Shelter

The annoying sound of my alarm clock pulls me out of my sweet sleep. I groan, reaching out to turn off the obnoxious noise, but I suddenly remember that today is my first day of school. My shoulders feel heavy as I sit up in my bed, the upcoming day threatening to weigh me down. I look over at alarm clock and read the time; it’s 6:30. I can’t believe that school here starts thirty minutes earlier. Granted, we did get out later than normal, but at least we had more time to sleep.

Gritting my teeth, I climb out of my bed and force myself to walk into the hall bathroom. The small room is full of steam, making it hard to breathe, and I pray that Logan left me some hot water. I strip down naked and push aside the curtain to turn on the faucet.

As I wait for the water to heat up, I lean against the counter and try to gather my worrying thoughts about today. Today is the first day of my senior year. I’m glad that we didn’t move in the middle of the school year, but it still worries me that I will be behind. I don’t want a sudden move to affect my chances of getting into college.

With the water warm, I step into the shower and stand under the pulsating water. Five minutes have passed before I realize that I haven’t even attempted to clean myself. I wash my hair and body twice to make sure that it’s clean before turning off the shower and wrapping a towel around my wet body.

Just as I grab another towel from under the cabinet to wrap around my hair there’s a sudden knock on the door.

“Scarlett! Hurry up, I need to get in there!” Logan’s voice accompanies the sound of his pounding. I roll my eyes and try to rub some of the water out of my hair before wrapping it up. Making sure the towel is secure around my body, I open the door.

“Took you long enough,” he huffs and pushes past me without another word. With a slam of the door I’m left shivering in the hallway.

I head back into my room and open my closet to find something to wear. I’m not sure what type of dress code they have here so I decide to play it safe and pick a pair of dark fitted jeans and a white tank top with a floral cardigan. I plug my hair dryer into an outlet near my nightstand and dry my hair while looking outside the window. It’s cloudy—as always—but it doesn’t seem like it will rain. Regardless, I tuck an umbrella into my white bag just in case.

Once my hair is dried and slightly curled, I walk back to the bathroom to see if Logan is finished. Fortunately, the door is unlocked. I immediately start coughing when I enter the room. Logan needs to calm it with the cologne. I make a mental reminder to tell him as I open my makeup bag.

Twenty minutes later, I’m walking down the stairs with my bag in hand. An hour has passed since I've woken up, giving me thirty minutes to get to school. I’m hoping that Logan will be on the same schedule I am so we aren't late on our first day.

My father is in the kitchen when I walk in there, reading the newspaper at the coffee table. He looks up when he sees me, smiles warmly, and reaches for his mug.

“Good morning,” he tells me and sips his coffee as I grab an apple out of the fruit basket.

“Morning,” I return the favor and take the seat across from him. He folds the paper up and pushes it aside before looking at his watch.

“I should get going,” he says and stands from the table. “Have a good day at school!” In a quick, swift movement, he kisses my cheek and heads out of the door. As soon as the door clicks shut, Logan walks down the stairs.

“Are you ready?” He asks me, and I nod. I look toward my parent’s bedroom just down the hall, and decide to leave my mother a note since she won’t be getting up for a while. We head out of the door a few minutes later and climb into Logan’s new Jeep.

“Do you know where the school is?” Logan asks me as we get onto the main road. I hold up a finger and type in the school’s address into Google Maps. The screen turns white, and a few seconds later I’m looking at the map of the small town.

“Here,” I show him the phone, and he makes a sharp turn toward the right. Ten minutes later we are pulling into the student parking lot of Newberry High School. Students flood toward the large building in small groups, their chatter carrying toward the car. We find a spot in the back of the parking lot and head into the school.

“Stay close to me,” Logan instructs, and I take a step closer to him. We weave through the thick crowd and somehow find our way into the main office.

A skinny woman wearing a black dress sits behind the large desk, typing furiously on her computer. I tap on her desk to get her attention, and she looks up with a smile.

“Good morning! You must be our two new students!” Before I can ask her how she knows who we are, she darts over to the printer to grab two packets of paper. She points behind us to sit down in the two chairs as she hands us the papers.

“Here are your schedules,” she says, handing us each a paper, “and a list of classes that our school offers her. The highlighted classes are the ones you have to take to be able to graduate with an honor’s diploma.” I look at the highlighted words and sigh. Gym, Business, Health Science, etc. I’ve taken most of these before.

A bell rings overhead, and the lady ushers us toward the door. “That will be your first bell. That means that you have five minutes to get to class.” She tells both of us where are first classes are and wishes us both good luck before disappearing back inside the office. I tell Logan goodbye and head in the direction of my first class, Business.

Luckily, the class isn’t full. I easily find a seat at the back of the classroom and place a notebook and a pencil on the desk. This isn’t so bad, I think.

The class slowly fills up, and two boys wearing letterman jackets sit on either side of me. I look down at my desk and try to distract myself with the drawings on the wood so I don’t look at them. I can feel them staring at me, and with each minute that passes my nerves begin to go crazy.

“Hey,” someone whispers and taps my shoulder. I glance at the boy with shaggy blond hair beside me and pretend like I didn’t hear him. He is attractive, but I don’t want to miss anything on my first day.

“Hey,” he taps me again, this time his voice louder.

“What?” I ask harshly without looking at him. The teacher begins writing things on the board, and I struggle to copy them all down before he erases them.

“You’re name’s Scarlett, right?” He says, and I’m so shocked that he knows my name that I look at him. A smug grin covers his face when he realizes that I’ve let down my guard.

“Yes, it is.” My voice is tight.

“Cool. I’m Mark.” He offers his hand, and I timidly shake it. I look over my shoulder to the other boy sitting beside me and sigh in relief when I see that he has taken an interest in the girl in front of him.

“You’re going to like it here,” he winks at me before turning back to face the front. When he’s not looking I inch my desk closer to the wall, trying to get as much space between the two of us as possible.

Halfway through class the door opens up and in stumbles a tall, lean boy with dark curly brown hair. The teacher abruptly stops talking, and motions for him to speak with him. The class erupts into chatter, and luckily the two boys have taken a seat near a group of girls near the front. I breathe a sigh of relief at being alone, until I see the late boy walking my way.

Notes