It's Complicated

Two

WARNING: Very small mention of child abuse and parent death. Doesn't go into much detail.

Archer's POV

I woke up screaming and covered in sweat. I abruptly sat up and looked around. I was in my room. In my family's house. I was okay.

Nightmares were a reoccurring thing for me. They had gone away for a while. Then, he came back and there they were again. 

My biological father had come to visit me one day, saying he wanted to be part of my life. The man who tortured me because my mother died when I was born suddenly loved me and wanted me back. I refused. He got physical.

The day my neighbor called the child protective services, my father had come home extremely drunk. He started yelling at me, hitting me. My neighbor heard this and called child protective services. I was taken away the morning after.

 I didn't stay at the orphanage for a long time. I was 7, bruised, and scarred, yet these two men immediately wanted to take me in. From what they had told me, these men were from Italy. This tugged at my curiosity.

 I wasn't very trusting at first, but they gave me a complete new start. Along with me, they adopted a 5-year-old boy, Slater, who is now my 13-year-old brother. I loved my new family like they were from the start. The scars and horrible memories were the only reminders. They were scattered across my body, but were mostly on my back and upper arms.

Once I got my bearings, I checked the time. 5:37. Not bad. I got out of bed and rummaged through my closet. I found a marble print shirt and some black skinny jeans. Then it hit me. Today is the first day of school. Ugh. Oh well. I dressed and brushed my hair. It was around 6 when I went downstairs into the kitchen. No one was awake, but one of the maids. She greeted me, "Good morning, ma'am."

"Good morning, Amelia."

"It's a bit early, don't you think?"

"Had a nightmare. I knew I couldn't fall back to sleep, so I figured I could walk to school today."

"Oh, I see. Would you like me to make you some breakfast?"

"No, thank you. I think I'll just have some toast. You can go back to what you were doing."

"Okay. Let me know if you need anything."

"I will." She walked into the dining room, leaving me in the kitchen. I made toast, got some orange juice, and an apple. I finished eating and found a small piece of paper. I wrote a note explaining why and where I'd left. I quietly walked into Slater's room and left the note on his nightstand, under his reading glasses. I knew he woke before our parents, so he would probably inform them.

I made sure I had everything I needed, then said bye to Amelia before heading out the front door. I started walking. It was about a half hour walk to the new school. The sun was barely rising, so I could enjoy the color-changing sky and bright orange sun.

It was 7:49 when I got there. It took longer than I expected, but I was still on time. I walked into my new high school and maneuvered my way into the front office. The secretary sent me to the gym to get my schedule. I slowly found my way and stood in line.

"Name?"

"Archer Romano-Bianchi."

"Just first and last, please."

"That is my first and last name. My first name is Archer, and my last name is Romano-Bianchi."

"Did your mother not want to take his last name?"

"Something like that." The woman started shuffling through files. She smiled and looked up at me. She pulled out a piece of paper, handed it to me, and said, "Okay. Here we go. Have a nice day."

"You too." I took the paper from her and and walked towards the entrance of the gym. As I was walking, I passed by a girl. A pretty girl. Her hair was a reddish-brown and had a addictive wave to it. Her eyes -  light brown, freckled with a deep green - stared intently at me for a good half second. Great. I already had a crush and I hadn't even been here for 20 minutes. She seemed to take me all in with just one little glance. I had never seen anyone like her. This is high school, though. Crushes aren't more than just your imagination and hormones. Right?

I looked down at my schedule. Science, English, social studies, choir, lunch, math, French, and, finally, study hall. Okay. Now time to see if I can find them. I barely had made it to science when the bell rang. The teacher was pretty cool though. He didn't really care that I was almost late because he knew what it was like to be the new kid. I sat down towards the back and got everything that I needed together.

I was disappointed when the bell rang, telling us to go to the next class. That was for sure going to be my favorite class. The teacher helped me figure out where all my other classes were and even gave me a map of the school. I headed to English more confidently and actually got there in time. English wasn't that bad. I kind of enjoyed it. 

Social studies was a different story though. The teacher was like 90 years old and seemed to hate kids. She would just yell at us and make us read and answer questions from the textbook. That class dragged. 

I was excited to go to choir. I liked to sing. My entire family sings. My dads play piano and even taught me and Slater how to play. That was my favorite thing to do with them. Sing. Sometimes one of us would just randomly start belting out a song and then the rest of us would join. Especially if we were cooking or baking. That was always the singing time. I absentmindedly walked to the choir room, old, happy memories filling my mind. I smiled. I love my family.