About a month ago, my dad and I moved back to the "wonderful" city of Detroit, MI. I still want to kill him. He had moved me from Miami to Michigan. Now don't get me wrong, I don't like Miami much, either, but at least it was near a beach. Detroit was so closed in, and I'm pretty sure you can't surf on the lakes.

I finally drug my lazy ass out of the bed and walked downstairs to the kitchen. My dad had already left for work. He's in business, so he was always gone. Not that it mattered much. I usually kept to myself anyway. I sighed and went back up to the bathroom.

I turned on the hot water and let it run for a few seconds so the heat would steam up the room. I stripped down and climbed in, lathering my whole body up with suds and water. When my fifteen minute shower was over, I climbed out and wiped fog off the bathroom mirror, a large towel wrapped around my body.

I starred at myself in the mirror. My black hair hung limply down my back, the red highlights falling around my tawny brown skin. I was average, to say the least. Unlike my relatives before me, I was not packing it. Good thing I was into rock, because with my looks, I wouldn't be getting into any rap videos. I remember times when we were in elementary school and they would hire some depressed drunk to say "Everyone is special in their own way!" while wearing a purple dinosaur suit. What a joke.

I walked back into my room, closing the door and drying my still damp hair. I threw on a clean bra and searched for a pair of panties. I settled on a pair of boy briefs my sister had sent me from New York City.

I went over to my closet. I picked up a clean t-shirt and a pair of clean destroyed denim jeans. It's really funny, because I didn't buy them destroyed. I slipped on and buckled up my favorite pair of combat boots, grabbed my notebook, and ran out the door.

The walk to school was bleary and drab. It was definitely going to rain before the end of the day. I hurried along. School started in ten minutes and it was a fifteen minute walk. No one wants to be late for their first day of school.

Alex's POV

Fourth period English is a pointless class. I've lived in the fucking United States all my life. I don't need no fucking English class. If Tomko and I hadn't messed around, we wouldn't be repeating English from last year. Mr. Bonds seemed to be trying to drag it out extra long today, getting as many useless facts about plural possessives into the lesson as possible.

I looked around to see what people were doing. The preppy girls were doing the same thing: texting, passing notes, or talking. The stoners were sleeping off last night's hit, or eating off this morning's. Tomko, trying not to doze off to sleep, was looking at something ahead of him.

I redirected my eyes to the sketchbook of the girl sitting a desk up on the row between us. She was drawing vigorously, probably trying to get the perfect shade of black. I studied her as she added part after part to the unfinished picture she was trying to get out.

The bell rang and the girl stood. While she packed her notebook full of handouts and loose papers, I grabbed her sketchbook.

"What the hell?" she asked, turning to me. I hadn't recognized her at first, but I was shocked when Harleen Smith glared at me from underneath her bangs.

"Well, if it isn't little Harley?" I said. She grabbed at the book, but I held it out of her reach. "Where you been these past few years?"

"Give it here Alex," she said, snatching at it again. I grinned and walked off, tossing it to Tomko. Bonds had gone to smoke another cigarette by now, so we were safe.

"Actually, I think me and my friend might want to check it out," I said as he threw it back at me. I sat on the desk and held it above her head. She leaned across me (as if she had a chance) to snatch it away.

"I think she's willing to do anything do get that book back," Tomko said, sitting next to me. The warning bell rang. We ran off towards lunch, her book still in tow.

"I'll give this back to you later!" I called. We walked off to the lunch room, taking the long route by the girl's locker room. We met up with the rest of the crew. AJ and Chris were sitting at our usual table near the back of the lunch room. They were having a heated debate about something or other when we sat down.

"All I'm saying is she's probably a thespian, so we have to be ready to accept the fact that she's fake," Chris said.

"What does her liking girls have to do with her being fake?" AJ asked, astonishment on his face.

"No, thespian, AJ. Not lesbian."

"Oh. Well, what's a thespian?"

"What are you pussies talking about now?" Tomko asked.

"This one chick in my art class," AJ said. "She's sitting right there."

We all turned in the direction AJ's hand went and starred at Harley. She was reading a scary looking book while twirling a plastic fork through her spaghetti. I rolled my eyes and turned around.

"Oh, it's Alex's girlfriend," Tomko said, smirking. I glared at him.

"What?" Chris asked, half laughing. "You hitting that, Alex?"

"No," I said frowning up at them. "I knew her a while back. She used to be my neighbor until she moved away. I haven't talked to her since."

"Yeah, until this morning when she was practically straddling you to get that sketchbook back," Tomko said with a mouthful of cheeseburger.

"What's in it?"AJ asked snatching it from me. He opened it up and flipped through the pages.

I looked ahead, watching him. As much as it pains me to admit it, there were some good drawings in there. There was one of a girl, she had tan skin, but it was a pale tan, like she was naturally tan, but didn't go out in the sun. She wore a long, gothic black dress with a red in it. She was walking through a forest that looked like it has frosted slightly.

He flipped some more and stopped at one. It was a face, mostly monochromatically gray, that looked like it was rotting. The eyes were sunken back, but open with no pupils, just the whites, yet you could still tell it was looking towards the sky. The lips were parted, but had string on them, like they were sewn together. The faces left hand was up next to it, holding a rotting dead rose. There were tears, I think. They were green, like it had been crying so long that mold appeared. At the bottom, it read in large gothic print [Sorrow in my Soul].

"Wow," Tomko said. That was all he could say. The rest of us sat silently, staring at the image. It was so good, but so...dark. The bell rang and we jumped. There had been an unsettling silence over us. We quietly grabbed our stuff and went to class.

Harley's POV

Just as I had predicted, it had started raining. My hair was matted to my face in a matter of seconds after I walked out of the school, and I still had another nineteen minutes until I could get home. I trudged down the road, steadily pushing my rain soaked hair out of my face.

A huge truck rushed by and splashed water on me. Not a tsunami or anything, but enough to soak into my boots. As if this day couldn't get any better. The car stopped and backed up. I kept walking. It crawled next to me and the window let down.

"Hey, I'm sorry about that," the voice said from the inside. I nodded and kept walking, not looking over.

"Would you like me to give you a ride?" it asked again.

"Sorry, but I don't take rides from strangers," I said, still not looking up.

"Well, you know Alex," the voice said. I stopped and narrowed my eyes, then whipped my head in the direction of the car. Alex was in the passenger's seat, and one of his friends was driving. I shook my wet hair out of my face and started walking again.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I can handle myself."

"Come on," he pressed. "You can't stay out here in the rain. You'll get pneumonia."

"I'd rather take my chances," I said bitterly.

"Please, get in. It's the least I can do. And Alex needs to give you back your book."

I stopped and looked at them.

"Fine," I sighed. He unlocked the door and I crawled into the back seat. There were already two other guys crammed into the back seat, so I sat where I could fit. There was one guy with brunette hair and light blue eyes. He had a stupid grin on his face with red and black braces, just like mine.

The other one had a shaved head and a beard. Not too much, but it was coming. He needed to shave his face.

And one had shaggy brown hair.

He was driving. When he looked back at me I almost creamed my pants. He had steel blue eyes, so soft and sweet that I almost couldn't look away. I finally managed too and shuddered slightly.

"You cold?" he asked as he turned up the heat.

"I'm fine," I said. "Thanks for the ride." I looked ahead at Alex. "Can I have my book back?"

He tossed it back to me without saying a word or turning around. We rode in silence for a few minutes.

"Why did you leave Harley?" Alex asked angrily, turning to face me. His shaggy black hair hung in his face, one platinum blonde streak sticking out. Weird, just like I remembered him.

"I didn't have much of a choice, Alex," I said looking at my feet, trying to keep my composure. I knew he would be mad at me for this. I had thought about it every since I got back. I had just hopped he wouldn't notice or remember me.

"You could have at least told me. I mean, one day we're hanging out in my back yard, the next you're MIA. I mean, you had to know."

"I didn't," I said, looking up at him. "My mom came to me in the middle of the night and we left. I didn't have a choice! I was only six!" I repeated.

Alex frowned. He looked at me a long time...like he was trying to bear into my soul. He knew how much I hated that.

"Wow," the brunette boy sitting next to me said. He had a thick country accent. "That's really cool."

"Huh?" I asked, turning to him.

"Your eyes," he said, pointing up at me. "They went from light hazel to pure black in like, half a second. That's amazing."

"Oh," I said. Alex smirked and turned away from me. He loves pissing me off. "Yeah, that happens when I get mad." I had this guy in a few classes. I'd remembered him.

"Don't you have Reveille for math?" I asked him.

"Yeah, fifth period, right after lunch. You're in that class?"

I nodded.

"That's weird," he said. "You think I'd remember you."

"I'm really quiet," I said, shrugging.

Alex laughed.

"What?" I asked, bitterly.

"People who don't know you think you're quiet. But the people who do wish you were."

I flipped him off and rolled my eyes. I guess he saw it in the mirror because he turned around again.

"You know, every since I met you I've been waiting for you to say that."

"Wow Alex. That was hilarious. Got anymore?" I asked sarcastically. The brunette boy laughed.

"I like it," he said. "I'm AJ, and this is Travis, or Tomko, as we call him. And that up there is Chris, and you know Alex."

"Thanks," I said, smiling. "It's really nice to meet you." I told the boy driving, Chris, which road to turn on to get to my house. We pulled up seconds later.

"Thanks again for the ride," I said climbing out of the car. I was walking up to the house when I heard someone running behind me. It was Alex.

"What is it?" I asked, sighing.

"I need to ask you something," he said. Chris honked the horn.

"Your friends are going to leave you," I said, pointing towards the car.

"They can wait," he said pushing his hair out of his face. "This is important."

"Well, what is it?"

"Is everything okay here?"

I frowned. "Explain."

"You know what I mean," he said. "Is your mom...okay?"

"Oh," I said. "She's doing well. She doesn't live with us anymore. She stayed back in Miami."

"So that's where you went," he mumbled. "Okay, but just so you know, if anything happens, I'm getting you out."

"Oh, so you're like my knight in shining armor?" I asked, grinning.

"How about knight in a black hoodie?" he said, grinning back at me. I nodded.

"That'll work." He pulled me into a hug.

"Bye," he said.

"Bye Alex," I said, turning to go into the house.