CHALLENGE ACCEPTED#

Chapter one,

First day

September,

Today is the first day of school. Being a senior gives me hope because I will be leaving this melancholic prison soon. It's precisely ten months until graduation. Finally, still ten months in hell. Ten months and I'm free.

"Here is your snack, Alex," Mom tells my brother as she hands him his Sponge-bob box then turns to me and hands me mine. I roll my eyes internally before she turns to me with my lunch in her hands. I smile slightly, unzipping my backpack and tossing the box inside with little care. I hop onto the high chair, in the kitchen bar, just beside my brother Alex who seems very focused on his scrambled eggs and bacon.

"No pancakes for today?" I ask, a frown clearly visible on my face.

"Pancakes make you fat, El." His voice sounds casual, almost teasing.

"Are you kidding me, Alex? You too!" He simply shrugs at my frustration and his eyes trail back to his breakfast.

"I made you a smoothie," Mom says and lays out the smoothie on the countertop. I stare at it in pure disgust and disbelief.

"What the. What is that?" I ask, still not entirely sure if this is all just a joke. The smoothie she's referring to is a ghastly green, the exact color of a witch's skin. Of course, for making me healthy. The more I keep looking at it, the more I want to throw up.

"What's in that weird thing?" I narrow my eyes in disgust and wait for my mom's answer.

"Spinach, kale, Swiss chard, romaine lettuce, beet greens, carrot tops, collard greens, celery" she enumerates the ingredients, all of which I despise.

"Oh my god." I throw my hands in the air and close my eyes as though if I open them, I'll find myself in some sort of nightmare. "There's absolutely no way I'm drinking that shit. Rather die than drink it." I add after a minute of silence.

"El, listen." she tries to compose her words but I interrupt her by saying" Don't start, please. Just don't." I push myself to my feet with thoughts spinning. I open the fridge and grab the milk bottle. I pour a glass of cold milk and drink it in one swig; trying to soothe the battle inside of me.

"We'd better go. It's getting late." Mom urges in her bossy voice, leaving the kitchen as Dad enters. "Morning." He approaches and lays a kiss down my forehead and shakes Alex's shoulder. "Go. Your Mom is waiting for you in the car," he says, his back to us, glancing out the window across from him. He looks to us once more and smiles softly." Good luck on your first day."

Alex and I, both grab our backpacks and head straight to the front door. Outside, the sun is shining like never before, the heat blasting upon us with an undesired joy as it welcomes us. The weather makes me regret not wearing a T-shirt instead of my thin black hoodie. Alex walks faster to the car to get the passenger seat. We've been quarreling on that seat for ages. It has been like a race: whoever gets to the passenger seat first gets to ride in it. He smirks, moving his eyebrows up and down in smug proudness of his victory. I roll my eyes and get to the backseat.

The drive to school is quiet with the radio slightly playing, my mom focusing on the road, and Alex playing with his stupid video game. I've never understood the pleasure he gets in clicking his thumbs against a device all day. I pass the time by looking out the window as I begin to wonder how the school is going to play out.

"Hey, El," Mom yells for me soon after I get to my feet on the sidewalk of my famous high school. I sigh in frustration as I turn to her.

"Don't eat too much and don't be an ass," she says. The thing that Mom still doesn't know is that my supposed friends are the real trouble, not me. But, I don't say that to her. I don't tell her that I have been bullied for three years in this school. I don't tell her that I have zero friends. I don't tell her that everyone here calls me 'ugly burger'. I don't tell her that sometimes, I take my lunch in the bathroom because they leave me no place to stay in. I don't say anything to her because she never cares about what I say, always blaming me for everything that happens in this damn world.