You Live You Learn

Welcome

Lucy's POV

I splash water on my face to wash the sleep out of my eyes. Today is my first day of senior year, high school. According to everyone and much to the constant emphasis by my two best friends, this is the year of opportunities.

You don't have a boyfriend, get one this year. You don't drink or smoke, live a little. You've never failed a class, fail one or two. Basically throw your life away. It's not typically impossible to get it back.

Being seventeen and a senior has it's own perks. I'm a whole year younger than most of my classmates and my five foot four height really speaks for itself.

I focus on the droplet of water that sits patiently on my eye lashes. Light hazel eyes. Black curls. High cheek bones. I'd have never noticed.

Is it possible to see a million faces in one. Probably not, but I see ten million on every consecutive morning I stare in the mirror like this.

"Lucy hurry up your going to be late." my mother calls.

That is it. The painfully truth to my reality. The cheery voice of my mother. The final straw. The beginning of the end. The end of the beginning. Technically the beginning of a different kind of hell.

I wrestle my curls into a decent looking messy bun, throw on my favorite turtleneck plain grey shirt , black jeans and the ceremonial first day vans. I hardly put in effort in my looks the previous years and senior year was not going to be any different.

"Took you long enough." Howard my elder brother says immediately I entered the breakfast bar.

He is two years older than me and is a freshman in college majoring in Business law. It is indeed a surprise to see him here considering his lecture schedule is cumbersome but he insists that senior year is a big deal and wants to be present to "witness me have a life." his words not mine.

"What in nature's bowels are you wearing." Chanel my sister asks me.

She's the acting eldest sister right now because Abigail is in Switzerland. She works there as an Agricultural engineer or something like that. I mean, I miss her like crazy but her moving away may have been the best thing that has ever happened. It's one less person to criticize me or tell me what to do, how to do it and when to do it even though their telling is completely unrelated to the situation at hand.

"Clothes. Comfortable clothes." I smirk at my answer and raise my eyebrow daring her to continue the conversation.

This was a daily occurrence every morning. Chanel doesn't like me or anything I do. At first it hurt like hell because she was the person whose opinion I valued most but even gold has to be refined before it gets that glow. She's more about trend and I'm more about comfort. She finds her comfort in the trends and I find me, well I find it somewhere that's not trends. I couldn't keep up and one incident strained our relationship so much I'm presently lucky to have this bickering with her. Otherwise I think if we don't bicker with each other about pointless things we'd be as good as strangers.

"We're not doing this today because you're late. Hurry up and get going." Mum says kissing each of our heads and proceeding to pour herself a cup of coffee.Chanel scoffs but makes no remark of objection so I take it a win on my side.

I'm alone in the kitchen loading the dishwasher as I wait for Chanel to find the car keys when Howard walks in.

"Hey you've got a minute."He says.

Howard's pretty sleek with words extremely careful and he always knows what to say and when to say it. To be honest he has one sexy brain unlike what I got.

He straightens himself from his leaning position and walks towards me placing both hands on my shoulders. His six foot five height towering over me I have to tilt my head backwards to look into his eyes.

"This is senior year." He smiles briefly. "Be yourself. Be the best kind of yourself you can. This is the year to make lasting memories with the people you love."

"Like you and Damien." I laugh out.

"You need to let him go L he's in Australia." He rolls his eyes. "But yeah, like me and Damien. Don't. Screw this up for yourself."

I smile at him and give a courteous nod and watch him leave. Howard is my best friend so I know all he wants for me is the best. Most people who see him think he's this big, mugged, scary dude but in reality he's actually a big baby and I carry that pride with me. I think all the girls carry it too. He's always the center of attention wherever he goes and he left a strong name back in highschool. Girls fawned over him all the time and guys literally worshipped him. The pride we held was due to the fact that despite this perfect picture everyone had painted him out to be we knew the real him. The true Howard.

"Oh L." He popped his head back into the room. His face stern masked of any emotion. He looks, scary.

"If anyone messed with you. I. Will. f**k. Them. Up."

Basically that's wrapped up my morning. Chanel found the car keys in-between the cushions of the living room couch. The journey to school was silent as usual with me burrows deep in the random soothing voices in my ear pods. I take a deep breath as the school bronze gates come into view.

"I hope you have money to take yourself back home because I'm working late today." Chanel calls after me when I get out of the car.

"I do." I respond even though she didn't really wait for a response.

I turn to the widely opened bronze gates of E.M.S. High School. I take in the vibrant chatter of the students as they walk in, the noise of engines as some of the students drive in, the resilient smell of petrol, and something new this time round a faint smell of cigarette smoke. If I wasn't so observation I'd have missed it but that wasn't my concern as of now. I replaced my ear buds in my ears and drowned myself in the false confidence provided by The Kid Karol. The silent voice in my head welcoming me to the final round of hell.