Finding Lena | ✔️

Chapter One

Welcome back, Tigers!

There is something about those three words that makes my stomach drop and my heart fail at the same time. I peel my eyes away from the school brochure they send out to every student before the first day back.

First day back at school.

Those words are enough to make me want to crawl back into bed, pull the covers over my head and try not to think about the hell hole the law forces me into five days of the week.

Summer break ended too quickly for my liking. For anyone's liking. Not like I spent it doing anything useful or productive. Unless you class sitting in my bed watching Netflix all day as productive.

Glancing one final time at the corny image on the front - the football team laughing and smiling out on the field while the school mascot (a tiger, duh) does a backflip in the background  - I drop the brochure onto my desk without another glance. I mope around my room only to find myself staring outside my window which overlooks the garden.

Autumn has sent sprawls of orange leaves from the woods surrounding my back yard over the grass. The closest tree, a good twenty meters from the back door of the house, holds a swing, swaying lightly in the morning breeze. But its ruggedness reminds me that it hasn't been used in years. It was my dad's favourite spot.

I turn to the mirror beside the window, eyeing my black hair that falls in waves past my shoulders, and my big, gray eyes, the pupils outlined with distinct black rings. My dad's eyes and my mom's hair, that's what Grams always told me before she died a few years back. My pale skin which has always made me look slightly on edge, and those large, purple bags that I don't care enough to conceal. Not like any of that stuff matters - no one cares what I look like anyway.

After spending as long as I can getting ready, throwing on a pair of navy jeans, a grey sweatshirt, and white converse, I slump down the stairs with my shoulders hunched.

As I wander into the kitchen at the end of the hall, I notice my brother, Jace, sitting on a stool with his feet kicked up on the breakfast bar.

Jace is in college, but since he attends a college fairly close-by, he often drops by to check up on me. He has dark hair with streaks of a lighter brown shade, which is gelled up at the front. His eyes are a deep gray like mine, but are darker, verging on black.

When he sees me walking in, he smiles. But when he notices my dull expression, his smile turns into a teasing smirk. "Did someone get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

"Did someone not learn anything about table manners?" I retort, pointing to his sneakers on the countertop.

My reply only makes him smirk wider, but he plants his feet onto the wooden floor nevertheless.

"You get back last night?" I ask, beginning to pour myself some cereal into my bowl. I turn to the fridge to grab some milk, and then go to pour that in as well.

I see him nod in my peripheral vision. "Had some laundry to drop off. And I wanted to see my precious sister before her first day back at school."

I groan, bitter that he'd reminded me of what day it was.

"Come on, Lena, you're a junior now, these next two years are supposed to be the best of your life," he explains in his casual tone, swinging his arm around my shoulders.

I grab a spoon and scoop up a few Fruit Loops, shovelling them into my mouth. Speaking with my mouth full of cereal, I respond, "Being a junior just means I have to spend another two years being picked on by superficial kids that think the town library is a church."