Another story from Lightamatchtoleavemebe.

Right?

I'm sure you're all groaning in your mind.

This story has been made to be an eventful process, actually.

You don't even know how many times I freaking changed how I was going to write the damn thing.

In the end, I decided on this form of chapter one.

I have always loved journal type stories, so now I think you all will be enchanted to find one from me (just kidding).

This story has become like. My main priority. I have been writing it since, what? July?

Yeah, that seems about right.

I'm really excited to see how you all take this.

Thank you for everything.

September 4th.

"Oh, Kendall," Logan says lightly through the speaker of the phone, almost inaudibly.

"What?" I mutter, letting out a deep breath.

There's no use for getting mad over something like that.

"Ninth grade is going to be different, really. You can totally reinvent yourself, I promise."

"Says the one in tenth grade."

"Hey, my mom pushed me ahead, and besides, it isn't my fault that I am smart."

"Sure, " I smirk to myself, shaking my head in the process.

Instead of answering whatever Logan says back to me, I find myself focusing in on the illuminated screen of my laptop. My fingers manage to navigate me to the school's website, and my stomach's churning once again.

Welcome to the new and improved website for BLOOMINGTON JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL!

We take pride in our students and want them to be successful individuals in their later life, meaning we try to do our best with helping them now! Starting high school is stressful, be we try to take at least some of the load off your shoulders.

Reminder: School starts TOMORROW, Sept. 5th! There are also HOCKEY TRYOUTS Sept. 6th RIGHT AFTER SCHOOL. Be sure to come support your classmates who are interested, or come on in to tryout YOURSELF.

On a more important note, HAVE FUN THIS YEAR, JAGUARS!

Lunch menu for Sept. 5th: Surpreme Meat Mystery (Tastes G-r-e-a-t, incoming Freshmen!)

*GO JAGUARS!*

Suddenly, it seems reinventing myself isn't that far out of my reach now.

"What the hell is a 'Surpreme Meat Mystery'?" I seem to utter my thought aloud, because Logan chuckles in response.

"If I were you, I would bring a sack lunch for tomorrow."

I sigh deeply, wishing tomorrow would never come.

"You'll be fine, Kendall. I promise."

September 5th.

I wake up the next morning to unusual, out of the blue thoughts about someone I've barely uttered a word to.

James Diamond.
The source of every girl's (and guy's, evidently) frustration since at least third grade.

Will the devil ever come to summon me?

Because everyone knows hell is a million times better than high school.

I think.

I'm sitting at our kitchen table at 6:45 in the morning, eating bland cereal from the box itself, waiting for the bus to come and whisk me away to the hell that is high school.

Rumor has it that riding the bus makes you 10% more lame. If that rumor has any truth in it, then I'll be the school's instant freak from the very moment I walk into the school.

But I like to keep my head held high- I'm thankful I'm not one of those kids who grow yeast on a plate and give out samples as soon as you enter the building.

That's just fucking odd.

I'm pondering more about the school's social scenes and circles when my kid sister Katie walks down the cramped stairs into our insanely more cramped kitchen.

Okay, she isn't a kid, she's just shy of turning thirteen.

Although, she acts like a cranky old woman who knows way more than you'll ever dream of knowing. Which, of course, is a false statement all in its own.

She's just a little too, how would you put it? Sassy.

"Hey, big brother, I hope you won't choke in front of anyone today, especially since it's the first day of your first high school year."

She smiles a little devilishly, and I roll my eyes, hoping she would go away.

"What, no comment? Oh, sorry Kendall, I didn't mean it like that."

Sure.

I once again roll my eyes and realize what time it is.

"Shit," I somewhat shriek while grabbing my backpack. "I'm gonna miss the fucking bus!"

The last thing I hear as I run through the front door is, "Language, Kendall Donald Knight!"

But I am so completely and utterly okay with that.

They say high school is difficult to manage the first day. I say, the hell it's not!

It was a breeze finding my science and math classes (finding out that the coolest dude teaches both classes was a relief), and it was easy enough to find my gym class.

But my last class of the day is an obstacle, to say the least. So I take back my statement I previously wrote.

Yeah, I said wrote. I believe someday everyone's experiences could be interesting, so I attempt to write down everything I can. It's hard to keep up most days.

Back to my English class.

The office told me one thing, Logan told me another, and even a security guard steered me in the wrong direction. It wasn't until one of the guidance counselors tapped me on the shoulder and told me the right classroom.

Evidently, she said, my English room was one of the select few that had been transferred into an annex right outside the building.

"What a relief," I smile to the woman. "I was looking everywhere for this darn classroom."

Which, is a lie. I had only scoped out the areas in which the above three people had addressed me to look.

But she didn't have to know that.

"Anytime," she laughed. It was a slight breezy laugh, one that made you giggle yourself.

Unless, she knew I was lying?

No, not all that possible, really.

We stood there awkwardly until she spoke. "If you have any more trouble with classes, then you can come see me. I'm in the guidance counselors' offices right upstairs. I'm Sandra Redding, by the way. You are…?"

I say my name, slowly and carefully.

She smiles once more, and pats my shoulder. "Since it's the first day, they'll go easy on you. Promise."

I gulp, letting her walk away before I walk into the room.

"Mr. Knight," a haggardly woman sneers, facing the class instead of addressing me, the one she's fucking talking to. "You know that I would have enjoyed your presence more if you would have shown up on time."

I try to tell her what happened, but she doesn't buy it.

"Just sit down, over there." She points with a crooked finger to the last chair in the last row.

How disappointing.

Her white face shakes with a decaying laughter as I make my way to the back of the room, all 60 eyes in the room burning holes into my back and neck.

All eyes leave me as I face the room again.

All but one set of eyes.

The woman is still glaring at me, but I notice something different about her than what I saw before.

She isn't all that haggardly, actually. Her hair isn't as stringy as I envisioned, and it's not white. More of a brownish gray, her hair grown out from an asymmetrical bob. She's actually… kind of normal.

At least, I thought that until she moved the least expected person beside me:

James.
Fucking.
Diamond.

"Oh, and Kendall?"

I look up and the ugly witch is back, her yellow teeth gleaming in the sunlight.

"You and James are paired up for the semester."

I don't see any actual harm in those words until she adds in something completely not needed:

"For the record, Mr. Knight, I believe this to be a punishment for James. He, as a star student, should not need to be paired with such trash as you are, but I think this would be a refreshing derailment of normality for James."

I glance over at said classmate, his face covered by his arm.

He's not as innocent as it seems, is he?

I make it my duty to uncover the dirt.

As I'm picking up my notebook to put in my backpack, James' eyes lower and he scowls at me.

"Thanks, Knight, for fucking my life up. See you tomorrow on the ice for payback."

As I'm sitting here, reading over what I had written, I seem to remember how it felt to hear him say my name.

Although he rudely spat it out, the thought of him make my heart flutter.

Boy, do I have quite a mouthful to tell Logan.

review? :)