Squish! Ugh. I checked my foot, yep. I had just stepped in one of Daisy's messes…again.
"Stupid dog…" I muttered, scraping my tennis shoe against a nearby rock. I tried to hold my breath at the nasty smell.
Our backyard was average. An old swing set that my dad never got around to getting rid of, fire pit in a far corner of the yard, a small garden that was mostly weeds because my mom never had time to weed it. Our house was average too, two floors, small deck, windows… It would seem that everything in my life was average. I was average height, average weight, and my shirt size: medium.
I lived in an average town, a rainy town, at that. Forks, Washington, welcome to average. Average, average average. I was bored of it. I wanted a change.
I pulled back the sliding glass door and unhooked Daisy's collar from the leash. She pranced over to my mom and cuddled up next to her.
I guess I shouldn't complain so much. I have a great life, well, better than most. And yet here I am complaining about it. I quickly rearranged my thoughts to distract myself.
School tomorrow, I thought grimly. I didn't have very many good friends, one or two. Just people I talked to in classes. I got along with generally everyone though.
I went silently to my room and started on the homework I'd put off until the last second. It felt like my Geometry, English and Spanish homework took minutes, when in reality I'd been up in my room for almost two hours.
I rolled onto my side and surveyed my room. A dresser and matching nightstand that did not match the one in my closet that had some books stacked on top of it. My bed was like heaven, it was so soft. I had a blue comforter my mom had made me that almost matched the color of my walls. It looked like the color of the sky on a cloudless day.
In my closet there was that mismatched bookshelf/dresser, and the rest of the space was for clothes. I had my closet organized by color in the order of the rainbow.
I checked the clock, eight thirty. I grabbed some pajamas and headed to the bathroom to shower.
I took deep breaths and let the water untangle all the knots of stress in my back. I shampooed, conditioned, and lathered my body in my favorite smelling soap. Yea, I guess life was pretty good.
I stepped out of the shower into my chilly bathroom. I dried off and dressed for bed. I liked to sleep in shorts, wearing pants under my comforter made me feel too constricted. If I did wear pants to bed I usually kicked them off in the middle of the night anyway. My thick comforter kept me warm.
I woke up five minutes before my alarm went off. I'm always doing that, it's like my body is aware that it needs to get up, so it does it sooner rather than later. Frustrating. I threw my legs, covered my blanket, over the side of the bed, and heard a rather large 'thump' noise. Daisy jumped back up and licked my face; she seemed to be asking, "What'd you do that for?"
"Sorry, girl," I said, laughing to myself. I yawned, then stretched, then walked downstairs and took Daisy out again.
I dressed quickly, simply in jeans and a colorful t-shirt. I was running a tad late today so I sped through brushing my teeth and put my hair in a pony tail. On my way out I grabbed a granola bar from the pantry in the kitchen and started walking to school.
I walked because I wasn't old enough to get my license, I was only fifteen. I lived close enough to the school though, about a five minute walk. I liked the exercise anyway.
I stepped outside and put my dark blue umbrella over my head. It was almost always raining here. I put in my headphones and listened to music on my way to Forks High School.
When I got to school I shook out my umbrella, almost soaking myself on accident, then headed off to my locker.
"Hey, you," one of my friends, Sam, said walking beside me. He was one of the few close friends I had. (AN: Not Sam Uley in case you were wondering…)
"Hey Sam, what's up?" I smiled back, pulling out my headphones. Sam made everyone happy no matter where he went.
"Well, you know, just walkin' beside the most beautiful girl in town," he said. Ha, yea, I wish.
"Oh, stop it! What do you want this time?" I pushed him into a nearby locker. Someone that almost got hit grunted in protest. We laughed.
"Okay, okay. I know you're not big on compliments, but seriously, you aren't just average looking like you say," I rolled my eyes, he had it wrong. I opened my locker and took out the magnetic mirror I stored in there.
I had strait black hair and dark brown, almond shaped eyes. There were Quileute genes to thank for that. I had a roundish face; my lips were small but full. My skin was a Native American, tan color. My eyebrows never needed to be plucked, or waxed. They were all natural. I didn't have bad acne, just the occasional pimple. Maybe I was sort of pretty.
"Hmm…" I put the mirror back and grabbed the necessary books.
"So, I know you did the Spanish homework. You should let me see that. I was booked all weekend," he put on his best puppy dog face and whined like a dog.
"Oh, c'mon. You know that doesn't work on me! But you can copy since you're my best friend." I handed him the assignment hesitantly. A person copying off me was a tad of a pet peeve. Why can't you make time to do the work like you're supposed to?
"Thanks, Karen, you're a life saver," he winked and sauntered off to his first class. I shook my head and laughed, I knew he wanted something. I zipped up my backpack and walked to Science, my first period.
"Class has started, children! It's time to take your seats!" My science teacher, Mr. Hector tired to shout over the chaos of the class. Everyone started regressing to their seats slowly.
"That's more like it. Now today we're going to be exploring the wonderful world of cells." The class groaned on cue. I started doodling on my notes, first drawing a tree with millions of branches, then an alien.
"Karen? Would you care to show the class your lovely doodles, or pay attention when I'm speaking?" I snapped to attention at the sound of my name.
"Uh…I'll pay attention, sorry," I blushed red with embarrassment and started copying the notes. The rest of the class was boring. We went over a cell's structure, all that jazz. It was Monday.
English was the same, boring and it dragged on for what seemed like forever. Geography was nothing new, just maps, maps, and more maps.
Geometry was the most exciting, mostly because Sam was in that class. He kept throwing notes my way, when I opened them all that was on the paper was a smiley face, or some small picture that wasted the whole paper. I rolled my eyes and threw all the notes back at him. He was so silly sometimes, or just immature. I couldn't tell. In the middle of class the bell rang for lunch.
I stood in line with Sam talking about how unfair our teacher was.
"One hundred problems that are due tomorrow? He could at least give us until Wednesday. We do have lives, you know." He complained. "Ugh. It makes me want to punch him. He's probably the only one that likes math in the whole world."
"I like math. And sine, cosine, and tangent are way easy. You are just a dummy!" I stuck my tongue out at him like a child.
"Or maybe you're just a geek that is freakishly good at all things school," He stuck his tongue out back at me.
"I'm the freak? You're the one that eats yogurt with French fries." I smiled at him. I grabbed a tray and put a macaroni and cheese cup onto it, I added an apple, and milk. Sam got the same thing.
We sat at our usual table, mostly full of Sam's friends. I quietly ate my lunch, listening to Sam converse with his friends. I wish I could make friends as easily as he could; it seemed almost natural for him. I looked around the small, crowded lunch room, suddenly feeling eyes on me. Everyone was talking to someone around them, eyes on their food.
Even in the small town of Forks, there were typical stereotypes. The football team all sat together, the mathletes sat together, and so on and so forth... then there were the Cullens, and Bella Swan. They were a bit odd, but I had some respect for them. They never hurt anyone. Utterly beautiful, of course, all of them.
"Earth to Karen…" Sam snapped his fingers in front to my face.
"Huh? Oh, sorry, what were you saying?" I switched to reality mode and tried to pay attention.
"The group was talking about a trip to La Push this weekend…Interested?" He raised an eyebrow, waiting for my 'yes'.
"In this weather?" I asked, doubtful that the rain would stop by then.
"It's supposed to clear up by Friday, please, Karen?" He apparently wanted me to go very badly, why not?
"Sure, I guess. What time?" Sam filled me in on the details. I've only been to La Push a few times before, a few years ago. All I remember is a group of two or three boys that looked like giants compared to the rest of us. And cliff jumping, which was terrifying to watch. I never actually did it. I was a little nervous though. The only person I knew that would be going would be Sam, and he had lots of friends that I'm sure he'd rather hang out with instead of me. Maybe this would be my chance to make new friends? Who knew?
The bell rang and we scurried back to Geometry to finish the period.
After Geometry, Sam and I headed off to Spanish, which we also had together.
"¿Hola estudiantes, cómo está usted hoy?" (Hello students, how are you today?) Our teacher greeted us. She was an upbeat and down to earth teacher and also, my favorite.
"Bien," (Good) we all replied.
"Por favor, abren sus libros a página tres cien cuarenta siete y iremos paso sobre los deberes." (Please open up your books to page three hundred forty seven and we will go over the homework.) Sam silently returned my borrowed homework back to me. Señorita Gonzalez was oblivious to our exchange.
The rest of the week went by routinely. I was beginning to think that there would be a rut in the school floors where I walked every day. Finally, Friday came. Sam and I were walking to our lockers after our last period that afternoon.
"Sam, how are we getting to La Push? We don't exactly have cars…" I trailed off.
"Oh, Stacy's boyfriend is driving. Just come over to my house around five, okay?" I nodded and we went our separate ways.
I got home and went directly to my closet. What to wear, what to wear? I turned on my radio, in hopes of inspiration. I sifted through the shirts that hung in my closet, and then rummaged through my drawers. I came up with a grey top with silver lettering and a pair of caprice. I was hoping that it wouldn't rain so I didn't bring my trusty umbrella.
At ten to five I walked a short walk to Sam's. We waited patiently for Stacy and her boyfriend to show up.
And that's the first chapter! How was it? Don't be afraid, I don't bite ;) I should have pictures of what Sam and Karen look like up soon…but you can just imagine what they look like if you want to lol that's what I do most of the time :)