"These days I'm haunted by, each day that passes by."
CHAPTER ONE
"Oktober, wake up hun. Time for school."
I couldn't think of another phrase that I hated more than that one.
A groan erupted from my lips as I brushed the pieces of my tangled mane of hair out of my face, sitting up from the warm comfort of my bed.
"C'mon on! It's the first day of senior year, be excited!" Aunt Kate yelled from the bottom of the stairs, her waves of over joyfulness almost knocking me over.
After a thirty minute steaming hot shower with various thoughts of contemplating how I could get out of going back to the hell hole that is high school, I decided I had to suck it up.
I had one year to go, just one year.
I could manage, I had to.
"You look great!" Kate cooed, as I walked down the stairs, slinging my bag on my shoulder.
"Thank you, Kate." I spoke, forcing a smile onto my face.
"Our little senior, look at how grown up you are." Uncle Rob teased, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye as he walked into the room.
"Spare me the dramatics, Rob. I'm gonna be late." I stopped him, grabbing my keys off the kitchen counter.
"Smart ass." Rob laughed, earning a shove from Kate. "I just wanted to say, your parents would be so proud of you."
"They would sweetie." Kate smiled, nodding in agreement.
"I doubt that." I replied, watching Kate frown, giving them a small smile before walking out of the house.
***
"Welcome back to Lakewood high, where dreams are crushed and expectations are higher than Taylor Blake's heels." My best and only friend Imogen, joked.
"Ah yes, the infamous Lakewood High." I sighed as we walked through the doors. "I sure did not miss this place."
Imogen snorted unattractively, flipping her long blonde hair over her shoulder, strutting down the hall while ignoring the guys oogling over her.
"There's my baby." A familiar voice called out, kissing Imogen on her cheek while slinging an arm around her shoulder.
"Good morning darling." Imogen smiled, looking up at her beloved boyfriend.
Oh, kill me.
"Oktober, how's my second favorite person in the world?" Chase smirked, nodding toward me.
"I'm just peachy Chase, thank you for asking." I replied sarcastically, detaching myself from the two and turning to my locker.
I attempted to convince myself that it would be a good year, that I would have a good year.
My positive attitude was short lived, a certain nasally voice cursing my ears.
"Oktober! Decided to get rid of the fake blonde?"
Taylor Blake, the cliché queen bitch of the school. She was no different then the ones in the movies, the exact same actually. Only at the end of our story, she won't apologize for how rude she was and hope to be friends. She'll carry on getting her face lifts, nose jobs, and breasts implants for as long as her daddy lets her.
She dropped my newly dyed black hair that was my natural color out of her hand, placing it onto her hip.
"Yeah! When are you going to?" I questioned just as enthused, making her devilish smirk drop.
"Listen, I just want to let you know that this year is my year. Don't get in the way of it." She growled, taking a step closer in an attempt to intimidate me.
"Shouldn't you be waving some pom poms or something? Singing your little cheers?" Imogen butted in, a bored expression on her face.
"Bite me." Taylor scoffed, rolling her blue contact eyes.
"Tempting, but I'm allergic to plastic." Imogen smiled, forcing me to hold back my laughter. "Bye bye." She drawled out sarcastically, waving as Taylor stormed away.
"Not even twenty minutes into the first day." I sighed, shutting my locker. "Imagine lasting another whole year with that."
"She's all bark and no bite, we both know that." Imogen grinned, nudging my shoulder.
***
"Welcome back, seniors. This year I will be pairing you up with one partner who will remain your partner for the remainder of the year." Mr Mosely grounded out.
Chemistry was definitely on my shit list for the semester, already knowing how it was going to pan out.
"If you could please look to the person sitting next to you, that is your partner. Take these next five minutes to get to know each other." Mr Mosely finished, sitting back down at his desk.
"Hi, I'm Oktober, nice to meet you." I spoke sarcastically, to the empty stool next to me.
Luckily no one heard me.
Of course I'd be the odd number of the class and not have a partner, just my luck.
The door to classroom swung open, boots hitting the ground catching my attention.
Just. My. Luck.
"Mr Dawson, nice of you to join us. You will be seated with ..." Mr Mosely announced, looking around the classroom for an open seat.
I kept my head down in hopes that he wouldn't see me.
"Ah, Ms Blackwood. You two will be partners for the semester. Get to know each other." Mr Mosely ordered, his extended hand pointing to me.
"Oktober." He stated, a bored look on his face like he'd rather be anywhere else.
Oh if it isn't the infamous bad boy of Lakewood.
"Axel." I replied in the same tone, not looking up from the chemistry book sprawled out in front of me.
I never particularly liked Axel during anytime of our high school experience, simply because he basked in the attention from the female population with his bad boy act that I believed was shallow. In return, Axel didn't like me for reasons I wasn't privy to.
Potentially because I didn't fall to his feet like every other desperate girl in Lakewood.
I was practically immune to his godly looks.
We stayed silent the remainder of the class, doing the lab without saying a word to each other.
Boy was this going to be a fun year.
"No way." Imogen gasped as I told her about the uneventful chemistry class.
"Yes way. I'm thinking about dropping it."
"Oh come on, Axel isn't even that bad." Chase butted in, making me narrow my eyes at him.
"And you know this how?"
"We're friends." He shrugged, making Imogen look up at him.
"Since when?"
"Since I don't know, forever." Chase laughed, making Imogen's face scrunch up in confusion.
"Well I don't care about your little boy crush, I'm asking to switch partners." I dismissed, getting into my car.
"Stubborn as always." Chase sighed, his classic pretty boy smile on his face.
"Would it be me if I wasn't?" I challenged, waving at Imogen before speeding off.
***
A/N: Hi old readers! And new :)!
As you can tell if you've read this book already, i'm keeping the gist pretty much the same, just tweaking grammar and spelling errors, but also some of how the plot is laid out.
Anyways, thank your for reading! Feel free to leave a comment or vote, or both!
Catch ya next time,
-MT