Chapter One
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The sound came in like a wrecking ball, breaking the deep sleep I was immersed in. If only I had enough energy to get up to check out what exactly made it. Then again maybe I shouldn’t have been up all night reading six fantasy series until four in the morning. My brainpower needed at least eight hours of rest, not four.
School was in an hour and my track record of being late was already a bad sign of my future.
But as the soft yet subtle breeze came from the slight crack in my window, letting some fresh air attempt to overpower the extreme heating system we had going on, I couldn’t help but miss the sound of birds and squirrels who used to be running or flying outside in our backyard. Too bad it was too cold for them right now. I could feel the chills from the exposed areas of my shoulders and legs that weren’t wrapped in covers. Chicago winters were never a joke.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
There it went again. That noise that I couldn't figure out. Despite my protest against it, I arose quickly to find out. God forbid it was a criminal ready to pounce on their prey. My Mom was in the bedroom next door, but with her loud snoring, she could sleep through an alien invasion.
Wiping sleep remnants off my eyes, I got closer downstairs to our small but functional Lincoln Park brick townhouse, suddenly becoming greeted with a dark cloud of smoke. Oh, no! Is the house on fire?!
I followed the pattern down to the kitchen, flinging my arms everywhere and anywhere for a clear visual path. Making my way to the revolving door finally, the banging commenced but the smoke started to dwindle. Wish I could say the same for my blood pressure which was starting to be more erratic, and my breathing turning slightly more anxious than usual.
“Mom?! What’s going on?! Mom!” I excessively coughed toward the familiar tall, dark-toned woman dressed in blue scrubs and a white cardigan. Her mushroom under curls were still in control, but her nerves were being tested judging by the plea for help in her eyes.
Instantly she turned off the burning flame on the stove and sighed, shaking her head with a graceful smile in my direction—sweat still dripping down her forehead. “Bianca! You’re finally up!” She began to fan the leftover smoke with a dishrag.
“Having another heated dispute with food again?” I became more concerned.
“Ah, yes, sweetheart. I-I-I don’t know what went wrong this time. I tried making the recipe exactly how social media had it.” She grabbed her phone that was lying on the counter nearby, showing me her sources. Oh dear.
“Mom, this is a satire account. It says so in the description. I don’t think anyone can make a quiche in two minutes or less. Gordon Ramsey would even shake in his shoes.” I informed.
“I know…” She nodded, shrugging. “I guess a part of me was still hoping to make us a nice breakfast this morning before you’re off to school and I’m off to a second shift at the hospital. The stove wanted to win this match—which is fine by me! It’s not like I haven’t been let down by bigger uncooperative tools in my life.”
I smirked, knowing by that she meant my father. A classic tale of how an old man walked out on his only daughter and wife to get an upgraded version of a daughter and wife. It didn’t bother me now as much as it did though. He never cared to check in so I didn’t need to either. Despite her many failures in cooking, my Mom was a rockstar parent. Although we barely had enough to stay in the even in the poor department, she never gave way in making our situations worse. So while I’d been trying to get a job that could pay well with no luck, she had been taking two to three back-to-back shifts as a nurse at the local hospital just so all our rising costs didn’t come back to bite us. It was a lot to keep up with, but even in dark times she always found a way to make our darkest moments shine bright—like attempting to make a home-cooked meal for breakfast.
Yet it wasn’t working out too well at the moment.
“It’s fine. I’ll just get something from a drive-thru on my way there. I don’t want you to be late too. I already can’t stand that jerk-wad you call a boss.” I stumbled across a couple of books I left out, stashing them in my backpack.
“Watch it…” She warned me like he was holding her at gunpoint.
“What? Oh come on Mom, you hate him too. You just don’t like to admit it. He’s always on your butt about every little thing—despite how many lives you literally save daily. It pisses me off every time I hear his very wordy voicemails on speaker. People like that deserve nothing but karma.”
“You don’t know all that he’s going through.” She pointed out. But I still didn’t understand why she would try to defend him. The man was a tool himself. Did he care if my mom had enough money to feed us tonight for dinner? I highly doubt it.
“Uh, I don’t need to. Trust, when I start working, any boss of mine better show the same amount of respect as I will give to them.”
She giggled, shaking her head like what I had to say was some sort of inside joke. But I meant every word. No one was meant to be belittled. “Are you sure you don’t want me to give you a lift anyway?”
“It’s all good. I mean it. Besides…I can drive now, remember?” I was quick to gloat about my two-week-old driver's license. I had to. It was the greatest accomplishment I had achieved. Made me feel like I had a place in this wickedly wild world. Like I was finally being comfortable in my skin as an adolescent. A sense of independence.
“Well, alright then. I should be back by at least eleven tonight. So you will need to make your dinner.” See what I meant? The man probably didn’t even need to think about what would go in his mouth later on. And I didn’t scandalously mean that either.
“I guess. Love you!” I started to head upstairs to get ready for another highly uneventful day ahead per usual.
She graciously flashed a smile, tossing me the keys on the mini island counter. Rushing over to kiss my forehead, she grabbed her bus card in her pocket, bundling up in her beige winter coat that was hanging off the lower banister and bolted out the door.
We only had one car to share between the two of us, but I begged her to use it over me. She constantly insisted that taking the bus for her was therapeutic. One activity in the day that didn’t give her severe anxiety and stomach pains. I was just fortunate enough to be blessed with more chill and controlled emotions.
She never took a liking for getting behind the wheel but was all for others to do so—especially when she wanted to ride around Sheridan Rd. We always loved staring at all the pretty and pricy mansions and houses along the lake. There was one particular home that just spoke to us in a strange way, despite no one ever daring to leave it, it seemed. Still, it was amazingly beautiful.
But to me, nothing was more truly therapeutic than blazing through the streets and letting all my cares go for a moment. An audiobook soothing me into a happy trance.
What other feeling could ever beat that?
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Throwing my coat and afternoon class books into my locker, I couldn’t help but to hear the sound of various murmurs throughout the halls of ‘Walton High’.
“Dudes, Bianca is over there. Still double dare me to smash with her before the next Homecoming Dance?” One male student from across the way asked one of his two friends.
“Look at that body. She really knows how to put it away…” Another one spoke louder in passing to his group of friends too.
“I’d bang the shy out of her within seconds.” A third one mentioned at his locker. I shyly looked over his direction to give him the coldest glare I could make, but only a creepy and perverted smile escaped his mouth followed by a sleazy wink.
All their tones were constantly condescending. Not that anyone was even trying to hide anything from me anymore. It was just something I had gotten used to as the years went on at this point.
I had never put myself out there in the ways they were describing. All I knew was just on my first day three years ago, some guy slammed right into me on my way to my first class. I arrived late because my Mom didn’t get off of her overnight shift yet to drop me off. And though he was honestly the hottest thing I had ever seen in my life at my young age, my aggravation due to a lecture by the Principal about how I should value others time more than my own, I didn’t hold back on telling him a thing or two about manners…and his self-righteous behavior. At the time I didn't learn his name or who he was to everyone else, but I could care less by now. Somehow he managed to act even worse after our encounter so I typically refused to.
The next thing I knew, pretty much the entire student body wanted to ‘smash’ or ‘hit’ or anything else that sounded so misogynistic and demeaning. Where was that special book boyfriend that I read every day? Only in small creme-colored pages apparently.
I hated hearing all the comments. Just once, I rather have someone tell me the truth about how I made them feel, without making me want to deck them in the throat as an instinctive reflex. Although if went around the school punching out people left and right, I wouldn't be here much longer. My Mom didn't need that kind of burden added to her list. So I tried my best to ignore it all until I was finally out of this prison for good.
“Bee!” I heard my best friend, Savannah Morris shout. Being greeted by her very outgoing style that consisted of all the colors of the world in one flared sleeve top, with a pair of wide-leg jeans I was positive she borrowed from her Mom’s seventies stapled pieces she still kept tucked away in a closet, the red-headed beauty still had a sparkle about herself that I just loved. Like she didn't care about anyone’s rude opinions but her own. “We’ve got a real problem!” Her nose crinkled, showcasing her freckles I would forever envy not having.
These were words no one ever wanted to hear, but since we met in preschool, I knew all to well exactly what she meant. Giggling, I shook my head. “It's not even noon yet. What did Benji do to you already, Van?”
Benji was our other friend we had met back in Kindergarten. And though, there wasn't really a rhyme or reason of why all three of us suddenly clicked over trading juice boxes at lunch, we did. He was always the oddball class clown that the crowds just admired. A perfect piece to our mixed personality friendship puzzle.
“Exactly—which makes it even worse! My morning coffee hasn’t had time to fully set in, and that buttwipe still manages to try to piss me off!” She grunted, holding up her science textbook. Our first shared class of the day. But it was by far not in the best condition to go anywhere. It was covered with what appeared to be some sort of green slimy goo, as she clutched tightly to a clear end corner. “Look at what he did!”
I giggled again as the familiar shaggy blonde boy rushed in from behind her, cheesing like he had pulled off the ultimate prank of the century.“Hey! In my defense, I actually was doing today’s lesson. A big improvement for me as Mr. Klaus admitted, with graduation not too far off.” He spoke with confidence.
“Like I care! It's not like you're smart enough for college anyway! And it definitely doesn't give you the right to splatter today’s lesson on my book you asked to borrow! How am I supposed to pay attention now?!” She exclaimed.
“Oh, is planning the next fashion trend for your Tiktok followers considered paying attention? Gee, everyone else has been doing it wrong this whole time…” He teased back. Savannah slammed the book against his shoulders with intent to harm, causing him to yelp briefly in pain.
I swear with these two bickering all the time, it was a miracle they still viewed each other as friends…or hadn’t been a thing. But the one time I mentioned to her to think about giving him a chance after her terrible ex admitted to wanting to date me over her, she laughed hysterically in my face at the idea. I was just fortunate she didn't take the fallout with that pig to heart. It was the many reasons why I didn't have any friends who were girls aside from her. Another amazing quality I loved about her, confidence.
“Hey, it’s fine. You can use mine if you want. I can ask whoever is going to be my new science partner today if I can share theirs.” I offered, handing my copy to her.
“Like you even need to do that. With your track record of over-reading, you probably have the whole stupid book memorized by now.” She playfully teased me, still accepting it. I laughed at the thought. Over-reading. Was that even a thing?
The final bell suddenly rang, making us all rush off to class. Benji gave us byes in the most ‘Benji’ fashion—high fives that required my short legs to jump up a little toward his very tall stature. “Check ya guys later! Oh and Savannah, if you see my Boi—that is if he decides to come, tell him I'll be able to come into work after school again.”
I flashed a puzzled look toward her as her eyes widened. Work? His Boi? Why was this the first time I heard about any of this? Who was his Boi? Why did Savannah need the one to do it? And what exactly was making her stare at me now like they both just committed a serious sin?
“Work? After school? What does that mean?” I blurted out, letting my curiosity get the best of me.
“Nothing, girl. Come on, before he decides to come back and asks to borrow your book next. My followers are expecting a post within the hour.” She only answered, dragging my arms to follow her.
Okay, call me crazy but something felt a little…off.
Savannah and Benji shared a secret? I wonder what it could be…
