devotion

the worst town in america

As the car rolled to a stop, Scarlett couldn't help but recall the few interesting things she had actually seen on the drive through the town she was supposed to now call home. There was the large park, a half build carnival, and a no kill dog shelter. And that was It. That was the most exciting things Scarlett could recall of the town she would now have to call home. Her mom opened the door and stepped out of the car without a word. She dug through her purse as she walked up the walkway to the porch, her expression blank. She turned around and met her daughters gaze.

"Take Sammy out of his car seat please, Scar. The movers already put the boxes and furniture inside but he needs some sleep so just set him up on the couch." Her mom told her then, without another word, walked into the house and audibly shut her new bedroom's door.

Scarlett grabbed her bag and did as her mom asked. After putting Sammy down, she rolled out her sleeping bag, set her alarm and did her best to fall asleep as quick as possible.

The sound of an alarm sounded piercing at 7 in the morning. Jesus Christ. She thought to herself. Sammy was still sound asleep so she did her best to make her way over to the box marked "S's clothes" and picked out a white cropped t shirt and her gingham print overall dress. After she was changed, she slipped on her chunky white tennis shoes, and grabbed her purse and notebook. Scarlett started her walk down her new street causally, she was in absolutely no rush to make the first step into starting this new life.

At her high school back home she was well liked, she had an amicable breakup with the star quarterback, Paxton, the year before and had been celebrating her single life with the guys at the college in her old town. Scarlett never really had one specific best friend, she had friends in all different cliques in her high school but besides Cody, a boy she had grown up next door from, there was no one she cared to hang out with much outside of school. The thing about Cody though was after her "amicable breakup", her single phase may have led to a not-so-fun hookup after a drunken night and It ended up that Cody was more excited that he had lost his virginity to a girl then who the girl was. Shortly after Scarlett had de-virginized him, he entered a long term relationship with a girl that Scarlett would describe as ... well... a raging bitch.

She continued her walk towards school and tried her best to recall the route she had studied on the ride last night. She took a left down Bay Street and shortly after started looking around at her surroundings. She quickly realized the town was dead, like not a soul in sight.

Well, except for the one person sat outside a convenient store. It was a guy with a buzz cut and beard sitting very oddly in an old lawn chair near the entrance. Scarlett could feel him staring at her as she got closer to the convenient store and when she met his gaze she realized he wasn't checking her out but instead looking very suspicious of her. When she met his gaze he gave her a slight head nod and in the most awkward possible way she lifted her hand and gave him a wave.

By the time Scarlett had made It to the entrance of her new school she was wondering what shitty karma she had released into the universe to deserve this. The school looked like a prison from the outside and once she stepped into the office of the school she realized It felt like one too. The woman at the front desk gave her her schedule and told her how to get to her first class. It was chemistry. The worst possible subject to start your day off with. Scarlett gave her schedule to her teacher to sign off on and took the empty seat in the back next to the girl with white blond hair and a neon pink dress.

"Hi, Im Jules" the girl smiled.

"Scarlett."

"You must be new here, right?" She asked.

"Yep. How could you tell?" Scarlett whispered.

"Cause I've been here all of four weeks and I already know who everyone in this small ass town is."
Scarlett liked Jules already. They spent the rest of class talking quietly to each other and everything was going great until Jules asked the question that Scarlett, for some reason, thought would never be asked.

"So, why'd you move here?"

The question made Scarlett's heart pound and she suddenly felt like she couldn't breath. So, as a response, she gave a firm shake of the head. Jules didn't push It though, she just nodded her head back as if she understood why that question might have triggered such a reaction from Scarlett.

By the time lunch rolled around Jules sent a text saying that she would be outside at a picnic table If Scarlett wanted to eat with her. When Scarlett approached the table another girl was sitting with Jules . She had dark brown hair and sat with a slouch and her hoodie up but Scarlett couldn't help but notice how gorgeous she actually was. They were laughing with each other as Jules tossed a fry at the girls face.

"Rue, this was the girl I was telling you about. This is Scarlett. And it's her first day here." Jules told her.
"Rue" the girl nodded her head and reached her hand over the table .

"Scarlett." She responded, shaking her hand.
The girls quickly all got along and ended up laughing throughout lunch and rue exchanged numbers with Scarlett. They told her all about the summer in what Jules called "the worst town in America". Rue's stories only seemed to be ones that involved Jules in the last couple weeks and she didn't seem to talk at all about May through early July.

"If you guys are down, there's a party going on tonight and Im going." The girls agreed they would meet at the end of Scarlett's street at 8:30pm and Scarlett told them she would bring the last of the vodka she had that was stored in a water bottle in the box in her bathroom as a gift of gratitude. The girls promise of a fun night gave Scarlett hope that maybe "the worst town in America" would be a little better than she expected.