In Lakewood, a small town with a reputation of crime, gangs, outcasts and violence, Lana Takumi is an orphan and a gang member disguised in ripped jeans of her late mother and old flannels of her late father. She feels stuck in an endless cycle of b...
When I reached my locker, a few more "compliments" had been scribbled across my grey locker door with a sharp black marker. This time it was an asshole and ugly bitch. The words just passed through me without any effect whatsoever. I honestly didn't give a shit anymore. Nobody did. Everyone vandalized each other's lockers here. I couldn't remember the last time anyone saw a clean locker door in this school.
After grabbing my books, I closed the door shut and let my gaze linger just for a mere moment on all the shitty words scribbled on it
Stupid shit on lockers may have not bothered me, but people actually spitting them out in front of me and that to my friends, was the total opposite. Thus, I froze when I heard some girl jokingly mumble to Isha, "Fag."
The moment I saw the sting cut through Isha's goofy smile and drain the shine on her face, I was already shoving her body against the metal lockers with my bare hands around her neck.
Choking, her neck started turning blue while the rage in my eyes had slashed through the amusement across her eyes, compressing it with terror instead. My fingers clenched around her blue-now purple neck while I harshly whispered through my gritted teeth, "The fuck did you say?"
"Lana! Lana, let him go. It's fine. Leave her," Isha assured, hurriedly. Her hands gripped my waist, pulling me away from the bitch who even had the nerve to open her mouth like that. Isha yanked me off her and my hands reluctantly dropped from her neck. Heart pounding against my ribcage, I rubbed my sore palms on my jeans while glaring at the girl still gasping for air.
"Fuck you," Carmen muttered pushing her towards her friends who dragged her away, careful to not meet any of us in the eye.
"Aree Yaar, you idiot," Isha said, her sentence half Hindi, half English like it always was when I lost control over my temper.
"She's fucking mad, bro," some guy whispered from the crowds of students carefully watching us-me from the sidelines.
While I stood in the silence with my gaze cast down to the dirty floor and my pulse roaring against my neck, Isha cupped my cheeks and smiled before pulling me into a safe embrace. "Just breathe, okay? It's fine."
When the bell rang, Isha picked up my books and patted my back, taking the lead with me. When we entered the classroom, Jada and Carmen sat down in the back row together while Isha and I grabbed the two empty seats in front of them next to a familiar blonde.
With her bright blue eyes, creamy white skin, and wavy blonde hair, Lily Dawson was the only white kid in the whole town, leaving her friendless and defenseless when the other ghetto kids picked on her. When our eyes met across the classroom, a soft smile forming her pink lips and complimenting her delicate features appeared. The smile was indeed polite but it was so forced it was honestly too cringe to look at.
Ignoring her, I slumped down in my seat, pulled my legs up, and crossed them before bringing out my baby which was my blue Nintendo 3DS from my backpack. Meanwhile, Miss Daisy started her five-minute-long speech about the importance of history, smiling like she was made of the fucking sun.
Glancing at my Nintendo resting in my lap, Isha slumped over her table and yawned. "You should really start paying attention if you're planning on graduating this year."
I nodded and turned on Mario Kart. That pretty much summed up how I felt about first periods and mornings in general. I just wanted to disappear somewhere else entirely.
After her speech, meaningless chaos burst out in the room and Miss Daisy spent half an hour silencing the students before starting the class by scribbling today's topic of discussion on the blackboard. As soon she was done, the class lasted for two solid minutes before breaking the silence by irrupting into loud chatter about parties, drugs, clothes, and other stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with The French Revolution. Miss Daisy sighed like she did every time she lost control over the class and sank down in her chair and started massaging her aching temples.
Just like that, the situation would repeat itself in every classroom during all six periods of every school day, but just with a different teacher every time dealing with even worse students.
In Lakewood, either the kids had no interest in studies or they had always just been academically weak. The eldest generations turned out pretty well, but the academic scores of the students in general and their interest in studies had gotten worse generation after generation when crime, gangs, violence, and drugs increased over time across the whole town, causing lots of kids to drop out, join gangs, and live off by selling drugs to 13-year-olds.
Meanwhile, the student council slacked off with communicating with the principal, let alone the students themselves, and didn't make up a plan on how to create a better environment for the students to study in. Instead, the members spent their cheques on too much pizza while fourteen-year-olds died of overdose and seniors joined gangs instead of going off to college.
This town was fucked, this school was fucked, the residents were fucked and I was pretty much fucked too.
In nine months, life might be different but I would still be stuck in this body and in this mind. I guess that's why the saying said that running away never solved your problems. It was true, because even though I would be in a different place with different people, I know I would never be able to free myself from this cage of a mind that I found myself trapped in.
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Author's note: Hi, everyone! This was the second chapter of Colliding Stars. I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for 1k reads! Truly means a lot.
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