1"Ugh, not again," she groans, rolling over onto her side and glaring at the bright red numbers flashing at her on her obnoxious alarm clock.
3:OO AM.
She huffs angrily. "Motherfucking fuck," she mutters, a little louder than she intends to. There is a knock on her wall and she rolls her eyes. God, why did her parents have to put Angel in the room right next to hers? She knows the two do not get along. Hell, her step dad knows that the two don't get along, but no, they could not listen to either one of the girls when they said they do not want to be anywhere near each other in the house. It is bad enough they have to eat together.
She presses her mouth to the wall and says, just loud enough for Angel to hear, "Fuck you," and then she rolls onto her other side and shuts her eyes. She knows it is a wasted effort, but maybe she can fall asleep.
XXX
"Liberty Dawn, get out of the bathroom RIGHT NOW!" Deborah, her mother yells, pounding on the bathroom door.
"Tell Angel she can wait a fucking minute!" Liberty shouts right back as she rolls her eyes and continues to cake her face with black eyeliner and black lipstick with red lipstick over it. Her bright rainbow color streaks in her nearly charcoal black hair look extra bright under the bathroom lights.
"Watch your mouth, young lady," her mother snaps. She hears heels clicking and knows that Angel is angrily stomping down the stairs to go complain to Julian, her dad and Liberty's stepfather. Not that it matters to Liberty because she knows Julian will simply roll his eyes and tell Angel to get over it, hence the reason Liberty actually likes him.
Julian and Liberty's mother have been married for only a month or so. Julian and his daughter, Angel, and his son, Micah, moved in two months before the wedding. The past three months have been hell for Liberty because Angel is her arch nemesis. The only reason she hasn't been acting childish is because she knows her mom is happy and she never thought her mom would move past her father's death.
Liberty's heart aches at the thought of her father and she pushes thoughts of him to the farthest corners of her mind. She does not like thinking of him, especially because she does not have answers about his death. The police have not been able to explain the car accident and in two years, they won't be doing anything more to figure out the mystery behind his death, anyway, because it will be a cold case.
She hears another knock at the door and emits a groan. "What?" she growls. Yes, she growls. She does not like being interrupted in the mornings, especially since she is always grumpy.
Why so grumpy? Her attempt at falling asleep again this morning did not work. Her attempts never do. It has been like that since her seventeenth birthday in July. It is now September.
She has attempted to talk to her mom about it, but her mom claims to have no explanation. She knows her mom is lying, but she doesn't bother arguing because she knows how pointless it is.
"Geesh, grumpy pants. Someone forgot to drink their happy juice this morning." Liberty bursts out laughing. Once she is through laughing, she lets out a sigh of relief, glad that it is only Micah, her fifteen year old stepbrother at the door and not her annoying stepsister. "Would you pretty please quit being such a girl and let me use the bathroom? I'm about to piss my pants, sis."
She chuckles before putting all her makeup back in her makeup bag and opening the bathroom door. "Hey, shit face. Go worship the porcelain gods if you must. I know you were out partying all last night."
Micah rolls his pretty, bright blue eyes and she ruffles his light brown hair, causing him to scrunch up his nose. "I hate when you do that," he mumbles as she exits the bathroom and he enters it.
"You know you love me," she sing-songs just as he shuts the door. She chuckles again before making her way down the stairs and joining her mom, Angel, and Julian in the kitchen.
Angel glares the second she spots Liberty and Liberty retorts by sticking her tongue out at her childishly.
Just looking at Angel makes Liberty sick to her stomach. Her pretty strawberry blonde hair is in curls that fall past her shoulders, her makeup is all pink to match her pink blouse and mini-jean skirt. She looks under the table. Yep, the pink heels are there, too. Typical Angel wardrobe.
Liberty turns her attention to Julian, who is reading the morning paper, per usual.
"Good morning, Julian," she says before looking at her mom. "Good morning, mom."
"Morning, sweetheart," her mom says, kissing her on the top of her head before giving Julian a kiss. "Angel, would you mind giving Liberty a ride to school? I can't because I have a meeting in thirty minutes and I can't be late. Your father and I would greatly appreciate it."
Angel looks up from her bowl of cereal and flashes Liberty's mom a look of disbelief. Both girls have the same look on their faces, actually.
"I do not want to ride to school with her," Liberty says. "I'll walk."
"Good, because I don't want to give you a ride anyway," Angel retorts. Liberty merely ignores her.
Deborah sighs. "Girls, please, could you get along for maybe five seconds? I do not want you walking to school alone, Liberty. Please ride with Angel. For me? Please?"
Liberty frowns. She does not want to ride with Angel, but the look on her mom's face is killing her and she caves within seconds. "Fine," she mumbles grumpily, crossing her arms over her chest to show how not amused she is.
Angel opens her mouth to protest, but her father flashes her a look that says 'don't say a word' and she closes her mouth. "Fine. If I have to take you, let's go now before I change my mind and leave you here."
Liberty sends her a glare, but she follows Angel out the door.
XXX
"Thank God, we're here," Liberty says as Angel parks in the "popular" section of the school parking lot. She jumps out the second the car stops and doesn't even bother saying thank you. "You're welcome!" she hears Angel call after her. She simply flips her off over her shoulder and continues to head towards the other side of the parking lot, where her friends are waiting for her.
She instantly spots Trevor leaning against his sleek black car and jumps into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist as he holds her and crashing her lips onto his. The two make out heavily for a good few minutes until someone wolf-whistles. He lets her down gently and she turns to look at the person who wolf-whistled.
"Must you do that every morning, Rashel?" Rashel Dobson is one of Liberty's closest friends. Much like Liberty and Trevor, Rashel is big into the color black and she likes heavy metal and horror movies. Her hair is bright blue black with red streaks and she is wearing black jeans, black combat boots, and a baggy, black t-shirt with the name Kurt Cobain written in white, bold letters.
"Well, if you and Trevor would quit eating each other's faces every morning before class, maybe I would," Rashel fires back, a smirk gracing her surprisingly sweet face. The way she dresses is scary to the school population, but she has the cutest baby face out of everyone in school. Tell her that, however, and she will rip your face off.
"We would if Trevor would stop being so irresistible," Liberty teases as she leans into Trevor's side. She and Trevor met a few years ago and they have been dating for almost a year. His hair is blonde with black underneath. He has the body of a male dancer. Picture Channing Tatum... only goth. He's a good guy, but a lot of people fear him because he has a strange obsession with death. Sometimes it freaks Liberty out, but she cares about him so much that she decides to ignore it more often than not.
The bell rings just as Rashel opens her mouth to say something else. "Would love to chat, but time for class!" Liberty exclaims. Trevor takes Liberty by the hand and the two walk into the school together, Rashel following not so far behind.
Liberty's first class of the day is AP Chemistry. She hates science, but she's good at it so she has no choice but to take the smart people AP science class, as well as the smart people AP English class and math class. She doesn't have any classes with Trevor or any of her friends, for that matter, aside from Kayleigh, which sucks.
However, Kayleigh is her best friend, so she'll get over it.
"Hey, Kay," she says, sliding into the seat next to the aforementioned girl herself.
"Hey, girly," Kayleigh greets Liberty in that usual Kayleigh way. The two girls could not be completely different, which is why no one understands how they are even friends.
That one is easy to explain, however, because they have lived next door to each other since they were five years old. Still, they are polar opposites. Whereas Liberty is more goth, Kayleigh is more like Angel. Her hair is a gorgeous fire red and her eyes are a bright emerald green. She looks almost like Lindsay Lohan, but not quite. The freckles are what normally have people making the comparison, but Liberty honestly doesn't see it. She thinks Kayleigh is ten times more gorgeous than Lindsay Lohan.
Most would expect Kayleigh to be best friends forever with Angel, considering they are both cheerleaders, but Kayleigh actually despises Angel, much like Liberty does. Another reason they get along so well.
That, and again, they have known each other practically their entire lives and their parents have been best friends for just as long.
"Ready to learn a bunch of boring shit that we won't ever use again for the rest of our lives?" Liberty jokes. Kayleigh merely rolls her eyes. Liberty knows she disagrees with what she just said, but it is not like Kayleigh to say so.
"Oh, totally," Kayleigh says just as the teacher enters the room. Lycan Samuels follows not too far behind. Late, as usual.
The fact that he oozes sexy is never lost on Liberty. The previous year, he was the new kid; the very mysterious, very gorgeous new kid. No one knows his story, not even now.
His hair looks blacker this year; jet black, almost. The streaks in his hair are blue as opposed to his choice of red streaks the previous year and his abs look even more delicious; they're nearly visible through his tight black t-shirt. He's wearing a trench coat and larger combat boots than the ones Liberty has on.
And, of course, he is not smiling. Nothing new there.
"Nice of you to join us, Mr. Samuels," Mrs. Anderson says as Lycan slides into the seat right next to Liberty. She can't help but to think how unusual that is. He usually sits in the back of the classroom, listening to his iPOD.
Mrs. Anderson takes attendance and then she proceeds to talk about the syllabus she handed out on the first day of school. Liberty would be listening, but she can feel Lycan's eyes on her and it is freaking her out because he usually does not pay attention to anyone.
She looks at Kayleigh and mouths, "What the fuck?" and Kayleigh just shrugs before going back to scribbling notes in her notebook.
Liberty is half tempted to ask Lycan what the hell his problem is, but she fears him almost as much as the rest of the students in the school do, so she refrains and does her best to ignore it.
She is thankful when the bell rings, signaling the end of class. She nearly knocks all of her books off her desk in her haste to get out of the classroom and far away from Lycan's gaze. Kayleigh meets her outside of the classroom, her brows furrowed.
"Is there a fire or something?" Kayleigh asks. Liberty can hear the confusion and curiosity in her voice.
"Sorry, Kay," Liberty apologizes. "I didn't mean to rush out of there like a bat out of hell, but did you see the way Lycan was staring at me? He was fucking creeping me out."
"It was a bit creepy, but still, I think you should chill out. Maybe he just has a crush on you or something," Kayleigh teases, grinning.
Liberty scoffs. "Yeah, right, kid is freaky." Just as she says that, she feels someone brush against her and all the breath is nearly knocked out of her at the way she feels at the touch. She looks up and into the eyes of Lycan Samuels, who is gazing at her way too intensely for her to feel even remotely comfortable.
"Sorry," he apologizes before walking away. His voice is deep and raspy, like a smoker's voice. She finds it extremely sexy and has to fight to keep herself from thinking very naughty thoughts about someone who is not her boyfriend.
Her gaze lands on Kayleigh and Kayleigh has this knowing grin on her face that irks Liberty. "What?" She sounds defensive.
"Nothing," Kayleigh replies nonchalantly before starting to walk. Liberty hurries to catch up with her.
"It isn't nothing," Liberty argues. "What is with that grin? I know you're thinking something, so spill," she urges. Kayleigh simply grins before disappearing into her second class of the day.
"Bitch," Liberty mutters under her breath as she heads in the direction of AP English. She doesn't mean the words, but she is confused and there is nothing she hates more than being confused.
XXX
Lunch. Finally, Liberty thinks as she grabs a tray and starts piling food onto it.
"Let me get that for you." The vaguely familiar voice startles her greatly and she jumps, nearly dropping her tray.
She almost falls over when she sees who it is that has just paid for her lunch. "Uh, thanks," she says awkwardly, attempting and failing at trying not to gape at Lycan.
The smirk he flashes her has her feeling things that only Trevor is supposed to make her feel. She tells herself to snap out of it because she has a boyfriend and Lycan is just... weird.
"Uh, bye," she murmurs before practically sprinting to her usual table in the corner of the cafeteria. The center of the cafeteria belongs to the football players, the cheerleaders, and the soccer players. The corners of the cafeteria belong to the 'outcasts' and her friends fall under that category. According to social hierarchy, that is, but she doesn't necessarily follow the so-called rules of high school.
"You all right, babe?" Trevor asks as Liberty takes the seat next to him. She scoots her chair closer to him and he rests his hand on her thigh. It feels comfortable; right.
"Yeah," she lies, very unconvincingly. Rashel and Skylark give her a look that say they know she is lying. Skylark is more "normal" than the other three; less goth, more punk. "I'm fine." The emphasis on fine is probably what gives her away, but they all let it go. She knows that won't last long.
Kayleigh plops down in the seat to the right of Liberty. Four heads turn to look at her. "Uh, hi," Liberty says, but it sounds more like a question than a greeting. Kayleigh doesn't normally sit with Liberty. She typically sits with her other friends; the cheerleaders and football players, to be more specific.
"What?" she asks innocently as she takes a bite out of her cheeseburger. "I thought I would sit with the normal ones today."
Her words cause all five of them to laugh. They aren't exactly what high school kids would refer to as normal, but Liberty knows that Kayleigh doesn't care about labels, much like she doesn't. Another reason that they make such fantastic friends.
Liberty can't help but note that Kayleigh looks ridiculously out of place at their table. The best part is that none of them care, not even a little.
"So, what are the plans for after school?" Rashel queries, looking right at Liberty. Liberty is generally the one who has plans for when the five of them hang out.
Liberty grins. "I was thinking we could hang out at the cafe. I know it isn't our typical hangout spot, but I figured we'd try something different this year, surprise the hell out of this town."
"This town?" Trevor says, grinning. His grin is sexy, too. Not like Lycan's, but still sexy.
She shakes the thought from her mind. She doesn't even know where the hell the thought came from. "Sounds like a plan to me," Kayleigh says and she is the only one who actually sounds excited. There are a bunch of halfhearted, murmured agreements from the rest of her friends, but she merely ignores them.
"It will be fun. Screw what the judgmental bitches and assholes say. We don't need their permission. They don't own the place." Everyone's response is to go back to eating. Silently. Trevor's response, however, is to grab her and kiss her. Nothing unusual there. Typical lunch period.
XXX
"Goodbye hell!" Liberty exclaims as she slams her locker door shut. She slings her bag over her shoulder and heads outside. She is just about to reach Trevor's car before she is stopped by a rock hard body. She lets out an "oomph" as she backs away and finds herself, once again, staring at Lycan Samuels.
Deja vu.
"May I help you?" she snaps. She doesn't mean to snap, but she is so confused. Not to mention, she is annoyed because her afternoon classes absolutely sucked.
"Three 'o' clock AM," is all he says before turning to walk away.
She gasps and spins around, watching as he walks to his car. She doesn't know why, but she has a feeling that, even though his statement is completely random, it isn't entirely innocent.
She tries not to let it get to her, but how...? There is no way he can possibly know that she wakes up at exactly three a.m. every morning. No freaking way... Right?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: You have been introduced to most of the characters. I think that will be all, with a few minor ones. The major characters are Liberty, Trevor, Lycan, Angel, Rashel, and Kayleigh, but Skylark will be mentioned more often, as might a few others.
Hope you enjoyed. Expect more soon-ish.