I Can See the Stars

Chapter One

I looked at the note on the kitchen counter. The one that my mother leaves me every morning while she is getting ready for work.

Frankie! I am at work. . . again. There is leftover pizza in the fridge from last night's dinner that you can eat tonight and I will be home around ten o'clock. The Williams are taking you home from your soccer game so make sure to stay with Coralline.
Love you
-Mom

    This note made me look over at our bookshelf. Or, more specifically, the lack of photos on it. Mom always got this way around Halloween. Apparently, it was my brothers favorite holiday. After he died, my mother wiped every and all traces of him from our trailer. I have no clue what he looks like. Matthew died in a car crash three years ago. I was in the car as well. I did not die but I was in a coma for two months and lost all of my memory.

This was the fifth time this month that my mom would just work for thirteen hours straight. Leaving me with leftover, five-dollar pizza.

There was one memory that I remembered while I was still in the hospital. It was a useless memory that had nothing to do with my brother. I don't ever think about it.

I walk over to the living room and start to pack my messenger bag for school. I put in my plethora of yellow binders, one for Math, one for English, one for History, one for Spanish, and two for Art. I also put in my sketchbook because I know I am going to use it during lunch.

Before I walk out the door, I check myself in the bathroom mirror. My hair is brushed (kind of) and sort of tamed. The light makeup that I put on wasn't smudged. Matthew's varsity basketball jacket is covering my long-sleeved shirt. My sweatpants do not have any cat hair—that I can see— on them. I think that I look ready. I slip on my high tops and walk out of the door.

I walk into homeroom and find my regular seat in the back. I like to sit in the back because freshmen kids are crazy. I am a freshman but I know my place. All of the other kids are rowdy and think that they are so mature for finally being in high school. . . So they act like Kindergarteners. My motto for the school is: stay out of the way and get the work done.
Mackenzie Hawthorne is talking with her three "best friends" (they are so fake), Jasmine Almanza and Francesca Brenner. They are the almighty trio, the Heathers of my school. Literally. (The only thing that is different is that Jasmine and Francesco basically worship Mackenzie.) Francesca is the most beautiful and has all of the boys drooling over her, but in my opinion, she isn't any prettier than other girls. Jasmine is the best Flyer on the cheerleading squad and wants to be captain, she is already dating the Running Back of our football team, Jake White. And then there's Mackenzie: she is very popular and goes on a date with a new guy almost every week. There was a rumor that she had to get an abortion one time, but I do not believe in or like rumors. (Mackenzie never confirmed or denied it so I really have no clue what is true.) Their skimpy clothing is covered by the backs of the chairs so from my point of view they look naked. Their cake faces are moving at hyper speed as they try to get out as much information about their "hot" date they had on Saturday.

I glance over at Zachary Hendrix and his squad of computer nerds. They all have their headphones on and playing on their phones. Two of them are playing a trading card game. I see Ethan Perryman looking at Jasmine. He doesn't have a chance. The computer nerds know to stay away from Mackenzie and her handmaidens. The last time that one of them got close to Mackenzie, she got a football player named Jason Fortenberry, to spray paint his locker, drawing very vulgar images and calling him a creep. Poor Harley McCarter.

I grab my notebook out of my bag and start sketching a random person. I usually start sketching and it comes out as a person in the room. I have drawings of Mackenzie. . . I hate them but they look good (not because they were of Mackenzie) so I kept them.