Broken Glass

Chapter 1

Juliette brushed her long brown hair from her face as she stared in the mirror. She perfected her eyeliner and smoothed out her pink Abercrombie shirt. Suddenly, a jolt of anxiety shot through her veins.

"Relax," she said to herself. "It won't happen again. I won't let it happen again."

Today was her first day of school at Sunworthy High. She knew that the first week of sophomore year would be exciting, but after that it would probably just all blend into a dull drone of lectures and pencil sharpeners.

She wished she had someone to wake her up, to make breakfast for her, to reassure her that everything was going to be alright. Unfortunately, her dad was on a business trip, and her step mother couldn't be bothered to wake up, so Juliette got ready alone.

She walked down the dark hallway into her bathroom. She brushed her teeth, feeling the hard and crisp plastic bristles scrape against her teeth, leaving them smooth and minty. She checked her makeup one last time before leaving the bathroom, making sure not to slam the door behind her.

Juliette yawned and walked downstairs. She poured a bowl of cereal and began to eat it. She enjoyed the taste of the bland golden flakes, but she mostly loved the sound of them crunching in her mouth. It had almost a music to it. A beat.

Eventually, the once-crisp flakes of bran turned to a mushy goop in the white milk, so she stood up with her bowl and carried it to the sink. She turned on the faucet, and water started to rush out. She slowed it to a drizzle, so as not to wake up Kylie, her rude stepmother.

Juliette glanced at the oven. 7:47 was displayed in glowing red letters above the oven door. She grabbed her backpack and phone, and started to walk towards the door. She pulled down the cool handle and pushed it open.

She stepped out into the warm, end-of-summer weather, and slung her backpack over her shoulder. She walked towards the driveway, and then continued down the sidewalk.

Juliette hated walking alone, or really doing anything where her mind was not preoccupied. This included sleeping, taking "relaxing" baths, walking alone, and the list went on. You see, whenever her brain remained idle and unfocused on a task, she started thinking about, well, everything that could go wrong.

So she twiddled her thumbs, did math problems in her head, counted, and played (well, attempted to play) mental Sudoku. She had gotten used to this, this burying her emotions behind silly preoccupations. The way she saw it, it wasn't really a bad thing. It was just a strategy of sorts.  

Five minutes later she arrived at the sand-colored building. She walked up to the entrance, where high school students littered the steps. Several people bumped into her but didn't apologize. They didn't notice that they made her drop her book or made her trip.

She was immediately reminded her of her old school; her old life. She felt her stomach flip as a feeling of sadness came over her. She shook the feeling off and forced a smile, even though no one cared about her facial expression. It was just an old habit.

A loud school bell started trilling, and the whoops and yells of the teenagers moved into the high school. Juliette followed the group into a spacious room, where chairs were neatly pushed into white tables, and banners displaying the school mascot, a tiger, swung from the ceiling. This was the common area, she guessed.

She walked with the herd of students to the lockers. She attempted to open her's up with the combination she was sent in a letter over the summer. It took a few tries, but eventually she got the slightly rusty blue locker to open.

 Inside her cold, metal locker was a piece of paper. Her hands started to shake as she opened it, but she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was just a schedule. She started to read it over.