Chapter 1

Life was, in one word, "horrible." I had no friends and really no family. The only thing I had was memories and pain of past events. It was the first day of high school or, as you call it, the worst day of my high school education. I have been scared of starting high school, because they say that your Freshman year is worse than being one of the newbies. All I wished was that my mom was there to comfort me. Dad just dropped me off and whispered, "Have fun."

Yeah right, like he knows anything... I would rather be doing something else. Anything but schoolwork, maybe Dad could spend some time with me instead of me doing stupid schoolwork. I walked into the main entrance. They had huge white and black doors with an axe engraved into the glass. "Home of the Warriors" was in big bold letters on the top of the black and white tiled ceilings as I walked down the hallway. I shut the doors behind me with a loud bang, other teenagers just walked down the halls or stairs to their classes. Some stared at me or sneered, others whispered behind my back as I walked passed them. Ever since I've been at school I have always been considered different then other people.

Because I stay by myself, for one, and because my hair is unnaturally long. I hate judgmental people, and I always have, because they don't give anyone a chance. I walked around a sharp corner and found my locker, 345. As I did, two girls, one with short blonde hair and green eyes, and the other with black hair that was pixie cut and short. The black-hair girl had weird-looking eyes, because she had purple-color contacts in.

"You'd better watch yourself," hissed the girl with black hair as she bumped into me.

"Say 'you're sorry,'" commanded the girl with blonde hair, as she pointed her finger at me. "Don't just stand there, do it."

I just smiled and gave them an evil look. The girls narrowed their eyes and said, "NOW would be good."

I was not in the mood for this, so I turned away. As I did, the blonde girl raised her hand to slap me across the face. I grabbed her hand before it hit me and squeezed it. I threw her hand back at her and she stumbled back a few steps. Then other girl's eyes went wide and she decided to try strike to me.

"Well, this a good way to show a warm welcome," I said angrily. I crushed my fist together and smashed it into her face. She screamed then and tried to pull my hair, so I punched her again, this time in the nose, which started to bleed.

The blond girl joined in again, except she tried to slam me against the lockers. One older guy had his opened, so I pulled her around and slammed her head into the locker several times. I continued doing so until a teacher from behind me yelled, pulling my arm backward.

"They put this on themselves," I said, as a teacher dragged me to the principle's office. I'm not usually the type of person who will ignore something like this, but today I had a lot on my mind and didn't feel like being nice to anyone.

I had some blood on my hands, I looked back at the two girls in pity. The girl with the black hair mouthed 'we will get you.' The blond girl was moaning in pain as she grabbed her hair while rolling over.

"You're in big trouble, young lady," said the teacher. As I turned to meet his gaze, I noticed he looked different then the others.

He was young, maybe in his early twenties. He had black hair that was pulled back behind his shoulders, and it was about chin length. His eyes were dark brown. To me he looked handsome, maybe even hot. What am I saying? He is a flipping teacher!

"Why? I was just defending myself?" I replied to him. He gave me a why-did-you-do-it look, then we finally arrived to the principle's office. He peeked his head inside and spoke to the councilor, who was taking care of a student.

"I will get her in a minute or so, but for now you watch her, Mr. Daring," said the old lady. He nodded and took a seat next to me. It was quiet for a few seconds. Finally he spoke out of frustration.

"What you should have done, was walk away, or told a teacher, at least," he said in a low voice, shaking his head.

"I tried to walk away, but those girls," I said in a soft tone.

"Mia and Carly," he corrected. Doesn't change anything, I thought.

"Yeah, whatever, anyways, I tried to walk away and that girl... Carly tried to hit me. So, I defended myself, that's it," I said, looking away from him to the door as kids looked into the office and whispered. I bet this will be great gossip, one freshmen gets to kick to two older girls butts.

He grunted and bit his jaw," Yeah, but you could have done something else."

"What would you have done?" I said in a mocking voice, turning my eyes toward him as he mumbled something to himself. I just crossed my arms and looked at him.

"I would have…" He tried to say something, but the guidance councilor interrupted him.

"I'm ready to see you Lyra. Thank you, Mr. Daring," she said in a sweet voice as the kid she was talking to dragged himself out the door.

His last words to me were, "It was nice to meet you, Lyra." Then he walked away, telling students to get to class.

I stepped into her office it was covered in Elvis Presley figurines on the walls. There was piano music playing softly behind her desk.

"What did you do to end up here?" she questioned, as she looked at her typewriter, adjusting her glasses.

"I got in a fight with Mia and Carly." I said looking around at the cat picture on the desk that said, 'I hate Mondays.'

"Oh….that explains it," she said in a quiet voice, then looked back over to me, "You may leave now."

"What…" I said, looking at her like she was crazy. Are you serious?

"You may choose your punishment. You have two choices: help Mr. Daring or one week in detention."

"Help Mr. Daring," I said quickly.

"Okay, I will inform him later, but for today, you're suspended," she said, smiling. I was going to protest, but I just said okay and walked off. For an old lady like that, she should be at least a little nice. I guess my stereotyping is wrong.

I thought about how I would get picked up, but it was to early to ride the bus. Dad probably wouldn't dare come and pick me up. Figures. I finally decided to walk home instead, it was about five miles up through the dirt road that led to my house. I walked up to my house as it began to pour down rain, and hail.

My house was modeled in the 1970's and it was surrounded by acres of woods, but to me, it was all right. As I trotted past the steps, I noticed some of the brick was starting to chip off, I guessed I would have to fix that too, like I do everything else in this house. I walked up onto the patio and opened the wood-framed door with a loud rusty creak. As I walked through the living room, I flipped on the news station. There were going to be some massive storms tonight said the old looking weather man. I smelt like dried blood, so I decided to take a shower and wash it off. When I got out, the first thing I did was go into my room and pass out on my bed.

Okay People I'm sorry I took forever I've been getting ready for school tell me what you think so far, and I will update and I tell you now this is only the first part of this chapter. Thank you for reading so far, and please review.