The Fine Line

Chapter 1

Life is never easy or simple for anyone, but it's the perseverance to endure it that makes it count. Every mountain in high school that I have persevered through has led me to this exact spot in time, senior year. It's hard to believe to think we've made it with graduation just ten months away; I've never been more excited. I'm proud of myself, and I'm sure everyone else is feeling the same. I grab my backpack, check myself in the mirror that my hair or makeup hasn't gone sideways, and make my way to the kitchen.

Entering the kitchen, I see my mum packing her stuff for work. As cliche as it sounds, my mum had me when she was at a young age herself, but one thing was sure that she was not going to give me up. "Emily, you're ready. I'm heading off to work now, so if you want a lift to school, I can drop you off now unless you're fine with walking," she says, and before answering, my phone vibrates. Ethan has messaged he can give me a ride to school, and I respond to his message with emoji smiles and hugs.

"Actually, Ethan is going to give me a ride," I inform her, and she agrees with the plan giving me a final hug and goodbye before leaving the house. She always leaves early for work and even earlier if she drives me to school, leaving me to be waiting for all my friends to arrive. That's one thing that sucks about still being on learners; you have to drive with supervision until you pass the test. Being stuck on my learner license is mostly my fault since I didn't start my learners until seven months after turning 16.

After she drives away, I pack my last-minute things for school and wait around until Ethan arrives. My mum thinks Ethan and I should date, but I don't think I can be with someone for a while, given my history with dating someone. But speaking of, Ethan doesn't take long to arrive in his white 2008 Volkswagen Touareg with his red provisional plates. When I enter the car on the front passenger side, I breathe in a strong load of the air freshener, which is too strong. Still, it soon fades away after I get comfortable in the cool air-conditioned wagon.

The drive through the familiar scenery is relaxing before another year of high school, especially our final year. "Here we are!" Ethan says when we drive through a concrete gate and onto the school campus. I remember from the first day of high school; the most intimidating thing was the size of the grounds. "I just can't believe we're almost into university," Ethan whines, pushing his hair back, and I can honestly agree with him.

We walk together to the tables behind the library, where our group of friends are. "Hey! Finally, you're here!" Kassandra shouts in happiness, and Ethan and I both share hello's as we join at the table. Since we started high school, Kassandra has been my closest friend, and I'm glad that we met each other because I would have no idea what my high school life would be without her. We're that close that over the years, it feels as if we're sisters. Our families know each other very well now, and we practically hang out more together than anyone else. "I'm going to die this year. I haven't changed my classes since last year, and I'm dreading doing another year of Shakespeare and maths." Last year we spent a whole semester on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and I feel for Kassandra. I would rather read anything than Shakespeare, but they've chosen to do Shakespeare Macbeth for this whole year which is even longer.

The conversations in the group fly with time, and with ten minutes to class, Ethan and I begin walking to our first class of the day, mathematics.

Once we arrive in the classroom and the school bell rings for class to begin, the rest of the class enter, taking the spare seats. "Hello, everyone. Today we'll start on the logarithmic function and further differentiation," the teacher says as she connects her laptop to the projector. Mathematics as the first class of every week is not a good start for school, especially after the weekend. Why can't I have biology or chemistry? Those are the only two subjects I'm interested in at the moment. While I would prefer English if it were not about Shakespeare, biology and chemistry class would really benefit me for my goal career as a chemical and genetic engineer.

Finally, it's break time after a long two lessons in maths and physics. Honestly, I'd still prefer biology and chemistry. I leave class and walk to the tables where our group usually sits, and to my surprise, Kassandra is already there. "You're so quick, Kassy," I say with surprise.

"I wanted to make sure I got my seat before anyone else took it," she states, making me laugh. Her hair is a bit different from last year. I notice a slight tone of golden brown in her dark brown hair, but I wasn't fast enough to comment when the rest of the group arrives and one other person we both despise.

"Hello! Good to see everyone again," Georgina says without considering other individual conversations. "By the way, guess who's coming back to our school... Payton!" The name quickly pulls my attention away from my phone, which I can tell Kassandra noticed. Most of our grade knows the history between Payton and me when we began to date all the way to our breakup. The most that anyone knows of our breakup is that it was an ordinary breakup. No one else in our grade but Kassandra got the actual story. The way he hurt me has stayed with me, and now that hurt has come back after the mention of his name coming back to our school.

Kassandra and I begin to walk to biology class, and she starts a conversation about Payton, "If he's really back, then all we have to do is avoid him, I guess. The aftermath of what happened really got to you, and that was too dark for me to witness," She says with a bit of exaggeration."That's a bit of an exaggeration, Kassy," I say, but I hesitate before continuing, and she sees the same thing I'm seeing, Payton. Kassandra continues to walk and drags me along to the door of the classroom.

After the bell rings for class, Kassandra leaves for her class and whilst waiting for the teacher, I open my phone. "Hey," a male voice says from behind in a careful tone. That's Payton, definitely. I turn around to face him, and he lets out a deep breath and runs his hand through his hair, pulling out from his face. But thankfully, the teacher arrives and unlocks the door, allowing everyone to enter.

I take a seat in the third row of desks and the next moment catches me off guard. Payton takes the seat next to me on my left. It looks like I'll be spending a lot of time with him instead of avoiding him. "Hello everyone, welcome back to biology! We'll continue our class from the last term late last year as that was the beginning of Unit 3," the teacher begins.

The rest of the class goes by pretty quickly as I just continued to ignore Payton even though he did nothing at all and did not even try to speak to me. But while I'm studying at home in the kitchen for different scenery, my mum notices distracted me. "Emily, you're distracted, I can tell," my mum says as she prepares our dinner. Is it really that obvious that I'm distracted, or is she just a bit psychic? "Why don't you tell me what's going on?"

"Just the first day back can be very full-on," I answer. My mum knows about the story between Payton and I, and she does well to forget about it, but I can tell that while she sees in her eyes a good bond between me and Ethan, she shows worry of me getting hurt as Ethan is harmless, Payton was too. If I tell her Payton's back, she might get worried, and I don't need that as it's been enough of a shock that he's back.

My phone starts vibrating, and my mum is curious, of course, but I relax her by telling her that it's Kassy calling. After leaving the kitchen, I answer her call after closing my bedroom door. Of course, she asks about biology class with Payton, reminding me of the awkwardness after Payton chose to sit next to me. Today has been so much to do with Payton. "He just sat there in silence, and of course, I did not even look at him," I say through the phone.