We're Only Kids

Luke Bradey

Luke woke up on september 1st unlike any day he had experienced in the past three months. He awoke to annoyance. The most annoying thing he considered about waking up this time was that he was doing it in the morning other than 11:00 or noon. He opened up his groggy brown eyes to see his room. It was cleaner than it normally was, the only thing that seemed out of place was the football equipment lying on the floor. He sighed, threw off his blankets and sat up on his bed. He sat there for awhile resting his broad chin on his hand procrastinating the acceptance that he finally had to go back to school.

It wasn't that he hated school he just hated the thought of getting up early in the morning to go to it. He realized he would eventually get used to this routine as he had so many times before, but that realization made it none the easier to drag himself out of bed.

As Luke was sitting there contemplating the idea of laying back down he heard his mom calling.

"Luke, Lucy; you better get out of bed it's time for school."

"I'll be down in a sec!" He shouted out of his room almost in unison with his sister who was in the room adjacent to his.

With one more groan Luke finally found the strength to stand up and put some clothes on. He looked at his white walled room grabbed his sport bag along with the one he used for school and headed out the door of his room.

Luke was welcomed into the dining room with a scene he knew all too well. His mother and father along with his sister sitting at the table eating breakfast. Luke assumed his spot among his family and began to fill up a plate with food. The food as usual was amazing, his mother had made one of his absolute favorites, bacon and eggs.

"So what's the plan for today son?" His father asked attempting to strike up a conversation.

"Well I'm going to head to school, followed by practice, and I might head to James house afterwards to unwind. I'll call you after practice to tell you if I do or not." Luke responded in between bites of food.

"Just remember to bring your sister back home after school." His mother told him.

"Yeah." Came the voice of his 13 year old sister.

"Oops, I almost forgot that I had a sister." He said jokingly.

Him and his sister laughed for a second before his dad interrupted them.

"Yeah, well, you guys should probably get going before you end up being late."

"Alright, alright." He said chasing down his food with a glass of orange juice. "Come on Lucy."

Samantha Richards

It was time to go back to school. This was the day that annoyed many teenagers across the country. Samantha however enjoyed this day. This was the day that Samantha would finally be recognized at the top once more. She had been in the bathroom for the past half hour applying makeup to get ready for her first appearance back at school.

She looked at herself in the mirror and posed for a second. Her red hair hanged loosely to her shoulders, her blue eyes shone like stars, and her outfit complimented her petite features amazingly.

"Perfect." She said to herself, generally pleased with how she looked.

She walked out of the bathroom so that she could leave for school. She walked through the large hallways of her home towards the door. She was in the middle of the hallway when she heard a buzzing noise go off in her purse.

Samantha reached into her purse and grabbed her phone out of it.

Sarah: hey, r u ok? Samantha was confused. For the most part her friend Sarah could be a bit of a bitch from time to time, her asking if she was okay was one of the rarest things Samantha had ever witnessed.

Samantha: why do u ask? Samantha texted back quickly

Sarah: didn't u hear what happened 2 Luke? Samantha got the text back almost immediately and was scared. Luke was her ex-boyfriend and if this conversation was going where she thought it was going then there was some girl who didn't listen to her warning. She was worried but she texted back anyways.

Samantha: what happened

Sarah: he started dating that hippie chick "Shit." Samantha whispered to herself, having a pretty good idea who it was.

Samantha: Kat? Samantha was practically shaking when she asked, Kat was the one person who wouldn't be intimidated by her.

Sarah: i think so

Sarah: i gtg ill see you in school though

Samantha: bye. Samantha was pissed, Kat was the one person that she had taken the time to specifically tell to stay the hell away from Luke, and now she's dating him! This school year was definitely going to be interesting.

Johnny Bishop

Johnny was sitting on his messy bed at 6:30 his room was filled with smoke from last nights activities, the smell of mary jane strong in the air. Johnny looked over at the alarm clock which was currently under a pizza box. He realized he was screwed when he noticed that it was already morning, he was extremely tired from not sleeping last night, and it was quite apparent that he was stoned out of his mind.

Johnny turned off the radio that was currently playing 60's music. He then took a good look at his room. His room was generally of the same cleanliness it always was which for Johnny was pretty messy. He looked at the pile of clothes scattered across the floor, the half-eaten pizza half-hidden under his bed, his longboard propped up on his door, and his bong laying haphazardly on the floor.

After looking at his room for a short while he had the sudden urge to leave for school. He then realized that he would have to head to school, after three whole months of parties and fun. He wondered if Sammy would be there, probably not. Sammy was probably getting chewed out by his mother for staying over at Johnny's (or in her eyes 'the devil') until midnight on a school night. He wished that maybe his mom would let him stay home today but school was one of the few things he couldn't get away with.

Suddenly Johnny's friend, Tate burst into his room frantically. Johnny had known Tate ever since Johnny had moved here and if there was anything Johnny knew about Tate it was that he was a troublemaker. He looked the part too, well if you lived in the 50's at least, having greased back black hair and a torn up biker jacket that he'd been wearing since the 6th grade he had affectionately been come to be known by the school as ponyboy after reading The Outsiders in the 8th grade. Tate was definitely a man out of time, of course that may have been the main reason the two of them had become friends. Johnny liked to dress and act like a hippie, even growing out his blonde hair to his shoulders. It was this reason that many people called him Johnny Lennon.

"You ready to go du-. Whoa!" Tate started in a hurried expression then stopped when he noticed Johnny's room. "Looks like somebody had a fun night last night. How much did you smoke?"

"Dude,I didn't even think I had that much but it just seemed like I kept getting more and more out of nowhere." Johnny replied

"Well grab your stuff we gotta go." It was obvious Tate didn't want to hang out for much longer.

"Dude, what did you do?" Johnny asked while picking up his red glasses and spraying some febreze on himself.

"Can you just believe that for once the reason I'm skittish isn't because I'm afraid of getting caught for doing something?" Tate joked

"No." Johnny stated simply.

Johnny packed up the only things he would need for school which at the moment was some pants and a tye dye t-shirt.

"Let's go." Johnny told his friend.

Alaina Wooten

It's pretty hard for light to come through black curtains, even harder if those black curtains happened to belong to Alaina who would have the darkest and thickest curtains available. Alaina hated being woken up at any time other than when she woke up naturally. Alaina also hated the light. The light would reveal who she was, a freak in her eyes. In the darkness she was safe, alone she was safe. Now because of American law it was time for her to leave the safety and comfort of home, it was time for school.

She wondered how her grandparents would react to seeing her come out of her room for anything other than food. She knew her grandparents had been trying to avoid her, they had ever since she showed up on their doorstep after her parents died in Iraq. Alaina since then had become a lot more suppressed and a little bit of a loner. She had also started to cut herself every so often to let out the pain.

Alaina got prepared for the world by putting on her heavy black hoodie that was about two sizes too big. She had the hood put over most of her face to help protect her from the assholes who might say shit otherwise. This way people talked behind her back but no one would have the guts to talk to her directly.

Alaina walked around her dark room with little problem. She hadn't changed much of the room in the two years she had lived there. She still knew where her closet was and her bed and even the Marilyn Manson poster on her wall. She was trying to think of any reason that she would be allowed to stay home.

She was grateful that her grandparents had given her some space since she had moved there, but her grandpa was still one of the most responsible people she knew. She knew that there was no way that he would ever let her stay home from school. Alaina groaned with pain as she walked out of the attic she had come to know as sanctuary.

Alaina took in her surroundings once she had gotten to the bottom of the stairs. She had been in the kitchen plenty of times before, but the only thing she had come to memorize was the fridge and microwave placement. She walked to the freezer grabbed out a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich (one of the few sources of happiness in this dark world), and put it in the microwave. The goth leaned against the counter with her head down and her hands in her pockets while waiting for it to finish.

Suddenly she heard her grandpas overly loud footsteps come into the kitchen.

"You going to school today?" The balding man asked with little emotion.

"Yes." Alaina replied with a gruff voice.

"Well I'd hurry up if I were you, the bus is pulling up to the driveway right now." He said right as the timer on the microwave finished.

In a frantic motion Alaina grabbed the sandwich and ran out the door as fast as she could, not even bothering to say goodbye as she ran towards the yellow chariot that would take her to hell.

Jude Daniels

The sound of a door being slammed open is what awoke Jude from his restless sleep. Jude had about a good second to watch his stepfather, Tim storm from his door to his bed, where Jude was currently sitting. He looked to be about as red as he was normally was, his curly blonde head and beard looking just as stupid as the day before. He kicked Jude's boombox to the side smashing it against the side of Jude's bed, he figured he should have known better than to leave something expensive in plain view like that.

"Why aren't you out of bed yet, shithead?" He asked with annoyance quite apparent.

"Piss off." Jude retorted nonchalantly.

"Piss off?" Tim whispered.

"Respect your elders!" He yelled at Jude's face while picking him up by his short brown hair.

"I will the second you stop being an ass!" Jude yelled back at him, triggering a weird silence.

A couple of seconds passed where nothing happened. The tension in the room was extremely nerve-wracking as Jude and his stepdad had the scariest staring contest ever. The slightest movement would cause an extremely violent fight, and fights between these two never ended very well and there was almost always blood on someone's knuckles by the end of them.

I'll give you five minutes to get ready and get the hell out." Tim stated not averting his gaze from Jude's eyes for a second.

After a couple more seconds Tim who was still holding Jude by his hair threw him at the wall. Tim left the trashed room shaking the trailer as he slammed the door behind him. Jude put his hand up to his head to check for something and discovered that it was true, Jude brought his hand back down in front of his eyes to see blood.

Jude sat with his back against the wall of his room looking over the mess. There was a pile of ripped clothes on the floor, a destroyed boombox, a couple of burnt schoolbooks, and an aluminum baseball bat that obviously hadn't been used for hitting baseballs.

Jude's hands fell to the floor where they met something small and cylindrical. After tinkering with it for awhile he decided to look down and see what it was even though he already had a pretty good idea. His eyes fell upon a cigarette, one of which he hadn't touched in three months. Not a bad time to start again he thought putting it into his pocket.

Jude got up from the floor and put some pants on. Might as well start leaving now before his old man came back. Jude thought about what could possibly happen in school that would be important for him to learn, if his life kept going the way it was he would either be dead or serving a life sentence by the time he was 21.

Jude walked out the cracked door of his room to see Tim rushing towards him. I guess my five minutes are up. Jude thought to himself as he ran towards the door. He barely managed to escape his father's grasp as he pushed himself out the door and over the porch with a leap that could only be accomplished with adrenaline and a little bit of luck.

Jude walked down his driveway, sidestepped to avoid a beer bottle his stepdad threw at him, watched a Firebird speed by with Johnny Lennon and Ponyboy, and then he kept walking to finally return to safety.

So I finally got to writing down this idea that I had swirling around in my head. This is probably the hardest I have ever worked on writing a chapter, so I hope it shows and doesn't suck too much.