"Wake up, dipshit."

I open my eyes to see Nicole staring at me slightly annoyed. I groan and try to turn over until I feel her give me a small kick. I finally manage to get up as I rub my eyes to adjust them. "Fuck you want?"

"Mom told me to wake your ass up. I rather not but Mom said if we missed our first day, she was gonna get the hose again." I shudder at that thought. Yeah because hosing down your kids after 3 glasses of wine is totally not at all abusive. "Alright, alright. I'm up."

I stare at my room. Same as always. I notice my PC in the corner, along with my bookshelf filled with comics I really haven't touched in a long while. Guess Batman isn't as relatable when only one of your parents dies from a gunshot. My poster of Fall Out Boy was hung up on the wall, I remember how I got Nicole into them despite her never really mentioning it to anyone in public she listens to them. I can understand where she's coming from though. She got me into Avril Lavigne and there is no way in hell I'm revealing that to anyone.

By the time I was ready to face Nicole, she had already left the room. Realizing that, I checked the time on my alarm clock. 6:30am. School didn't start for another hour. So I take a shower, get dressed in my jeans and yin yang t-shirt and head downstairs and grab a poptart as a light breakfast. I turn around and see my older brother who seemed to have finally come out of that dungeon you'd call a basement. I looked up at him slightly annoyed.

"What do you want, Gabe?"

"You gonna finish that?"

"You mean the brown sugar cinnamon pop tart that I have only taken a single bite out of? Yeah I was."

"Damn. Well whatever. I'll just cook up a box of bacon." He says brushing past me. Why can't it be just a few strips? It's gotta be a whole box you absolute fat fuck?

Whatever. I see Nicole on the couch watching whatever on her Sidekick phone. I got bored so I decided to also sit down on the couch and pulled out my own Sidekick and decided to watch youtube videos of guys getting their balls crushed. Just then our mom walked in and saw us being lazy on the couch.

"Sweeties. You two are going to be late for school. You have to get going now."

Nicole just rolled her eyes and slowly got up. I did the same and grabbed my backpack. Before we could walk out the door, Mom stopped us for a moment.

"Before you two leave I just wanted to say that I know these past few months have been tough on all of us but I promise you that things will get better and I hope you both will be able to make lots of new friends and get along with each other." Mom said, smiling.

Nicole however just rolled her eyes again and I could hear her mutter a "Yeah, we'll see about that." before she went out the door. I gave mom a weak smile knowing she was trying to be better but also that she can still be pretty awful in her own way. Then I walked out the door and slowly caught up to Nicole as we walked to school together.

As we were walking, Nicole decided to surprisingly break the silence. "Don't expect us to get super chummy while we're at school. Don't even be surprised if I end up just pretending I don't even know who you are."

I raise my eyebrows at this. "Okay…why?" I asked. She had no problem with us talking at our old school. Whenever she wasn't pretending to be nice to her dumb bimbo "friends", we would sneak off and get high on whatever the guy who was always behind the school was selling at the time. So what exactly was so wrong now?

"Look, we're the new kids and the second we enter that school, pretty much everyone in there is gonna try to either size us up or be aggressively friendly so we hang out with them. I'm thin and pretty though so I'm not exactly worried there. But the less people know about me the better. The only thing people need to know is what my name is and that I'm a girl. Not that I have some cheap clone knockoff."

I rolled my eyes at that last comment. "If I'm the cheap knockoff that just means you're some product that no one wants to get for simplicity sake."

"And yet the real deal will still always look better than the knockoff by comparison." Damn. She got me there. I can never really win with her when it comes to dishing out clever comebacks.

"Whatever. I'm not gonna go out of my way to lie about being related to you just so it's easier for ya. I won't exactly say anything but if it gets brought up or if I'm asked about it I ain't gonna hide it." I say shrugging my shoulders.

Nicole looked at me for a quick moment before staring ahead as we were beginning to see our new school come up into view. "Whatever." she stated plainly as we walked the rest of the way there in silence.

Right as we entered the building we saw a bundle of students walk around the entrance hall and talking to one another.

"Hey so for our senior prank this year, what if we like, parked our cars where we don't usually park them!"

"Oh my god that is SO funny."

"Heh yeah math class with Mr. Burleday huh yeah like FUCK Mr. Burleday dude hahahaha!"

"God they are never funny. It's like the girls just laugh to avoid sexual assault." I hear Nicole mutter to herself.

All of a sudden a boy with brown hair walked up to the two of us with a derpy smile on his face. "Hey yo you two new to this educational prison?"

"Hahahaha wow yeah that was funny." Nicole said sarcastically.

"Yeah I'm getting into like humor and stuff." The kid says clearly, missing the sarcastic tone in Nicole's voice. "Anyway you know anyone around here? Know where your classes are?

I looked at this kid clearly starting to get annoyed by his chumminess and starting to understand what Nicole was getting at when we were on our way over here. "Yeah I mean, I think we can figure it out. We kinda have these sheets with the classroom numbers on them." I say dismissively hoping he would take the hint and go away.

"No no no no no I could show you around. Like a school tour. You wanna do that? You up for that?"

Nicole and I stared at each other. There was no way in hell we were letting this loser show us around. "I'm gonna be honest, you seem like the most boring piece of shit I've ever met." Nicole said flatly.

"Huh?" the kid says confused.

"Well wait, most I've ever met would mean you stand out in some way. You're a very run of the mill waste of time." Nicole continued.

"I don't get it, what'd I do?" he asks, confused.

"You have time for the whole list?" I ask.

"I guess…" he says.

"First you wear classic rock T-shirts from Walmart. Girls don't compliment how you dress so you settled for old people hi-fiving you for being retro." Nicole started.

"Nah people think I'm cool-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there." I cut him off. "Let's make a rapid fire of assumptions here. Tell us if we get any wrong. You call your bicycle a BMX." I begin.

"You like energy drinks." Nicole continued.

"You take pictures of your skateboard wounds." I go on.

"You mention to anyone that they can't get addicted to marijuana." Nicole adds.

"And you own a guitar pick necklace." Nicole and I finish in unison. Yikes there's that twin thing again. I could tell Nicole was a bit annoyed we acted like The Shining twins for a second there with the quick side eye she made, but luckily the kid we were talking to was too fucking stupid to put two and two together.

"Well… alright. I'll see you later then…" the kid walked off dejected.

"So that happened." I said simply.

"God talking to him just took all of my energy out for the day. Fuck this I'm skipping. You can do whatever you want." Nicole says to me before walking off to one of the halls.

I sighed and looked over at my schedule. Looks like I had chemistry with a teacher named Mr. Burleday first. A part of me wanted to join in on Nicole skipping but I figured she wasn't really in the mood for any company so I might as well just head to class.

As soon as I walked inside the classroom I was greeted by who I assumed was Mr. Burleday. "Oh you must be new. Yes, please take a seat next to Jeffrey." he instructed.

I sat next to the kid who was apparently Jeffrey. He had a bowl cut with a thick pair of glasses to the point you couldn't really even see his eyes. "Hey. So uh… I guess… I guess we're lab partners huh?" He greeted me.

I shrug my shoulders. "I guess."

"Not a big talker are ya?" Jeffrey asks.

"I literally just met you and it's not even 8:00 in the morning yet. Are you this super chummy with everyone you meet?" I ask him.

"Not everyone. But if they look the type to like anime then may as well, right?"

I raise an eyebrow. "How…exactly do I give the impression that I like anime?"

"Well… just an overall feeling is all."

"Sure…"

"So do ya?"

"Do I…what?"

"Like anime."

"Uhhh I've seen a few but I wouldn't call myself a fan." Actually, that was a lie. I'm a closet fan to the point that not even Nicole knows about it. But there's no way in fuck my reputation is gonna begin with the kid who obviously makes anime his entire personality. I mean I enjoy One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach but he gives me the vibes that he likes the weird ones and I ain't gonna be compared to THAT mess.

All of a sudden Jeffrey seemed to get all entitled because I didn't call myself a fan. "Hmph! You obviously have low quality taste in things if you ridicule the masterpieces made by the Japanese."

"...you get beat up a lot don't you?"

"How did you know?"

"Just an overall feeling is all."

This is going to be a long fucking two years.