All the dark places in me.

Chapter 3 Alaska Freeman

8 years after

School was always a bore, I usually found myself following the clock hands, waiting for the words that meant freedom in my case 'you may leave now.' As much as a relief they were to me they were also a sorry reminder that I was never leaving this town with dad the way he was. After mum died I dismissed all my dreams before dad could shatter them right before me, it was my way of trying to make life hurt less.

I walked out of class dragging my feet; I was in a particularly bad mood that day after dad's drug buddies kept me up all night with their constant shouting and drunk laughing. The school playground wasn't very big; it consisted of about a 5m x 5m netball court and a field too mud laced to go on.

I heard someone calling my name from the benches near the class rooms, the only good place to eat in school; I turned to see Emily making her way towards me. Emily, like me now, lived in the rougher parts of our town and so did most the people at my school. Emily wore a white t-shirt, unbuttoned all the way down to the top of her breasts, a short pencil skirt that came to an end half way up her thighs and a tie that lay open around her neck which belonged to her boyfriend Todd.

We found it funny sometimes how different we were from each other but yet we were still friends, Emily had gotten me out of a lot of nasty fights in our neighbourhood and I had managed to talk police officers out of arresting her, we had a business sort of relationship but it worked for us.

"Hi ya, bae," Emily said as she grabbed my hand and started pulling me to our lunch table. Lunch tables were a funny thing in our school if you didn't make claim on one at the beginning of the year you wouldn't get to sit on one all year, I'd learnt that the hard way with a year of eating in our small cramped school hall filled with the smell of sick and rotten meat. "How was maths?" asked Emily walking fast dragging me behind "It was Mental Abuse To Humans as always," I laughed which earned me a snigger from Emily. As our table came into sight Emily stopped and turned to face me "do I look alright?" she asked, trying to look her 'best' for Todd, I eyed her up and down, personally for me she looked too plastic and slutty  but I knew Todd would like that so I just nodded and gave her a smile.

Our lunch table had its usual gang on it Todd and his boys and their girlfriends. I usually felt a bit lost at our lunch table as everyone had a boyfriend or girlfriend where as I did not and it wasn't like I could talk about anything that mattered at our table as I was smarter than all of them put together.

Then our usual lunch time routine would start Todd would whisper to his friend before talking to Emily, or at least her breasts, the boys would try to make conversation with me which got them a dirty look from their girlfriends, the boys would start to kiss their girlfriends and make dirty talk with each other while I would try to keep my lunch down.

"later, Babe," said Todd to Emily "you still coming to mine tonight? Before the party?" he asked, Emily hesitated "don't worry it ent a school night," he added "course I'm coming Babe and so is Alaska, coming to the party we're picking her up at ten, see ya later," that was news to me but oh well, they kissed goodbye and went off to class or the pub, which ever appealed to them the most. I walked to class with Emily "what party?" I asked "it's my cousin, Britt from Apple academy her parents are out of town so it's party time, I'll pick you up at ten," Emily replied and scurried into class before I could object.

I would then daydream through one more of my classes before it came to the last class of the day which happened to be my favourite, English. Most people sat and spoke about rubbish in our lessons thanks to our English teacher who looked like he'd like to be anywhere but there. Every lesson he would always announce 'that today we would be doing creative writing' which pleased me, I wanted to be an author before my mother died but I knew that was never going to happen now. I'd kept my head down for an hour, in my own world of words as they made their way onto the paper in my loopy hand writing.

Then class would finish and Todd and Emily would be waiting for me by the bus stop, if they weren't drunk or high already. We would wait for the bus, which was always late; I'd get a few conversations out of Todd and Emily between their constant kissing, which in my opinion they shouldn't be doing in public. I'd talk to Emily till her and Todd got off at his stop and I was left alone with the thought of what I would find when I got home.