Prologue
The last day of summer always reminded Indy of the transience of freedom. Months of California sunshine came to an end as she would have to face the brick prison called high school for yet another year. But this was her senior year. It would be the last year before she got to escape The Valley. Before she got to exchange this prison for the next. And the next would be better, because she had decided it would be far away from here. Indy was probably the only person living in California who was dying to get away from the Golden State. The most simple explanation for her desperate longing to escape? There was nothing left to stay for. Even her seventeen-year-old self pitied that thought, but it was true.
Indy walked down the hall towards her dorm room. She wondered if she’d get a neighbor this year. The dorms were meant for exchange students, but Principal Haywood had appointed her one last year. They always held a few spare ones for situations like hers, according to Principal Haywood. Indy simply thought that there weren’t as many students from outside that wanted to attend Cali High as the school had anticipated, leaving about twenty percent of the dorm rooms unoccupied.
Indy was grateful nevertheless. She knew things could have been a lot worse for her. She opened the door to her room and took in the familiar brick walls with posters from her favorite bands. The space wasn’t big, but it was enough for her. She passed her bed to slide open the single-hung window that looked out over the school’s parking lot. Summer might be over soon, but California weather usually stays warm and friendly until mid November. Indy made a mental note to buy a fan sooner rather than later. She plopped down behind her tiny desk, opening her laptop.
“No e-mails for me, Ezra,” she mumbled to her Vampire Weekend poster that hung above her desk. Some people had friends to talk to. Or cats. Indy not so much. She was a loner most of the time. Her two almost-friends were a girl who basically only talked to her because they worked together at the diner, and a guy who was nice to her because he wanted to get in her pants. It wasn’t going to happen.
Indy sat behind her desk, staring into nothingness until her stomach grumbled. She sighed.
“What are we cooking today?” she asked no one in particular. She looked around the room, searching for an answer. There were no groceries here. Indy usually liked to cook, but sometimes she just couldn’t bring herself to it. Everything she knew how to make, she had learned from her half-Italian father, but on most days, his recipes tasted like sadness and the life she no longer had.
“Instant noodles it is, thanks Wayne.”
She grabbed her bag and patted her Imagine Dragons poster on the way out. God, she was pathetic.
When she locked the door, she looked at the room next to hers. There was no sound coming from it, and she hadn’t seen anyone around it these past days. Most kids had moved in over the weekend, since school started tomorrow. Well, no neighbor for her then. Like she cared.
