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— THE MORNING REESE WOKE up for her first day of school, the weather seemed to be on the same page as her. Over night, storm clouds had rolled in and seemed to be trying to drown the small town. The rain was slapping against her window loudly, the rumbles of thunder almost completely masked by the torrential downpour. Reese groaned and pressed her face into her pillow, trying to get at least a half an hour of sleep in before she had to get up. She had been lying in bed awake for a over three hours, not having been able to sleep since three in the morning. Ever since she was little, Reese had a hard time sleeping in a bed that wasn't her own. Sleepovers were always a nightmare, because she would cry that she wanted to go home. Well, guess what, she couldn't cry that she wanted to go home now — because there was nothing left — so she just had to suck it up.
Just when Reese's eyes began to flutter shut and her muscles started her relax into the soft sheets, the alarm sounded. She jolted up into a sitting position and slapped the snooze button, rubbing her eyes. Her eyelids were heavy from the lack of sleep, but Reese knew that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep anyway so she threw back her blankets and started getting ready for the day. There wasn't much to choose from what with half her clothes being ash back in Plymouth, so Reese plucked a pale green knit sweater that had once belonged to a girl she'd gone to school with and paired it with the black jeans she's been wearing the day her family perished — morbid, she knows. Reese strolled into her bathroom, using the brush Elizabeth had bought to untangle the knots that had formed over night from her tossing and turning and then brushed her teeth while simultaneously attempting to cover her under-eye bags. She didn't need her siblings — or her new classmates for that matter — knowing that she was struggling.
After she'd done the best she could, Reese snatched up her back pack from the floor and stuffed a couple notebooks and some pens inside. She pulled on the knee high rain boots Elizabeth had given her and the only jacket that she had left — it was thicker than she needed, but it was water proof. Reese pulled open her door her door with one hand while the other fished her package of cigarettes and purple lighter from her desk, and was surprised to see her aunt standing there with her arm raised as if she were about to knock.
