Run Away Teen

Chapter One: Should've Cleaned Out My Bag

My pale fingers run themselves down the crinkled old newspaper and up again, my grey-blue eyes devouring the article, though I’ve read it a million times already over the last 9 years. The picture is vivid, and violent enough to make my heart break into pieces, and to cause tears to run down my face.

 “Everleigh Castalia Gabbard!” a voice shrieks furiously and I freeze, the ancient newspaper freeing itself from my hands and floating to the ground.

 I stuff it under my blue and white zebra print rug with my foot, and wipe my wet eyes to appear happy...well, as happy as I can be considering the circumstances. Loud, heavy footsteps stomp across the wooden floorboards of the hallway, before reaching my white door.

 “Everleigh. Open, up,” mum pants angrily and I pull the handle tenderly to expose a tomato-red-faced mum, holding a piece of pink paper.

 “What’s this?” she asks, and I face palm myself mentally.

 She went through my school bag again! I knew that I should’ve moved the note!

 “A...note?” I try hesitantly and mum laughs, a mean, unfriendly laugh.

 “From the PRINCIPAL?” she shouts rhetorically, so loud that my elder sister, with her earphones in and her music blasting, comes out of her door. She takes one look at mum and myself before closing the door again.

 “Don’t remember? Let me refresh your memory!” mum taunts, clearing her throat. “To the parents of Everleigh Gabbard. We are writing to inform you, da da da da da, blah blah,” she reads clearly, skipping the unneeded information.

 “Aah! Here we go! Miss Gabbard is hereby and hereforth kicked out of P.E and Drama lessons at Alarise High. Sincerely, Lucy Ross."

 I look at the chipped blue paint on my toenails, and feel mum’s poker-hot eyes glaring at me.

 “Anything to say? No? Well, I do. Grounded!” she declares, before storming away.

 My sister’s door opens up again, and she takes her earphones out of her ears.

 “Woah. What was that about?” Primavera asks.

 I pick up the pink paper mum dropped and shove it at Primavera’s hands.

 “Read it yourself,” I mumble.

 “Hereby and hereforth KICKED OUT OF P.E AND DRAMA!” she shouts the last bit. “Wow! How’d you do that?” she cries. “I’ve been trying to get out of P.E since I started school!”

 “Alarise assumes that all students love those two subjects, so they threatened to boot me out of them  if my science grades didn’t improve,” I shrug, and my sister laughs and shakes her head, her dark curls flying around her like a halo.

 She shoves her earphones back in and heads into her gorgeous bedroom, closing the door softly. I step into my own home magazine, front page worthy, room, and reach under the rug for the newspaper, placing it in the box where I keep everything that means something to me. My old phone, so old it’s not even a smartphone, rings, and I pick it up.

 “Hello, Everleigh Gabbard speaking. What would you like on your pizza?” I greet whoever it is.

 “Hey Evs! I’ll just get a hawaiian please!” my best friend, Alise, who is used to my strange ways of answering the phone, laughs.

 “So, what’s up?” I ask, sitting down on my bed.

 “Not much. I’m just sooo booored!” she moans, “I’m supposed to be tidying my room, but cleaning’s so boooring, so I called you instead!”