Chapter One: Letting Your Hair Down

Waking up today felt like I was waking up for the first time. I look around my room like I have never seen it before. It's my 16th birthday, I don't know why it feels like I am being born all over again.

Anway, I go to the dresser right behind my bed, and I grab my nice green ripped jeans and nice blue sucks, sliding the jeans on, and then the socks. Going into the shirt drawer, I look around the inside of it to see what shirt I would like to wear today.

I choose the Robotics shirt to symbolize that I am on the Robotics team. It's green and it says 'Sea Shore High' with a wave printed in the middle and my name on the bottom. I start to hear a vibration from my vanity, and so I make my way over there, grabbing my phone to see it's Madison calling me. I answer the call.

"Hey, Madison, what's up?" I asked her as I put her on speaker and looked in my closet I could practically call my shoe rack.

"Nothing much. Just asking if you need a ride to school today." Madison responded and I smirked.

"Yeah, would you be okay with that though?" I asked her and there was an awkward silence between us as I sat down in front of the mirror on my vanity with red lipstick and green eyeshadow.

"GIRL! Of course I would be okay with that. I always am!" Madison said in a condescending tone.

"Okay. Just have to finish getting ready." I said, doing my green eyeshadow in a winged look.

"Call you when I get here, Ashy." Madison replied, and then hung up.

I look in the mirror behind my door to see what I look like, and my hair is still messed up. My goddamn long brunette colored hair. I have nice red tips though, which compliments the brunette.

I look back into the 'shoe rack' again and I grab my green converse with a mermaid I painted on them myself. It looks pretty accurate if I am going to be honest with you guys. I slide them on, and it is hard to slide them on because they are usually hard to put on. No worries, they are not too small. I checked them twice before buying them. I hear my phone vibrating again. Honestly, it's not the time to have my phone blowing up over and over.

"Heyyyyyyy Ashy. Are you ready to go yet?" Madison asked me, and I looked in the mirror, seeing that my bun was well done and my eyeshadow was well done, looking at me up and down.

"Yeah, I'm ready. I just double checked my hair to see if it looked nice." I replied, and she nodded.

"Hair is always important to you." Madison laughed and I chuckled a little too.

"It is though. It's one of the first things a boy sees when they look at you. Same with girls." I said and I heard Madison scoff through the phone. I bet she rolled her eyes too.

"Anyway, Ms. Hair Obsessed, I am on my way to get you. Make sure you're ready. I am not going to be waiting out there for hours." Madison said and a couple seconds later, I hear a car engine pull up to my house. I look out the window to see it's Madison.

I rush down the stairs and I put on my backpack. It's a red backpack with a blue little heart on it. I usually don't really go for logos on backpacks, but it's so simple it's cute. I walk down the stairs to see my little sister eating her cereal and my older brother taking care of her. You know, my parents weren't really around as a kid. My brother always had to take care of us. I thank him for the sacrifices he made for us.

"Bye brother. I am heading out to school with Madison." I said and my brother scoffed.

You see, he doesn't really like Madison. He thinks that she is a bad influence on me just because she's rich and from a wealthy family with two parents who take so good care of her.

I walk out the door and I see Madison's nice red roofless mustang in front of the house. I run right to it and I place the backpack in and instead of opening the door, I put my hand on the door and do a little jump stunt into the car.

"Acrobatic today, aren't we Ms. Ashlyn Pierce?" Madison asked me and I smirked a little bit.

"I guess. I mean, I am on the cheerleading team now and it's my 16th birthday. I am a little energetic." I said and she chuckled.

"Anyway, it's time to head to school. The bell is going to ring in 10 minutes and you have to grab your books before you run out of time." Madison said and I nodded.

She starts the car at a very fast speed and she dashes us to school. She plugs her phone into the car and plays 'Again' by Troyman. We put our hands in the air and she lets the wind blow in her hair.

"Come on Ashlyn. Let your hair have fun. You can't lock it up forever." Madison said, and she used her left hand to grab the hair tie out of my hair, letting my hair loose.

It gave me a little bit of anxiety, since my hair is so fancy and nice every single day, but I decided to let loose and let my hair blow in the wind. When I got to school, it was still perfectly combed, just not in a bun like I expected.

---

We get out of the car and look around at everyone talking to each other. Wilbur with Thomas, as expected, the triplets together with Cameron, and Damara alone. You know, I have had a crush on her since I was 12 and in 6th grade. When puberty first hit me as a teenager. Anyway, I walk to my locker right next to hers and I grab my math textbook. Math isn't exactly my strong suit when it comes to subjects. I notice Thomas looking towards us. I already know he likes Madison, why don't he just tell her? Like my god bro.

"Look at Wilbur. Isn't he cute?" Madison asked me and I looked over, annoyed.

"He's that arrogant boy that boys obsess over," I replied to her. "And Thomas is his little obsessive watchdog."

"Come on. You can't be mean to him. He for sure as hell can't be mean to you. You get your color assignment today. The color you have to wear for the rest of your life!" Madison told me, and I rolled my eyes, remembering that.

I might've forgot to mention that we live in a society where you have to wear a specific color for the rest of your life. The purples are known to be bubbly and nice, the greens are known to have envy and be like the jealous sibling of purple, you could say, yellow is the happy color, red is the anger color, and so on. But orange has never been discovered as a color before. No one has ever been an orange before. It's fascinating to hear about.

I see Thomas walking by, and doing that shotgun wink thing to the girls in the hallway. For some reason, they obsess and put their hand on their forehead and whatever. It's annoying. The same basic ass shit over and over again.

"Hey Madison. How are you doing?" Thomas asked her, and Madison chuckled.

"I'm good. How about you? Still being an asshole?" Madison asked him, and I cuffed my mouth.

"Madison, you see, asking how you're doing isn't being an asshole. It's actually the nice thing to do to such a beautiful lady." Thomas said, and he kissed her hand.

"BLECHHHH!" I said, turning around to my locker.

"See you got the color green. Damn, you're an envious little fuck. No wonder your parents left you." Thomas said, and it honestly hit different. It hurt.

"Shut the fuck up, you prick." I said, slamming my door shut, starting to walk to class, "and for the record jackass, I haven't gotten my color yet."

I walk to class, and I see Thomas feeling embarrassed, but he's still hitting on my best friend, which makes me a little bit aggravated. She deserves so much better than that asshole of a boy.

Walking to class, I see the triplets. Luna, the dancer and school bully. Lina, the single one with somewhat of a brain. Lana, the cheerleader who is dating Wilbur, Madison's crush. Lana got to class before me, and I rolled my eyes. The first thing I see when walking into the classroom is Lana and Wilbur making out. Makes me roll my eyes. We get it. You two are better than us because you have so much chemistry.

The bell rings, and everyone sits down in their seats. I am so relieved that they are seated on the other side of the room from each other in the classroom seating chart. This teacher has somewhat brain intelligence, even though his class is boring. I want to deadass fall asleep right now.

"You see, students, we are going to go over the book To Kill A Mockingbird." The teacher said and I nodded, looking at the paperback book on my desk.

I grab my book and everyone else grabbed theirs, the teacher turning on the audible of the book and letting us hear it as we read it to ourselves.

"Ashlyn is such a loser." Luna whispered to Lana and they laughed together, staring at me. I ignored it because they're jealous of me.

"I know right? Why can't she just dress better? She dresses so fancy, and modellike. Not like she's going to school." Lana whispered to Luna and nodded. Lina decided to get into the conversation.

"Luna, I don't think that you should bully Ashlyn. She is a good girl. I know it doesn't seem like that since she doesn't like you guys, but I personally have never met her, and personally, I don't really know her as a person." Lina said, and I raised my eyebrows. I thought she hated me. I guess not.

---

A couple of hours later, it is now lunch time and school sucks. I hate today. Everyone loves to talk crap and loves to be able to antagonize people for no reason. Especially Luna. She's the toxic one of her triplets.

I walk to lunch and I see Madison, talking to Wilbur and twisting her hair. I can hear them talking. Madison is flirting with him even though he has a girlfriend.

"Hey, Wilbur, how are you doing?" Madison asked Wilbur, as she was looking into his ugly green eyes.

"I'm doing good. How about you?" Wilbur asked and Madison smiled.

"I'm perfectly okay. No problems at all." Madison replied and Madison has butterflies in her stomach.

"That's good to hear, Madison." Wilbur said, and Madison's brain probably exploded.

"Wow, you know my name." Madison replied and Wilbur nodded awkwardly.

"Yeah, Thomas talks a lot about you. He called you pretty earlier in front of me in math class." Wilbur said, and Madison's eyes widened and she looked down.

"Yeah, about that, can you tell him I said thanks, but I am interested in someone else? You know, someone more, strong, athletic?" Madison asked, and Wilbur nodded.

"Yeah. Sure. I have to go to hang out with Thomas and Lana right now. I'll talk to you later?" Wilbur said, and I see Madison rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, sure. I can do that. Talk to you later. If you want to message me, here's my phone number. Talk to ya later." Madison said, and she looked over to see me watching her.

Madison walked over in embarrassment to me, and I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. I am so confused and I walk to her. I hold her hand and we walk to lunch with each other at our own table. I look over at Damara and I am nervous about it. She's so beautiful and so smart. I have a crush on her.

"You know how you talked to Wilbur, right?" I asked Madison, and she nodded.

"Yeah. What do you mean? What are you going to do?" Madison asked me, and I looked over at Damara.

"I am going to shoot my shot with Damara." I said, and Madison smiled.

"Ooh, you're really letting your hair down today, aren't you?" Madison asked, and I smiled.

"I thought we did that this morning in the car." I said, and I walked over to Damara, sitting next to her.

"Hi Damara." I said, and she smiled.

"H-hi." Damara replied, and she was in a huge group of friends. Leo, Jane, Louisa, and Xiomara.

"Do you want to join us? We would love to hang out with more people. The more the merrier." Jane asked and I looked over at Madison.

"Yeah of course. Can Madison join us too?" I asked, looking towards her table.

"Yeah of course." Xiomara said, and I looked at Madison, signaling for her to come over with us.

Turns out, shooting my shot, made me a lot of new friends instead. Feels good.