Daryl finished off his cigarette, his gaze watching as girl who knocked into him scurried off with such speed he was surprised she didn't leave a cloud of smoke behind her. He shook his head, flicking the still burning butt onto the floor as he debated whether or not to even bother showing up to first period.
He'd had one hell of a morning already, hence the early smoke. He knew teachers would be on his ass if they caught him but they were damn lucky he'd even showed up in the first place. For the first time in weeks he had been graced with Merle's presence, high out of his god damn mind, some whore wandering 'round like she owned the place. Daryl's patience quickly wore thin as he tried to get Merle to come around enough to tell the bitch to leave. Instead he ended up trying himself only for her claim she wasn't leaving till she got her money, Daryl sighed as he came to the realisation that she was in fact an actual whore. Not having time for the bullshit he rummaged through Merle's wallet coming up empty, of fucking course. Cursing to himself, he went to his own wallet chucking two fifties at her, the only two fifties to his name, the two fifties he'd fucking worked his ass off for down at the garage.
Satisfied with her payment she dragged her skanky ass out of their trailer, Daryl swiftly kicking Merle in the side after she left.
"Ya nasty ass got a fuckin' whore last night!" he growled, feeling no sympathy as Merle groaned in pain.
"No wonder she were so fuckin' eager," Merle cackled, grunting as Daryl kicked him again.
"Sort ya fuckin' shit out Merle, I ain't got time to be babysittin' ya," Daryl muttered, taking the keys to his bike of his back pocket.
"Where ya off ta baby brother?" Merle asked grasping at a half open beer from the night before, taking a long pull from it.
Daryl wrinkled his nose in disgust, "school ya jackass, I ain't turnin' out a useless piece've shit like you."
Merle feigned hurt placing a hand over his heart, "alright nerd, have fun kiddo, grab us some more beers on the way back?"
"I'm eighteen dipshit, pick 'em up ya god damn self, 'sides ain't got no money just had to pay off yer slut."
Daryl didn't wait for his response before slamming the door behind him, leaving Merle to clean up the mess he created.
He pulled himself out of the events of this morning, scuffing his foot against the gravel, turning to head back into school - he was here now he may as well at least try.
Wandering into class ten minutes late the teacher immediately gave him an after-school detention, being a Dixon he expected nothing less, he'd go purely just to steer clear of Merle as long as possible.
Everyone avoided his gaze as he took a seat at the back of the class, trying to figure out the hell all those numbers on the board meant. When he realised he wasn't going to understand a single word of the lesson his mind switched off, his hard gaze sweeping over the imbeciles he had to suffer with for classmates.
His family name certainly didn't make his life easy, the only thing it really did was make him thick skinned, sometimes a bit too thick skinned. The name Dixon prompted one of two emotions out of people (sometimes both), either fear or disgust, usually the former. It suited him just fine, he didn't need to be pestered by these pricks anyway.
Relief washed through him as the bell finally rang, swiftly striding out of the classroom towards his next class, art. He didn't much mind art, the teacher didn't give a shit what you did as long as you stayed out of her hair. Taking a seat in the corner of the room he idly sketched out some modifications he wanted to eventually have on his bike, when he had the money that was which wasn't going to ever be likely.
He worked in the garage a few days a week after school, the owner was 'friends' with Merle, whatever that meant and so Daryl landed himself a job there at the age of sixteen. Most the money he earnt went on paying the bills Merle rarely ever could. It would be so easy for him to just drop out of school and work there full time, actually earn some money instead of just breaking even. But he wanted out of this place, he wanted to learn the trade, properly. Everything he knew was from the guys down at the garage and a few things he'd picked up from a book he'd found once in the back office. Getting out of this town though, that was the real goal, somewhere no one knew about his deadbeat father who up and hightailed over a year ago, or his drug addict of a brother who dropped out of high school to sit on his ass all day.
High hopes and all though, he'd be lucky if he wasn't kept back a year at this rate, the more the teachers in this shit hole gave him a hard time the more he didn't want to be there.
Brushing away the rubber marking on his page his eyes flickered up for a moment, noticing the same girl from this morning, a pencil held between her lips as she stared down hard at whatever she was currently working on.
He couldn't remember her name, knew that she was part of the Miller family, extremely well known in the town for being incredibly wealthy, her parents snotty and stuck up just like rich people tended to be. He'd fixed one of their cars once, being the only garage in town, they'd demanded it be done by the next day. The father couldn't help but add in a snark comment that nothing of value had been left in there before he decided to go rooting around. Fucking pricks.
He couldn't speak for the girl though, school girls wasn't really his forte, he didn't have time for their mindless games and obsessive tendencies. Other than the few lays he'd got through association of Merle he had ever been interested in all that relationship crap, far too messy. No, girls were definitely not a head fuck he did needed, he had enough trouble focusing on school as it was.
Trudging through the rest of the school day he was relieved when the final bell rang, only to remember the detention he was supposed to attend. He dragged his ass there, suffering through his punishment in complete silence, almost falling asleep until a knock on the door startled him awake.
"Come in," the teacher called out, Daryl's eyes watching as yet again that day the Miller's daughter was in his presence.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said looking around at the few individuals that were sat at desks, "is this a bad time?"
"No no, just the troublemakers paying their due, pay them no attention."
Daryl noticed the girl frown at that comment, quickly smoothing out her features as the teacher looked towards her.
"What was it?" he asked.
"Um, it was just I wanted to ask about the grade I got for my test today," she said somewhat nervously, pulling out the papers in her bag.
"What about it?" The teacher didn't even try to hide his boredom and lack of interest for their current conversation.
"I just…well I was looking over my answers and I think you got a couple of them wrong, sir I've never got a B in my entire life," she said, god she knew she sounded like a dick right now but she couldn't go home to show her parents a B, she just…couldn't.
"Wrong?" the teacher snorted in response, "highly unlikely Miss Miller."
"Could you just, humour me? Please?" Daryl didn't know why she was pushing so hard for this, he'd be fucking thrilled with a B.
"Fine," the teacher muttered swiping the papers out of her hand.
As he began to remark the test her eyes swept across the room, catching with Daryl's briefly before adverting her gaze to the floor, seemed she feared him too.
The teacher sighed loudly as he stacked the sheets back together, crossing out the B on the front and replacing it with an A.
"My mistake Miss Miller, congratulations, you're straight A reputation lives to see another day."
Even Daryl didn't like the snark in his tone, why were teachers such assholes? He should be pleased she was doing so well. Still the fact that wasn't happy with B grated him a little, Daryl was taught that you get what life gives you, maybe that didn't apply to those at the top of the hierarchy.
The Miller's girl thanked him before closing the door behind her, leaving him to sit out the rest of his detention in gruelling silence once again.