It was the morning of the first day of school and, as always, I wanted to stall as long as I could. School had started to become a burden to me. My mom expected straight A's and my teachers always assigned tons of homework for me to do. But even though I hated school, it took me away from home, which I was grateful for. It took me away from my mom and step-dad who never seemed to care about me now that their new baby was here. I didn't hate Adrienne, she didn't mean to hurt me, but sometimes I wished mom cared about me more than my grades like before, and I wished she never met Thomas because all he seemed to care about was making life a living hell for me.
"Jules, are you awake?" my mother yelled from down stairs, "School starts in thirty minutes and Tom has to drop you off before work."
Ugh, I'd rather walk. All he ever does is try to pick a fight with me.
"I'm up!" I yelled. I didn't want to go with Tom but my mom wanted us to get along, I tried but I'm not sure if he ever did. I slowly got up and tossed on a pair of jeans, a grey hoodie, and some black converse. I grabbed my backpack and threw it on my bed, packing everything my mom told me to pack the night before.
I tossed my backpack onto my back and went downstairs to see what I could grab to eat.
"Good morning Adrienne" I said to my sister as she threw her banana slices on the floor.
"Julie, why do you take so long to get dressed? It's not like you look any better, in fact you look like you didn't even try." Tom said as he picked up the food Adrienne had thrown.
"My name is Juliana, Thomas. And good morning to you." I said as I rolled my eyes and grabbed a banana for myself.
"Oh Jules, be nice. Julie is a cute name and plus it's like his personal nickname." my mom replied, "And he's right, you don't seem to do anything but waste time."
I stared at my mom for a minute not being able to comprehend how she could agree with him. She was the one who told me to "take life slow" and "wear what you want because it's your body." I also couldn't get over the fact that she said it was "his personal nickname" as if she had just magically forgotten that I hated that nickname because that was what dad used to call me, before he left. Don't get me wrong I don't hate anyone named Julie or the name itself really, I hated when I was called it, especially by Tom.
"Can we go?" I asked as I fidgeted with my banana avoiding eye contact with both of them, not wanting them to know their small remarks bothered me.
"Ugh. Fine Juliana." Tom groaned, "We can never have peaceful morning because you always have to get upset." he said as he kissed Adrienne's head and said goodbye to my mother.
I tried my hardest not to scoff as a small frown formed on my face and I walked out of the house without saying goodbye.
"Of course. It's always MY fault. Sorry I can't help but be in the way and ruin every morning." I thought to my self as I got into the car and slammed the door. I stared out the window and saw my neighbor with his two daughters as he gave them kisses and hugs before going to work. I felt my face start to get red and hot with jealousy and my eyes became blurry.
"Julie, can you not today." Tom said as he got in the car and started driving me to school. "God, your mom is always saying how good of a kid you are but since I've met you all you do is cause unwanted negativity and problems. I don't know why you can't be happy for once. You never smile around us and..."
He kept talking but as my tears started falling down my face, my ears became hot and started to tune him out. I didn't want to give him the reaction he wanted but my eyes couldn't seem to grasp the fact that this is what he wanted.
Once we arrived at school I grabbed my bag and quickly got out of the car trying to catch my breathe and not do the annoying gasping for air thing. I closed the door and started to speed walk to the door. I heard him scream something from the car but I could only focus on getting inside and away from him.
I wiped my tears but they didn't stop. Through blurred vision I walked through the empty hallway trying to get to the bathroom. That's when I crashed into someone. I almost slipped but they caught me.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't see you" I said as I helped pick up the papers that I caused her to dropped.
"It's ok sweetheart." the woman said in the most calming tone. I handed her the papers I picked up and gave her a small smile avoiding eye contact so she wouldn't see my red and watery eyes. But there was no hiding what was obvious.
"Are...you ok?" she asked with concern laced in her voice.
I could only nod knowing that if I said anything I would start full on crying.
"Why don't you come with me." she said with a soft smile.
I took a deep breath and slowly looked up at her noticing a school lanyard with classroom keys in her hands. She had a Dutch braid that was resting against her shoulder, a white undershirt with a cream colored cardigan on top, a medium lengthen black skirt and she smelled like a dream. The most caring sparkling green eyes met my glassy blue eyes. Her smile gave me comfort and made me feel safe. But I was stubborn and wasn't about to let someone know that I wasn't ok, especially a teacher.
"No it's ok. Truly I'm fine...I've just had an eventful morning. But I'm ok nothing happened." I lied giving her an awkward smile. I saw her smile flatten slightly but she just nodded. I started to speed walk away out of embarrassment hoping that I wouldn't have to talk to her again.
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The day dragged on and I wanted to get out of there the whole day. I didn't want to be home but I didn't want to be at school either. My friends Caroline, Abby, and Rebekah did most of the talking so I didn't have to say much.
"Did you guys hear about the new teacher for English?" Rebekah said as we were walking down the hall from lunch.
"Oh yeah. My older sister had her when she went to school but they moved her here." Caroline said, "She told me that she was super good at teaching but no one really liked her because she gave homework everyday."
"I don't think I'm going to like her to be honest. Ella has her for third and she told me and Abby during fourth that she already assigned homework and she's way too energetic." Rebekah said proving Caroline's sister right. "When do you guys have her?" she asked.
"I have her for last" Caroline said.
"Me too" I said.
"Oh. Me and Abby have her right now" Rebekah said.
"Ugh great my days going to end with her." Caroline said as she pointed to the woman I ran into earlier.
"That's the new teacher?" I asked feeling my face get red as she made eye contact with me, giving me a smile.
"Mmm hmm. Do you know her? She just smiled at you." Abby asked.
"No, I just bumped into her this morning." I said before grabbing Caroline's arm, walking us to our history class not saying goodbye to my friends or smiling back at the teacher.
I couldn't focus on anything our history teacher Ms. Lopez said. I was too busy thinking about how I was going to avoid my next teacher. I kept thinking about how embarrassing it would be too see her again after she has seen me in such a state. For once I wished I didn't have to leave class but once the bell rang, there was no avoiding her.
I entered her class hiding behind Caroline and I successfully made it to the table in the back.
"Hello everyone. My name is Ms. Olsen." the mysterious woman I had ran into said, "I cant wait to get to know all of you and your beautiful minds. You can always count on me and I hope I can always count on you. I do assign homework often so please be prepared but I know you will all be able to handle it."
I managed to keep my head down and not make eye contact with her once, although I felt her glance over at me a few times. Once class was over, Caroline practically ran out of the room because her mom was waiting for her. I, however, tried packing my stuff quickly and ended up dropping all my pencils from my pouch. People were pouring out of the room and in mere seconds I was the only one left.
"Oh, let me help you." Ms. Olsen said as she walked over to me.
"Oh no it's okay" I said.
"Like you were this morning?" She muttered sarcastically. She paused for a moment and saw my face get red with embarrassment and some slight anger. "Sorry, I-I don't mean it like that." She said realizing her mistake.
"No no. I get it. It's ok." I said as I tossed my pencils in my pouch and threw it in my backpack.
"Juliana, right?" She said.
"Yeah. Everyone calls me Jules though." I replied.
She smiled and nodded. "Jules" she whisper to herself. I'm not sure what it was about her but she made me feel safe and the way she said my name gave me small butterflies of comfort. "So Jules," she started, "how'd the rest of your day go?"
"It's been ok." I said. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out, only to read:
Mom <3: hey sweetie, I'm gonna pick you up but I might be a little late because Adrienne is upset because shes hungry but I'll be there soon.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Of course she's gonna be late. Adrienne first right? She's the important one." I thought to myself but a small part of me was happy that I got to stay behind and even crazier, that small part of me wanted to continue talking to Ms. Olsen.
"Is everything ok?" Ms. Olsen asked seeing I was clearly upset.
"Yeah, it's just my mom. She has my baby sister so she's gonna be running a little late." I replied.
"Well your welcome to stay here if you'd like. It's quite sunny outside and I have some stuff to get done so I'm gonna be here for a while." she said giving me a small smile and walked over to her desk and pulled up a chair for me if I wanted to stay behind.
"You know what, I think I'll take you up on that." I said. I don't know what it was about her but I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay with her and talk to her. She made me feel safe and it was almost like a small weight was being lifted off my shoulders just by talking to her.
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A/N: Hi, ok so this sucks but, your gonna have to bear with me. I promise it'll get better. I wasn't sure how I wanted to introduce Lizzie and if I could get it right.
Also I know there are quite a lot of characters so imma list them so you don't get confused :)
Thomas/Tom: step dad
Sarah: mom
Adrienne: little sister (she's like two)
Abby, Caroline, and Rebekah: friends
Juliana/Jules: you?