Human

2.

                  

My morning alarm was an extremely unwelcomed interruption to my sweet sleep.

At least when I am sleeping I can be someplace other than here in this house, in this town. At least asleep I don't have to feel this weight on my chest that I've been carrying since the moment I found out my brother was gone. I'm not sure how people get through this. Does the pain go away eventually? Or am I just supposed to wait until it just feels normal to be in pain?

I unlock my phone, silencing the evil little demon, then reluctantly get out of bed. Today is my first day at SHS. Woohoo. Go tigers, or bears, or what the flip ever this school's mascot is. I honestly couldn't care less. I probably attended a total of two whole football games at my old school, and that had only been because it was homecoming. I pulled on my trusty white denim skinny jeans and yanked a blue satin quarter-length-sleeve shirt over my head.  I opened my closet searching for the box that would have all of my shoes in it. I was happy that my box of converses happened to be the first box I popped open. I pulled out the blue high-tops and laced them up and headed for the bathroom.

I'm usually pretty easy to get ready. I don't care all that much, so that makes the process much shorter than other girls. Sometimes I don't even bother putting make-up on, or even brushing my hair. That's why god made beanies after all. Today though, I should at least pretend to give a crap. I pulled my hair-tie from my hair, letting the bun fall out and then turned my head over and shook out my sandy brown hair. I flipped it back up and let it fall in big, loose, waves around my shoulders. I sprayed some dry shampoo into the roots then applied some hairspray. I wasn't really feeling the make-up today but I put on some black eye-liner and a matte lipstick anyway.

As I walked down the stairs I could already hear my mother and father bickering. They seriously didn't even make it a day. "Cadence honey." My mom called in an overly chipper voice for 7 in the morning. "There is breakfast in here for you."

"I'll pass on the burnt toast mom, I'm late for school." I yelled back as I made a beeline for the front door. I wasn't even almost late, but I could not risk one of them thinking they should drive me to school. I would rather walk any day than to be stuck in a small space with them again. Yesterday was more than enough mom and dad time for this girl for a long while.

The walk to school took less than 10 minutes. I don't really mind school. Maybe I'm a nerd or whatever, but I make good grades, and I enjoy studying and learning new things. I've been an honor roll student since kindergarten, so I'm not overly worried about the school time itself. What I don't like is the people. I hate getting caught up in drama and pathetic little teenager junk. My friends back home used to call me mom sometimes because I get so annoyed by teens even though I am only 17 myself.

I walk up the front steps of the school and look around for a main office. I follow the signs down the sidewalk until I find a tiny little building boasting a proud 'SHS Offices' sign over the door. The door creaks loudly as I open it and I look around to see that the room is really no more than a glorified closet. There are two desks with fat little women sitting at them and a wall of file cabinets. Aside from that there is only about a half dozen inspirational quote posters littering the walls. I toyed with the idea of asking one of the women how they can stand to be cooped up in this room all day and not go skeeballs crazy but I decide against it. "Hi, I am Cadence James." I announced myself looking between the two women to see which one I should be going to.

The little round white headed woman on the left perks up in her chair. "Oh goody, our new student." She smiles warmly at me and I walk over to her. "We are just so excited to have you here Ms. James. It's not very often that we get transfers, especially not from all the way in California." She gushed. "How are you liking Swanford so far? Isn't it just the quaintest little place?"