A/N: Hey guys, here's a new chapter for ya! It's going kind of quick; I'm currently writing up chapter 3 and will post chap. 2 tomorrow so y'all can look forward to that. Without further ado, chapter 1.
Chapter 1
Sarah 'Swift' Hood walked into school, brown hair tucked as neatly under a grey hoodie as her landlady, Eliza, demanded it. She wove quickly through the bustling throng of students to her locker, which she unlocked, then locked as fast as she could; a safeguard against the bullies and mockers she was a magnet for. Slipping into her seat in English, she sighed and propped her face up on her hand. Her classmates slowly filed in, chatting and taking amongst themselves. None of it was directed towards her, of course — she had been deemed unfriendly years ago, and those who had tried to involve her in a good-natured chat had had their heads practically snapped off. Her neighbours took their seats, a boy named Peter behind her with his best friend Ned. Neither of them were any different from the others in terms of having tried to talk to her, but she often saw (or more like felt) Peter shooting glances at her when he thought she couldn't tell. She hoped he wouldn't come up to her today; so far she was having a boring day, and anyone trying to start a conversation with her would only get brushed off or ignored, and he seemed like a nice-enough guy, not entirely deserving of her cold shoulder. I've never had friends, and I never will. No matter how hard they try. She glared hard at her eraser, as if it was to blame for this whole thing.
Her parents had died in a car crash when she was five and left her orphaned and alone, not many people she knew left in the world. A distant aunt had taken her in until a few months ago, when she was fourteen, then she had learned to fend for herself, getting a job at a mechanic's shop to earn her food and rent at Eliza's. The landlady was more like a friend or mother figure, really, making sure she was cleaned up and on time for school everyday and giving her helpful bits of advice just when she needed it. She was virtually the only person Sarah — or by her preferred nickname, Swift — would talk to, and the best she'd ever known since her parent's death.
Absorbed in her thoughts, she completely ignored all the teachers and school staff — they merely sighed and moved on to another student because by this point, they'd all learned that it was no use getting her to answer anything unless Eliza instructed it, though astoundingly she never got kicked out.
School was out, parents picking up and summoning students back home. Swift walked by herself as had been her custom every single day. Lately she had been thinking about her parents more often and starting to miss them especially today, that lonely, gnawing feeling even stronger than usual.
So on the way back, she climbed the stairs to the roof of a nearby carpark (or car park), walked to the edge and let herself drop.