Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Living the Life ❯ The Beginning ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

By: Smortz

Disclaimer: This story belongs to Smortz. Characters and plot created by me as well.

It started off a perfect day.

Quinn Symone got out of bed from having stayed up all night easily. She drew her auburn locks into a high ponytail like she usually did. A smile on her lips as she packed her backpack for school. The hazy blue sky told her how early it was, the sun barely winking over the mountain at her.

The bubbling noise of the coffee maker graced her ears as she looked herself over in the length wise mirror after putting the perky school uniform on. The navy skirt, white blouse and knee socks were normal. It was the small bow tie that gave it the perk.

Her dad passed her in the hall, eyes of worry when he spotted she was awake. “Nightmare?”

“Good morning daddy, and no,” she grumbled out, even though it was a lie she hated getting the nightmare questions.

He sighed and nodded, walking down stairs only to be followed by her as she trotted into the kitchen on the right hand side of the hall.

“All that coffee's going to stain your teeth,” her father, John, lectured, fidgeting with his firefighter captain badge.

He was a fire captain in the town next one over to theirs. “I think they should iron on these badges, so we don't have to worry about them,” he grumbled.

Quinn laughed softly, fixing it for him as she poured herself the cup of coffee and mixed in the vanilla caramel creamer.

“How long are you going to be at work?” She asked, giving him a sheepish smile.

Her dad sighed, and she knew what that meant. “Four days,” he answered, “I'll be home this weekend though, we'll celebrate together.”

“There's nothing to celebrate,” she murmured, tucking the bangs that didn't fit in her ponytail behind her ear. “If I were you I'd work all weekend.”

Her dad gave her a half assed glare, “I hate it when you think like that. How many times do you get to turn sixteen years old?”

“It's just sixteen!” She argued as she turned on the dishes from the night before.

“I'll even let you have Ryan over for the weekend…”

Her happiness disappeared, “You'd let Ryan live with us if I asked.”

“He's a good kid,” her dad defended and she couldn't help the roll of her eyes. “I `gotta go; the bus should be at the stop in ten minutes.”

Her dad nodded at her as she pecked his cheek. “See you,” she tossed over her shoulder as she slid on her shoes and closed the door behind her.

The bus stop was just around the left corner of her street as she sat on it, tapping her foot against the ground while she sipped her coffee quietly.

“Coffee stains your teeth yellow,” an amused, low voice greeted her. The playfulness had the stranger identified as she shot him a small, pointless glare.

“Shove it,” she grumbled, watching Ryan toss his wild black hair out of the hazel pair of eyes.

Ryan has been Quinn's childhood friend, best friend, and closest friend since she was a toddler. They'd met before elementary unusually.

She'd been five years old when she met Ryan through her father. She'd gone on a run to a house fire. The call in itself would get her father in trouble. She was five years old, eight years under the rule of for a ride along at the station.

When they'd arrive the family, Ryan and his two parents, were standing watching their house burn because they'd forgotten spaghetti noodles from the store, leaving the water boiling while running to the store to get it.

Now their house was being swallowed in flames.

His parents had been looking at the house in distraught, his mother's eyesin tears as his father held her in his arms.

Ryan didn't seem to care at five years old. Instead he'd spotted her and walked over.

“You can't come in here,” she warned from her spot in the fire truck's passenger seat.

He looked at her like she was any other spoiled kid. “Why are you in there?” He'd asked, with his hands deep in his small overall pockets.

“Cause my dad's saving your house,” she quipped, yanking the over-sized yellow reflecting jacket of her dad's tighter around her.

“He's in a burning house?” Ryan asked, scoffing, “That's stupid.”

She'd given him the best glare a five year old could conjure at that point in time, “What's stupid is leaving your stove on while you go to the store.”

Ryan had been left speechless.

They'd only met again when their house, that had been saved but unusable, was taken by the bank. They had called to thank the fire fighter's that'd saved their house, and my dad had told them of a house that was up for sale on our street.

Neither Quinn nor Ryan liked the entire ordeal.

Taking another sip of her coffee, Quinn glared at the ground, realizing the bus was behind schedule.

Ryan sat down on the bench beside her. “Since when did you start having nightmares again?” She took another sip to calm her nerves, “I didn't have one.”

He brought a cigarette to his mouth, pushing himself to the opposite side of the bench so when he lit it, the smoke wouldn't travel to her. She sneered, “Those make you smell so bad.”

“Are you saying that I smelled good before?” He asked with a smirk.

“It's a disgusting habit,” she added.

He lifted his ace of spades lighter to light it but she took it from his mouth and easily threw it into the street. His face contorted into anger as he watched it fall into the gutter.

“Hey!” He shouted but sighed to calm himself down. “You're tired and bitchy, definitely a nightmare.”

Ryan pushed himself to stand lighting another one as he blew the smoke to the side she wasn't found in.

“Goody two shoes,” he grumbled.

She could've laughed, but if she did laugh she felt he would be confused and ask for proof. She wasn't in the mood to open a can of worms.

Ryan was much unlike her. He was always getting into trouble, and when he did, he made sure he wasn't alone, so everyone knew he was the one getting laid into it.

She hated that. He didn't know how he could do the things he did. Why he did it all.

Quinn sighed as she stood up and collected her backpack. She watched him stamp out his smoke under his shoes before boarding it with her. The two sat together in the back.

“We should ditch today,” he asked as she took the last sip of her coffee.

Quinn snorted at the ridiculous suggestion. “I need to get to school and pull my grades up,” she explained.

Ryan sighed and leaned into her, “Have fun at school.”

The whisper that voiced itself into her ear caused her to fight off a blush, she hated the reaction as she watched him jump off the truck at the next stop. Quinn moved herself to the seat across the driver. “Morning,” she greeted.

“G'morning,” the elderly man replied with a raspy voice, “he's trouble.”

Quinn chuckled and nodded, “I know.”

The view of her school gates came into school. The private preparatory school she went to closing in as the driver dropped her off at the corner. She gave him a sheepish smile, “A-Actually my school doesn't open gates to day scholars unless they have someone as a valuable excuse to why they're here late. Could you walk me to the gate?”

He sighed and nodded, parking his bus and getting out of it as they jogged across the street. She thanked him as she pressed the intercom button and the camera turned to identify them. “The bus was behind schedule,” Quinn said into the intercom

It took a minute before the gate slid open and she thanked the bus driver again before the gates closed behind her and she took out at a dead sprint.

The English classroom door was open as she stopped, her shoes giving off a squeak. “How nice of you to join us, Quinn,” Professor Miller slurred out dryly.

“The bus was behind schedule,” she mumbled.

“Have you seen Ryan?” Miller asked.

She shook her head instantly, “No.”

A yellow folder was hung in front of her face, “Take this to the office then.” She nodded taking the attendance folder from his hand.

She stepped out into the hall, her backpack jiggling with her keys. The preparatory school was made up of twenty-six buildings. The three main buildings were placed in an upside down U.

The one on the left was the labs, and history classrooms since those were the ones that used the video screening rooms the most. The middle building was the one she was in for English, Math and Administrative Office. The one on the far right was for the electives, foreign languages and choir classes; you were given a ten minutes in between to get to the room, twenty if you were going to the back athletic buildings.

The school was a live-in boarding school, but took day scholars as well, her, Ryan and other's were local kids that were kept under certain limitations. Absences weren't tolerated, neither were poor grades, giving her another questioning thought to why Ryan was still allowed through the gates.

She pushed open the bathroom door, giggling when she marked her absence to a here she pushed it close again and made the rest of the walk to the slot in the wall.

The sound of smack let her know it reached its destination as she returned to her English class.

The seat in the back corner looked appetizing as she sank into it and watched the teacher begin his lecture on British literature.

The town she lived in was a small one located in south California. It wasn't near any big city like LA or San Diego. It was a three hour drive to either one of those places.

Quinn's third class rolled around. She opened her locker, throwing her next book into her growing backpack and pushing it over her shoulders. A high pitch wail of a ringtone alerted her as she reached for it, bringing it to her ear. “Hello?”

The scream of complete torture entered her ear. The scream so pitiful, filled with pain, had her body frozen.

“H-Hello?” She asked again, almost calling herself stupid. If someone was screaming like that she doubted the last thing they could do was say hello. “Ryan, if this is a joke I'm going to blow your brains against a wall.”

The line went dead and she sighed, forcing herself to believe that it was just a prank. The math class door was open as she stepped inside. The wails of sirens entered her ear and she and other students pushed themselves against the window to see the ambulance and a cop on a motorcycle drive in and head for the athletic buildings.

The bell rang and the teacher came in, a woman with curly red hair like hers. However, Quinn had religiously straightened her hair to the point where it was straight by itself. “Back to your seats,” she shouted slamming her books down to the desk to emphasize the point.

Quinn and the other students flocked to their seats as she sighed, pushing her glasses higher on her nose, “A senior has just been attacked and hurt critically, she is being rushed to get the best medical treatment provided. However, there was no attacker on the scene.”

Quinn had never heard a classroom quieter than the one she was in as the teacher let out a shaky breath. “School is canceled for the rest of the day,” she began and when students began to stand up she shouted again.

“I will personally escort whoever lives in the dormitory buildings,” she explained before her eyes landed on Quinn. “We do not want any day school children along. Mike Whalend is in the English class.”

The name had her feeling like alone was better, but at that thought she sighed in defeat and stood up, pulling her backpack along with her as she joined the mass of students.

When they stepped into the hall she'd never seen anything like it.

The eyes of fear on girls and boys, the shoulder to shoulder bodies as they all talked about what was going on, if they could contact their parents. Girls were crying, boys patting each other on the shoulder, both of them worrying if their girlfriend or friend was the one who had been attacked.

A/N:

So that was the first chapter. I've written a lot more and will post daily so I keep it even on writing. I do not write for the reviews, I write or else my brain will explode. Reviews are appreciated though.

I try to keep the chapter edited with the least amount of mistakes but sometimes my eyes miss something. If something bothers you message me and I will immediately fix it.

I usually indent my paragraphs by using tab but they wouldn't work when I uploaded the file. If someone could explain this it'd be a huge help.