Dead Walking

Nine and a half hours. That's how long I had been in this dreaded car. 644 miles from Detroit. 644 miles away from my friends. New Jersey, here I am.
"This place fucking sucks," I muttered under my breath.
"Audrey Adelaide!" my mom snapped, "Watch your language in front of your brother."
"Why? It's not like he's never heard the F-bomb before, or any other word at that."
She flashed me a dirty look. "You're supposed to set a good example for-"
I cut her off, mid sentence, "Me, a good example? HA. Now that's funny."
"Audrey, help me out here. I'm a single mother to two kids. This crap isn't easy..."
"Well maybe you should of let me live with dad instead of forcing to move to this shithole."
"I'm not even going to argue with you, Audrey." With that being said, we were silent the rest of the car ride.

About twenty minutes later, we arrived at our new house. It was big, old, looked kinda creepy. Then again, most of the houses here looked that way. Nevertheless, my brother, Alex "oooooh'ed and awwww'ed" at it. Five year old's are easily impressed with anything.
"Well, Alex," my mom started. "What do you think of the house?", she smiled.
"It's so cool!", he said as he ran up onto the huge porch.
"What about you, Audrey? What do you think?"
I shrugged, then followed my brother. I turned the skeleton-keyed doorknob and entered the house. I looked around at the walls and junk on the floor. My mom came up from behind me and put her hand on my shoulder.
"I know you're not happy about moving, but try to make the best of it. You'll meet new people, make new friends. Hey, you might even meet a cute guy here," she chuckled.
"I want to go home." I said in a monotoned voice.
My mom pulled me into a hug, "I know, baby. Just try to keep your head up. For me, for Alex."
I felt like crying. Straight up, bawling my eyes out like a baby. A motherfucking baby.
"Audrey, you can have the room upstairs. I figured you would want your privacy from your brother and I."
I nodded, "Thanks." I picked one of my boxes up and went upstairs.
I opened the door to my room. It was large, with peach-colored walls and french doors that led to a balcony.
Cute, how cute., I thought to myself. Might as well get used to Jersey, Audi. You're here to stay.

The rest of the day and night consisted of moving the rest of our stuff into the old house. Tomorrow consisted of starting school at Belleville High-- where many creeps and douche bags probably are.
I lay on my mattress on the floor, snuggled up to my teddy bear. I stared straight up at the creaky ceiling. It wasn't the same. Nothing was the same. All I wanted was to be back home in Michigan. Tears started to stream down my face. I cried until I fell asleep.

My alarm went off, loudly, at 6:00am. I groaned and slowly dragged myself out of bed and into the bathroom. I took a look at myself in the mirror. My eyes were still so puffy from crying. I put a cold rag on them for a few minutes, then dragged something out of my closet to wear.
Skinny jeans and an off-the-shoulder Misfits shirt. My signature outfit. Hopefully I'll fit in and everyone will leave me be.
7:00am. School started in a half hour and I still wasn't ready.
"Audrey, come on! You're gonna be late," my mom called out from downstairs.
That didn't make me hurry any faster. I applied my makeup.
7:15am.
"Audrey, seriously! Get your ass down here."
I was literally dreading going to school, but I went downstairs anyways.
"Can I just drop out?" I asked, looking down.
"Don't talk like that," sighed my mom. "Go on, get to class." she said, shooing me out the door.

The walk to school was twenty minutes away. Class had already started. I took a deep breath and walked into the building and into the main office. The receptionist, who was a good 50 pounds overweight, eyed me.
"May I help you?", she asked.
I nodded, shyly. "Today's my first day."
The plump receptionist looked at me then at the computer, "Ah. Name, please?"
"Audrey Adelaide White."
She typed something into the computer. A minute later, she handed me my schedule.
I smiled politely and headed for the door.
"Oh, Audrey? Next time, just your first and last name will work," she laughed.

I looked over my schedule.
Physics - Maynor - B02
Art - Zechar - F17
AP Government - Schlief - D08
Algebra 2 - Kaddoura - A01
Language Arts - Sedore - E7
Free Hour - Unassigned - 00

I kept staring at my schedule until I got enough balls to walk to my first period. I stumbled into the classroom, very late. The teacher was in the middle of a lesson when I walked in. Everyone stared at me, as if I killed someone right in front of them. The teacher glared at me.
"May I help you?", she asked.
"Uh... I'm kinda uh... new...", I said nervously as I handed her my schedule.
She looked over it. "I see. Everyone, this is Audrey--"
I cut off the teacher, "Audi. I don't like being called Audrey."
She nodded, "Very well then, Audi. If you would, please go to the cabinet over there and get a book. Then you can sit over there." She pointed to a table in the back.
Thank god, I thought.
As I was about to sit down, the classroom door swung open. A guy, close to my height came stumbling in as if he was drunk.
"Mr. Iero!", Mrs. Maynor snapped. "I warned you about coming to my class late. I won't have it."
"Is bitching all you do? Christ, man.", the boy had said.
Damn, kid has balls. I'd never mouth off to a teacher, no matter how bitchy they were.
Mrs. Maynor looked in shock. She pointed at the door. "Get the hell out of my classroom this instant, Frank Iero."
The kid started laughing, "You act like I give two shits about this class and this school. Peace out," As he walked out the room, he was looking at me. Not a weird look like everyone had given me earlier. I couldn't tell what kind of look this one was. Mrs. Maynor went to her desk and started filling out some sort of paper. A write-up slip. From the looks of Frank, and from the way Mrs. Maynor had snapped at him, I could tell this wasn't his first write up.

A rebel.