Chapter 1: Dull

There was something about falling in love Harper wasn't particularly fond of, but she wasn't completely sure what. She wasn't exactly the most desirable girl you'd ever seen but she wasn't so bad that you'd avoid sitting beside her in class either. Admittedly, romance and love and all that wasn't something she looked for, like all her friends did, but everyone craves the feeling of being wanted.

It was the start of her sophomore year when she learned the true meaning of that feeling. Up until then, everything was the same as it had been her entire life but, for reasons she couldn't explain, this one was different.

It'd already been a few weeks since the school year started, and things were looking just as dull as they had last year. She was already familiar with most of the kids in her class, but one of the faces she didn't recognized belonged to a boy of a lanky stature and a terribly bored look on his face. She didn't think much of it-- it was a big school. She barely knew even a fraction of people outside her year. But still, she paid a little extra attention to him.

"Ryan, wake up." Ms. Walker snapped as the mysterious boy's eyelids closed. He quickly jolted awake, glaring at her irritable face. "Are you bored?" She asked, a little condescendingly but mostly rhetorically. "No, no. I'm completely fascinated with totalitarianism and fascism and all that jazz. Please, go on." He replied, frowning at her question. Harper, along with the rest of the class, watched quietly, occasionally letting out a quiet chuckle at his snarky remarks. Ms. Walker and Ryan had argued often, due to Ms. Walker being a little stuck up and taking great pride in her work despite being a high school history teacher. "Stand up, go take a walk down the hall, and don't come back until you're wide awake and ready to learn about the Russian Revolution." She ordered. Ryan sighed and stood up, slowly making his way towards the door. He sighed once more before shutting it behind him.

Harper had started to recognize him around campus a lot more. She'd seen him talking with other kids she didn't know and most often walking down the hall in between third and fourth period. She figured he probably didn't notice her considering that she rarely spoke up in class and had never said a word to him before, but she still found the courage to glance at him every time they crossed paths. And every time, his eyes were drifting somewhere else. He looked distant, like he couldn't see the world around him.

"How've you been?" Iris, a friend of Harper's she'd known since freshman year, playfully poked her arm in an attempt to get her attention. She had long, straight red hair that fell down her thin physique, two shorter pieces of hair framed her thin face and occasionally fell in front of her dark brown eyes. The two of them sat on the grass outside the main building, taking shelter from the sunlight under a tree. "Hmm?" Harper said, flinching at the touch. Iris giggled.

"I said how are you?" She repeated, pulling a plain looking sandwich out of her backpack. Harper sighed. "I'm okay."

"Not still hung up about Aaron, are you?" Iris glanced at Harper's tired eyes in a concerning, slightly invading kind of way. Harper shook her head, a little surprised at the question.

"Are you kidding? My entire 'relationship' with him feels like a weird fever dream." She replied.

It was true, Aaron was nothing but a memory to her. Even though they'd been together for nearly two years, it hardly felt like a real relationship. That didn't mean Harper didn't miss him, there were times she'd wished she tried harder to make it feel real. But, she wasn't upset with the way it ended either.

"Okay, okay. Got your eye on anyone new?" Iris grinned, intrigued. Harper scoffed. "Is that all you people care about?" She questioned. Iris laughed. "We're kids. What else is there to worry about besides getting into college and having summer flings?" She said. Harper wasn't entirely sure if she was joking or not but she brushed it off. "I dunno, toppling the government? Striving for world peace?" Judging from the look on her face, it seemed like Iris wasn't sure whether Harper was joking or not, but she laughed anyways. "Oh, you're one of those girls." She smiled.

"Hey, did you hear? Amelia wants to join the softball team." Iris mentioned, in between bites of her drab-looking sandwich. Harper made an alarmed face. "Why? They're even worse than the football team." She replied. Her school was widely regarded as the 'nerd school' and thus didn't attract many people who were known to party and sleep around, but a lot of the sports teams had reputations for containing exactly those kinds of people. Softball was pretty high up on the list of most irritable, along with both soccer teams, football, and baseball.

"Honestly I have no idea. Maybe she wants to make her way up the hierarchy." Iris shrugged. "Ugh, if the hierarchy's based on something that stupid I might have to dismantle it." Harper rolled her eyes.

Harper wasn't exactly the most fond of the popularity standards that were held within the walls of Highland High School and did her best to ignore them. She wasn't ecstatic at the thought of losing another genuine friend to the system of dropouts and future custodians. Not that there was anything wrong with becoming a custodian.

"You know, you should lighten up a bit. School ain't so bad." Iris chirped, waving to another girl who was making her way towards them. Harper turned to see who it was.

Amelia quickly pranced towards them, an astonished look on her face.

"Hey! Did you guys see what happened in the cafeteria?" She exclaimed, once they were within earshot. She sat down on the grass next to them, just barely under the shade of the tree that towered above them.

Iris raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side a little. "No, we've been sitting here waiting for you. What happened?" Harper asked.

"Someone got into a fight!"