Mine // Carl Gallagher

Chapter 4

Sophia's alarm (the sound of her parents fighting again) woke her up right on time to get up for school. She didn't want to get out of bed, but she had to since she did in fact not want to spend another minute in that house. Anxiety flooded her mind as she put on her clothes and got ready. All she could think about was, "What if I can't make any friends? What if I get bullied? What if my teachers don't like me? What if I get lost?" What if, what if, what if... There were endless possibilities of what could go wrong that day. Once she was finished getting ready, she grabbed her backpack and went downstairs. Her mother was currently yelling at her father for burning the eggs: "Byron! We can't afford food and the one time that we actually have it, you fucking burn it! You're so stupid! Ugh!" He was just standing there desperately trying to somehow un-burn the eggs but he couldn't, so he just tossed them down the trash. Another morning without any breakfast. Sophia spoke up, "Um, I'm gonna go now. Bye." They didn't say anything in response and just continued to yell at one another. Sophia walked out the front door and walked to school.
She looked around the campus and it looked absolutely crazy. A majority of the students looked like they were on all sorts of drugs. It was scary, she wasn't used to this type of environment. Luckily there were some normal looking people there, too. She kept her head down to avoid eye contact with anyone as she walked to Geometry. Sophia walked into the crowded classroom and noticed that there was only one desk left in the middle of the room, so she had to sit there. She fiddled with her pencil as her teacher stood at the front of the classroom talking about rules and expectations. Suddenly, she felt someone kick her desk. She turned around and met eyes with Carl. Him again. She just couldn't escape him, she's seen him three different times in two days. He had a cocky smirk on his face and whispered mockingly, "Miss me?" Sophia shot him a glare and turned back around to face the front of the room. For some reason she was a little mad at him now. He did save her from those thugs, but he also broke into her house and threatened her with a gun. She didn't know how to feel, but she figured it was better to be mad than be attracted to a guy like him.
Class soon ended and she picked up her things then walked straight out of the room, trying to avoid him. She quickly walked down the crowded hall to History but she was stopped when she tripped over her shoelace. She squeezed her eyes shut, expecting to fall face first, but someone grabbed her arm and pulled her back up. Sophia slowly opened one eye then opened both of them when she saw it was Carl who kept her from totally wiping out in front of everyone. He chuckled when he noticed how embarassed she was, "Damn, how many times do I have to save you?" She decided to be sassy back, "Damn, how do you always just happen to be there when I need saving?" Carl then let out a genuine laugh when she said that, "I actually have no idea. Fate, I guess?" What was that suppose to mean? He walked by her side as she continued walking to class, "Okay, so we totally got off on the wrong foot. I'm not one to apologize for my actions or make amends with people, but you seem cool so let's start over. I'm Carl and I'm 16. This is all such a coincidence, am I right?" Sophia decided to let it all go and thought it would be a good idea to start over, too. How bad could he really be? "Yeah you're right. I'm Sophia and I'm 16, too." He nodded in approval and curiosity got the best of her as she blurted out, "I have so many questions, I'm so sorry. But why do those gang guys treat you like you're their boss? They seem a lot scarier than you so like why are you the one in charge? Also, why do you have cornrows if you're white? And why were you running from the cops?" Carl looked over at Sophia and smirked. What was he smirking about? Carl responded, "I'll tell you if you ditch the rest of the day with me." Sophia shook her head, "No way, it's the first day of school. Please just tell me now, it's killing me." He sighed, "Nope," then walked off to his class.