ACONITE ACADEMY (girlxgirlxgirl)

Chapter I; Ignore my beating heart

"Make my heart go crazy"
5

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⚠️ Alcohol, violence, blood, mentions of drugs and guns ⚠️

Genevieve is running, the cold winter air hitting her face harshly. There is numbness in her legs from overused adrenaline, and she feels both tired and energized at the same time. Her shoes are completely soaked in water from the puddles of mud and rainwater that coat the streets even during the driest times. On her back hangs a black bag, filled with beer, whiskey and a few other drinks that she didn't have time to check. With a clouded mind, she can still feel the cold object fastened against her thigh, close to her body, safe and sound.

She gets an urge to cough and puke at the same time, but the sirens in the distance keeps Genevieve running. It's not hard to shake off cops in this area of the city. Thousands of run down buildings that cast long and gloomy shadows over the streets are everywhere. Each road is narrow and dirty, but there aren't many dead ends. It's been designed like a maze, mostly to lure off the law. Although there's plenty of alleyways with trash and alcoholic bottles laying around, maybe some drunk guy laying in a corner.

Genevieve learned from a young age how to work these streets, when to turn and how to run fast. When the cops get a little further away, she slinks into a narrow alleyway and crouches behind a worn down dumpster. The sirens disappear slowly, and after awhile they give up and return to the fancier parts of the city. There is no use keeping the law here. The fourteen year old Genevieve stands up and dusts off her black pants, eyes gazing up at the sky. She can barely see anything. Even during daytime the smoke in the air is too thick to let any light through. The rich dump all their chemicals onto the poor, let them suffer in it while they live on.

She knows that she has to be home by dawn, before anyone can even suspect where she has gone. Maybe even catch up on some sleep before the homeschooling begins. The glass bottles in her bag clink slightly against each other as she walks, towards her friends. Sometimes Genevieve wonders if she should stop coming here, forget about her past and just live like the elite rich person she now is. She's tried doing that, multiple times. Many of her friends have suggested that she left them, lived on to catch that opportunity money can give. Live a normal, perfect life. Deep down Genevieve really wants to live that life, but she can't.

Maybe she had gotten adopted sooner, maybe if she didn't have any memories of this place.

At eight years old her dad disappeared, probably died. Genevieve has never bothered to find out what happened to him, it never really mattered. Her mother sent her to an orphanage, surprisingly an only child, while the rest of the orphans all had several siblings. By this point she had already lived her entire life in the poor neighborhood, never known anything else. She thought it was normal, thought that's how everyone lives. Stealing, picking locks, fights, screams, gunshots. After getting miraculously adopted at ten, she found out life wasn't normal like that. It didn't change anything, no matter how hard she tried. Genevieve could never get used to the rich life, never get used to the lessons and the mansions and the law abiding citizens. It just didn't make sense.

She found herself returning, back to the streets every night, where she had real friends and a real life. And now? At fourteen years old, sneaking through the streets with a bag filled with alcohol on her back and a tired smile on her face. Seven of her friends waiting by the abandoned building the orphans claimed as their hangout spot, right by the orphanage. The older kids do the stealing, the younger kids simply watch and learn until it's their turn. It's a little wrong, but it's always been like that, and Genevieve can't bring herself to leave it.