Okay this is another story I've been working on, a teen fiction. Here's the preview into the monotonous lives of four childhood friends until...
Your author,
A.S.G.
Predictable. Behaving or occurring in a way that is expected. This was my life. They say our generation is always out looking for the next best thing. Flashy new things. Bored of the same old just as soon as we get our hands on it. Except my life was set.
This was my senior year in high school, the summer fun faded off bringing the fall breeze along with many other things.
In my family's small blue house with a white picket fence in the town of Huntswood, I lived with both my parents as an only child. Although I barely considered myself one because of my three best friends. Matthew Wright my dad, was a local carpenter, sometimes contractor, who owned his own shop at the beginning of town. My mom, Linda, had a bakery in the town square, which people flooded in for breakfast. We were like any other boring suburban family in the midst of thousands of others.
It was the complete normality of this life which never prepared me for anything beyond it, yet there was no avoiding it.
"I told you, you should've slept earlier yesterday! You would've had the time to get dressed!" Mom looked with disapproval at my lack of effort for the first day of school, white top, jeans and a sweater.
"Um..." I looked down at my outfit second guessing my choice as I drank coffee.
"Do you have the list I gave you? You really need to make sure to get it to your counselor today okay? I don't want her putting you on the bottom of the pile! I need you to be ready. Tell me your ready." Mom demanded a confident or cheery yes from me eyeballing me to give her what she wanted. But it was too early for anyone to be as energetic as her, as stressed as her, one of the many differences between her and me.
"I'm ready mom don't worry." I nodded stuffing more pancakes in my mouth.
"These are the most important years of your life. The right college experience will set the course, pave the road ahead."
"Don't worry, it's going to be fine." I tried to calm her down but she was more on edge about my first day of class as a senior than I was, although in reality stress was her default.
"Emmy this is your future. It can't just be fine. Your grades, extracurriculars, and teacher recommendations, everything matters."
I tried to get a word in but couldn't.
"And the standardized tests, you'll be prepping with Samantha right? I know if you two buckle down, there's no way you don't get an great score..."
It was a funny thing though as she went on talking I could see the finish line for the first time. A small momentary relief came over me. College. By myself. A town away. I would be free. Just one town between me and the rest of Huntswood was all I needed to be able to breathe. To say my high school years hadn't been the highlight of my life was an understatement. But college would be a fresh start. I needed it especially when I knew no one but my friends were applying there. Everyone else was off to bigger and better things and I couldn't wait to be a million miles away from them.
"Emily! Are you listening to me?!" Mom got mad at my distraction.
"Um hm..." I snapped out of it.
"You didn't brush your hair did you?" Mom said without letting me go before she could find at least one thing for me to fix just as I was out the door and then began to touch my hair.
"Come here and let me braid it so you won't look like an orphan who has nobody to care for her."
She fussed over me although I had already brushed my hair. She was now braiding my entire hair into an updo with bobby-pins I didn't even know she had on her. She jammed the pins into my scalp and and my whole head ached.
"Wait you look pale. Do you have some gloss on you? Some blush?" She made a face when she saw me up close and I had neither of the things she mentioned.
"Let her be honey, she takes after me, the handsome branch of the family," dad joked.
My mom was beautiful and I really mean beautiful. She had straight blonde hair, blue eyes and the perfect height of five feet and six inches. But I was only 5'3, a daddy's girl whom I inherited my brown hair, thick eyebrows and muscular legs. I could always count on him to get me away from mom when I needed it though, it's how we worked.
"Matthew we all know that if the world went your way everyone would wear jeans and a t-shirt..." Mom ignored him and pinched my cheeks.
"Ow!" I complained.
"Oh hush..." Mom shut me and dad up who shrugged at me like he tried his best but there was no stopping her.
They were a happy couple as far as I knew. Dad fell in love at first sight. They got married against the family's wishes in a real romantic novel kind of way. It was the moment that changed their lives. Defined their future.
But I could swear their generation would be the last romantics the world would know. From what I had seen magic had died a long time ago right about when people started dating online, that was my theory anyways. They were lucky in that regard, they experienced the world before it was sent into modern hell, where a touch of a button could ruin your life. And this I knew for sure, my generation was doomed to be known as the ones who eradicated love and replaced it with sex. Even the romance portion of the bookstore confirmed my theory. Yes I had once wandered into it looking for romance and found well, you know what we find there. I blushed my way out of there, I was only thirteen at the time. A grand time to learn what to expect out of society.
Putting my headphones on I then pressed shuffle for music. When a romantic song came on I quickly skipped it to some classic rock and walked on to school. I didn't know a specific stranger was driving down the road all alone blasting music through the car speakers coming from a far away land to cross the threshold of the "Welcome to Huntswood" sign.
The exact moment I was crossing the street he was also speeding towards me and we were about to collide.
"Oh my God!" I shouted when his car stopped about twelve inches away from me.
"Move!" The boy wearing a black hoodie, black glasses and smoking like a chimney shouted with his head outside his vehicle at me.
As I raised my hand complaining about his attitude, he simply swerved around me with his car flying down the street in a black blur as I stood in indignation at the audacity of this rude out of towner no doubt. But then I realized this was the sheriff's street and no one drove past the speed limit without getting caught.
"Hm..." I smiled and put my headphones back on.
Meet Matthew Wright
Meet Linda Wright
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No part, character, names, plot, setting, conflict or resolution, point of view, theme or symbolism of this story may be replicated.
Copyright: All Rights Reserved to A. Sena Gomes.