Parker Blackwell

Prologue

It's harder than you'd think to give up your family, your friends, your life to be a new person; all of the strings that held you to your life had been snipped except this one, steel thread, holding your feet on the ground and keeping your mind on the right frequency, keeping your hold on sanity.

She was the one that kept me here, she was my lifeline



Misguided Ghosts- Paramore

And run.
From them, from them,
With no direction.
We'll run from them, from them,
with no conviction

My pulse throbbed in my ears, as an incredibly annoying back ground noise behind the roar of my head phones; I pushed on breathing hard, beads of sweat beginning to break out over my forehead. The sweltering July sun beat down on the back of my head and neck, scorching my skin. My legs felt as if they were on fire, smouldering away like the gigantic candles that my mum likes to have around her bath, my arms didn't feel much better. I slowed my sprint to a brisk jog and steadied my breathing, after a few seconds when my breathing pace was beginning to slow and the sound of my pulse quietened. I threw a casual look over my shoulder to check that I wasn't completely last, luckily I wasn't, quite a large group of girls were running along a few yards behind me, the girl in front, my friend Natalie, looked up at the same time as I turned and flashed me a grimace, Natalie's mouse brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail but several of her layers had escaped and fell around her rounded face, framing it subtly. She'd scraped back her fringe and ditched her glasses, leaving her face looking surprisingly bare, but still as cute as ever, dimples at her cheeks and not even the slightest trace of suitcases under her big blue eyes; adorable. I grinned back at her and turned back around, I clenched my fists making the sinews in my hands jut out and then I started running again, surprising myself that I actually liked the way it felt as I ran ahead, streaming past the rest of my class, the power of my legs pumping hard beneath me as I ran, it felt as if I could kick off of the ground and fly away.

I changed faster than usual and spent absolutely no time at all fixing my hair in the mirror and bolted through the changing room doors out into the foyer, the receptionist Mrs Wright looked up as I made my way over to the automatic doors and smiled, I flashed a quick one back at her and started walking faster; out of the doors, across the parking lot, desperate to get to my Volkswagen polo before the rain started, as I approached my car I saw a dark figure leaning against the hood, I walked slower and looked the figure up and down, searching for his face, it was only when I was two cars away that I recognised the figure, it was my best friend Damien, he was reading the manual to his own car, a brand new Peugeot 207, and muttering the lines to some random song as he read. I breathed out and relaxed, quickening my pace back to my normal short-and-swift shuffle,

"Hi." I said unlocking the car door, I threw my bag onto the back seat and turned back around to face him, "What're you doing here? I thought you had to stay behind today to finish some chemistry assignment in the library?" He looked up from his manual,

"Hi Park," he slammed my body up against his in a giant bear hug, knocking the breath out of me, I hugged him back then gasped,

"Can't-breathe-Damien." He put me down and grinned sheepishly through his rough laughter, his grin spread all the way up to his eyes which were lit brighter than the sun, "Anyway, the assignment?" I prompted,

"Oh, yeah. I finished the assignment at lunch, after I saw you coming out of biology; I was on my way to see Prof D." I nodded, and flinched as a drop of rain landed, plop, on my nose, that set Damien off laughing again as he opened the driver side door pushed me in, "Come on, you'd better go home, I'll drop by later, as soon as I've finished my homework." He shut the door and waggled his fingers at me, I waved back and watched his retreating figure; I sighed and turned my key in the ignition, the rumble of the engine purring softly comforted me as I pulled out.

I kicked the door shut behind me and turned to lock it, I struggled with the bolt a little but eventually I yanked it over and yelled 'hello' up the staircase, I hooked my school bag over the end of the banister and flipped it open, the contents of my bag was little, French coursework, English book reports... the usual, I heaved a heavy sigh and pulled out my latest book assignment, 'Emma' by Jane Austen, recently we've been forced to endure a countless number of classics and this was the latest. I hugged it to my chest and walked into the kitchen, I put Emma down on the breakfast bar and searched through the cupboards, pulling out a Twix and a bottle of fizzy lime water, I sat on one of the stool and took a bite out of my Twix and a sip of my water and opened my book to its marked place.

Our kitchen is pretty standard, breakfast bar, cushioned flooring, tiled walls, double kitchen sink, fridge-freezer tucked in the corner, gas oven and hob squeezed in next to it. It's not the biggest or the flashiest kitchen, but I like it, it's kind of cosy in its own way. A couple of moments later, well thats how long it felt anyway, my mum wandered into the kitchen, I had a start when I saw her reflection in the toaster, she was wearing a face pack, a bright green face pack may I point out, and she had her short hair piled up in a towel, she caught my expression from the corner of her eye and turned to look at me, she wafted another one of her designer face mask sachets in my face and raised her eyebrows when I shrank away from her shaking my head fiercely,

"You know I'm much of a face mask girl." I pointed out, gulping down the rest of my drink, "Tea?" I offered going over to the sink,

"Yes please. Honestly Parker, you'll be the death of me."I ignored her and dropped a tea bag into a mug and flicked the switch on the kettle, "I've got to book you in for a hair cut sweetheart." I tucked a strand of my hair that had fell around my face behind my ear and bit my lip,

"No." I said through my teeth and breezed past handing her a cup of steaming tea on my way back to the breakfast bar to carry on reading Emma, "I like it long mum." She frowned at me, her eyebrows nearly meeting in the middle,

"Ok then darling, it does look nice long, but I wish you'd do something with it, I can't stand those silly curls, you look like you've just stepped out of 'medieval weekly', why don't you ever use those straighteners I bought you at Christmas? Wait, I have a great idea, we could dye your hair honey gold and have that funny treatment done to keep it straight all the time..." I blanked her and buried my face in the sleeve of my t-shirt to hide my blush; I have this thing that every time I get angry my cheeks heat up like a giant inferno and reveal all of my secrets to everyone, just my luck!

It didn't take me long to finish my homework, I'm quite good at science, especially biology, it's my favourite science of the three; when I'd done I washed the dishes and started slicing onions for dinner, (I decided to make spaghetti bolognaise as it's my favourite; and mum doesn't seem to mind it too much) when the doorbell rang I swept the skin of the onion into the bin and rinsed my hands quickly under the cold tap, I managed somehow to cover my front in water, sighing I dabbed at myself and wrenched open the front door, struggling yet again with the bolt on the door, Damien was leaning against the porch wall studying the wooden floor, his head snapped up when he heard me opening the door, I smiled as a reflex and walked out onto the porch to meet him, he- unlike me- had changed out of his black school trousers, white shirt and red and gold striped tie into jeans and a light grey v-neck jumper with trainers. His black hair was carefully gelled out of its usual mop, he look nice I realized.

"Nice." He gestured towards my school uniform, he pointed back at himself, "I didn't realise it was a special occasion?" I grimaced and shoved him through the front door,

"Very funny." I muttered under my breath, "Some of us have actually been busy this afternoon." He didn't hear me, or he just ignored the comment, he flopped down onto the sofa and helped himself to a fistful of Doritos from the open packet on the coffee table, "Back in a minute, make yourself at home." I started out of the door and heard him call after me,

"Can't I join you?"

"No, I'm getting changed."

"Yeah, I know."