Surviving Highschool.

Chapter 4

An hour later, someone came into my room. I didn’t even look up - I knew who it was - my mother would still too upset to talk to me. He walked up to where I was sitting and with no emotion what-so-ever, ordered, “Grab your suitcases. Car. Now.”

I did as I was told. No arguments. I packed my old rucksack and a suitcase, stormed out of the house, and went to the car and waited patiently in the afternoon sun. Well, not exactly patiently. Let’s just say he will never get the smell of puke out of his car. Nerves had always plagued me. When I got worked up, it wasn’t pretty. I needed to stand my ground however. I was not about to admit defeat. When he got in the car, he made a disgusted face, but didn’t say anything.

We drove in silence for just over an hour, at which point I couldn’t take the silence any more. I started singing a random top-charted pop song, which I knew my father couldn’t stand, really loudly and out of tune. I found it funny; daddy dearest (as expected) not so much. Another couple of minutes of this and he eventually turned on the radio. Turned it up incredibly loud, just to drown me out. Old folk music; country crap. ‘Love’ and ‘heart break’ without really knowing what it was, sung by aged alley cats who were having their tails slowly and methodically removed. Painful.

I considered sharing my opinion to dad, but I didn’t think he would enjoy my insight. Or hear it.

At some point I’d drifted off. How that was at all possible with dying animal screeches played at ear-splitting volume, I’ll never know. When I awoke next, the sun had already fallen to the other side of the world; and said world outside the car, much like inside, was dreary and silent. Just as we drove up an incredibly long gravel driveway, which I realised when I was brought out of my musings by the car suddenly jolting forward.

We rolled up to the front gates. At least six-stories tall, they looked more like they were supposed to hold something in, rather than let it out. With the lightest of shivers I got out of the car, and I looked around. The school itself, a sun-damaged rose colour, was taller than the gates. Wider too. The front courtyard, miles long, was decorated with a plethora of assorted plant life. And between the gates and the school another, much smaller abode, off to the side. A very modern and security-esque looking thing. There were camera’s everywhere, no windows and what looked to be motion senor’s all over it. Welcoming indeed. During my detailed analysis, my father decided to uproot my belongings, dump them on the gravel behind me and get back in the car. When I was finally aware of him, he was already backing up. And without a goodbye, a beep of the horn even, he turned around and drove off.

“Bye then, don’t miss me too much”, I too dumfounded to even add any edge to my voice – not that he’d hear it anyway. I watched his car get further and further away, and the reality settling deeper and deeper. I felt like I should be angry, upset or even frustrated, but, why bother? I wasn’t the first time I’d been abandoned by my family.

The gravel crunched under my shoes as I made my way up the track to the smaller building. As I neared, I realised it was actually a house. A very secure house. With warning signs plastered everywhere. Do not enter. Authorised personnel only. No trespassing. A groundskeeper, perhaps?

I wonder if anyone lives here. I stood dumbfounded, staring at the little house, until I was pulled out of my thoughts involuntarily. “Over here, newbie!”

I looked to the voice, a girl stood in the opening of the whatever-it-was. It wasn’t a door. Simply an opening in the wall. No doorhandles or any other sign that it opened from the outside. She was a little older than me, early 20’s, tall and incredibly lean. She gestured for me to come inside. Not really having any other plan of action, I picked up my bags and walked through the door and very nearly had to glue my jaw to my face. The inside-outside difference was incredible.