Living in the Ring

::-:: Chapter 1 A Bump in the Road ::-:: ::

::-:: Chapter 1 A Bump in the Road ::-::

A/N: For this novel Hallie's playlist is designed to reflect each chapter. So in the side bar ===>

is the song I've chosen. At the end of the Novel will be Hallie's complete playlist plus bonus tracks. This chapter's is Every Night by Imagine Dragons

::HALLIE'S POV::

I run down the stairs with my bag in tow trying to get down to Mara and Connie's car in time. I stop and look at myself in the mirror for one second to make sure my bangs are still in their thick line just above my eyes. I run down the stairs past the kitchen grabbing a bagel on the way out. I hesitate at the door wondering if I should call to mom that I'm leaving. I shrug it off and go out the door. I jog to Mara's car and get in the back seat.

"Um Hallie," Mara smiles, "Why is there food, in my car?" She pauses at just the right times that she sounds intimidating.

"I haven't eaten yet, so I thought-"

"Are you kidding me, you'll get crumbs everywhere!" She turns back grabbing the bagel from my hand and throwing it out the window. Connie sits in the passenger seat staring at Mara with a small sense of shock, the same shock that must be written all over my face. I look at Connie for some sort of back up but she just pushes her hair to the side of her face and turns to face forwards.

"Here," Mara says tossing a granola bar back at me, "if you're so hungry eat this, besides no one needs that many carbs"

I take the granola bar from my lap and open the wrapper. Taking a bite I notice we're passing Harper's house.

"Wait, that was Harper's place back there, you said you would give her a ride"

"Oh, I guess you're right, Mara it's the blue one" Connie points. I sigh and I feel my eyes roll. It's not a secret that Mara doesn't like Harper, and being Mara's sidekick Connie pretends she does too. In fact there's only one person that Mara hates more. This wasn't the first time Mara's 'forgotten' Harper.

We pull up into the driveway and Mara honks an obnoxious number of times. In a few seconds Harper is opening the door to the Toyota Corolla.

A smirk forms on her face when she looks at me, "Nice hair, you straighten it?" I laugh in response. We both have naturally straight hair, which Mara and Connie are always bitter about. Mara turns up the volume in response making Harper and I laugh even harder. With 22 blasting in the background we pull into the school parking lot. As seniors who have been somewhat popular the last three years we have our own parking spot more or less. Occasionally there will be some sophomore that accidentally parks in the spot before we get there, in this case the next closest spot works, although we then have to hear Mara ranting about it all lunch. This year however we're seniors and in order to be Mara's idea of perfect populars we had to get to school early and make sure we all looked fine. I really hated the whole idea of being 'popular' in fact we aren't really the stereo typical popular group anyway. Sure people know us but that's about all the similarities. The only one who actually likes getting attention is Mara so naturally she drags us all in with her. There is nothing I want more than for Harper and I to get away from Mara but I have to watch out for Connie, and my mom utterly adores Mara. We walk into the school and head towards the girls bathroom in a row.

"Ugh, I hate my eyebrows" Connie leans in towards the mirror.

"You know if you got them shaped like I suggested they would look a lot better," Mara answers

Harper and I sit on the ground sharing headphones listening to My Chemical Romance.

"Wow Hallie I never thought I would say this," Harper whispers "But I think Mara's head got bigger." I slap her to stop her from laughing while fighting it off myself, "remind me again why we even hang out with her?"