Chapter One:

"Normal"

I had lost track of how many times I have been humiliated at school. To do a quick adding, it was everyday at school since the third grade. I would be so grateful when I got sick. Sadly, stupid Danny Henry always figured out how to make it up when I came back. So today, I got the treat of getting spaghetti dumped all over me, due to the fact that I didn't give Amy Leigh, Danny's girl, the answers on our AP Physics pop quiz.

"I'm sick of your bullshit, Henry!" Jack Kelly, my best friend said furiously.

"Well boys looks like Kelly Boy wants to stand up to Pritchard. Hmm, so you and Pritchard are going to kick my ass? We'll just see about that."

My other best friend, Corey Liam, the most calm and sane of my two friends, had enough.

"Hey, back off or I'll-"

"Cool it, Liam!" I said cutting Corey off. "Listen let's put this all behind us, Danny." I finished coolly.

"Danny, let's just kick their ass and get it over with." said one of Danny's goons, Jake Dean.

"I like that option, Jake" said the other goon, Tim Brown.

"You guys have a point." he agreed, as he took a swing that connected to Corey's face.

All I remembered was someone, in the sea of students, yelling "fight!" Next thing I know, I see the head of the school, the bitch in charge. The school principal: Ms. Eva Hernandez. And the look on her face could have been in a scary movie. No make up required.

She looked down at me with her cold, heartless eyes. All she said was: "Get up and you and your two troublemaking friends come with me." That was all she said before escaping the room.

I have always hated her. And I never use the word "hate" a lot. Just only for people who I disliked and that made her at the top of my list. Ms. Hernandez was short, maybe 4'8'' at the most with her long black hair. She really needed to get married. Or at least screwed for once. The only reason my buddies and I were in trouble was because we weren't "normal."

While everyone else in school wore Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein clothing, Corey, Jack and I modeled in Levis, with our Role Model shirts and Vans clothing. With our trademark Oakley's sunglasses and Doc Martens. My friends and I are the only metal heads in town. We are just invisible to them. Losers, weirdo's, Satanists, basically anything they can stick a stupid label on us 3. Bullshit.

Jack helped me up and Corey's face was pretty red from that punch from Danny Henry. Corey handed me some paper towels to get more of that spaghetti out of my hair. Corey was my friend since I was born. Our parents knew and grew up with each other. He is only two inches shorter then me and I'm 5'11''. He has the same hairstyle since the sixth grade. Shaggy, no farther then his nose and had dirty blonde hair. Corey was always careful with his words, so he wouldn't get into trouble. Smart kid. He is always nice to talk to. He knows me as well as, well…me.

As for Jack, I've known him since the third grade. He was new in school and was short for his age. Then, Danny was the tallest kid in the whole third grade. He picked on Jack and I stood up for him. I made a new friend and a new arch enemy all in the same day. Funny thing is that I stood up for him cause I was taller then him then. Now he's the bigger one and the one who is standing up for me. Almost like he is repaying me from all of the times I got beat in grade school because I stood up for him. Now he looks maybe 6'3'' at the least. He has his lower left lip pierced with a blue ring. He has also short, spiky red hair. Almost like a Merlot color. He always seems to lighten up everyone's mood by cracking jokes.

The 3 of us made our way through the sea and made it to the main hall. We walked through the corridors, without a word, to the principal's office. If the 3 of use weren't in there together, that they would bring us in there one at a time, and question us. When we would be called in by ourselves, it was to see the school's psychiatrist, so they could find out why we wouldn't wear the same clothes as our classmates.

Right before we opened the familiar wood door, Jack had to say something.

"Do you think they will have lie detectors this time?"

Corey smiles and said, "If they do, it wouldn't surprise me."

I grabbed the cold knob of the door and yanked it open. Motioning my two friends in, I yawned. Not because I was used to the constant office visits, but because I was tired. Tired of this school and tired of my boring life.

Finally, I went back to reality and went through the doorframe and walked into the same, stingy smelling, office. I walked into Ms. Hernandez's office and sat in between my buds and waited for the lecture. She kept pacing back in forth. That meant that she was thinking of a reason why we were being punished when we didn't even do anything. We waited patiently for her to say something like, "you boys are magnets for trouble" or something pretty similar, which was lame. All of a sudden, she stopped and sat down. Finally.

She clicked her tongue a couple of times and then opened her ugly, snaggle-toothed mouth. "So who wants to go first?"

"It doesn't matter what we say. You're going to side with Henry, Dean and Brown. Along with whoever they paid to say what didn't happened." I said in a calm voice, or at least tried to stay calm.

"Well, according to Amy Leigh, she says that you groped her in the lunch line. I will NOT tolerate this in my school. By any means. What kind of punishment should I put upon you, Maxx?"

"I don't really know because I didn't grope her. But Jack and Corey weren't involved."

"Explain how?" she asked leaning over her overly sized desk.

"Danny confronted me at lunch and got mad because I didn't let Amy copy my AP Physics pop quiz the day before. So he dumped spaghetti all over me, humiliated me and tried to knock my lights out, which he did and Corey got knocked by Danny as well. She is just lying to you. That's what happened, ma'am."

"Fine. If you want to lie to me then you are suspended for the rest of the day, Mr. Pritchard." She said with a heavy sigh. "I'll be informing your mother."

I let out a loud laugh. "Good luck, Ms. Hernandez. She's hardly home. That would be a miracle if you get a hold of her."

"Then your father."

"He travels and doesn't give a care what I do with my life. See you later, Ms. H." I turned to my dudes. "See you guys later."

"Bye, Maxx" they both said in unison as I got up, taking my backpack, and heading out the door.

"As for you two, go back to class after I give you passes. No more fighting, understood?" That was all I heard from her before I sprinted for the front door out of this jail cell.

I had to walk almost two miles to my house. Oh well, I was used to it. Mom worked at the diner nineteen hours. The remaining five hours were used for a shower and sleeping. So we don't really have good communication. I never really got why she worked so late and hard. I mean, my father was paying child support. Enough for her not to work so late and not like a slave, still I felt sort of responsible for her condition. I even wonder if the reason why she never came home a lot was because I looked so much like my father. They were high school sweethearts at one time long ago. Times have changed I guess. No such thing as true love and soul mates these days with cheating and secret lives. Pity.

I walked the cold streets of Thompson Falls, Montana. The same stupid, crummy hometown with 1,321 residents, the same place that I've always wanted to get away from. After twenty minutes of walking, I finally reached Tina's Diner. I cupped my icy cold hands at the window and looked in. My mother was sitting down at table reading the newspaper. I quickly walked around and opened the entrance and stomped my feet of anything I was dragging from the school to here. My mother looked up and got up and walked up to me with a worry, motherly look on her face. My mom used to be so fun to be with. After splitting with my father, we went on these trips all over Montana. It just went up in flames 3 years ago and I feel like I don't know my mother anymore. She was thin, short and also had thin, blonde hair. But she had the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. I missed my old mom

"What happened?" she asked sympathetically.

"Danny Henry picked a fight with me at lunch and I got sent home for doing nothing, as usual." I said, knowing that my mother would take my side.

"I'll have a talk to your principal. I have had it."

"I don't need you fighting my battles, mom."

"Honey, I know I haven't been home at all for the past 3 years. But I just want to make you happy and go to college."

"But I have the money dad gives you for support and you don-"

"It is not about that, baby. There is more to my story, I'll tell you later, but not now. I don't want you to worry about me. Just worry about you. All right. Besides I heard that you're going to get 3 new classmates tomorrow."

I looked at her in surprise. "I thought that you weren't into gossip?"

She shrugged. "I picked up bad habits from Tina. But I heard there are two girls and one boy. One of the girls and the boy are twins and the other is only eleven months younger. So they're in the same grade. They just moved in today."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, wondering why she was being so nice to me all of a sudden.

"I'm your mother and I heard that the boy dresses to your taste but the girls are just the same as the other copies. Anyways go home, eat and do your homework. I'll try to get off soon. Ok? I love you."

"I love you too, mom" I kissed her on top of her head. It had been so long since I have heard those 3 magical words. I gave her a long, strong hug and left to continue my journey to my house. Just another fifteen to twenty minutes of walking and I'd be home.

I was finally home. My mother owned a decent two story home. We had four bedrooms. One for her, myself and for my two buds who slept over every weekend. I unlocked the freezing door and walked inside. Throwing my keys on the desk next to the door and going upstairs and putting my stuff on my bed.

I wasn't like other boys my age. I was a neat freak and my room was spotless. Sad, huh? I pulled my black Jansport backpack to me and took out my homework I had and did it. Homework also came easy to me and I knew what was expected of me. I finished within minutes and put everything away for tomorrow. Which was Friday! The weekend was soon here. Running back down the stairs, I opened the fridge and took out some fruit salad I had made the night before and snacked on that.

There was a knock at my door and I set the bowl down on the antique dinner room set and walked to the front door. I opened it and found my two buds there waiting for me.

"We wanted to see if you survived walking home in the cold" Jack joked.

"Ha, ha, ha. Funny" was all I said in rebuttal.

"So what are the plans for today?" Corey asked eagerly.

"I heard that there's a new family in town and that we'll have 3 new classmates. So why don't we take a look?" I suggested, hoping that they would say "yes".

They both looked at each other and nodded. I jumped up in excitement and grabbed my jacket and we head out the door to Jack's black Mustang convertible. His mustang looked like Bumblebee from the Transformers movie but only it was a mustang, not a Camaro. It had black leather interior, so of course he would totally not let anyone eat or drink in his car. Not! He didn't really care unless you just cleaned up your own mess. I called "shotgun" and we headed on the road after I locked up the house. I would just order pizza or Chinese. Didn't really feel like cooking tonight.

We headed down the clear roads of town and we finally ended up to the mansion in the neighborhood of Danny Henry. It was almost like a gated community, where people would type in their four-digit code to gain "access" to their homes, thinking that they were better then us. But this area of town was the Victorian houses, which I though were pretty frickin' cool!

"There is no surprise here" Corey finally said.

Jack drove a bit farther down the road and stopped in front of the house where there were people loading their bundles of crap in the house. The house was a Victorian house like the rest, only bigger then the other ones. It had two French doors in the front and it and it had a very big and scary oak tree in the front yard. We studied the 3 teens that were unloading the U-Haul and taking it into the house. The two girls looked like the girls at school and the boy looked like one of us. Jack put his foot on the gas and we left.

The Mustang pulled up into town and we stopped to eat some dinner. Walking inside Domino's we already could tell that people's eyes were burning in the back of our heads. Of course, we were used to it, the townspeople just don't have any manners around here like they should. You know the saying: "don't judge a book by its cover." It could have a real crappy cover, but the words inside can take you away on a journey that you've never dreamed until you've read it and you're dreamed of the book. Like that will ever happen. We ordered the usual pepperoni and cheese pizza and got some salad from the salad bar.

"So how was the walk home?"

"Shut up, Jack. You know that if I weren't your friend, that you'd be glad to see me walk in the cold."

"True. So true."

"Did you stop to see your mom?" Corey chimed in.

"Yeah, but…I don't know. She's been acting rather strange lately."

"You mean she's only home for 3 hours instead of five?"

"Yeah, yeah. No it's just that I've noticed for the past 3 years she's been looking, not well. I mean she looks paler every time I see her. And even when I try to talk to her, she just changes the subject."

"Maybe she's seeing another man?" Jack suggested. He had a point but why would she hide that from me? If she was seeing someone I would be happy because she really needs to see someone else. But what was she hiding from me? I ignored the question and we all chipped in the bill and left.

They dropped me off after 3 hours of going out to eat and skipping stones at the river and basically driving around listening to Slipknot, Megadeth and Breaking Benjamin. We were the misfits of the town. Almost like Marilyn Manson to the world, only we're not as creepy, but at the same time pretty frickin' cool.

I opened the front door once again and the grandfather clock read: 7:46 and I went upstairs and took a nice long hot shower to clear my head from a long day full of stress. Everything from: Danny, school, Ms. H, mom, and the new kids. But something felt wrong, almost like I didn't feel safe anymore in this town. Or it was my stomach overreacting from the pizza I ate? Oh well.