Her pale fingers twitched against the black hard wood surface that was her desk. No papers, textbooks, or assignments were on display as she ignored the teacher in the front of the room talking nonsense about the difference between republicans and democrats. But that wasn't what was nearly close to setting her off. In the seat behind her was the hated Greg Maloney, the senior football quarterback and voted 'biggest jerk' in Sara James' book. Being of such an intelligent species, he continued to push Sara's chair back and forth, chuckling under his breath as his nearby friends grinned and gave him the thumbs up for perfection. Of course it was fun to pick on the 'weird' girl of the senior class. She was labeled, based off of her style of clothing, as a gothic, despite having never shown any signs of being such. Rather, Sara much preferred the title of 'rebel' or 'bad ass', but those terms were never muttered in her presence. Instead, 'weird', 'gothic', 'emo', and 'freak' were the most common.
No longer patient enough to deal with his stupidity and absolute immaturity, Sara snapped her head backwards, her body moving with her, as she grabbed Greg's wrists and pushed him roughly back into his chair, sending him to the floor. His face flushed and suddenly grew red with infuriation, and obvious embarrassment, as the teacher yelled Sara's name in desperation to try to stop the temperamental senior. Sara waved a hand in the air as she grabbed her backpack and headed towards the door of the classroom. Suddenly, "Sara James, will you please come to the main office? Sara James, to the main office please," erupted out of the speakers. All of the students' eyes looked on Sara, as she slammed the door open and shut again, causing the picture hanging from the wall next to it fall to the floor and break. It was no surprise that Sara had been sent to the main office... after all, she was a bit of a rebel.
Nearly storming into the main office, heading back towards the principal's office, a room she was oh so familiar with, Sara sat down in 'her' chair in front of the large oak wood desk and stared blankly at the ceiling. Crossing her legs and arms, she quickly noticed that she wasn't the only visitor. Cocking her head to the side, she saw both of her parents, her father with an angered expression on his while her mother looked almost tearful. The principal stood up from his chair and walked to stand in front of Sara, who spread herself out completely over the large black recliner chair. "You must be wondering why you're here."
"What was your first clue, Dr. Saunders?" Sara said bitterly.
With a smug expression, Dr. Saunders forced a smile onto his face as she sat down on the edge of his desk to look at her more closely. "I am going to get straight to the point. You will be leaving this school to --"
Sara sat up quickly, a strange grin on her face. "And this is supposed to be bad news? I hate this school! The preppy bitches -"
"Sara!" her mother said with a warning tone. Sara rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, getting bored quickly as her attention drifted towards the large windows on the other side of the room.
"You will be attending a school called Helmington Academy. It is a school run by military officials and veterans that want to instill discipline and knowledge into their students."
Sara couldn't help but crack a smile. A light chuckled escaped her pink, glossed lips as she didn't move. "Your joking right? Helmington Academy? That's a school for juvenile delinquents."
Sara's mother's eyes softened, as she touched the shoulder of her daughter gently. "Sweetheart, you have committed crimes before. You have been almost placed into jail three times already, in the past two years. I think this will be a great opportunity for you... get your life back on track. Like it used to be."
'Like it used to be... Things would never go back to the way they were, Mom. Don't act so foolish,' she thought to herself. Sara ignored her mother as she shrugged her hand away and stood up slowly. Sara reached the shoulders of the principal, her eyes scanning up ever so slightly to reach his. At 5'7", she was intimidating. "I am not going."
Without saying a word to her parents, Sara trudged into the main lobby of the school, dragging her luggage behind her. She froze to take in her immediate surroundings - the lobby was very large and circular shaped, with crowds of students swarming through as a bell rang. A desk was placed in the very center of the lobby, with a large sign above it that read: SERVICE DESK. Rolling her eyes, Sara made her way towards the desk, before someone rudely ran into her. Laughing, the boy didn't bother help her pick up her belongings, and it was then that the other students began to acknowledge the newcomer. "Look at her, she probably killed someone!" "She looks like such a whore." "I bet she drinks blood, like a vampire." "She's probably stupid too!" And then, the single comment that broke her fuse that had been running since the previous day. "I bet I can get some action with her, little slut!"
Dropping her things to the floor, she spotted the boy who had made the last comment. Her fist swung into the air and hit him square in the nose. She barely watched with any interest as he crashed to the floor. The students surrounding them began to scream 'fight', but Sara had no interest in continuing it. Stopping midway, she was suddenly blocked by a rather large man wearing a military uniform. His eyes glued onto her with a slight smile on his face. She narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms across her chest. "What?" she muttered.
"You have used physical violence against one of our students. But, since this is your first day here, I will let you off with a warning." He held out his hand and smiled more genuinely. "I've been expecting you, Sara James."
She hesitantly took his hand and rolled her eyes, a common habit of hers'. "Of course you were," Sara muttered, before grabbing her luggage one last time. What made this entire situation far much worse was that Sara had only been a senior at her high school for two weeks, which meant she would be at this academy for the entire school year and for summer vacation. Groaning, she grabbed the key to her dorm room and headed towards the stairs. This is going to be a long year.
