CHAPTER ONE
"Dad!" screamed Rose, running up the stairs. "DAD!" she screamed louder when she got no response. She came running up the stairs in a pair of dark blue flare jeans with a dark washed out red t-shirt that was darker around the collar and ends of the sleeves. Over the t-shirt, she had a black zip up Underoath hoodie on, dangling off her shoulder in her rush. She ripped open all the cabinet doors in the kitchen and grabbed a juice box and a granola bar. She ran to the door and grabbed her Invader Zim messenger bag as Gerard came up the stairs, still in his pajamas, rubbing his eyes.
"Your school starts too early." he said with a scratchy throat. "I mean, you have to be at school before I normally wake up!" Rose rolled her eyes and pushed her hair out of her face to reveal two heavily makeuped eyes.
"See you after school okay Dad?" she said, pushing her I-pod headphones into her ears and waving as she shut the door behind her. As soon as she walked down the driveway, her smile faded. School. She thought to herself. Jail, torture cell, wow, all one and the same I think. She laughed a little and flicked her I-pod to an old fall out boy song. She couldn't believe she was listening to "Homesick at Space Camp", a 2003 release, and this was what? 2025. Living in the past was all she ever liked to do. I mean her sweatshirt: FUCKING UNDEROATH! They had broken up almost six years before. Her outdated band shirts from her mother were what made her the butt of so many jokes at school. School. She thought again, and pulled her hood over her head against the November morning chill.
"Hey look it's the Chemical Romance gone wrong!" said a boy as Rose walked into homeroom. That's what they called her. As she took her seat in the back of the room, she thought about how stupid that nickname was. I mean, so perverted. I am the child of a chemical romance gone wrong. The romance got pregnant The romance had me.. Wow. Nice. Mature. She thought to herself for the millionth day in a row. You would think they would accept her if not respect her. Rose was the only one who had actually been going to the same damn school district since kindergarten. Everyone who was in the school that day had come at fifth grade or later. Her old friends all moved out of district after the shooting at occurred at the middle school a few years before. A girl died. Rose drifted off in thought until she heard the teacher clear his throat
"Ehem. Ms. WAY!" said Mr. Allen curtly. Rose snapped her head off her hand and looked at him. "If you would be so kind as to take a break from your obviously important daydreaming to take out your homework..." he said, every hint of sarcasm in his voice. She pulled her binder out of her bag and set it on the desk. She took a few seconds to admire her own artwork on the cover; falling stars, some in clusters that had letters. Mostly they spelled "Kayla". She could not explain why, but something about shooting stars made her very happy for some reason. She hesitantly opened the binder and turned to the literature questions from the night before.
When she heard the end of school bell, Rose ran like hell to her locker. She threw other people out of the way to get to that little 5'x1' metal box she called home for seven hours a day. She pulled out the binder and two textbooks she needed, shoved them into her bag and ran out of the school. Once she had gotten a block or two away from the building she let herself stop running and sat down on the curb for a moment catching her breath. For all the running she did everyday, you would think she was skinny as a rail, but in reality, Rose was a little overweight. Not like, vastly much, but enough to get a fat joke here and there. Rose's breathing finally returned to normal and she pulled her I-pod out of her back pocket. She figured she had no one to impress, so she turned on some My Chemical Romance. "Headfirst for Halos" was her favorite.
Now the red ones help me fly, and the blue ones make me fall, and I think I'll blow my brains against the ceiling...
She closed her eyes and just listened to the song. Her eyes snapped open as she heard laughter and footsteps coming her way down the sidewalk. She recognized the voices as those of four boys in her math class; Joey, Max, Travis, and Vincent. Rose put her palm to the curb and pushed herself up. She crossed the street quickly and walked slow. She was not about to look afraid of these guys. She put her I-pod on pause, hoping to catch a sound of what they were saying. All she heard was "blah blah blah". They were too far away. Then she heard her name. Well, her nickname.
"Hey look, its chemical romance gone wrong!" Rose thought it was Vincent who said it.
"Hey emo!" chimed in Max. "Hey freak I'm talking to you!" Rose refused to look up. Just keep your eyes on your shoes, put them one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other. she told herself. Then something hit her hard in the back, causing her to bend back in pain. Tears filled her eyes in a combination of physical and emotional pain once she realized that one of the boys had thrown a rock at her. Suddenly another, larger rock hit her in the back of the leg. She could hear laughter as they watched her double over every time they hit a new mark. Three more rocks were thrown, one at her arm, another at her back, and a small one hit the side of her head before she realized she had to run away. Her bag was heavy and smacked against her now bruised leg, but she ran like crazy anyway. Then she heard heavy footsteps behind her. Oh my God they're chasing me. She thought panicked. She looked around for an escape, then she heard a bell, the elementary school just let out. She ran over and in through the front doors and watched them get lost in the crowd of first graders and their parents. Once they gave up and left Rose went back outside and walked as fast as she could back home.
Walking back through the door of her house Rose found Mikey and Bob sitting on the couch, watching television. Mikey looked up and smiled.
"How was your day Rosie?" he asked. Mikey was more of a best friend than an actual uncle to Rose. He always insisted on calling her Rosie, said it was more fun to say. Rose rolled her eyes, she didn't really like it when he called her that. She was about to tell him she had a great day before realizing that her hoodie was now covering up large bruises. She paused and said
"My day was...normal. Nothing interesting, nothing out of the ordinary." she went past them into the kitchen and down the stairs, not feeling bad because it was not like she had lied to Mikey.
