FicWad

Chapter One
"Scarlet, time to get up!" Lily yelled to her sleeping daughter through the bedroom door.
She pressed her ear up to the door and heard her daughter moving around in her bed.
"Scarlet, get up or you'll be late!" She called into the room again.
"Yeah, yeah I'm up!" Her sixteen year old daughter called from the other side of the door. Lily turned on her heels and made her way back downstairs to the kitchen to finish preparing breakfast.

Scarlet looked at her clock. She had exactly one hour to get ready for her first day at her new school, in a new country. Scarlet and her family had moved to New Jersey only two weeks ago from Australia as Scarlet's father Christian had gotten a job transfer. Scarlet was still trying hard to adjust to this completely new culture and missed her home and her friends terribly. She was miserable and was extremely nervous about starting school. She missed the sunshine and the closeness of the beach. She missed the relaxed attitude and the safety of her hometown Perth. Back home she and her friends could wander the streets at night without a fear of being attacked or hassled, but in New Jersey it was dangerous for even large groups of people to walk the streets during the day. Scarlet didn't like change. It had taken her years to get comfortable with her group of friends and then her parents had just decided to throw a spanner in the works. She was a pretty girl with natural bleach blonde hair and striking grey eyes, she was one of the lucky girls that didn't have to work hard to maintain a nice figure, but guys never seemed interested in her. The main reason for this was the fact that she was so quiet, so quiet that it seemed slightly weird. Scarlet barely said anything, she worried too much about what people would think about her or say about her behind her back so she merely opted to keep her mouth shut. It had worked so well for her thus far.

Scarlet got up and had a shower. She purposely took ages, not really wanting to get out of the warmth of the shower water into the freezing cold Jersey air. She eventually dragged herself out of the shower and pulled on her brand new Catholic school girl uniform and silently cursed her parents for deciding that private school would be a better option for their daughter in the States. Her uniform consisted of a white collared shirt with a navy blazer and a navy calf length skirt. She was required to wear a red tie and grey stockings at all times. She looked at her reflection in her bathroom mirror and laughed at what she saw. What a fucking joke.
"All you have to do is get through the next two years of school and then you'll never have to put up with this bullshit again" she thought to herself before grabbing her school bag and running downstairs.
"Ok mum, let's go." Scarlet said standing at the entrance to the kitchen.
"Sit down and have some breakfast first. Then I'll take you." Lily said pulling out a chair for her daughter at the table.
"Nah mum, I just wanna go and get this day over and done with. Can we please just go?" Scarlet pleaded with her mother.
Lily had noticed that her daughter hadn't taken so well to this new and strange country that they were pretty much forced to move to and she didn't really want to make things worse for her.
"Sure honey. I'll just get my keys."

As the car rolled up to the huge school gates Scarlet felt more nervous then she ever had in her entire life. The next two years of her life were going to be hell and she knew it. Her mother gave her a quick hug goodbye and she got out of the car and walked to the administration building. She got her schedule, a map and her locker combination and set off to find her locker before the bell rang. Scarlet searched almost everywhere for her locker leaving the set of lockers at the very far end of the school til last. If she didn't have to walk all the way down there she didn't want to, but unfortunately that seemed to be where her locker was located. She decided to walk on the outside of the buildings to get to her destination, the large groups of students had already started to intimidate her. She walked passed a very secluded area of the school to find a few students fitting in their morning cigarette before class. Scarlet made a mental note to remember this spot just in case no one asked her to sit with them at lunch. She couldn't wait for lunch so she could calm her nerves with a smoke, although she had quit cold turkey for about a month before they moved. The stress was too much on her now, and cigarettes were the only vice that made her feel safe, cool and collected. Finally she reached her locker and got ready to face her first day at school.

Scarlet's first two classes of the day had gone by quite quickly. No one had spoken to her and she was quite content sitting in the back corner of the classroom drawing in her notebooks, not really listening to what the teacher was saying. It wasn't until third period that someone attempted to make conversation with her. Scarlet entered her biology class and took a seat in the very corner of the class like she had been doing all morning. Not long after she had sat down, a girl with honey blonde hair took the seat next to her. She had an alternative look about her with her dark eyeliner and the black net gloves she wore with her uniform.
"Hey. I'm Asha." She said with a smile, her blue eyes shining in the light.
"Hey." Scarlet replied quietly.
"I'm Scarlet."
"Is that an accent?" Asha asked straining to hear her voice.
"Uh, yeah, I just moved here from Australia. It's my first day here." Scarlet replied in a voice that was only just above a whisper.
"Speak up child. You talk so quietly!" Asha exclaimed with a giggle.
"Sorry." Scarlet replied looking down at her books.
"Don't be. I'm just playing!" Asha said as the teacher entered the room.
The two girls didn't talk for the rest of the lesson and while Asha hadn't asked Scarlet to hang out with her, she felt a little more at ease knowing that at least one person had spoken to her.

Finally lunch time rolled around and it took Scarlet a little while to find her way back to what seemed to be the designated smoking spot. Once she was there she sat down on the grass with her back against one of the buildings' red brick walls. There was only one other person there with her. A short guy who looked a bit younger then Scarlet. He had his lip pierced and a little Mohawk that was bleach blonde and black, another alternative looking teenager. Scarlet reached into her bag and pulled out her packet of smokes and began to search for her lighter. After a few minutes of frantic searching, she gave up. She contemplated asking the guy who was sitting only a few feet away from her for his, but she decided against it as her shyness had overcome her. She was about to get up and leave when she saw Asha enter the tiny area.
"Hey, didn't think you would be a smoker." Asha said playfully, taking a seat next to Scarlet on the grass.
"Yeah, I quit, but the stress of moving has gotten me craving nicotine like crazy. Forgot my lighter though." Scarlet said, slightly surprised at blurting out so many words in one sentence. That was so unlike her.
"Oh here, use mine. Obviously little Iero here isn't in a sharing mood today!" Asha said reaching into her bag and pulling out a lighter.
The younger boy flipped her off.
"Hey Scarlet, this is Frank. He's not so bad for a little squirt." Asha laughed motioning to the boy.
"Hey." Scarlet said.
"Hey" he replied.
"If you ever need anything, just hassle Little Frankie Iero for it. He can always hook you up. Never be too scared to ask him for a lighter. In most cases he's probably pocketed yours at some point by "mistake", so he says." Asha said making quotation marks with her fingers.
"Whatever Asha! I swear I don't mean to steal them... they always just end up in my pocket somehow!" Frank said trying to keep a straight face.
"Honest!"