Chasing Dylan

Chapter One

I could vaguely hear the alarm I set last night ringing, but I refused to get up. I had gone to bed around 4am and it was already 7 in the morning. This is what I get for staying up all night to read. Begrudgingly, I finally lifted my head from my pillow and turned off my alarm.
Being the prepared person that I am, I had already taken out my outfit the night before. Today was the first day of my senior year, and I decided to make an effort.

I headed to my bathroom, which was attached to my room. I stepped into the tub preparing to take a nice hot shower, and to my surprise, the water was ice cold. There were only three other people at home, there was no way they finished all the hot water before 8 am. I quick scrubbed my skin with my milk and honey body wash, washed my hair in record time, and quickly rinsed off.

I stared in the mirror for a few minutes before grabbing my towel, and analyzed myself in the mirror.

I started with my light brown skin, which I inherited from both of my parents. I was glad to see the the acne on my forehead had cleared up over the summer, but still, there were so many flaws.

My eyes were too big, my lips were too plump, my breast were too small, and I was way too tall. Standing at 5'10", I had to have been the tallest girl in my class. Still staring, I looked up at the one thing I actually loved about myself; my hair. Long wet curls cascading down my back, it instantly reminded me of my mom.
Thinking of her, I found myself smiling in the mirror, which snapped me out of my self criticizing haze.

Quickly stepping back into my bedroom, I looked  up at the clock and realized that I only had 30 minutes to get to school. I hurriedly got dressed, and put some curl activator in my hair to give it more definition as it air dried. Once I was dressed, I went over to my vanity, and applied a light layer of mascara and lipgloss.

"I look good, I think." I whispered to myself.

I grabbed my phone, car keys, and book bag, and went down the long spiral stairs that took me straight to the front door.

"Enjoy your shower?" I heard, just before making my leave.

I turned into the dining room, where I found my five months pregnant step-mother Eliza sitting and drinking a smoothie. Her platinum blonde hair was already curled to perfection, whilst having a full face of makeup on as if she had somewhere to be.

"It was perfectly fine." I said, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of almost ruining my morning with her childish antics.

"Hmm, well good for you. Anyway, twins already left. I told them not to wait for you, I figured you'd be late trying to tame that nappy hair." She said with a laugh.

I huffed and rolled my eyes as I headed to the door. This woman would say anything to bring me down. I loved my curls and there was nothing she could say to make me think otherwise.

I quickly raced to my car, that was conveniently parked directly in front of my house; seeing as the twins and their mother parked their cars in our garage leaving no room for mine.

Looking down at my phone, I saw that I had 15 minutes before I was late. Luckily for me, my school was only a 7 minute drive from home.

Once I found a parking spot, I hopped out of my car and straight into the sea of students that were greeting each other in the senior parking lot. Walking through the crowd, it was very clear to see that I was the odd one out. Not only was I the tallest girl, I was also the only black girl in the senior class.