Ch. 1
It all started the first day of school. My new school where I knew no one. Well, except my brother Drew. And he was the popular football player. I was completely alone. And alone is not where I wanted to be.
I walked to the media immersions class alone. I was late, and as a result, drew attention to myself as I tried to enter the classroom unnoticed. The teacher, who introduced herself as Ms. Oh, and who looked way too young to be a teacher, asked me my name.
"Adam Torres," I replied.
"You're late," she said.
"Sorry, I got lost, I'm new."
"I can tell. Perhaps you should have someone show you around. Katlyn?"
A girl looked up. She had black hair with bright red tips, and wore a black tee shirt with a pink skull, and had blue words written on it under that. I couldn't read the words from where I was.
"Katlyn? Would you please show Adam around school? He's new around here and I'm sure he could use a friend..." It seemed like she was going to add 'And so could you' at the end, but I knew it would make this girl, Katlyn, mad.
I went to sit down next to her after she had reluctantly agreed. It was the only place opened. I saw what her shirt said when I got closer. It said 'Avenged Sevenfold.' I could tell I was going to like this girl. I smiled at her.
"What?" she asked offended.
"I...like your shirt," I offered.
"Oh, you're an Avenged Sevenfold fan too?"
"Oh yeah, of course. Great band."
"Right?" she asked before Ms. Oh shushed her from the front of the room. We couldn't talk anymore in class, but when it ended, we stood and began to walk out of the class together. I liked this girl, Katlyn. She made me forget all my problems, whether because I had fun with her, or because I could tell she had her own problems, I couldn't tell.
We sat together at lunch that day. We sat at a corner table where no one came usually, she told me. But two girls from media immersions came up to the table.
"Ugh!" one of the girls said. "I told you we should have got here earlier. Come on, let's go eat outside."
"Wait," I told them. "You guys can sit with us."
They looked a bit wary sitting next to Katlyn, but accepted all the same."I'm Alli," the girl who tried to leave earlier said. "And this is Clare."
"I'm Adam," I told them. "And this is—"
"Katlyn," Clare answered. "We've met. Sort of. Media immersion. And...we were in the same gifted class last year, remember?"
"Yeah, I do," Katlyn answered. This came as a shock to me. I hadn't expected Katlyn to be in the gifted smart classes. Not with her style and attitude towards others. She was never mean to me, but throughout the course of the day she had ignored anyone who would talk to her. Not that many did. I suspected people had gotten used to her silence last year. She was in grade ten like ate lunch in silence. I wasn't comfortable making many friends, for fear they would discover my secret, Katlyn I knew for a fact didn't talk to people, and Clare and Alli sat uncomfortably as well. I knew it was a bad idea to tell them to stay, for me and Katlyn had such a good time on our girls left with little time left at lunch and I used that time to ask Katlyn why she seemed to hate everybody but me.
"I can't trust people," she responded. "Who could I trust? Parents? No way. Parents who got pregnant at fourteen and gave me away. Guess I'm lucky to be alive. I live with foster parents who hate me and would like to see me d—" she cut off. "Anyway. Any friend I've had treated me cold and distant. In the past, I couldn't trust anyone. People say the past is over and it's time to move on to the present, but the past can teach you lessons."
"If you don't trust, why trust me?" I asked.
"Because I can tell you're different. You've struggled with friends in the past too, haven't you? We're not so different, you and me."
I didn't know how, but I could tell there was something else. Something crucial she wasn't telling me.