intending to make some progress on some of my work that had piled up. 

Just as I’d written the first word of my notes for science, I heard a shout from across the room: 

“Hey look guys, it’s the purple-eyed freak!”

I looked up quickly and upon seeing the person who threw the insult, I immediately felt a twinge of annoyance. It was Victoria. 

I had known Victoria since elementary school. Everyone had always given her so much attention that the adoration and admiration of others seemed to have become uninteresting to her. Unfortunately for me, Victoria discovered that the fix for her boredom was messing with other people and that I was the perfect target because Victoria knew something that I couldn’t let anyone else find out. If people found out, they’d think I was a monster.

Flicking a lock of her straight, molasses colored hair over her shoulder, Victoria sauntered over to my desk and said “Are you seriously working on schoolwork right now? What a nerd! Class hasn’t even started yet.”

I tried to ignore her and continue with my notes, but this just prompted Victoria to grab my notebook off my desk. I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms, and let out a long sigh. 

“Is there anything I can do for you Victoria?”  I retorted, now very annoyed and barely trying to hide my passive aggressive tone.

“Yeah, you can give me your report for English. It was too annoying to actually write it but my parents won’t get me a car for my birthday if my grades get any worse so just hand it over.” Victoria said while reaching for my bag on the desk.

I had no patience for Victoria’s antics today. Feeling a ball of stress starting to form in my chest, I sighed again and said impulsively in a sharp tone, “Write your own report, it’s not that hard.”

Victoria looked slightly taken aback but then she schooled her expression, a vile smirk sliding onto her face.  

“Why would I do that? It’s so much easier to just take yours.” she said, laughing and continuing to reach for my bag on the desk. Again without thinking, I grabbed my bag off the table before Victoria could reach it and dropped it on the floor behind my desk.

Victoria again seemed shocked by my irascibility. Then she began to laugh a little, “Oho, feeling brave today huh?” Victoria took a step closer to the desk, taking on an air of intimidation that made me regret not complying. My jaw tensed and a knot wrenched in my stomach as I realized what was coming next. 

“Look, Emily, honey,” she said with a sickly sweet tone, “you already know how this goes if you don’t give me what I want. Hand over the report or I tell everyone about what happened seven years ago, about what you did seven years ago.”

I couldn’t argue. I really wanted to but Victoria knew about my biggest regret. 

Having my past used against me was infuriating, but I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t risk Victoria telling people about it so through clenched teeth I responded quietly, “fine.”

I got out my report and handed it to Victoria. 

“Thanks freak, I better get an A.” she said, finally returning my notebook and then starting towards the door, the rest of her posse snickering and following loyally behind her. 

After they had left, I put my head down on my desk in frustration and thought to myself, Seriously? She went that far just for an English paper? She’s horrible. 

Lifting my head, I put my hands on my face, covering my eyes. The day was only just beginning but I already felt like I wanted to cry.

⊲ 1.1 ⊳

1629 words