One Chance

Irene startled awake at the sound of pounding fists against the door.

"Open up! We're going to be late!" The harsh sound of her best friend Jace sounded her awake. She groaned, hating getting up so early in the morning.

At this time, her parents were at work before she even got up for school, leaving her best friend with the routinely chore of making sure she gets up on time for school.

"I'm awake!" She yelled groggily and stood up from her bed. Stumbling to the bathroom she rushed through her morning routine, as she did every morning, and got dressed ready for school.

"Hoody and jeans again?" Jace eyed her up and down teasingly.

"Ugh. I regret giving you a set of keys to my house." She sighed. As usual, neither of them had time for breakfast, they were already late for school.

Jace scoffed, "you love me". She rolled her eyes. They both got into his car, which was an ugly mustard colour, but Irene knew she had no right to complain.

Irene has yet to pass her driving test.

"Wanna stop for coffee?" Jace asked, one hand on the steering wheel while the other scrolled his phone looking for a song. Irene grimaced at his music taste. The drive was short, there was only one high school in town and all the eligible kids in town attended it.

"Do we have time?" She inquired, though she knew Jace knows neither of them care if they were actually late. Miss James never gave anything more than a scolding for tardiness, as long as you showed up at all.

Starbucks in hand, they trudged into school, a scowl on her face because, god knows why she was expected to be in school at this ungodly hour of the morning. This was Ravenswood High, a prison for hormonal, snarky, temperamental teenagers.

Jace playfully shoved her against the hard stale green lockers, grinning ruefully and rushed to class.

"Dick!" She yelled after him and flipping him off, before taking her time walking to home room, shrugging off the mild pain in her left shoulder.

During second period, maths, Irene had her head down as usual taking a nap at the back of the class, hidden behind her tall classmates. After all, she only stood short at 5'3. She never particularly participated in maths class, however she did make sure she did her homework on time so as not to worry her parents. Maths came quite easily to her so she never had to work particularly hard to maintain her A in math.

Her desk creaked as she felt a tugging on her hoodie, she raised her head up blinking against the sudden brightness and glared at whoever dared disturbed her nap.

Oh, it was Karen. Internally, she groaned.

She hated this bitch. Karen was wearing a hot pink low-cut shirt that did nothing to hide her cleavage. She was a blonde, had hair that flowed down to her ass and she stank of overly used cheap vanilla scented perfume.

"What do you want?" She asked, not really giving a shit, and she didn't really try hiding that from her tone.

"So cheery as always, I see" Karen snickered. "So .....Jace".

"What about him" Irene raised her eyebrows, though she could guess what was going to come out of her overly glossed, sticky lips.

"Is he single?" And there it was. The question almost every basic girl asked her, though mostly Karen.

She never really understood why, Jace wasn't anything special. She never really gave a thought about his appearance but she could understand the appeal. Jace stood tall at 6'2, towering way over Irene, which he never ceased to make fun of, and had deep forest green eyes. Tan skin yet had freckles splashed across his high cheekbones and had long eyelashes that brushed against his upper cheeks when he blinks. He was undoubtedly pretty.

"Is he yours?" Karen teased, almost everyone did. Apparently, there was no way a boy could be friends with a girl for so long and not fall in love.

"No, Karen, you know he is not".

" Then why does he never date anyone in this school?"

"How should I know?" Irene did question this to herself at some point, though she never really asked him outright since she never seemed the type to date either.

"Well, you'd better introduce him to me, I think he's into me". She flipped her hair at her face, Irene wrinkled her nose in distaste. Of course, in this small town they already were aquanted with one another, but she guessed she meant more than just classmates.

"GIRLS! What's all this chattering at the back? Shut up or leave the class". Sir yelled, she never really liked him.

She sighed and looked down at her desk, hoping Karen would get the hint and fuck off.

I mean, if he really was into her, he would have asked her out already and she wouldn't have felt the need to ask Irene about it and disturb her peace.

By lunchtime, she was already sick of the school. The cafeteria was always loud and made her head buzz and her ears ring. There was a constant low murmur of students gossiping amongst each other as they messily ate lunch. The cocky obnoxious jocks table made the most noise, though no one dared to pay them any mind.

The school was a zoo.

"Let's bunk" she suggested, bored.

"And do what?" Jace raised his eyebrows. "There's absolutely nothing to do in this tiny town".

"I don't know, smoke?"

Jave deadpanned her a look, knowing full damn well Irene would never have the guts to do that despite her rough exterior.

Jace sighed. "Wanna sneak out while our parents sleep tonight?"

So that's what they did.