|♡| ASHLYN'S P.O.V. |♡|
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"Mom! Dad!" I scream at the top of my lungs as I see our car topple of the cliff.
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I wake up with a start and by God's grace I'm still in the guest room of my aunt Katie's house.
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As to the question of why I'm living with my aunt, well, the answer is pretty much that I am an orphan now and my parents died because of a freak car accident in which they fell off a cliff to save me as a result of which I am still inhaling oxygen today.
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That's it?
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Yeah, that's it.
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Tomorrow is my first day of school in Boston and I am seriously hyperventilating at that thought.
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I ask myself to calm down and I do. I pull my comforter up to my chin and force my eyes shut only to be woken up by a deafening sound. And only one thing in the whole world is capable if making that sound.
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And that is my alarm.
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CRAP!
CRAP!
CRAP!
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This is the day I was scared of. Not scared actually, more of that I wanted to avoid this day. Not avoid because of bullies and other things like that. I can handle them pretty well. It was more because of the presence of my cousin sister at school where she is going to leave no chances to make my life vulnerable.
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I open my closet and lay down the outfit I chose for today- a pair of light-blue ripped jeans and a plain blue tank top paired with ankle length boots.
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If you expected me to be one of those dumb, girly girls wearing frilly knee-length dresses with floral patterns along with some wedges or stilletoes and pearl necklaces and hoop earings, well you caught the wrong person. If you like those kind of girls, you should probably go to my cousin.
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When it comes to me, I am like the typical mixture of a tomboy and a normal seventeen year old. Yes, I did wear dresses, but that was very occasionally.
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Wierd, huh? Yeah, I am very wierd (I prefer unique, though).
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As I make my way to the washroom for a shower, there is only one thought playing in my head.
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What is going to happen today?
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_____
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"Oh my God! Are you serious?" I squeal with joy on seeing the brand new, jet black Audi parked in front of me.
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"Of course we are serious," says my uncle Steve, handing over the keys of that gorgeous Audi to me. "We thought Vanessa always couldn't drop you to school."
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Oh, BTW, Vanessa is my cousin sister who is also seventeenand just a month older to me. We hate each other (and when I say hate, I mean it).
We're literary ready to rip each other's heads off except for the fact that the consequences of this particular act would be harmful to both of us and we'd end up spending the rest of our lives in prison.
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And that is not gonna happen.
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I shake my head and disperse my thoughts.
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"I love you so so so much, Steve and Katie," I say. "You both know that right?"
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"We love you too, Ashlyn. We love you a lot," says Katie.
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"Anyway, we'll let you drive to school in peace and there is a map in the car so just in case you get lost, you can always find us. You are new here and Boston is a big city you know."
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I'm not new here, Steve. I have come here more than twenty times and I know a lot about Boston," I say.
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"But still," he argues.
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"I promise I'll take care. And thank you so much," I say, smiling.
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"Yeah. We'll see you in the evening," says Katie.
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"Yep. See ya," I call, getting into the car and putting my Ray Bans on.
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And then with one twist of my key, the engine roars to life. Without hesitating, I speed out of my aunt's (now my) house.
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A few minutes later, I pull into the student car parking of my new school.
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So this is South Boston High School.
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I get in through the gates and find myself into one of the never-ending corridors. My new school books had already been shifted into my locker by Steve the day before. I put my hand into my jeans pocket and feel a paper in which the combination for my new locker is written. I don't have to visit the principle as Steve had already done that for me.
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Asking directions from the other students, I reach the locker room after what seemed like decades.
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Opening my locker, I see that all my books are stacked neatly inside. My new time-table is also stuck on the door of my locker. All thanks to Steve.
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I quickly fish out some of my old pictures of my friends back in Seattle, my parents and other people and stick them on the inside of my locker along with a small mirror. I then check my time-table and see that my first period is calculus.
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Yeah, right. Early monday mornings and we begin the week with calculus and since math and I have some personal grudge against each other or something, I totally suck at it.
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From the corner of my eye, I see a very pretty, blonde girl in jeans and a United Colours of Benetton top walking towards me. And then she suddenly stops dead in front of me and then turns towards the left, facing the locker right next to mine. She then unlocks her locker and starts messing with her possessions inside it.
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I turn my attention back to the time-table stuck on my locker and see what all classes I have for the rest of the day.
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Calculus, Chemistry, English, History, Biology, Gym and Physics, with a lunch break after the fourth period.
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Pretty bad, huh? Couldn't get worse.
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As I'm about to set off to my calculus class, I realize that I don't know where it is.
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Yeah, I really needed this.
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"Hey, can you just help me out by telling me where the calculus class is?" I ask the pretty girl to my left.
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"I take it you're new in here," she says in a sweet tone. Not what I expected to hear.
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"Yep," I reply, simply.
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"Well, that's alright and you're lucky cuz even I'm headed to calculus right now. I'm Laura, by the way," she says, extending her hand towards me.
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"I'm Ashlyn Wood. Nice to meet you," accepting her hand.
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Just then the bell rings, signalling the start of the first period.
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"We should really go now. I don't want Mr. Gates to be pissed off at us." says Laura. And so I zoomed to wherever the class was along with Laura.
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Laura and I sit together at the back of the class. Earlier when we walked through the doors of the class, everyone's attention jerked towards us.
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"Hey Laura, sup? Who's that girl with you?" says a guy with messy blonde hair and nerdy glasses.
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"Nothing much, Eric. She's a new girl in school and her name's Ashlyn." replies Laura. She seemed really popular here.
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"Sup Laura. Who's that pretty chica with you?"
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"Dude I really like her hair."
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"But I like her eyes better."
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"Yet it matches with mine and not yours."
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"Shut up, Zack." Laura replies, her voice dripping with annoyance.
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"Mr. Gates is coming," calls a voice.
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Just then a tall looking man with rectangular glasses and a very point nose walks in. First impression of our new maths teacher - FUNNY. Then he silences the class and gets to work.
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"Today, we will be learning about the Algebraic Formulae for the Determination of Cubes," he began and I was ready with my books and a pencil clutched in my hand.
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My aim here was to concentrate in calculus for at least two weeks before I started zoning out to my extraordinary world of imagination. I just didn't want to get on this teacher's bad side in my early days and not draw too much attention from him.
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"We will be learning about four formulas today but will use only one to solve our sums. The four formulas are known as the formula of square, the commutative law, the distributive law and the law of simplification. The first three laws are the same except for some simple displacements or reductions. So everyone, copy down the first sum...."
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When I scan the room, almost everybody is either dozing, scribbling in theis notebooks or yawning simultaneously.
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No wonder.
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When I steal a quick glance at Laura, she messes with her phone for sometime and then starts drawing something on a big sheet of paper.
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Somehow, after what seems like ages, the bell buzzes outside the class.
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Mr. Gates and all the first bench nerds look rather disappointed.
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"Okay class, so I'll see you soon," he says and exits the class.
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"So Ashlyn, I'll see you in the lunch. Anyway, I made you a map so that you can easily find your way here," she says with a smile.
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"Thank you so much. I really appreciate the help. I'll see you later," I reply and then walk to my next class using Laura's map.
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The other classes get over in a blur and it was time for lunch.
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I first walk to my locker and shove all my books inside and then gather the books I need for the next three periods and stuff them inside my bag. I take a look at myself at the mirror and then comb back the stray strand of my hair with my fingers. I take out my phone from my jeans pocket and quickly touch the facebook app. I then check out the notifications only to see this-
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You have recieved a friend request from Laura Austen.
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A smile creeps to my mouth.
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So this is what she was doing during her classes.
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I quickly accept it and keep the phone back into my pocket. I walk into the cafetaria and see the person I least wanted to see.
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Vanessa Jacobs.
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My cousin. My enemy.
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And as I can see, the queenbee of this school bullying another girl with brown hair and green eyes. As I walk near them, this is what I hear-
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"You're dress looks even more disgusting then you, you know that right? And when I say as disgusting as you, then its really disgusting. Like come on, even my servant doesn't own things that disgusting," she says, dramatically.
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"Seriously, you don't have any other better job then bully a fellow student for the sake of looking like a queen? Thats just ridiculous," I say, coming to the defence of the other girl.
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"Look who's here. Now tell me one thing Ashlyn, why would I ever care about your opinions?" she sneers.
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"Actually you would if I just dial Katie's number," I reply in a mocking tone.
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"Now, now. You wouldn't do that, would you?"
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"I would absolutely love to."
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"Well, Zara, I think we should leave these two whores together," she says to the brunette next to her with big (and when I say big, I mean huge) grayish eyes. She looked really pretty though.
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And with that, she turned and sashayed away, her blonde hair swishing behind her.
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"Look who's talking," I call behind her.
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She turns, shoots me a dirty glare and then walks over to a table situated in the middle of the cafetaria.
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"Thank you," says the girl I just rescued.
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"Not a problem," I reply. "I'm Ashlyn, BTW."
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"Melody," she replies.
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"Melody... Nice name."
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"Thanks. I'm the local RJ here," she says, grinning.
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"Staying true to your name, huh?" I ask, smiling.
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"Yeah, pretty much. Thanks again," she says, before she walks over to the counter, pays for her lunch, takes a tray and sits at ab empty table in the corner.
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I turn around to get my own tray and that's when I realize that I have nobody to sit with.
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And neither does Melody.
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As I'm walking towards Melody's table, I hear a gasp and then a shout from the other side of the cafetaria.
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"Ashlyn, is that you?"
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