A/N: Just another heads up that most of my story is still a work in progress. I wrote many of the early chapters when I was young and first starting out as a writer, so they might not have the best writing or plot structure. The later chapters are written a lot better, so I hope you have the faith and patience to read until then! :)
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Chapter One
A V E R Y
People say that time flies by, that years go by, and moments simply fade away. They say that every year is always something to look forward to at first, but eventually, turns into one of those ordinary days where you carry on with your daily life and nothing extraordinary happens.
It's only at the end of the year, or even several years later, where you realize that everything drastically changed in that certain period of time. I never knew that life was always something that flashed by in an instant and you had to make the most of it while you had it; until I met Walden Bradley.
I truly can't recall how I felt the day that I had my first encounter with Walden Bradley. I guess I was somehow intimidated by him. Walden Bradley; selfish, conceited, and the most popular boy in school. He only cared about himself and I couldn't understand why everyone liked him.
I don't know if my dislike towards him was because of jealousy, but it was probably in annoyance. I know I misjudged him when I first met him, but sometimes the eyes don't see past the person on the outside.
You eventually have to teach yourself to see beyond the outside and focus on the inside. You'll get used to the familiarity of the person as the vision of the person becomes clearer to you, which was what happened to me after everything changed. I finally saw things clearer in my world, and finally knew what was right; all because of him.
I never realized it at the time, but he was the one that changed my life for the better.
The day that I had to leave my home was either the most dreadful or the greatest thing that had ever happened to me. My family moved from New York City to Minnesota, and the reason why we moved was that my father had to transfer to another one of the businesses' franchises where he worked nearby in Rochester.
We had to pack all of our belongings and I had to say goodbye to the place that I once called my home. I recalled every single memory that happened in the same tiny, cramped townhouse we've had all that time.
I remembered the time when my father and I rushed to finish my science project in the seventh grade in the kitchen, with papers flying and glue squirting everywhere. There was also the time that my mother and I attempted to bake countless delicacies that made your eyes water whenever you sniffed the familiar savoury scent of freshly baked cookies and cakes.
Except, all memories had to be left behind; whether they were pleasant or not, and that was the thing that I was terrified of the most.
__________
"What are you doing?" My twelve-year-old brother, Noah, curiously inquired as he poked me by my shoulder.
I sighed, folding my notebook shut and turning to glance at him. "I was writing in my notebook until you interrupted me."
In life, everyone goes through moments where they feel as if they know something is about to happen, but they choose to deny it and push it aside as a way to ignore events that you know you don't want to go through.
That was exactly what I was thinking while I was on the plane ride that had taken off merely half an hour ago. My situation was truly happening, no matter how much I wanted it to only be a harmless nightmare.
Even though we were undoubtedly high up in the sky and soaring alongside the clouds, I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, which wasn't because I was starting to get motion sickness.
I was terrified that my family and I were leaving New York, the only place where I truly felt at home despite the hardships at school with obnoxious students telling me I was nothing but another unimportant face in the crowd.
My parents reassured both my brother and I that starting fresh in Minnesota was going to benefit all of us. I couldn't help but shake with dread when no one was around me as I thought about the fresh start that I would be receiving.
I didn't understand how I was supposed to find my own fresh start once we arrived at our new house because in New York, I couldn't seem to find my place amongst people there even if I had spent my entire life there.
"We're really high up," Noah pointed out, sliding the window shade open as he peered out to observe the breathtaking sights of the clouds that were wafting across the clear blue sky. "It's kind of scary being up here, I can't wait until we get off this plane."
I gave him a small smile and opened up my notebook to the page that I was previously on so that I could continue writing to pass time. No matter how hard I desperately tried to think of something to write about to keep my mind off of the situation I was in, all I could keep thinking was the fear that continuously kept consuming my thoughts on that plane ride.
Noah's lucky. The only thing he wants is to land from the plane as soon as possible, I thought. Then there's me; I'm dreading the moment that I step foot onto solid ground, knowing that I'll have to start all over again without knowing what will be in store.
__________
Not knowing what was to come, we moved to a small town in Minnesota called Plainview somewhere in late November, which was completely different from living in the city because there were very few residents compared to New York.
It wasn't completely deserted, but you never really needed a car to travel around town because everyone and everywhere was only a few minutes away. It was in the country and to me, it was nice moving somewhere away from the city. The neighbourhoods were peaceful and quiet; the place where we moved had quaint little shops that you could easily get to by walking a mere five minutes.
Although the sights were pleasant, I had a hard time trying to fit in with the country folk. The new environment where I currently lived was difficult to adapt to, living in the city for almost all my life.
Either way, every time I breathed in a whiff of the country air, which smelt like freshly grown crops, I felt almost relaxed; almost at peace. I finally started thinking that maybe this place wasn't so bad, but that was merely the beginning.
Going to high school in Minnesota was terrifying. Plainview had only one elementary school and one high school which was in town, with the more practical option being to choose to go to the most nearby school in town.
I didn't go to school on the first Monday that I moved; I stayed at home during the first week after we moved, as I tried my best to help unpack and settle into our new home.
I was relieved that my parents had allowed me a one-week extension from attending school because even before I moved, making friends at my new school wouldn't be very easy. I had a hard time making friends back in New York, which made me uneasy by thinking about seeing all those unfamiliar faces in the environment.
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"You're lucky that your father and I gave you and your brother an extra week at home before you both head off to school," my mother stated, as I heard my bedroom door open, meaning that she had entered my room.
My arms were crossed over the window pane of my new bedroom, as I blankly observed the weather outside. Gloomy storm clouds were present in the grey sky as the heavy rain began surging down onto the pavement, creating massive puddles all over our driveway and on the streets.
I kept staring ahead, as I continued to watch the minuscule raindrops drop onto my window. They effortlessly slid down to the bottom, each of them leaving a trail one by one.
It took my family a while to unpack all of our belongings in our new house. It was a bungalow in the countryside, which was completely different from our townhouse back in New York. The day we arrived at our new property and our new home was a day that I wouldn't be able to forget.
I remembered the way that my shoes crunched against the shrivelled green grass on our front lawn, as I glanced upwards to face our newly-constructed house. I knew I wasn't able to call it my home right away.
Noah and I were supposed to be helping our mother with unpacking the countless boxes in our living room and kitchen filled with our possessions. It was mainly because my father had already headed to work merely a few days after we moved in and couldn't help us unpack.
It wasn't that I was also unwilling to help my mother and the boxes; it was because helping her was the least of the worries on my mind.
"Avery, I've already told you that we won't be getting our furniture for a while. I need you to help me unpack our stuff, especially yours," my mother sighed, shaking her head in disapproval when I turned around to face her.
She held a cardboard box in her hands, and I realized it was labelled with my name in bold, capital letters as she handed it to me, "We've got a lot to do, so it would be helpful if we can get rid of all these boxes fast enough. Take this, I'm going to talk to your brother."
I nodded, walking away from the window and towards her as I took the box in my grasp. "I know, I will," I emotionlessly responded, my eyes fixated on the box.
Before I knew it, she immediately scurried off to my brother's bedroom and I was left alone once again in my room. Looking around my room, there were already quite a couple of boxes with my name labelled on them and a mattress on the floor as a makeshift bed in the meantime.
I crouched down and took a seat on the floor. I glanced back down at the cardboard box, as I ran my hand over the top of it. I knew that inside the box were my personal belongings, but those material things were all symbols of my life back in New York.
They were all simply memories of the place where I had been taken away from and were merely a memory in my mind from that day forward.
Pushing my inside thoughts away, I placed the box beside me before standing up and heading back to the living room to retrieve any of the cardboard boxes that were mine.
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My first day of school was far from what I had expected it to go as, but I should've known better. I didn't have anyone to talk to, and I felt lonely. I didn't think anyone would like me, like the way my friends would back in New York.
I started eating alone at lunch tables and only spent my free time at the school library, with my nose in countless books at the school library. There was nothing else I could do during those times.
Soon, I started thinking about if it was because of the clothes I wore, what I looked like, my personality, or because I was simply new. I only wanted to fit in for once because even back in New York, I never seemed to fit in no matter what.
Maybe it was because I was from the city; everyone in Plainview liked to listen to country music and played sports, for most citizens were impressively athletic, while I liked to listen to pop music and read various books at home because it was what I grew up with in the city.
I didn't have anyone, which was the thing. I kept this secret from my parents because no matter how many times I told them about my problems, they never seemed to understand. As I walked down the halls, sometimes I could hear my fellow peers whispering to each other about me: I knew at that moment that there was something different about me.
__________
It was three weeks after my first day and the bell rang throughout the entire school, signalling it was lunchtime. As I timidly walked through the doors of the school library to find the entire room deserted, there was a sickening feeling in my stomach once again.
I had enough of eating my lunch either in front of my locker in the hallway or in one of the girls' bathroom stalls. I knew I didn't want to admit that I was quite lonely without anyone to talk to, but because of my difficulty to make friends, it was harder than I thought to constantly have no one to turn to.
I strode over to one of the library tables and quietly pulled out the chair in front of me, before taking a seat. Placing my lunch tray and my novel onto the table, I ate a spoonful of my mashed potatoes before opening up my book to continue where I left off on the page that I last read.
I had already read the science fiction book in my grasp countless times—let alone the trilogy—but no matter how much I truly enjoyed the series, it wasn't enough to cheer me up from how lonely I always was. A shiver ran down my spine as it did every time I was either sad, upset, scared, or overall happy; during that time, I rarely got shivers if I was happy because I rarely was happy.
There was a loud erupt of cheers, making its way closer to the library. As I glanced up from the words etched on the pages of the book, I would be lying if I wasn't intimidated by the sight that I saw. By one of the entrances of the library doors, there was a crowd of students trailing behind someone, as they practically tripped over one another to get to the front of the crowd.
Little did I know that all of them were trailing behind the school's most popular boy, Walden Bradley, who was more well-known as Wade. That was the first time I ever saw him.
Not bothering to hide behind my book because I knew none of those people outside the library cared, I couldn't help but continue to gawk at the scene as my eyes widened. Fellow students outside the library repeatedly kept shoving each other to get a chance to walk side by side with Walden Bradley, but my eyes were only fixated on his appearance.
His dark chocolate hair was messily ruffled, with strands sticking out. There were small bruises beginning to form on his face, especially one that stood out near his jawline.
The frown etched onto his face was about to fall off any moment, but the way he silently trudged further away from the group of students who repetitively attempted to talk to him, made it undoubtedly obvious that he had no interest in anyone around him.
For a split second, Wade glanced over at me and for some reason, I was frozen and somehow hypnotized as I continued to observe him from afar. But then that moment ended almost immediately.
I watched as our school principal, Mr. Rockford, strictly ordered the students around Wade with a command because the heaps of students scrambled away in an instant.
Mr. Rockford marched over towards Wade, as he began sternly reprimanding him while Wade glanced down at the ground. As Mr. Rockford motioned with his hand for Wade to follow him—most likely to the office by the looks of it—Wade roughly brushed Mr. Rockford's arm away from him and stormed down the hallway.
I resumed my book afterwards, but my mind was no longer concentrating on my book. It was concentrated more on the scene that had appeared before me.
__________
Despite the times that I saw Wade Bradley once in a while around the school in similar situations such as the time I was in the library, I was losing utmost faith that I was going to find a friend.
I started thinking that maybe I was an outsider and that was the reason why no one liked me. It got to the point where I ate lunch in the bathroom stalls and cried because no one desired for me to sit at their table.
A month passed; I was still alone, until I met Willow Ross.
Willow Ross was one of my only true friends at school. We were both sophomores in high school, and although we only had a few classes together, I can say we were both really close to each other.
We ate together in the school cafeteria, or in the halls if there weren't enough tables, and studied together in the school library. She was a few months older than me, but we had the same hobbies and the same interests. Our love for the science fiction trilogy that I always read and our interest in the same boybands made us extremely close.
Even though we only knew each other for only about a month at the time, we were in sync together as "peanut butter and jelly," as we both enjoyed calling it. She had light brown hair with green eyes, while I had dark brown hair and hazel eyes.
Willow and I were practically sisters but besides our physical differences, there was another detail that Willow and I didn't have in common. Willow was never scared when it came to anything she encountered and I was never fearless, or brave enough to take a risk.
"Willow, are you sure you want to do that?" I nervously inquired, biting the bottom of my lip.
We were currently in history class, near the end of January, which was a few weeks after our winter break. To be fair, I can't recall what we had been learning or taught that day.
Even though we had all returned from the homemade meals and freedom of having no homework weeks ago, the class still wasn't cooperating towards the teacher and mainly didn't choose to listen to him.
All the students were gossiping or either procrastinating, but Willow and I were sitting together to briskly write down notes from our teacher muttering on about who knows what. The information was repetitive and I was almost sure that we had already learned about the information even before winter break.
"Avery," Willow jokingly rolled her eyes, turning to face me with an amused expression, "of course! If you don't want to, it's totally fine. I think we should though."
My real name is Averylyn, but it isn't a very common name when I actually sat down to think about it. I preferred that most people would call me Avery for short, since it was much easier to spell and it for once seemed like a name that would honestly fit me.
"Why would we talk to Wade Bradley?" I questioned, not taking my eyes off the board, but occasionally stealing glances at her.
Although Wade was still a sophomore, everyone praised him; he even earned the respect of the juniors and seniors, which was saying something because they were the toughest to impress. Wade was one of the lead players on all the sports teams, although on the other hand, I heard that he wasn't very successful in his academics.
Most of the students acclaimed that one of the superior reasons for his popularity was that he tended to get in unnecessary fights very often and was infamously known for reckless acts of behaviour. Willow and I had never personally talked to Wade before, but even if I got the chance to, I probably wouldn't.
He seemed nice from some gossip that passed around the halls, but some students around the school explained that he could be judgmental at times. It made it hard for me to decipher who Wade Bradley truly was.
Willow replied as if it was obvious, with a mischievous grin. "Maybe we might become friends or something."
I for a fact, didn't want to interfere with Wade because if I did anything wrong towards him, I would be the laughing stock of the school because of him. Of course she had wanted to do something like that.
Willow was all about stepping out of her comfort zone and learned to embrace the rush of adrenaline, while I quietly watched from the sidelines, taking extra precautions. Willow had a point, though; Wade was friendly, but not to everyone.
"But Willow, you never know what he might say about it," I attempted to persuade her not to, but she shook it off.
Willow gave me a reassuring smile, as she continued to take notes. "Avery, the whole point of high school is to reach out to one another and to make friends that'll last a long time. The worst thing that could happen is that he shuts us down. So what? We'll just keep on trying until we finally find some friends we can talk about anything with."
Our teacher didn't notice us chattering, probably because he was feeding us information half of us wouldn't even remember a year from now. I knew I should've paid attention to my work instead of what Willow was showing me.
My subconscious was battling between listening to the professor's lecture and Willow's reasonings. I couldn't help listening to what Willow was saying though; it took my mind off of everything I was doing at the moment.
"That could be us if we were more social," she teased in a singsong voice, as she pointed across the room where Wade was.
I immediately noticed his dark brown hair brushed upwards. Wade was sitting across the room with three other guys loudly guffawing and a red-headed flirtatious girl around him.
The feline-eyed girl was twirling strands of her ginger hair as a flirting attempt even though he didn't notice, and was moving closer to Wade on purpose. It disgusted me by merely watching her, all clingy and desperate for his attention. Wade was completely ignoring her, while she pouted to get his attention.
For some unknown reason, I couldn't look away from him. A guy with light-brown hair who was seated beside him whispered something to Wade in his ear, in which then Wade caught my glance.
Suddenly, it was almost as if it was that time I first saw him by the library. We locked eye contact with each other for just a few moments, but I quickly looked away, trying to make it less suspicious.
"Willow, I don't know about this," I shook my head, desperately getting her to change her mind. "You don't even know Wade that well, and you don't know what might happen if you did."
Willow snickered, throwing her head back in laughter. "That's the point! I won't know unless I try, right?"
By the end of our class, the bell rang, signalling the end of the period. I quickly scrambled to pack up my belongings and shoved them into my backpack as fast as I could.
With other students beginning to head out, I exited out of our classroom with Willow by my side. The both of us were heading to our lockers in a rush to head to our own classes, but that wasn't possible when someone had abruptly called out to me from behind.
"Hey, it's Avery Mitchell. The freak in Mr. Shannon's class," a deep unfamiliar voice barked, making Willow and I stop in our tracks as everyone else did the same.
As I turned around to glance at the person who had called my name, my heart stopped when I found myself face-to-face with Wade Bradley.
Although his friends were behind him, the same frown was etched on his face as he crossed his arms over his chest. But his cold, piercing stare into my eyes made me realize only then that I was going to be one of his victims that he would publicly humiliate in front of the entire student body.
"Yeah, you're the new freak no one ever talks to," Wade remarked, letting out a bitter laugh. "Stop acting like you don't know anything. No wonder you're a loser, nobody talks to you."
I tried to calm down, but no matter how much I wanted to shoot a response back at him, my mouth could barely open to say one word. Wade was waiting for a reply from me, with his friends emotionlessly watching him.
I was confused as to why nobody went to say anything to at least anybody but everybody merely stopped whatever they were doing and continued to stare.
"Why are you being so rude?" Wade scoffed, glancing at fellow students around us. "I'm just trying to have a regular conversation here and you're being rude by not answering me back."
I bit the inside of my cheek, hard, as I glanced at the ground. The whole situation was undoubtedly humiliating and I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could feel my heart pounding in my ribcage, as an itchy feeling blossomed in my palms, which caused it to start to sweat.
"Well, are you gonna answer me?" Wade menacingly demanded, as he continued to glare at me.
I sucked in a deep, silent breath; I merely wanted this to stop. My vision suddenly began to turn blurry and if I didn't get out of there, my tears were going to stream down my face and that would've been even more humiliating.
"I'm sorry if I've done anything wrong to annoy you," I quietly apologized, staring at the ground.
As I glanced back up, Wade's eyes weren't fixated on me anymore. He was staring at the ground, as if he couldn't stand the sight of me. "You're so pathetic, no wonder nobody seems to like you," Wade remarked, in a hoarse voice.
Before I could process what had happened, Wade smacked the folder I was holding and pushed the binder I was grasping out of my hands, which resulted in all my papers falling out. I knelt down to pick them up, as Willow scrambled to help me.
Once I stood up and gathered all my papers, Wade was still there. He silently huffed and turned on his heel, with his three friends following him. Everyone stared at me one last time and proceeded to go to their classes.
"I'm sorry about that, Willow," I muttered, trying to get rid of the big lump out of my throat. Tears threatened to fall again, but I blinked them away.
She disapprovingly shook her head, letting out a sigh. "Don't be, I don't think I'll be talking to him anytime sooner."
"How does he know me?" I confusingly asked, walking with Willow to our next class.
Willow shrugged her shoulders, as we continued down the hall. "Probably Michelle Sterling, I guess."
"Michelle?" I questioned, clutching my books tighter, "Who's she?"
"She's the school gossiper who gossips about anyone, popular or not. You know, that airhead that goes around making fun of others to feel good about herself. She's the one who was hopelessly trying to flirt with Wade in class," she says, laughing. "Gossip goes around the school pretty fast because of her."
It all made sense now. The last thing I needed was more drama. "We should forget about it before anything else happens," I declared, taking in a deep breath.
Willow gave me a concerned look, stopping me in our tracks. "No, we have to tell Principal Rockford about this. You can't leave it like that, Avery. It could always happen again and we should do something about it."
With a few moments left to spare, Willow dragged me to the principal's office and convinced me to explain what had happened. Principal Rockford said he would immediately have a talk with Wade as soon as possible. Leaving the office in a rush, Willow and I walked into our algebra class and sat down in two seats.
"I'm just gonna take a drink," I whispered, placing my backpack on the ground.
Willow nodded, drumming her fingers on the desk. "Alright."
I rushed out of the classroom, as I headed down the hall to the nearest water fountain, where some students were also planning to head to their classes. The class didn't start for two more minutes so I had a couple of extra moments to head down and take a drink. Leaning down into the water fountain, I consumed the cold, refreshing water.
As I looked back up and wiped my mouth, Wade was walking in my direction, but as I thought he was going to have it in for me, he didn't proceed with it. My breath hitched and my pulse quickened when he had stopped and observed me from afar.
Wade shook his head as he scoffed at me, walking away to his next class. The way his eyes coldly pierced into me was enough to leave me standing there as speechless as I could possibly be.
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A/N: I just wanted to clear things up right now that Plainview, Minnesota is a real place. I don't live in Plainview, Minnesota, so I'm using some real-life places, but any other places, people or anything I name in this book is most likely a coincidence :)
Question of the Chapter: Have you ever had to have a fresh start?
Tell me what you think and please read on. Tell your friends about this story, because I want this book to succeed. Please vote and comment on what you think about this chapter. Thanks for reading, next chapter should be up soon! :)
- Alexandra