Shadowbound

Chapter 1

 My dad woke me up. Or at least I'm supposed to call him that. Piece of shit didn't even get me a birthday gift for my 18th. Whatever. He slammed his fist into my door and yelled something. His words were too slurred to understand. I responded with a groan as I rolled myself out of my bed and into the floor. The hardwood floor felt more comfortable than my hard ass bed. The springs were more like rebar.

I pushed myself to my feet. I've done thousands of push ups so It was a breeze getting up but staying up was the hard part. My head spun as the blood flowed to my brain. I stumbled my way to my closet and opened it and pulled out my outfit for the day. I looked at myself in the mirror. My shorter hair was a mess, spiking in all sorts of directions. My green eyes offset my red hair. My skin was tan but was becoming paler from the amount of time I just stayed in my room away from the sun. I wore a jacket over a tank top. Pants with many pockets, and combat boots. Perfect tomboy uniform.

I left my room and made the short trek to the dining room. There she was. My mom. Slumped against the table, bottle in hand. A bunch of one dollar bills spilling from her pockets. I sighed as I walked out of the house. The sun was too bright. I squinted as I stepped onto the gravel road out of the trailer park. My boots crunched the tiny rocks as I walked.

The rows upon rows of trailer housing was depressing. It looked like the Great Depression up in this joint. As I neared the entrance and exit to this god forsaken place, I saw some of my friends. Leland was the first guy I saw. He was a Black guy. Braids in almost a Mohawk. He wore a similar get up to me. Next was Andones. He was a Greek dude. Tan skin and brown eyes. He wore simple blue jeans and a tight fitting green shirt.

"Yo Gwen, you look shittier than yesterday." Leland said as he wrapped an arm around my head and tried to ruffle my hair but I elbowed him in the stomach and he backed off.

"Yeah. I just turned 18. I'm a legal adult now." I smile. Andones walked up to me.

"Oh yeah. Sorry man, I forgot to tell you happy birthday yesterday." His accent almost sounded Mexican but had more of a European twang. He was an immigrant. Something about his grandma being born here or something.

I shook my head. "Don't sweat it. You didn't miss much."

I heard the sound of the bus coming down the dirt road. It wasn't like the ones I saw in movies. It was an old jail bus. Still blue. The bus driver had a habit of opening the doors before stopping so I would normally step into the bus as It was still going. It was slow enough to just step on and today was no different. I just stepped in. Smooth like an eel. The bus driver yelled at me again but I didn't pay attention. I didn't care. I moved my way through the aisle. I saw Travis and his gang seated near the middle of the bus. He was like this school's version of the 'bully' but he was just the son of the head of the Death Angels gang. Sounds bad ass but there just a bunch of fuckin druggies.

I made my way to one of the back seats where Gordon sat. He was a somewhat tall white guy with blonde hair. He was skinny as can be and had glasses on. He honestly looked like a noodle but he was the smartest person I knew. I sat down next to him. Gordon smiled as he elbowed me.

"Here's the old gal over here. Ancient." He chuckled, laughing at his own joke.

"Sure haha. Very funny." I chuckled as well. I then shook my head and looked at Gordon. "You got any more information about the job?" I whispered. Gordon sighed and nodded.

"Yeah. I do got more info on Harper Trulo. Get the guys and meet me at my house at eight after school. I'll tell you then."

The bus slowed down to a halt. "Last stop. Miltondale High School!" The old bus driver yelled as he opened the doors on the bus. Everyone slowly climbed out of the bus. I took my sweet time. Gordon immediately ditched me, the bastard, to go with some of his normal friends and left me looking at the depressing building. It looked like a brick. Like someone took a brick and made it the size of a government building and put windows. There, over the doors, was the name carved into stone, 'Miltondale High'.