Untitled (NaNoWriMo) Part 1/?
SO. Not much has been happening. Really. I have a lot of school work, is all. I joined Multicultural Advisory Committee and Secular Student Alliance. Also, I'm doing NaNoWriMo for the first time this year.
The story is basically about a girl who is taken in my a foster family and well... I can't tell too much more or else I'd have to kill you :P
Kidding, I just don't want to give away an important twist.
This consists of my writing from days 1 and 2.
The park on the corner of Walnut and Pine was nearly empty. A mismatched family, consisting of a mother and three kids who looked nothing like her, sat on a picnic bench under a tree, munching on chicken wings. It was apparent that the family of three had come to witness the sunset. The young boy looked to be a preschool child, and his older sister had to keep him from running off and trying to catch a butterfly that had neatly rested on a flower in the glass. The oldest one, a boy, read a book as he munched on a stick of celery.
Juxtaposed with the oh-so-happy family was a young girl, no older than twelve, sitting alone on a swing, rocking slowly back and forth. Despite her apparent sadness, her skin seemed to glow, which anyone would know if it wasn’t for the sheet of stick-straight strawberry blonde hair that hung in front of her face. Although it was a warm evening, she was buried under a black hooded sweatshirt and baggy jeans. All this made her look significantly out of place, and the looks the family gave her made it obvious that they had never seen her before.
Sighing, the girl drew patterns in the dirt with her foot. She was alone. She was slightly confused. She had no idea what to do. On top of that, she was hungry, and watching the happy family munch away at their dinner only made her stomach grumble louder. At this point, she wasn’t surprised if they could hear it, even though they were on the other side of the park. She reached into her left pocket and pulled out a strawberry flavored candy. This was all she had left. She wanted to save it, but she was just so hungry… she unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth, placing the crumpled wrapper into her right pocket, amongst the other wrappers.
She wasn’t paying enough attention to notice when someone sat down on the swing next to her. She was too busy drawing a smiley face in the dirt with the toe of her no longer white sneaker. The silence remained in the air until she heard a voice speak. “You’ve been here for hours.” She looked out of the corner of her eye at the person sitting next to her. It was a boy, perhaps three or four years older than herself. She wondered why a high school boy was taking any interest in her.
After registering what he’d said, she simply nodded, not feeling like speaking. “I’m Todd.” He spoke again. “Todd Tracey.” He held out his hand for her to shake. Finally lifting her head, she wiped the hair out of her face, tucking it neatly behind one ear and looked up at him.
“Cameron. Er, Cammie.” She said simply, reaching over and shaking his hand. His grip was much more firm, whereas hers felt unsure; unsure of him, unsure of herself, and unsure of anything around her. It was as if she had never seen this place before.
“You know, you should probably get home. Your parents are probably getting worried and it should be around dinner time.” Todd spoke once more as he let go of her hand. But Cammie just shook her head. Todd raised his eyebrows. “Well it’ll be getting dark soon… you shouldn’t have to walk back home in the dark. Once again, she shook her head. “Alright, then I’ll wait with you. When you’re ready, I’ll walk you home.” He was rather persistent, but Cammie started to shake her head one more time. Suddenly, she stopped, hesitated, and spoke.
“I don’t know where my parents are. I don’t know who they are. I don’t even know my last name.” she said. She blinked twice rapidly and rubbed her eye with the back of her hand. Even though she was staring at her feet, she could practically see it registering in Todd’s mind. Amnesia. Awfully selective amnesia, but amnesia all the same. The wheels were turning, all she waited for now was his reaction.
“Is… that all you’ve forgotten? Do you remember anything of your life?”
“I don’t remember anything involving family and only have vague memories of friends.” She said. “I remember coming to this park before and sitting on this swing… but not much about people.” She sighed and looked up from her face to his. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem creeped out. Instead, he looked sympathetic. His brown eyes had softened from their previous curiosity and he studied her carefully, as if wondering what to do with her.
“I’ll be right back.” He said. Cammie’s heart sunk. She had hoped he wouldn’t leave her. Sure she didn’t know much more than his name, but it was nice having company. She looked back down at her feet, then back up at the no longer occupied swing, still swaying slightly. The boy had walked over to where his mother still sat on the picnic table, and now they were talking. She wondered why he had, however momentarily, left his family outing to talk to Cammie, but then return to his family. She wondered if he would call the cops or the hospital. She hoped not. Cammie wasn’t a fan of insane asylums, and she didn’t want to be thrown into one.
The boy then started walking back over, the rest of his family in tow. This startled her, and she looked back down at her feet. She didn’t want to meet the rest of his family. She just wanted everything to go back to normal, whatever that was. She wanted her own happy family, not someone else’s.
The mother - a kind redhead woman - kneeled down in front of her, the kids standing on either side of her and Todd behind her. “I’m Allison, Todd’s foster mother. These two are Josh and Becky.” She gestured to each one and the two kids smiled. Becky gave a small wave and Josh hid behind his mother. “Would you mind if I asked you a few questions? I want to help you remember what happened.”
“Go on.” Cammie said with a small smile.
“Well, sweetie… do you remember anything about your family?” Cammie froze. Anything about her family. Anything. “Is there anything that you know that could help us find out who they are?” the mother spoke again.
“I… I can do things. Sometimes. Weird things. My parents could too but I don’t know what.” She bit her lip. “I remember turning the TV on with my mind.” She heard a small gasp escape Allison’s lips, but the reaction of the family of four wasn’t one of fear like they expected. Instead, it was one of hope.
“A technopath.” Allison smiled. “Don’t worry dearie, this is completely normal. You have the power to control technology.” She explained. “You see, we all have powers too.” She hesitated. “Well, most of us do. Josh hasn’t manifested his yet, you see. He’s too young. But… Becky, show her what you can do.”
The girl named Becky stepped forward, cupping her two hands as if to catch a ball, and stretched them out to Cammie. Cammie looked into Becky’s hands. Slowly, a marble-sized ball of green slime appeared. The ball stretched out into a small puddle and began to glow. Becky smiled at Cammie’s reaction, which was one of surprise. “You can touch it. It won’t hurt you.” She said. Cammie poked it. It was kind of like jelly, only it didn’t stick to your fingers. The slime formed back into a ball and Cammie picked it up, inspecting it, and putting it back into Becky’s hands. It then disappeared, and Becky wiped her hands off on her denim jumper.
“What about you? And Todd?” Cammie asked, now gaining the confidence to speak. As time went on, she was feeling more and more comfortable with these people. She was coming out of her shell a little more each minute.
“Allison has enhanced smell.” Todd answered. “It makes her cooking just that much better because she knows exactly what it needs before even tasting it.” Allison chuckled at the compliment. “I can travel through time.” Cammie felt a flutter in her gut when he said this.
“Have you ever tried it? Like, gone to the future just to see what it was like?” she asked. She had always been interested in time. What the future would be like… The Butterfly Effect… all that stuff.
“I have, but each time I do, I have more problems later on.” Todd explained. “If I use it too much, my life will get shorter and I’ll have more health problems as an adult.” He sighed. “It kinda sucks, but I know how to control it enough so that I don’t use it accidentally. And for now, that’s enough.” He told her. She nodded. She knew what he meant. Her power was controlling technology. However, she didn’t really know much about modern technology. This meant that at the moment, all she could do is turn things on and off and in some cases, use objects like TVs and phones without touching them.
Allison’s voice knocked Cammie out of her thoughts. “Honey, is that all? We know if you have powers, your parents must have powers too… but there’s a large community of powered people out there and we need to narrow it down a little more.”
“No.” Cammie said, shaking her head. “That’s all I got. It’s like I forgot anything that links me to my parents.” She said with a frown. At this, Allison let out a gasp. It appeared that she had an idea.
“Oh hon, I think I know… they must have erased your memories.” She said. “Your parents… I’ve known people who had the power to control memories. They could erase them, and even create new ones.” Allison put her fist in front of her mouth, tears forming in her eyes. “Oh you poor dear… you were abandoned and you don’t even know it.”
Cammie swallowed a lump in her throat. “Yeah… that must be it.” She said. She really wasn’t sure what else to say except “What do I do now?” She had nowhere to stay and no more food to eat.
“You can come home with me. I have these three as foster children anyway, and we could always use a new addition to the family.” Allison said with a smile. “What do you say?” Cammie gave a nod, wiping tears from her eyes that she hadn’t even noticed were there. “Well then, why don’t you come eat dinner with us? You look so thin, you need to eat something.” Allison stood back up and the family of four started walking back towards the picnic bench. “I hope you like chicken wings, but if you don’t, we have avocado sandwiches, celery, carrot sticks, fruit…” Cammie stood up and followed her new family over to the picnic bench, ready to eat her first supper.
Two years later…
Bleep! Bleep! Bleep! A thin pale hand reached out from under a heap of navy blue blankets to slap the alarm clock beside her bed. Though she had her blankets over her face, she could practically see the red numbers burrowing their way through her still closed eyelids: 7:30.
It was silent for one peaceful moment, before she heard footsteps from down the hall. Heavy footsteps. “Cammie, rise and shine! First day of high school! You don’t want to be late.”
“Yes I do…” Cammie grumbled so Allison couldn’t hear before yelling “Alright, be down in a sec!” and proceeding to grab her pillow from under her head and place it over it.
She remained like that for another half hour before finally deciding that maybe being on time wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Without even checking the clock, she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, rubbing her eyes as she did so. With newly cleared vision, she made her way down the hall to the bathroom where, surprise surprise, it was occupied. So she headed back to her room, deciding that she’d change clothes first, and then brush her teeth.
Cammie’s chosen outfit lay folded neatly on her dresser. She’d known what she was going to wear for her first day since a month ago when she bought her new tee shirt. It was a dark blue shirt with a cartoon panda on it. With it, she wore black skinny jeans and black flat shoes. On each wrist she slipped a chunky white bangle with black stars, and in her pockets she carefully placed her phone and her iPod. She heard the bathroom door open and close again and, grabbing her hair brush, headed over to finish getting ready.
A few minutes later, she plopped down at the dinner table, occupying the last of the four chairs. “Cammie, if you had started getting ready when I told you to, you wouldn’t be in this mess.” Allison scolded her, taking a sip of coffee. Cammie sighed and rolled her eyes. Oh here we go again.
“I told you, I don’t like Cedarwood High. I’d rather go to Caldwell with the rest of my friends from eighth grade.” Cammie let out a huff of air before reaching across the table and grabbing a blueberry muffin.
“Well I told you honey, we’re not in Caldwell’s school district. There’s nothing I could do. Besides, Cedarwood is so much better. You’ll make new friends.”
“Madina’s in our district and she’s going to Caldwell.” Cammie shot back quickly.
“Well she’s not supposed to.” Allison said simply. “If her family gets caught, she’ll be sent to Cedarwood.”
Cammie sighed. “If Vivs hadn’t moved to New Jersey, she’d have gone to Cedarwood.” She said. There was a silence before Allison spoke again.
“Todd goes to Cedarwood. You could always talk with his friends.”
“Todd has a girlfriend.” Cammie stated simply, reaching over and grabbing the carton of milk before pouring herself a glass.
“Well that doesn’t mean anything.” Allison replied, waving the thought away with her hand as she took another sip of coffee.
“Umm, yes it does.” Cammie replied matter-of-factly. “When a guy has a girlfriend, they hang out with each other. Sometimes they’ll hang out with his friends or her friends… never his fourteen year old former foster sister.”
“Just because Todd lives on his own now doesn’t mean that he isn’t your brother anymore, Cameron, and just because he has a girlfriend doesn’t mean he is going to ignore you.”
“Yes. It. Does.” Cammie said, completely ignoring Allison’s use of her full first name. She finished off her milk in two gulps and stood suddenly, grabbing her muffin from her plate. “I’ll eat this on the way. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a bus to catch.” And then, grabbing her bag from the coat hanger near the door, she was off.
***
In high school, it seemed everyone knew everyone else, and everyone knew exactly what to do when and how to do it. Not Cammie. She was a lone wolf. Other high schoolers had friends to sit with at the round tables, but Cammie instead found a long rectangular table that nobody was sitting at and picked the chair closest to the end. She hoped this would mean that somebody would come and sit with her. It appeared to be the only empty table in the entire cafeteria, and yet nobody came and took the bait.
From here she could see nearly everyone in the cafeteria, which is why she liked this spot. She liked being able to see everyone. If someone was to take the bait, she’d know well ahead of time. Plus, she could try and make eye contact with people she recognized from her class. That was always a good tactic. When Cammie didn’t see anyone she recognized from her class, she looked down at her plate. She had a slice of cheese pizza, some pasta salad, and an apple. Talk about boring. Hesitantly, she lifted her fork and began scooping the pasta salad into her mouth. She didn’t notice someone standing right in front of her until they spoke.
“Hey, is this seat taken?” Cammie swallowed her pasta salad and looked up into the shining brown eyes of a muscular brunette boy, clad in a red polo shirt that screamed “I’m popular”. He was leaning on the chair across from her, gripping the back with both hands as if he already anticipated her answer. She shook her head slowly. “Would you mind if I…”
“Go ahead.” She said, gesturing for him to sit down with a small smile. Finally.
The boy grinned. “Thanks.” He said, pulling the chair out before lifting it and carrying it off to another table, where a group of giggling girls waited for him. Cammie visibly drooped. No friend for her, then. Too bad, he was cute too.
“Don’t pay any attention to them. They’re all jerk offs.” Cammie looked left and right to see where the voice had come from. It was then that she realized that it was the guy behind her, sitting at a table for two, all by himself. He was leaned back in his chair nonchalantly and his black hair and blue eyes were vaguely familiar.
“Yeah…” Cammie said, not sure what else to say. She turned back around and returned to her pasta salad. She then heard him get up and drag his chair and tray over to the now empty and chairless spot across from her. Cammie let out a sigh and looked up at him, narrowing her eyes. “…can I help you?” she asked, sounding much more harsh than she had intended.
“I’m Greg. Greg Isaacs.” The boy introduced himself. He stretched out his hand to shake.
“Cameron Morgan. Or just Cammie. Whatever.” She said, ignoring his hand. He just raised his eyebrows and withdrew his hand. Obviously he was unsure as to why she was being so cold to him, but rather than walking away or confronting her, it seemed he chose to ignore it.
“So, you’re a freshman I’m guessing?” Cammie nodded, as her mouth was full of pasta salad.
“That’s cool. I’m a junior.”
“Why are you talking to me, then? Don’t you have friends? A girlfriend? Something?” Cammie said. He was an upper classman. Surely he had someone better to talk to than herself. Suddenly she wished that she hadn’t hoped so hard for someone to sit with her. Or at least that, of all people, it would be someone else. And on her first day of high school too…
“What, can’t a guy be an individual and eat with who he chooses? Or does he have to stick to the same pack every day?” This shut Cammie up. She really had no response for that, mainly because she had a similar philosophy. It was one of the things that Cammie noticed right away that she had in common with Greg.
Cammie and Greg ate in silence for a while. She snuck peaks at him. He was clad in a black jacket, white shirt, and jeans. Nothing special really. He also had one of his iPod ear buds stuck in his ear, music blasting out of it. She could hear it well enough to know what song it was. When he wasn’t paying attention, she stared at the ear bud, as if telepathically telling it to lower the volume. It did as she ‘told’ it to and Greg suddenly looked surprised. He took his iPod out of his pocket to check the volume. Sure enough, the volume meter had gone down to barely above zero. “What the hell?” he said, confused. He looked at Cammie, who shrugged, then back at his iPod. With a sigh, he turned it off and put it in his pocket. “Damn thing has been glitching on me all day… first the song changes randomly now the volume…” he muttered to himself. He took a bite of his apple and Cammie had to sink her teeth into her pizza to prevent herself from giggling. This guy was annoying, sure, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t annoy him back, even if he didn’t know it was her. After all, wasn’t that the best type of annoyance?
I know the beginning is a little cliche, but it'll get better once the plot starts to pick up. That is, once the plot actually gets introduced. :P
The story is basically about a girl who is taken in my a foster family and well... I can't tell too much more or else I'd have to kill you :P
Kidding, I just don't want to give away an important twist.
This consists of my writing from days 1 and 2.
The park on the corner of Walnut and Pine was nearly empty. A mismatched family, consisting of a mother and three kids who looked nothing like her, sat on a picnic bench under a tree, munching on chicken wings. It was apparent that the family of three had come to witness the sunset. The young boy looked to be a preschool child, and his older sister had to keep him from running off and trying to catch a butterfly that had neatly rested on a flower in the glass. The oldest one, a boy, read a book as he munched on a stick of celery.
Juxtaposed with the oh-so-happy family was a young girl, no older than twelve, sitting alone on a swing, rocking slowly back and forth. Despite her apparent sadness, her skin seemed to glow, which anyone would know if it wasn’t for the sheet of stick-straight strawberry blonde hair that hung in front of her face. Although it was a warm evening, she was buried under a black hooded sweatshirt and baggy jeans. All this made her look significantly out of place, and the looks the family gave her made it obvious that they had never seen her before.
Sighing, the girl drew patterns in the dirt with her foot. She was alone. She was slightly confused. She had no idea what to do. On top of that, she was hungry, and watching the happy family munch away at their dinner only made her stomach grumble louder. At this point, she wasn’t surprised if they could hear it, even though they were on the other side of the park. She reached into her left pocket and pulled out a strawberry flavored candy. This was all she had left. She wanted to save it, but she was just so hungry… she unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth, placing the crumpled wrapper into her right pocket, amongst the other wrappers.
She wasn’t paying enough attention to notice when someone sat down on the swing next to her. She was too busy drawing a smiley face in the dirt with the toe of her no longer white sneaker. The silence remained in the air until she heard a voice speak. “You’ve been here for hours.” She looked out of the corner of her eye at the person sitting next to her. It was a boy, perhaps three or four years older than herself. She wondered why a high school boy was taking any interest in her.
After registering what he’d said, she simply nodded, not feeling like speaking. “I’m Todd.” He spoke again. “Todd Tracey.” He held out his hand for her to shake. Finally lifting her head, she wiped the hair out of her face, tucking it neatly behind one ear and looked up at him.
“Cameron. Er, Cammie.” She said simply, reaching over and shaking his hand. His grip was much more firm, whereas hers felt unsure; unsure of him, unsure of herself, and unsure of anything around her. It was as if she had never seen this place before.
“You know, you should probably get home. Your parents are probably getting worried and it should be around dinner time.” Todd spoke once more as he let go of her hand. But Cammie just shook her head. Todd raised his eyebrows. “Well it’ll be getting dark soon… you shouldn’t have to walk back home in the dark. Once again, she shook her head. “Alright, then I’ll wait with you. When you’re ready, I’ll walk you home.” He was rather persistent, but Cammie started to shake her head one more time. Suddenly, she stopped, hesitated, and spoke.
“I don’t know where my parents are. I don’t know who they are. I don’t even know my last name.” she said. She blinked twice rapidly and rubbed her eye with the back of her hand. Even though she was staring at her feet, she could practically see it registering in Todd’s mind. Amnesia. Awfully selective amnesia, but amnesia all the same. The wheels were turning, all she waited for now was his reaction.
“Is… that all you’ve forgotten? Do you remember anything of your life?”
“I don’t remember anything involving family and only have vague memories of friends.” She said. “I remember coming to this park before and sitting on this swing… but not much about people.” She sighed and looked up from her face to his. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem creeped out. Instead, he looked sympathetic. His brown eyes had softened from their previous curiosity and he studied her carefully, as if wondering what to do with her.
“I’ll be right back.” He said. Cammie’s heart sunk. She had hoped he wouldn’t leave her. Sure she didn’t know much more than his name, but it was nice having company. She looked back down at her feet, then back up at the no longer occupied swing, still swaying slightly. The boy had walked over to where his mother still sat on the picnic table, and now they were talking. She wondered why he had, however momentarily, left his family outing to talk to Cammie, but then return to his family. She wondered if he would call the cops or the hospital. She hoped not. Cammie wasn’t a fan of insane asylums, and she didn’t want to be thrown into one.
The boy then started walking back over, the rest of his family in tow. This startled her, and she looked back down at her feet. She didn’t want to meet the rest of his family. She just wanted everything to go back to normal, whatever that was. She wanted her own happy family, not someone else’s.
The mother - a kind redhead woman - kneeled down in front of her, the kids standing on either side of her and Todd behind her. “I’m Allison, Todd’s foster mother. These two are Josh and Becky.” She gestured to each one and the two kids smiled. Becky gave a small wave and Josh hid behind his mother. “Would you mind if I asked you a few questions? I want to help you remember what happened.”
“Go on.” Cammie said with a small smile.
“Well, sweetie… do you remember anything about your family?” Cammie froze. Anything about her family. Anything. “Is there anything that you know that could help us find out who they are?” the mother spoke again.
“I… I can do things. Sometimes. Weird things. My parents could too but I don’t know what.” She bit her lip. “I remember turning the TV on with my mind.” She heard a small gasp escape Allison’s lips, but the reaction of the family of four wasn’t one of fear like they expected. Instead, it was one of hope.
“A technopath.” Allison smiled. “Don’t worry dearie, this is completely normal. You have the power to control technology.” She explained. “You see, we all have powers too.” She hesitated. “Well, most of us do. Josh hasn’t manifested his yet, you see. He’s too young. But… Becky, show her what you can do.”
The girl named Becky stepped forward, cupping her two hands as if to catch a ball, and stretched them out to Cammie. Cammie looked into Becky’s hands. Slowly, a marble-sized ball of green slime appeared. The ball stretched out into a small puddle and began to glow. Becky smiled at Cammie’s reaction, which was one of surprise. “You can touch it. It won’t hurt you.” She said. Cammie poked it. It was kind of like jelly, only it didn’t stick to your fingers. The slime formed back into a ball and Cammie picked it up, inspecting it, and putting it back into Becky’s hands. It then disappeared, and Becky wiped her hands off on her denim jumper.
“What about you? And Todd?” Cammie asked, now gaining the confidence to speak. As time went on, she was feeling more and more comfortable with these people. She was coming out of her shell a little more each minute.
“Allison has enhanced smell.” Todd answered. “It makes her cooking just that much better because she knows exactly what it needs before even tasting it.” Allison chuckled at the compliment. “I can travel through time.” Cammie felt a flutter in her gut when he said this.
“Have you ever tried it? Like, gone to the future just to see what it was like?” she asked. She had always been interested in time. What the future would be like… The Butterfly Effect… all that stuff.
“I have, but each time I do, I have more problems later on.” Todd explained. “If I use it too much, my life will get shorter and I’ll have more health problems as an adult.” He sighed. “It kinda sucks, but I know how to control it enough so that I don’t use it accidentally. And for now, that’s enough.” He told her. She nodded. She knew what he meant. Her power was controlling technology. However, she didn’t really know much about modern technology. This meant that at the moment, all she could do is turn things on and off and in some cases, use objects like TVs and phones without touching them.
Allison’s voice knocked Cammie out of her thoughts. “Honey, is that all? We know if you have powers, your parents must have powers too… but there’s a large community of powered people out there and we need to narrow it down a little more.”
“No.” Cammie said, shaking her head. “That’s all I got. It’s like I forgot anything that links me to my parents.” She said with a frown. At this, Allison let out a gasp. It appeared that she had an idea.
“Oh hon, I think I know… they must have erased your memories.” She said. “Your parents… I’ve known people who had the power to control memories. They could erase them, and even create new ones.” Allison put her fist in front of her mouth, tears forming in her eyes. “Oh you poor dear… you were abandoned and you don’t even know it.”
Cammie swallowed a lump in her throat. “Yeah… that must be it.” She said. She really wasn’t sure what else to say except “What do I do now?” She had nowhere to stay and no more food to eat.
“You can come home with me. I have these three as foster children anyway, and we could always use a new addition to the family.” Allison said with a smile. “What do you say?” Cammie gave a nod, wiping tears from her eyes that she hadn’t even noticed were there. “Well then, why don’t you come eat dinner with us? You look so thin, you need to eat something.” Allison stood back up and the family of four started walking back towards the picnic bench. “I hope you like chicken wings, but if you don’t, we have avocado sandwiches, celery, carrot sticks, fruit…” Cammie stood up and followed her new family over to the picnic bench, ready to eat her first supper.
Two years later…
Bleep! Bleep! Bleep! A thin pale hand reached out from under a heap of navy blue blankets to slap the alarm clock beside her bed. Though she had her blankets over her face, she could practically see the red numbers burrowing their way through her still closed eyelids: 7:30.
It was silent for one peaceful moment, before she heard footsteps from down the hall. Heavy footsteps. “Cammie, rise and shine! First day of high school! You don’t want to be late.”
“Yes I do…” Cammie grumbled so Allison couldn’t hear before yelling “Alright, be down in a sec!” and proceeding to grab her pillow from under her head and place it over it.
She remained like that for another half hour before finally deciding that maybe being on time wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Without even checking the clock, she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, rubbing her eyes as she did so. With newly cleared vision, she made her way down the hall to the bathroom where, surprise surprise, it was occupied. So she headed back to her room, deciding that she’d change clothes first, and then brush her teeth.
Cammie’s chosen outfit lay folded neatly on her dresser. She’d known what she was going to wear for her first day since a month ago when she bought her new tee shirt. It was a dark blue shirt with a cartoon panda on it. With it, she wore black skinny jeans and black flat shoes. On each wrist she slipped a chunky white bangle with black stars, and in her pockets she carefully placed her phone and her iPod. She heard the bathroom door open and close again and, grabbing her hair brush, headed over to finish getting ready.
A few minutes later, she plopped down at the dinner table, occupying the last of the four chairs. “Cammie, if you had started getting ready when I told you to, you wouldn’t be in this mess.” Allison scolded her, taking a sip of coffee. Cammie sighed and rolled her eyes. Oh here we go again.
“I told you, I don’t like Cedarwood High. I’d rather go to Caldwell with the rest of my friends from eighth grade.” Cammie let out a huff of air before reaching across the table and grabbing a blueberry muffin.
“Well I told you honey, we’re not in Caldwell’s school district. There’s nothing I could do. Besides, Cedarwood is so much better. You’ll make new friends.”
“Madina’s in our district and she’s going to Caldwell.” Cammie shot back quickly.
“Well she’s not supposed to.” Allison said simply. “If her family gets caught, she’ll be sent to Cedarwood.”
Cammie sighed. “If Vivs hadn’t moved to New Jersey, she’d have gone to Cedarwood.” She said. There was a silence before Allison spoke again.
“Todd goes to Cedarwood. You could always talk with his friends.”
“Todd has a girlfriend.” Cammie stated simply, reaching over and grabbing the carton of milk before pouring herself a glass.
“Well that doesn’t mean anything.” Allison replied, waving the thought away with her hand as she took another sip of coffee.
“Umm, yes it does.” Cammie replied matter-of-factly. “When a guy has a girlfriend, they hang out with each other. Sometimes they’ll hang out with his friends or her friends… never his fourteen year old former foster sister.”
“Just because Todd lives on his own now doesn’t mean that he isn’t your brother anymore, Cameron, and just because he has a girlfriend doesn’t mean he is going to ignore you.”
“Yes. It. Does.” Cammie said, completely ignoring Allison’s use of her full first name. She finished off her milk in two gulps and stood suddenly, grabbing her muffin from her plate. “I’ll eat this on the way. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a bus to catch.” And then, grabbing her bag from the coat hanger near the door, she was off.
***
In high school, it seemed everyone knew everyone else, and everyone knew exactly what to do when and how to do it. Not Cammie. She was a lone wolf. Other high schoolers had friends to sit with at the round tables, but Cammie instead found a long rectangular table that nobody was sitting at and picked the chair closest to the end. She hoped this would mean that somebody would come and sit with her. It appeared to be the only empty table in the entire cafeteria, and yet nobody came and took the bait.
From here she could see nearly everyone in the cafeteria, which is why she liked this spot. She liked being able to see everyone. If someone was to take the bait, she’d know well ahead of time. Plus, she could try and make eye contact with people she recognized from her class. That was always a good tactic. When Cammie didn’t see anyone she recognized from her class, she looked down at her plate. She had a slice of cheese pizza, some pasta salad, and an apple. Talk about boring. Hesitantly, she lifted her fork and began scooping the pasta salad into her mouth. She didn’t notice someone standing right in front of her until they spoke.
“Hey, is this seat taken?” Cammie swallowed her pasta salad and looked up into the shining brown eyes of a muscular brunette boy, clad in a red polo shirt that screamed “I’m popular”. He was leaning on the chair across from her, gripping the back with both hands as if he already anticipated her answer. She shook her head slowly. “Would you mind if I…”
“Go ahead.” She said, gesturing for him to sit down with a small smile. Finally.
The boy grinned. “Thanks.” He said, pulling the chair out before lifting it and carrying it off to another table, where a group of giggling girls waited for him. Cammie visibly drooped. No friend for her, then. Too bad, he was cute too.
“Don’t pay any attention to them. They’re all jerk offs.” Cammie looked left and right to see where the voice had come from. It was then that she realized that it was the guy behind her, sitting at a table for two, all by himself. He was leaned back in his chair nonchalantly and his black hair and blue eyes were vaguely familiar.
“Yeah…” Cammie said, not sure what else to say. She turned back around and returned to her pasta salad. She then heard him get up and drag his chair and tray over to the now empty and chairless spot across from her. Cammie let out a sigh and looked up at him, narrowing her eyes. “…can I help you?” she asked, sounding much more harsh than she had intended.
“I’m Greg. Greg Isaacs.” The boy introduced himself. He stretched out his hand to shake.
“Cameron Morgan. Or just Cammie. Whatever.” She said, ignoring his hand. He just raised his eyebrows and withdrew his hand. Obviously he was unsure as to why she was being so cold to him, but rather than walking away or confronting her, it seemed he chose to ignore it.
“So, you’re a freshman I’m guessing?” Cammie nodded, as her mouth was full of pasta salad.
“That’s cool. I’m a junior.”
“Why are you talking to me, then? Don’t you have friends? A girlfriend? Something?” Cammie said. He was an upper classman. Surely he had someone better to talk to than herself. Suddenly she wished that she hadn’t hoped so hard for someone to sit with her. Or at least that, of all people, it would be someone else. And on her first day of high school too…
“What, can’t a guy be an individual and eat with who he chooses? Or does he have to stick to the same pack every day?” This shut Cammie up. She really had no response for that, mainly because she had a similar philosophy. It was one of the things that Cammie noticed right away that she had in common with Greg.
Cammie and Greg ate in silence for a while. She snuck peaks at him. He was clad in a black jacket, white shirt, and jeans. Nothing special really. He also had one of his iPod ear buds stuck in his ear, music blasting out of it. She could hear it well enough to know what song it was. When he wasn’t paying attention, she stared at the ear bud, as if telepathically telling it to lower the volume. It did as she ‘told’ it to and Greg suddenly looked surprised. He took his iPod out of his pocket to check the volume. Sure enough, the volume meter had gone down to barely above zero. “What the hell?” he said, confused. He looked at Cammie, who shrugged, then back at his iPod. With a sigh, he turned it off and put it in his pocket. “Damn thing has been glitching on me all day… first the song changes randomly now the volume…” he muttered to himself. He took a bite of his apple and Cammie had to sink her teeth into her pizza to prevent herself from giggling. This guy was annoying, sure, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t annoy him back, even if he didn’t know it was her. After all, wasn’t that the best type of annoyance?
I know the beginning is a little cliche, but it'll get better once the plot starts to pick up. That is, once the plot actually gets introduced. :P