My eyes slowly open as I feel the warm sunlight brush against my cheeks. I lift my arms and stretch just as I find myself doing most mornings. I've always loved living here, it is beautiful just about any time of the day, but mornings have proven themselves to be the most stunning in my eyes. Living on a ranch to most people may not be the most desirable, but this place is just home. With my mother and father, and my brother, although he is stationed overseas, I wouldn't want to have any other family.
I grab my boots from the corner of my white walled room and slide them onto my feet, making my way down the long hallway, I exit the house and follow the path that leads directly to the familiar stables that I've grown up with. Greeted by Grace and Spirit's loud neighing, I cannot help but smile as I chuck two flakes of hay and grin as I grab two apples from the tree line and slip them into their separate buckets.
"Well good morning to you too!" I say, as I watch them both devoir the apples. Soon after, I find the brushes that are laid out on the wooden bench and I begin the slow process of brushing them both out.
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After I finish, I stand to my feet and make my way back to the house. I smell the air as I walk through the damp grass that is almost always frosted over this early in the morning. I stare at the big, blue and white house as I make my way to the dark blue front door, I sometimes feel myself becoming surprised when I remember how lucky I really am.
As I enter the house, I notice that the doors are still shut tightly. My mom must still be fast asleep in there, it would be nice to make her some breakfast, for all the times she's woken up this early to make me some.
I grab the mix from the cupboard and start to get to work, humming tunes aloud as I mix everything together.
"Hey Max." I greet him over the phone as I place the ready pancakes on a plate.
"Hey Ashley." He happily mimics my good mood, I smirk as I sit at the table.
"You're still driving me to school, right?" I ask him. Max is one of my best friends, but he does have a tendency of dipping out of situations and plans.
"Yes, I will be there in like half an hour..." My eyes get wide as I realise I haven't even begun to get ready. After we hang up, I run into my mother's room, and as I scan the room, she was sleeping, just as I had expected. My father works a lot, and is gone most of the time, and his job is challenging to explain. He assists people who are in danger, who have gotten themselves too deep in problems to escape, and then he along with his team relocates them to a place where no one could ever dream of finding. I've always admired my father for his selflessness, but I couldn't work in that type of environment, I would never be cut out for that job.
"Mom, I made you some pancakes this morning! They are sitting on the kitchen table, I would let you sleep some more, but I wouldn't want them to get cold." I watch as my mother stirs in bed and peaks her head out from under the covers.
"Thank you sweetheart..." She says low, with a warm soft morning voice. I leave her room and go straight to the bathroom where I begin to make myself look presentable for school. I look at my long, dark brown hair, and brush it out with the pink and white brush that I got for my birthday a few years back. Hearing a horn outside, I skip the makeup process and just push two diamond studs into my ears, hoping that it would allow me to look a bit more girly than what I normally do. I rush into my room next and grab the clothes I laid out the night before, and get changed.
As I leave the house and walk down the stairs, and see Max behind the wheel of his red ford truck, something that I have always been jealous of. As I walk towards the huge dirt entryway, I send a wave with a smile in his direction, and I watch as he holds up his hand and points to his wrist, I only shake my head, in hopes that we would get the message that he should relax.
I slam the door closed after I get in and the usual smell of febreze scattered among it hit me a bit stronger than usual.
"Hey." I smile, throwing my bag in between us, his eyebrow perks up as if to scold me about not being punctual.
"Yeah yeah yeah, I am sorry, contrary to what most people believe, I am not perfect all of the time..." He looks at me with silence, giving a easy eye roll ,"I know... It is very hard to believe." He lets out a chuckle, and I quickly return the favor. As he reverses, he manages to run straight into the trash cans aligned beside the dirt road, I dramatically lock my seat belt into place.
"Nice driving, stupid!" Laughter spills from my lips, as a playful grin appears on his.
"Oh shut up." He mumbles as he puts it into drive and we start toward our school. Our school isn't too big, but it isn't crazy small either, to me, it is the perfect size. I know just about everyone there, but there are still those cliques that you see form in a lot of school, you have the populars, and the bookworms, and then there is me, Max, and Trina. I guess if I had to categorize us, I would say we fit in the normal group. We are not extremely popular, but we are still very sociable with anyone who would like to speak with us. We just mind our own business, of course for me it is a little hard, when I have Rachel on my back every second of every day.
Rachel is the popular girl in school, and unfortunately, that creates this monster of a vibe that she just loves to push onto me. She always finds some way to make fun of me, or her favorite pastime, which is to spread rumors about me as well.
That is why I stick with my two best friends, it makes things much more similar that way. I simply knew Trina since we both started Kindergarten, and we were inseparable. Once we reached those oh so rememberable middle school days, that was when Max moved to town, and the three of us just hit it off very quickly. Nothing too fancy, we are just simple best friends.
Max pulls into the parking lot and finds his usual spot, I was happy to remind him of who painted the amazing artwork on it, and he oh so dearly appreciated that. Our school allows kids to pay money for their parking spot, and gives them the opportunity to decorate it however they please, I never got the ability to paint my own, because I am not a proud owner of any vehicle; I cannot afford one.
Although I can't spend my time painting my own parking spot, I do spend a lot of time on my personal art. I've always enjoyed drawing and painting, it is what brings an escape from everything bad. I do sell a lot of my paintings and drawings for money to help a little on my famous truck fund jar, which many find very humours, although I find it very serious myself. The rest of my paintings get shoves in closest, or are just hung up in my room or in the house.
I open Max's squeaky door and hop to my feet, sliding my bag over my shoulders. We make our way into the toilet hole that all children call school. Trina was already there, as usual, making it a punctual point to be there as early as possible. I watch as she runs up to us with a large grin on her face, Trina has a way of making it challenging to be upset, that is the best thing about her: she always has a smile on her face.
"Thank goodness you guys are here, I was all alone." She complains, a small chuckle escapes from our mouths.
"You know Trina, you could always just not be the first person here every day, you know that... Right?" Max teases nonchalantly, I watch as she hits him in the arm and puts both of her arms around us and we walk towards the entrance.
"I missed you guys!" She smiled wide. After finally letting us go, I look over at the school yard and see Rachel and her gang all sitting by the attractive teenage boys.
Well that is not very surprising...
"So, what are the witches up to this fine morning?" I ask Trina and Max, I like to be prepared, you never know with them.
"Just slinging around the cute boys, man I wish I could have some of that Travis Davidson, he is one cute-"
"Yeah, we get it, you like the guy." Max cuts her off, she pulls back and points at him.
"Hey hey, no need to get so grumpy..."
"Yeah, because it isn't like she is ever going to talk to him." I tease, Max's smile is back on his face, and Trina looks at me with a glare.
"I will this year, okay?"
"Hey don't tell us... Tell Travis..." I laugh and push her in that direction. Not enough for them to look up, but enough to scare her to death. She quickly launches herself back to our sides with her face red.
"That was not a funny thing you did. Don't ever do that again..." Max and I both laugh as we enter the school.
"Let's go to our lockers now, it is best to go there now before all of the people rush through when the bell rings." I bring up the idea, in hopes that they will go along with it.
"But I'm hungry..." Max complains.
"Yeah, and I really want to be in the lunchroom today." Trina adds in, I look at them both with a disappointed face.
"Okay, well then, I will just go alone." I smile, and turn to walk away, before I get the chance, Trina grabs my hand and pulls me back to the direction of the lunchroom.
"No, you're coming with us. You are not going to go in the hall all by yourself, you will look like a total loner." Trina playfully admits.
"Fine." I retreat as we walk together into the lunchroom. I open the doors and see all the high school students spread apart and in their individual groups, I sigh under my breath. Max goes straight to the breakfast line, leaving us in the dust. Trina and I make our way to the table that we always sit at and we both take a seat.
"So, who is your dad rescuing now?" Trina asks, intrigued.
"Shh! We are not allowed to talk about his job in public." I warn, I love Trina to death, but when she speaks, she is always too loud. I wasn't even supposed to tell her about my dad, it was just becoming too hard to lie about different trips, she's my best friend, and she knows when I am lying.
"Oops, sorry... Oh gosh, look at who the witches are bullying today." She points to the group and my stomach twists as I see a freshman being yelled at. I automatically feel my mood start to become frantically upset.
"I will be right back." I stand to my feet, but she grabs my arm with a strong grip.
"No Ashley, you do not want to get on their bad side again..." She reminded me. So what though? What is the worst that they are going to do to me that they haven't already done?
"Well I am not going to let them bully someone that I know didn't do anything wrong." Trina sighs and lets go of my arm. I walk over to the natural circle that was formed around the poor girl, I already had most eyes staring at me, and I stop in my track, right behind Rachel.
"Stop yelling at her." I say just loud enough for them to stop and look at me.
"Excuse me?" She asks, her voice dripping with attitude, suddenly, the whole cafeteria becomes silent and they carefully watch the scene.
"Yeah, last time I checked, you're not deaf, I know you can hear me." I smirk at her, no one dares to say a word.
"Look Ashley, I am giving you a fair warning. You do not want to be on my bad side... Again." She glares.
"Oh, I'm sorry, was that supposed to be some kind of threat?" I laugh, looking at her with the sarcasm plastered through each word.
"Maybe it is, you better go. Or I will let another secret of yours slip, just. Like. That." She smiles, warning me. I roll my eyes and let a small scoff fall from my mouth.
"Ooo, I am so scared! Look, no matter what I do, you are going to go spreading lies about me anyways." I say to finish off, the tone in my voice changing to a flat, bored tone.
"You better leave, loser." One of her friends but in, and I hear a few people laugh, the students now behind me whisper, her name is Amanda, and she follows Rachel around like a dog.
"Oh wow, I am impressed, the follower is backing up her leader." I look from Amanda and scan who is around me, I see a few smirks, and some giggles fill the air. Amanda pushes me hard, and I look to the side and bite my lip, hoping that no one touches me again.
"I am giving you two seconds to walk away from me, before I do something that we'll both regret." I warn her. Obviously ignoring the warning that I clearly gave her in advanced, Amanda slaps me on the cheek. I feel some pain from it, but I ignore it and manage to put a smirk on my face.
"Wow... You slap how you look, both absolutely pathetic." I glare, gaining laughs from the crowd. She leaps on me and I feel my hair getting pulled immediately. I ignore the pain and make my hand in a fist and pound the girl's face. She stopped what she was doing and covered her face, lying on the ground. I got up and held my hand out for her to take, I didn't want to fight her, but there is no way I am going to let her treat me like that and her not get a punch that she deserves. She watched behind me and I turn a little, but before I could process, Rachel already had pushed me to the floor, this time a little harder than Amanda, anger rushes through me and all I see is a tunnel on Rachel.
I leap backup and charge her, going for her legs, she flops on the floor with a loud dud. I begin to punch and punch and punch until I black out. I feel strong arms pull me off her, and I look up to who pulls me off and my heart drops to my stomach: Mr. Tenet, the school principal. Great start Ashley...
"Ms. Bally, you are coming with me. Now!" His voice echoes through the silent gym, until students begin to scatter away from the scene, not wanting to get in trouble. Everything freezes and all I hear is few small whispers throughout the crowd.
"What about Rachel and Amanda?" I question him once I feel things get back into motion.
"It looks to me like you are the only one who I should be taking anywhere." He speaks, his voice isn't as loud as before, but I know by the tone to not to argue. He turns away, expecting me to follow him to his office.
"Come on Ms. Bally, now." His voice returning to a calm, stern tone. I roll my eyes, and manage a small glance back at the group of girls. Looks like I got Rachel pretty good this time, the other girls in the group wave me goodbye, and Rachel scowls at me. I give them a hard glare and turn my attention to Mr. Tenet, and follow him out of the lunchroom.
We make it to his office and I take a seat in one of the red comfy chairs placed across from his big black one. He shuts the door hard, and I flinch to the sound, he plops in the chair and stares at me. Crossing his arms, he leans back, processing what to say to me.
"Ashley, you know we have a no fighting policy here, correct?" He questions me.
"Yes sir." I speak, my voice sounds hoarse, and I swallow the spit in my mouth.
"Ashley, I don't know if you have this liking for fighting or what, but on the first day? Really?" I can hear the frustration in his voice, a wave of guilt hits me and I look down at my nails, picking off the polish.
"Well, I didn't throw the first punch... I walked over to them because they were bullying a poor girl, I fought back. After I did punch Amanda after she hit me, I held out my hand to help her up, but then Rachel pushed me to the ground, and that is when I lost it." I try to calmly explain what happened, but with adrenaline just now calming down, it's hard not to get rattled.
"That does not sound like Amanda or Rachel, Ashley. I can understand how you may be jealous of them, but this is not the correct way to deal with those kinds of emotions." He takes a deep breath, and a scoff rolls off my lips. Are you joking?
"I am not jealous of anyone, they are big bullies. All they have ever done for this school is spread rumors and hurt people." I say, trying to remain as respectful as possible, he shakes his head and lets a sigh out.
"Look, Ashley, because it is only the first day, I am going to just give you detention for the rest of the week, and if you ever try a stunt like this again, I can promise you will be expelled." He warned, I nod my head.
"Okay, well what does Rachel and Amanda get?" I question, he lets a frustrated breath go and I watch to see what he'll say.
"They get warnings, I have no proof and neither do you that they threw the first punch." He speaks, anger surges through me. There was a whole lunchroom full of proof, he just doesn't want to admit it.
"Ugh! That is so stupid, are you kidding me?" I stand to my feet and my voice rises.
"You will not raise your voice at me, you need to have more respect for your adults, do you hear me?" He gets louder and stands to his feet as well, I coward down and sit back in my seat.
"If I ever hear you disrespecting any adult like that again, I will personally give you a referral, do you understand me?" He warns me, I nod my head, still angry.
"Good, you're dismissed." He waves me off and I stand to my feet once again and push in the chair slowly and quietly. Once I start to walk, I feel a pain in my head, probably from where I banged it on the ground. I walk out of his office and back into the lunchroom I go, I grab my bag, rolling my eyes and walk out. I push past a group in front of the door, where I hear them talking about the scene that they all witnessed.
I knew going to the lunchroom this morning was a bad idea...
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A/N
I hope you guys enjoyed Chapter One of Opposites Attract! If you liked it feel free to comment anything you have to say and leave a like! Okayyy, I'll let you get back to the story now ;)