Chapter 1

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Sophomore Kamryn Schultz, begins a serialized book titled Redemption. Chapters will be revealed every two weeks. Make sure to check back twice a month and leave comments on what you think about it. 

Rain flooded the walkways and streets as I lifted one foot after the other along the unmistakeable pathway to school. The snails usually came out around that time. As small and as slow as they were, the sheltered slugs hid inside their homes, away from harm. The bushes shook, swaying back and forth.

The plants seemed to be doing a little dance – just for me. I knew it wasn’t true though, because they danced for her.

The snail left a trail of slime behind itself. I felt like that snail, leaving her behind.

And there was no one to blame but me.

Shivering, I looked up at the cloudy sky. The rain was coming down harder, and I had no ride. My mom usually drove me to school on days like this, but she needed to work a 3 a.m. shift today.

As a nurse at the city hospital, she cared about every patient. There was never a moment where she didn’t care for me.

Just me. And her.

She was never concerned about herself.

Now it’s just me.

Walking the mile to school wasn’t a big deal.  The muddy path resulted in me spreading muck on my only shoes, and dirt on my one pair of jeans. As I ignored the squishy feeling in my feet, I imagined a place.

A place where me and my mom had a closet filled with clothes and pantries always filled with food. A place where you could be anything you wanted to be, and do whatever you wanted to do.

Dreaming always came naturally to me. I would always notice the little things and ponder about how I could made the bad things good again.

She used to imagine things with me. Although her ideas were much better and more creative than mine. But when we put our thoughts together, we came up with the craziest ideas.

Some of them could’ve saved lives.

But they didn’t save hers.

Ten minutes till school started. I began to pick up my pace.

I never considered myself an excellent runner, but in my current situation, I felt like an Olympic athlete, rushing full speed ahead. My feet flying, I pounded my feet into the puddles. pushing everything behind me and gliding onward.

But my thoughts received interruption by the sound of a giant splash from behind. I quickly darted out of the way of the wave of water.

The splash came from a white minivan. Emiline. One of the only girls in school that actually talked to me. She had three brothers, and one sister.

The school rested on a hilltop, right up ahead. My side ached, my feet hurt, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t afford another tardy.

I already had two. A third meant detention. Stupid rule. We are all late at some point in our lives.

School should excuse our mistakes.

Life should excuse my mistake.

The bell rang in my ears as I burst through the English class door. Everyone whipped their gazes from Mr. Pensworth and stared straight at me. At least I received some noticed for once.

“Miss Hawthorne.” Mr. Pensworth paused. He looked up at the clock. “Almost late…again.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Pensworth.” I looked at the other students, who waited for my explanation. “I lost track of time.”

Giggles and whispers emerged from the students in the front row.

“Well, just make sure it doesn’t happen again, understood? I don’t want you disrupting my class anymore.”

“Yes, Mr. Pensworth.” Lie. I would be late again and again for many more days to come.

I trudged to my seat. Kids looked at my dirty clothes and shoes.

“Probably got in a fight.”

“Maybe she tripped and fell.”

“Loser.”

Either everyone in my class was a terrible whisperer, or my hearing improved in a matter of seconds. My seat rested in the back corner of the room. Even though every chose their own seats, it was as if that desk bore the weight of my name written all over it.

Emiline sat in the back as well. She probably did that for me.

“Hey,” she whispered to me.

“Hey,” I whispered back. I saw her long blonde hair trail on the desk. So long. The light streaks rested in her thick locks. I owned hair like that once.

Now my short dark brown hair possessed no life, no meaning, no purpose. I should’ve just cut it all off when I got the chance.

“All right class, settle down, settle down. Jeffrey, sit down! This is not PE class!” Mr. Pensworth directed his sharp blue eyes towards the troublesome boy.

“So, for the entire period, we will be working on another essay that is due at the end of class.”

Groans and sighs echoed throughout the classroom as Mr. Pensworth handed back the assignment.

“Oh, and I have your test grades back.”

Students whispered and murmured. The English test they had taken a week ago was one of the hardest we’d taken.

The test consisted of long vocabulary words, questions about previous books we had read, and a giant essay about the meaning of life. Whatever that meant. Mr. Pensworth passed back test by test.

“Harry- good. Isabella- acceptable. Good lord, Jeffrey, not again. What have I told you about appropriate and inappropriate answers?”

As he came up to my desk he stopped. I slowly looked up in those piercing eyes that I feared and admired at the same time.

“See me after class, please.”

He handed back Emiline’s test, kept mine and walked back to his desk.

“What did you get?” I asked her.

“B. Just a B.” She leaned over to me. “What do you think he wants?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I failed the test. No big surprise there.”

“Hey Emiline.” We both turned toward the voice. Ugh. Jeffrey Stratton. He was the troublemaker of our sophomore class.

There was no telling what could come out of this foul mouth.

“What are you doing tomorrow?” He smirked at her.

“None of your beeswax, moron,” Emiline shot back.

“Hey, why are you talking to an empty desk?” He laughed and turned away. I heard him murmur, “Ha, what a loser,” 

There was that word again. Loser. It was a name that meant nothing to most people, but to me it meant that I didn’t have any purpose in this world. I had that feeling before. I didn’t want to feel it again.

I glared at the back of Jeffrey’s head. My hands started to curl into the start of a fight.

I was about to lift my closed palms when Em gave me a glance that told me; Paige, you know what will happen if you do that. I slowly put my anger away just as Mr. Pensworth’s eyes passed me over.

“Don’t listen to him. You know he’s a jerk, right?”

“I know.” I had to keep myself from looking at Jeffrey again, unless I wanted another burst of flames in my hands.  I had major anger problems as a kid, and they stayed with me through high school.

It just irritated me so much what came out of people’s mouths. It’s like I always tell people: If you don’t have anything nice to say, say it to my face. I dare you.

It didn’t stick too well with others.

The bell rang, and I gathered my books together and tried to shuffle out of the classroom without Mr. Pensworth noticing me. As soon as I reached the door I heard, “Miss Hawthorne.”

Drat. I slowly turned around.

“You wanted to see me?”

“Yes.” He pulled out my test and handed it to me. I cringed as I took it, expecting the worst.

A+.

100%.

I hesitated for a moment. I did not expect to see this at nine in the morning.

“Um, I think you got the wrong kid, Pensworth. I’m not that good.”

“Please. May I see your test?”

I handed it to him and he turned to the essay portion.

“‘ The meaning of life is that there is no meaning. Life is a timeless circle of never ending priorities that consume you and take over your body, leaving you with nothing but your own self conscious.’” He looked up at me.

“This is amazing. How do you come up with it all?”

I urged to tell him about my dreamer side. How I possessed so many ideas and thoughts burning in my skull, waiting to burst out into little flames of creativity and inspiration onto a single piece of paper.

But that probably wouldn’t sound professional.

“I don’t know. It just comes to me I guess.”

“Paige, you are excellent in this class. You have a real gift. I see your work on your papers; it’s amazing. Even with your… incident, you are doing very well.”

“I would like to talk to your mother, and see if you can take some extra classes during the summer. They wouldn’t cost you a penny, and I would make sure that you received extra attention from the other English teachers. You have potential and it would be a shame to see it go to waste.”

I didn’t know what to say. I was speechless. This was one of the most amazing opportunities I had ever received. I was probably dumbfounded for a little too long, because Mr. Pensworth gave me a waiting glance. I snapped back to reality.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Pensworth, but I don’t think that’s gonna work. I’m super busy during the summer.”

What? Did those words just come out of my mouth?

“But Paige, if you just give literature a chance, and some effort, I’ll think you will be very successful.”

I wanted to say yes. I wanted to hug him and tell him how thankful I was for this opportunity. But I realized I had said the right thing in the first place.

“Mr. Pensworth, I have another class in two minutes, so if you’ll excuse me.”

“Paige, please wait.” I paused, with my foot halfway through the doorway. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime for you.”

For me? What was that supposed to mean?

“I’m sorry! I have to go. Bye, Pensworth.” I picked up my books and quickly rushed out of the room. That class made me regret everything about my life. He was right, I had so much to offer in that classroom. And I did. But I didn’t want to admit to it.

School at Everest High was a giant wave of stress, drama, acne, and lost pencils. If you didn’t know what you were doing the first month of school, you were automatically ‘sentenced’  to four years of embarrassment and a trip to ‘Teaseville.’

I was ahead of the game my freshman year. I made sure I wasn’t too smart by raising my hand for every question, but not dumb enough to not know the difference between North and South America.

I was almost done with junior year, so I kind of got the jist of the whole school. By the third month of the freshman year, I knew everyone’s name, every class, and especially every relationship, friendly and romantic.

For example, Helen and Emily just got to know each other this year, and they already act as if they’ve known each other forever. But Bradley and Kim have been best friends since kindergarten, and are still the same.

I feel like I most relate to them, because no one will talk to them. They have fights once and awhile, but then again, what’s a friendship without a couple of fights?

And Emiline and Claire are the best of sisters. There was never a closer knit pair of people.

I heard about the boy-girl romantic relationships around school, but I didn’t really get into all that drama. Although, there was one boy that I was kinda into.

Aiden Kinsley.

He was the full package. Brown hair, blue eyes, strong, smart, funny, and man was he good to look at. Just thinking about him made me sigh.

“Paige! Paige!”

I cringed. Oh no. I knew that voice anywhere. Maryland. Probably the only other girl besides Emiline that has the decency to talk to me. I don’t really know why.

Big thick glasses and two braids on either side on her small head marked her as the one and only nerd girl. I never liked labels, but this one kind of stuck. I put on the best fake smile I could muster and turned around.

“Hi, Maryland.”

“Oh Paige! I’ve been looking for you everywhere! What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing much. Just trying to get to my next class. Which reminds me I really should be going.”

As I turned to escape from the awkward situation I was in, she quickly grabbed my shoulder.

“But wait! I wanted to ask you something.”

“Yes?” I decided to answer her question so I could get on with the rest of my already miserable day.

“Could you possibly teach me how to write like you do?”

I paused for a second. I repeated her words in my head. She liked my writing?

“How do you even know about my writing?”

“Oh, um, well, Pensworth showed me a few of your essays and-“

“He had no right to show you those.”That dirty piece of-“

“Woah! Hey I’m sorry, Paige! I just wanted to know if you were interested in tutoring me or something. But if not then-“

“No, no, I’m sorry. I’m just really riled up.” I took a deep breath. “It’s been a tough day. Um, I’ll find some time in my schedule and see what I can do, OK?”

She looked at me and sighed in relief. “OK, that sounds great. Here’s my phone number. Call me when something frees up!”

I took the piece of paper that contained her number from her and slipped it in my pocket. She skipped away like it was the happiest day of her life. I hated people like that. What did they have to be happy for?

As I heard the bell ring for class, and quickly rushed to science, I thought I saw her standing there, by my locker.

Probably just my imagination. Playing with my mind. For two years.

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This writer can be reached via Twitter: schultz_kamryn and via email: Kamryn Schultz.