Look for the girl with the broken smile, ask her if she wants to stay a while. And she will be loved, and she will be loved.
-Maroon 5 (she will be loved)
...
Fang Martinez wasn't the kind of guy who liked any major changes. He liked his life the way it was- he had a beautiful girlfriend (although she was questionable in the 'brains' department), a few admittedly dodgy friends, three wonderfully annoying foster siblings and a hyper dog.
His life was fine as it was. He didn't need anything to screw it up... Especially something as drastic as moving to California.
Compared to Arizona, the heat was nothing, but that wasn't the problem. There was nothing particularly offending or annoying about California, yet it still irked him. He was perfectly happy where he was in Phoenix, with friends he could rely on 70% of the time and a ridiculously clueless yet sweet girlfriend.
He didn't need lifelong friends, he didn't need to be looking for someone to settle down with, despite what his foster mother might think, because he was a teenager. He was supposed to get drunk and go to parties and sneak away from home at night.
No, the heat wasn't what annoyed Fang about LA, California. It was the idea of a fresh start, of being the new kid, of all the endless possibilities he didn't want. He didn't need.
Fang Martinez also wasn't the kind of guy to tell people how he was feeling. A couple therapists along the was had said he suffered from 'communication problems'. And so, when his foster mom told him to pack his bags because they were leaving for California, he simply nodded.
Because that was the kind of guy he was.
...
Fang started attending his new high school, Death Valley Senior High, only two weeks after he arrived in Los Angeles.
He got dropped off at the front gates with Nudge, Angel and Gazzy and they were silent as they took in the shambling wreck that was meant to 'ease children into learning in welcome environments' and 'encourage young adults to pursue the careers right for them' and 'push all ages, genders and learning abilities to try their hardest, no matter what' according to the brochure their mother read.
Fang now understood why there were no pictures of the actual school in the flyer.
"Well," Angel started, ever the optimistic one. "It can only get better on the inside, right?"
Gazzy groaned and Nudge looked crestfallen. Fang knew this was the beginning of an ever worsening series of events.
By homeroom, where an exhausted teacher made no move to control the wild hormonal teens, Fang knew he was in deep crap. One particular girl arrived nearly thirty minutes late, and an enthusiastic couple made out on the desks in the back.
"Oh god," he muttered to himself. He glanced up to the desk a few seats over, where the late girl snoozed casually. "What is this? A zoo?"
The high school was most definitely not better on the inside.
And Fang's point was only proven when the sleeping girl with large brown eyes and curly sun streaked hair woke abruptly and proceeded to glare his head off.
...
"How was school?" Dr M's chirpy voice came as soon as Fang entered the car (he got shotgun privileges until next week) and buckled himself in.
"Horrible," Fang sighed, exhausted from the horrifying day.
"It can't have been that bad," she said, looking slightly upset, and Fang immediately changed his mind. He tried to smile and sound upbeat.
"Well, y'know, first day problems and all that. It'll be much better by tomorrow."
Dr M's face smoothed into a smile.
"Thank goodness." She said. "By tomorrow, it'll be amazing, just you wait, honey."
Predictably, it didn't get better the next day. Or the next day. Or the one after that.
...
It was nearly a week later and Fang was near explosion. School was the same disaster it would always be, and he just hovered around Nudge and her friends whenever he had the choice. He was beginning to feel like it would never end, the constant pressure to find friends and socialise when all he really wanted to do was go home.
Fang decided to go for a walk.
"Some fresh air will do you good," Dr M had said. She had been worried about him ever since the she noticed the bags underneath his eyes, or the fact that he hadn't smiled or laughed properly since he was with his girlfriend, Maya.
But she hadn't replied to his texts or calls, and he was beginning to wonder if she was so sweet after all.
He found himself in a small abandoned playground, the equipment rusted and worn, the sand thin and dirtied. Smashed beer bottles and various litter riddled the ground, and Fang realised he had wandered out of his relatively well-off neighbourhood, and into one considerably less rich and more dangerous.
There were only two occupants- a teenaged girl around his age, and a small boy around seven. The girl pushed the little boy on the swings, a faint smile on her tired features.
And now that he looked closer at her, he realised she looked vaguely familiar.
She was the late girl from homeroom who always slept in class.
Fang saw the tenderness in her face as she looked at the boy and wondered why she was always late. Wondered why she was always so tired, why she sometimes appeared with bruises on her face or arms.
He sat a little ways away from them, on a bench, and stared at the city of LA and wondered.
Ok, yeah. :) I apologise if anything is wrong about LA or Cali or Arizona, I only know what my brother told me and he literally said, 'Arizona is hot and desert-y. California is slightly less hot and desert-y.' Yep. That's my bro. Anyway. Thanks for the reviews, fav/follow.
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