killer, m.clifford/a,irwin

1

PICTURE: ALANTIS CARTER

The blur of colour passing me by, signalled the excited seniors, who were absolutely thrilled to be back at school after summer break. I can't say I shared their same commitment to school.

For me, the only exciting thing to come out of this year would be the graduation. My school spirit was at an all time low this year.

I walked past a bunch of lost looking freshman, and managed to steer clear of the sophomores who thought they were top shit now. I made it to my locker without anyone politely asking how my summer was. The aimless small talk flowed through the corridor and I was glad I wasn't a part of it.

"How was your summer?"

I stand corrected. I inhaled slowly, and looked over my shoulder to see my best friend of six years standing there with a chirpy grin. Sydney and I had bonded in sixth grade over our weird names. Since then we've been as close as you'd expect.

"It was utterly boring." I responded with ease. "The only thing I enjoyed was the air conditioning at the library."

"Nerd." She smiled, but not unkindly.

"I'm not being nerdy." I protested. "My summer job was at the library. I didn't go there of free will."

Sydney merely gave me a blank stare, and I huffed in defeat. We both knew that I'd rather be at the library than socializing with people who pretended to like me. I spun the dial on the new locker code, and grabbed a few spare notebooks. I knew I should do the best friend thing and ask how Sydney's summer had gone, but the girl was obsessed with social media so I could basically give you a run down of her trip to Australia.

"Cheer up, new school year means fresh meat." Sydney grinned gleefully, pulling me into the center of the crowded corridor.

Every school year we'd have to go through the painfully slow system of getting our new schedules. Seniors had to go to the gym to get the piece of paper that controlled the next few months of our life.

"Since when were you a cougar?" I asked, referring to Sydney harping on about new freshmen. Sydney rolled her bright eyes, and elbowed me.

"I was referring to the new guy in our year." She whispered, her tone filled with a sense of excitement that only ever happened when she had new gossip.

"We have a new guy?" I scrunched my nose up.

"Yes," Sydney pulled out her phone to show me some text messages. "See? Carly texted me about the new guy and apparently he is totally delish."

I half-heartedly read the conversation between her and Carly, nodding and ahh'ing when I thought was appropriate. However, the moment the new boy even entered my radius he'd be filled with the rumours about me and those rumours alone ensured that I would never even get to speak to him.

"Luke is saving us a seat in the gym." Sydney motioned towards the back once we entered the sweaty dome of hell.

"I swear it's his life mission to make me do unnecessary exercise." I grumbled under my breath as I began to climb the mountain of stairs.

"That was one time." Sydney laughed. "Move on, girl."

She was referring to the time Luke had texted me to come outside my house. He said he had a surprise for me, and once I had gotten off my bed and made the long walk down my driveway Luke proceeded to text me that the surprise he had given me was exercise. He's been on my hit list ever since.

I winced as we walked past Blake and his group of idiots. I honestly wasn't surprised when one of them stuck their legs out, obscuring my path.

"How was your summer, Lips?" Blake grinned, however he didn't wait for a reply. "Didn't kiss any boys I hope. We don't want the mortality rate of this town falling any lower due to your hormonal antics."

I'm not lying when I said two thirds of the gym broke out into laughter, obviously having heard the conversation between Blake and I. Sydney stepped forward and kicked Lance, the idiot with the leg barricade, right in the crotch.

"Keep it up Blake and you'll be next." She threatened, her eyes narrowing in on the boy who made my life a living hell.

"Ms. Luka, that'd be enough today. Please take a seat and remember this is only the first day of school." A loud voice echoed through the room, signalling the arrival of the principal. "Although nobody wants to see Mr Jackson reproducing anytime soon, violence is not the way."

Mr Johnson was a pretty cool principal. Everyone seemed to like him, despite his somewhat strict punishments. Sydney was a likeable character though, so she seemed to get away with most things.

I was still standing there, embarrassed by the situation, when Sydney gripped onto my wrist and dragged me up the back to where Luke had been saving us some seats.

"Hey guys," he grinned in a hushed whisper so Mr Johnson wouldn't be drawn to the sound.

I shot Luke a small smile, and just stared straight ahead. I didn't want to get called out and much to the dismay of Sydney I'd rather blend into the crowd. That was sometimes hard when your nickname around school was 'killer lips' or 'lips' for short.

I decided that the only way to endure this long welcome back speech was to settle against the wall and close my eyes. Maybe sleep would help get me through this last year of hell.