Chapter 1 - Shedding Roots
Beep Beep Beep
The blare of the alarm clock cuts through the dark. Fern peels her sticky eyes open, staring at the gray dawn filtering through the blinds. She slams her hand down on the plastic button, cutting the noise static-dead.
“Oh gosh today’s the day I leave my old life behind and start my new chapter”
The musty rug scratches against her feet as she clambers out of bed and looks at herself in her tiny mirror. Her wild mop of brown hair glares back at her through the mirror. It looks exactly like the girl she is trying to leave behind. She cannot show up at Blanchard Academy looking like this, looking like his daughter.
Sitting down at her vanity, she opens the drawers, staring at the bleach and blonde hair dye lying listlessly, awaiting her decision. Fern shakily opens the bleach, putting it into the bowl, smelling the sharp tang of ammonia and grips the brush. She slowly raises it to her head, brushing it on until her whole head is covered and finally coating her head with the blonde. After an hour of anticipation, she flicks her new hair in the vanity mirror, admiring her decent diy work, albeit it not professional, she is very proud of her work. Finally her old past is starting to feel like it is fading away, being replaced with the new and improved Fern.
“Fern, get down here right now!” Fern’s head snaps towards the sound of her Fathers voice, hollering from downstairs, rattling the old creaky floorboards. She leaps up, throwing on a black knit jumper, before hurrying down the stairs. Skidding into the kitchen on the linoleum floor, she takes in the sight before her, her Father sitting stoically at the old oak table, eating his oatmeal with his rigid hand.
“Hi Father, how are you doing this morning?” Fern’s small voice travels through the kitchen, echoing off the chipped walls. His head lifts from his bowl, eyes narrowing into slits
“What on earth have you done to your hair, you imbecile child”
“I was just changing it up for my new school” whispers Fern, in her small broken voice.
“Oh so you are wanting to whore yourself out to all the boys up in Edinburgh”
“What no it’s nothing like that -” , Before she can finish, his chair scrapes back across the ground, slamming his half-eaten bowl into the sink with enough force to shatter it, muttering curses, as he heads to his bedroom.
“I just… I just can’t stay in this house anymore otherwise ill scream”
Fern stood frozen until the house was dead silent again. If she stayed here another day, she would scream. Working in a furious, silent blur, she scrubbed his dish, her chest heaving as she internally screams every profanity she knows. Tiptoeing back up the stairs, in order not to wake her slumbering Father, she creaks open her door, revealing her bedroom. Grabbing her battered suitcase from the closet, Fern throws it on her bed and starts quickly throwing all her ratty clothes into it, along with her toiletry bag before quickly zipping it up. Looking at her outfit in the mirror, she makes a small noise of disgust as she stares at the ill-fitting jumper and dark wash jeans.
“Its not the best, but it’s going to have to do. I just have to bank on the fact that no one will look too closely at my outfit”
Trundling her suitcase silently down the stairs, she checks the bus schedule to Edinburgh, seeing the next bus comes in 20 mins. Shutting the rusted front door, on her childhood home one last time, she turns on her heel breaking free to start the new chapter of her life.
