The Livingstones

Chapter One: Outcasts

New Year's Eve wasn't exactly Audrey's cup of tea. In fact, every evening of each year, she would long to curl up in her sheets and fall asleep with those aggravating fireworks exploding in the background.

She didn't mind the fireworks; she simply despised the resolution sheets given out at every New Year's Eve celebration in the discreet part of Ohio where she lived. The mayor of the small town had made his citizens write down their wishes and resolutions for the year. They were usually very excited about it, but Audrey knew they'd directly ditch that thought and forget about their yearly goals.

Every time she saw that tobacco-smelling piece of paper being passed around in her district, she'd just scrunch up her nose and squint at that one part of the paper she never actually managed to fill in.

Surname.

Usually, the pen in her hand would just hover up in mid-air, stopping just inches above the sheet of paper. Audrey never had a last name. And to all of you thinking that not having a last name is pretty great, you better hold that thought and throw it in the nearest dustbin.

Every year, Audrey would become reminiscent of the moment where everybody thought of her of an alien. An outcast.

"Hello, girlie. Why're you wanderin' so far off from your ma and pa?" a man she never knew had asked when she was just a 5-year old.

"Don't have a ma or pa, sir," she had said to him.

There had been an awkward silence between them. Yet, the man had carried on.

"What's your name?" he had asked.

"Audrey," she had mumbled.

"Audrey..." he had waited for her to continue, but the girl had stopped. There was nothing more to say. "What's your last name, Audrey?"

She had simmered in the thought before she'd said to him. "Don't have a last name, sir."

"Well, I'll be!" the man had muttered before he had clicked his tongue and walked off in another direction.

And from that day on, everyone relished in calling her "Nameless", young or old, big or small; they all enjoyed teasing her. She didn't mind.

Nobody actually thought much about Audrey; she wasn't ugly and she wasn't beautiful either. She was just your plain, old 16-year old. There wasn't anything special about her blue eyes and her hair was so mousy, it was almost grey. The shirts she wore was always two sizes too big and she struggled in sewing them into the perfect size. However, none of that made utter sense when she had started dating Cameron.

Cameron Stainsbury had been the greatest thing that had happened to Audrey. Similarly to her, he was also a Normie; nothing too distinctive, just bland. Nonetheless, Cameron still had a family (and a surname). The Stainburies had been disappointed in their only son when they realized he didn't want the life they had planned for him. It wasn't long until Cameron was alienated from his own family too.

"Mistake," he had told his girlfriend the name his sisters called him. Cameron didn't look crestfallen when he said this, but his eyes had spoken to Audrey and they told her that he just wished to feel wanted.

Audrey heard her stifled snorts escaping the hand that had muffled her paper-thin lips. She had been laughing, again, at the resolution sheet. It was as if every year, everyone's resolutions just got more ambitious.

"A pony," she examined the drawing thoroughly. "Keep dreamin', Lil Miss O'Harty."

Her overgrown bangs pricked her in the eye, but she had gotten so used to it, she barely felt them anymore. A stubby pair of hands buried her hazel-blue eyes in darkness.

Audrey stifled a small laugh. "Cammie, I can't see nothin'."

"Don't call me Cammie," he said whilst reluctantly pulling his hands away from her eyes.

Audrey smiled at him, a gap in between her front teeth. She slipped her arms below his pits and interlinked her hands behind his back. Cameron wrapped his sun-kissed arms on her shoulder-blades and leaned his head on her straw-like hair.

"I want this year to be over with," he muttered on her flaking scalp. "I hated this year. Heck, it was worse than last year."

"Do you have anything to say before another possible bad year?" Audrey asked hopefully.

Cameron pulled away from her and ran a hand through his auburn hair. Audrey knew he was going to say something, he just couldn't pull himself together to say it. Just like every other boy.

"Nothing, then?" Audrey cocked an eyebrow at him.

Cameron burst into stutters. "R-right. Noth-nothing."

"Right," Audrey echoed, resting the side of her face on Cameron's softly beating chest. Her expression immediately altered as a lumpy figure hobbled towards her.

"Ugh," groaned Cameron, sweeping back locks of fluffy brown hair.

Rory McFiddle, a burly boy with multiple red blotches of zits on his forehead, approached them, his dark eyes glittering with mischief.

"Care to get yerselves a room?" he scoffed, scratching his balding head.

Cameron scowled but Audrey was already tugging on the sleeve of his checkered shirt. She was used to Rory's taunts, but Cameron was taking his time to getting used to it.

Audrey tugged harder, "c'mon, Cameron."

"Y'know, there's a place called Loser's Point," Rory jeered, "maybe you should make out there."

Cameron clutched Audrey's hand and pushed it away from his own arm. He took a stagger towards Rory, a snarl playing on his lips. Rory stayed put, hands on his hips, awaiting something prepossesing to happen.

"I've got something to say to you," gnarled Cameron, baring his yellowish teeth.

"Yeah? Well, this ought'a be interestin'," he said bluntly.

Cameron's knuckles were white with fury and all his negative emotions of Rory McFiddle swirled inside of him like a raging sandstorm in the Sahara. Hearing Rory laugh was like plummeting into a hole called isolation. And Cameron didn't particularly indulge in being in that hole.

A single, angry punch was enough to make blood spatter from Rory's nose and make him topple backwards into lamp-pole, which crashed into the hazard area where the fireworks were supposed to be put into place by Mr. Orleans.

The wicks of the fireworks fizzled with fire as Rory clutched his bleeding nose painstakingly. Out of place, the fireworks whizzed around the place creating chaos everywhere they exploded. One chased a gangle of schoolgirls around the place and some others blew their fiery sparks on the stage where the mayor was making a speech. His daughter screeched as ashes rained down on her, tainting her dress.

Audrey gulped. This was definitely the worst New Year's celebration of the century.