Alone in her Life (working title)

Chapter One

She sincerely hated Valentine's Day. Kyle stalked down the bright red and pink school hallway, a lone spot of black and silver chains in a crowd of lovey-dovey couples making out. It had always been that way…and not just on February 14.

She wasn't like the others in her town, never really had been and probably never would be. Kyle lived up to nobody's expectations but her own. Her parents cared nothing for her. Her mother was long gone and her father had obviously wished for a boy, as he was the one that named her. She had been raised on a steady diet of hard rock and late-night parties. An only child, she was alone from the start.

"What the hell are you looking at, bitch?" A jock sneered at her, pausing from slobbering on his girlfriend a second to yell at Kyle.

She stopped and stared at him for a minute, then elegantly walked on, flipping him the bird as she strode around the corner, tall in her combat boots.

She'd only ever had one friend…but that was in the past. This was now. As for the present, she didn't have any friends. Didn't seem to need them. She was extremely self-sufficient. Though, on the inside, she desired someone to talk to. But she had her music. She was never seen without her CD player in hand, headphones pulled over one or both ears. She played bass in a band in the next town over, surprisingly. She didn't have any friends, there, either. The band, named Leaving Forever, was purely business. The other band members, Ion, Will, and James, had tried to get through to her many times, without avail. She preferred to work in silence, with the odd comment about where to add a solo, or what key a song worked better in.

As Kyle approached her locker, she suddenly remembered something. She had a paper that was extremely significant to her grades that she needed to do.She usually didn't give a shit about her grades, but lately her counselor had informed her that if she didn't pick up the slack, she wouldn't ever graduate. That's all she ever wanted, to be able to graduate and get out of Illinois. Then, she could be away from the extremely unsympathetic classmates and alcoholic father her life had always contained.

The project was a writing, a free writing that could be written on any topic as long as it was 500 words or over. The English 3A teacher, Mr. Kelligsly, was more or less relaxed on his grading policies, but Kyle's paper was already three days late.

She decided to cut her college-level Calculus class to write her paper in the library. Math was the only class that came easy to her, astonishingly. She enjoyed the small satisfactions that solving a complicated equation gave her. She got that satisfaction nowhere else. And her teacher, Ms. Latem, was one of the very few people that had ever been proud of Kyle.

When Kyle showed up in the campus library two blocks later, she was extremely fed up with the Valentine's Day shit. More than a few people had approached her to crack crude and impolite jokes about her. And, to top it off, she had no idea what she was to write her paper about.

The next day after Kyle turned in her paper before school, she sat on the stone steps in front of the building. Turning on her headphones, she leaned back and rested her head on the wall of the school.

"Don't know who to trust
No surprise
Everyone feels so far away from me
Heavy thoughts sift through dust
And the lies

Trying not to break
But I'm so tired of this deceit
Every time I try to make myself
Get back up on my feet
All I ever think about is this
All the tiring time between
And how
Trying to put my trust in you
Just takes so much out of me

I take everything from the inside
And throw it all away
'Cause I swear
For the last time
I won't trust myself with you

Tension is building inside
Steadily
Everyone feels so far away from me
Heavy thoughts forcing their way
Out of me

I won't trust myself with you
I won't waste myself on you
Waste myself on you
You"

As the last chord of her favorite Linkin Park song faded away, Kyle closed her eyes. Just a little sleep before classes, she told herself.

An hour later, she woke up to her shoulder being shaken. As a reflex, her hand shot out and hit something. Her eyes blasted open, and she saw a boy, wearing all black not unlike Kyle, holding his nose and groaning.

She raised her eyebrows, actually trying to hold back a smile. This wasn't the first time she'd accidentally hit someone. She was just lucky that it hadn't been her father this time.

"What the hell are you laughing at? I just got this pierced, and it hurts like hell!" The boy gestured to his nose stud. The stranger lifted his hand from his face, touched his nose, and groaned again. Kyle must have been worse at keeping a straight face than she thought.

Kyle just stared back at him. She hadn't tried to smile for months. Years, even. She was shocked.

"Well? Do you have a name?" He tilted his head at her, flipping his long, wavy dark hair.

She opened her mouth. She was about to say something, but the words wouldn't come out.

"You do talk, don't you?"

"Yes." Kyle said, finally regaining her voice. "My name is Kyle."

"She talks!" The boy grinned.

"And your name would be?"

"I'm Jess. Jess Petersen."

"No," Kyle corrected. "Your name is Jess. However, that may not be who you are."

Suddenly, the doors burst open. Mr. Martinez, the school principal, walked out onto the steps with a slightly surprised expression on his face.

"Well, Ms. Jarmon, it's not a shock to see you've decided to skip classes again," Kyle calmly stuck her middle finger out at him. "And Mr. Petersen, I presume? You are one and one-half hours late. You were expected at the office at 7:30 A.M. sharp, and you finally show up at 9? No, I think I must alter my decision to allow you to attend this school."

"Mr. Martinez…my uncle's car broke down. Look, I have a note!" Jess pulled his bag off of his muscular shoulder and began digging through it, before finding a crumpled piece of paper. "See?"

"Well. I guess I must let you off for the moment. But as for Ms. Jarmon…" He turned and shot a disapproving look at Kyle. "Lunchtime detention. Come with me to the office. I must write you a slip."

Kyle sighed and rolled her eyes. She didn't even try to protest. It was useless…only a few weeks into the quarter and she'd already served 8 detentions. Teachers didn't seem to approve of the fact that Kyle didn't like to talk during class. You would think that would be a good thing…but Kyle wouldn't even answer the teachers' questions.

Kyle shot a quick look at Jess, who was staring blankly at his feet. Meanwhile, Mr. Martinez turned and began to quickly walk back inside the building. Kyle hastily glared at him. He glanced up and got the idea. The two delinquents followed their somber principal back down the dark hallways of Elsah High School.

A/N:

This is a working title, and if any readers have suggestions, I'm open to change.

Chapter Two will be up soon.

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