A NEW BEGINNING. CHAPTER - 1. A TERRIBLE FIRST DAY

"Wake up sleepy head, you're going to be late for your first day at a new school," said Sarah as she was helping her son get ready.

"Mom, do I really have to go to school at all, my life isn't going to be any different. Everyone there knows who my father is, I'm just going to remind them of his mistakes. I wish I didn't have come back here." Justin replied, his frustration seeping out.

"Look, I know it's going to be....difficult to say the least but you're still going to school, even if I have to drag you out of bed myself." said Sarah

Justin sighed disappointedly.

"Now Justin!" Sarah began, her tone getting serious.

"Alright, alright." Justin cut her off as he reluctantly got dressed.

"Today's definitely going to be a terrible first day" Justin sighed to himself.

After Justin finished his breakfast, he quickly went through the door which was in his best interest or else he would suffer the wrath of his mother.

On his way out he bumped into a man, not looking where he was going.

"Oh... my bad, sorry." said Justin as he proceeded to step past the man.

"not really." he whispered as soon as he was out of ear shot.

Justin was not very friendly, must be the result of having zero friends.

"Don't worry about it, try not to get hurt on your way to school." said the stranger with a weird look on his face.

"Ahh... sure." answered Justin not in the mood to start a conversation.

"weirdo." spat Justin under his breath.

As Justin was walking away, the stranger spoke into his comms in his ear.

"Boss, I have eyes on the target"

"Excellent, don't loose him" someone replied.

While Justin was growing up, his mother was always worried about people going after him for reasons regarding his father. So she would train him to be more aware of his surroundings, to be able to detect if someone was following him. So Justin made sure to check his surroundings at all times.

Justin walked past a woman sitting at a bench with a stroller, then he passed a homeless man rummaging through a dumpster and another man sitting on a bench reading a newspaper... or so it seemed.

All three of them were staring at him while he was walking past them and of course the stranger he bumped into a couple minutes ago was walking a few feet behind. The stranger was trying not to make it obvious that he was following him. Yet Justin felt something seemed weird about the four of them.

"Something isn't right." Justin thought to himself.

"I need get out of here." he decided as he started running as fast as he could.

"Damn it, how did he notice?!" the stranger grumbled.

"What the hell is going on out there?" the boss asked through the comms in his ear.

"The target is on the move sir, somehow he noticed us." the stranger replied.

"WHAT!" the boss exclaimed.

"See to it that he doesn't escape, we need him. I'll be there in fifteen minutes." The boss shouted frustratedly.

"Understood sir." said the stranger as he rushed after Justin.

"You heard the boss, we can't let him escape." He spat out to the others.

About fifteen minutes later, Justin found a secluded spot and hid there. He was hoping they'd give up the chase. Not too long after he found the spot, Justin started to hear voices.

"He's somewhere here, we need to find him before the boss gets here." said the stranger to the other three.

"Damn it, I thought I lost them." Justin thought to himself.

Suddenly, Justin heard a car come to a halt. He took a peek behind the wall he was hiding and saw a man coming out the car wearing all black.

"Umm...good to see you boss" said the stranger.

"So he's the one in charge, huh." Justin thought to himself.

"Have you apprehended the target yet Mr. Jones?" asked the boss.

"N-N-Not as yet sir, but the tracker I placed on him led us here." The stranger or rather Mr. Jones replied shakily.

"Tracker?" Justin questioned himself in confusion.

Justin started searching himself for anything that could be a tracker. That's when he found something. It was on his back, a small circular object with a glowing red dot in its center.

"This must be it, but when did he even get the chance to attach it to me?" Justin asked himself.

Then Justin remembered that earlier in the morning, soon after he left home, he bumped into that Mr. Jones guy, when he told him "try not to get hurt on your way to school."

"He must've bumped into me on purpose to place it on me,... Son of a,...!" said Justin angrily.

" I was right, today really is a terrible first day." Justin sighed.

Then Justin got an idea. If he could make it to school, since he was very close, then they couldn't follow him in. Although he was totally against going back to school, it seemed like his only escape now. Justin quickly got rid of the tracker and made a run for it. However he accidentally knocked over an empty trash can while trying to escape.

"What was that?" asked Mr. Jones as his head snapped in the direction of the sound.

"He's making a run for it boss." One of the men said.

"He must've gotten rid of the tracker,... Quick!, After him!" the boss ordered.

Luckily, Justin made it to school before they got to him. He was late because of the trouble from Mr. Jones and the rest. Yet he was relieved to be out of their grasp.

"What do we do now?, we can't get to him while he's in school." said Mr. Jones as they pulled up in front of the school in the boss' car.

"It doesn't matter, we can get to him after the school day ends." the boss reassured them.

Even though Justin was out of breath from the running, he walked around searching for his first class of the day which was biology.

"Class, we have a new student joining us today" the teacher spoke as he entered the lab.

"My name is Miss. Hamilton, and you're late Mr...." she began as she went to her register to look for his name.

"Jackson,... Justin Jackson" she said with a surprised look on her face.

"Your father was Joe Jackson" said Ms. Hamilton.

"Yeah... thanks for pointing that out to everyone." Justin replied sarcastically.

"Right, sorry, um...well for today's exercise, you will need a partner, would anyone here like to pair up with Justin,... anyone?" Ms. Hamilton asked the class but no one raised there hand.

"No surprise there." Justin thought to himself.

Then suddenly, a pretty girl with nice red hair and flawless skin, raised her hand.

"Let me guess, you overslept and you had to run all the way here and that's why your so out of breath, am I right?" the girl asked

"More or less" Justin chuckled.

"Or maybe because I was running for my life from some crazy people who were chasing me." Justin thought to himself.

"Well since you missed half the notes, I could lend you mine if you want." she offered.

"Um... thanks a lot" replied Justin.

"So he's that kid from 12 years ago," one person whispered to the other.

"Yeah that's him, the news is that he and his mom were involved in what went down on 7/15 after his dad went nuts and then they left and now they're back in town." Someone replied.

"They have some nerve coming back here, I lost a friend that night." Another person added.

That was all Justin heard as he sat down.

"Just ignore them." The girl said.

"Yeah." Justin replied.

"Looks like we have another late comer, this is the second time in two days Ms. Hunter" Ms. Hamilton spoke.

"Sorry Ms. Hamilton, won't happen again." The late comer replied.

When Justin turned around to look at the person, he was surprised to see who it was.

"Chloe?!" Justin whispered to himself, shocked.

She was just as surprised as he was to see him but she didn't show it. Instead she acted natural and went to her seat like nothing had happened.

After school ended, Justin was walking towards his locker when he saw Chloe. She noticed him too but she kept her head down as she attempted to walk past him.

"It's been a long time hasn't it... cousin." spat Justin, causing Chloe to stop walking and turn around.

"I'm surprised you're talking to me since, well...you know" Chloe replied timidly.

"You mean since aunt Sophia, or your mother told you to stay away from us after my dad went crazy. When we were little kids at that. Is that what you're talking about?" Justin let out dryly.

"Yeah, sorry about that" Chloe apologized clearly uncomfortable being put on the spot.

"Well you're not really the one to be blamed for that." Justin reassured in a calm tone.

"It was good to see you Justin." Chloe said as she got ready to leave.

"Yeah, you too" Justin replied as they walked away from each other awkwardly.

While Justin was in his locker, someone slammed it.

"So, you're that Jackson kid right" the guy said with anger on his face.

"Let me guess, you've got something against my father too because of the 7/15 incident, right?" Justin asked as he turned to face him.

" You catch on quick don't yah" the guy said as he started to make a scene in the hallway for everyone to see.

"A lot of people lost someone they cared about that night, including me, because of your crazy ass daddy. I also know you were that baby they found in that crater after that thing blew up" the guy said as he continued to harass him until someone intervened.

"Duncan, are you for real right now, like seriously." A girl confronted.

To Justin's surprise, it was the girl who raised her hand to pair up with him in class earlier.

"Sorry." Duncan replied as he walked away.

"Thanks for that, I was trying to ignore him but he didn't seem like he was going to quit." said Justin.

"No problem, he isn't really like this, he just blames you for his dad's death." She explained.

"Oh and here are my notes I promised to lend you, careful not to loose them." she replied as she handed over a folder.

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Justin replied taking the folder gratefully.

" You seem surprised." She said.

"A little cause I'm used to people keeping me at arms length, with my dad and all. I think you're the only one here who hasn't done that"

"I don't really judge people based on the actions of others" she assured.

"Oh, I didn't get your name in class today, mind telling me now?" Justin asked.

"Amethyst,... Amethyst Stone, and yes, its just like the gem stone." she answered.

"So your first name is a gem stone and your last name happens to be Stone, that's kinda cool." Justin commented.

"Yeah, my mom thought it would be very unique, but I don't know, it doesn't really roll off the tongue does it?" asked Amethyst.

"Hey, it's a lot better than Justin, mine is pretty ordinary and common." Justin replied as he and Amethyst laughed at that joke.

"You know I think I had you all wrong, when you walked in the class this morning, the look on your face made you seem unfriendly and that you didn't smile much." Amethyst confessed, which was true since Justin rarely smiled.

"It's probably because of everything that's happened to me so far. I just don't have anything to smile about, not until now I guess." Justin spoke his tone low.

It seemed like Justin was flirting a bit, although he had never done that before which caused Amethyst to blush a little.

A car suddenly drove up at the school gate and the person blew their horn.

"That car looks familiar somehow" Justin thought to himself as he looked out towards the gate.

"Oh, it's my dad, I have to go but I'll see you around ok." Amethyst said with a little smile on her face as she waved at him.

"Sure." Justin replied with a slight grin on his face.

"Maybe I was wrong, maybe today won't be such a terrible first day after all." he said to himself as he waved back.

However that grin left his face as soon as he saw who came out of the car. It was one of the goons who were chasing him earlier, the one dressed in all black who the others referred to as boss.

"Thanks for picking me up dad." said Amethyst as she got into the car.

"It's no problem my angel" her father replied.

Before he drove off, he looked at Justin with a creepy smile on his face, as if he still had something planned.

" I take it back, today really is a terrible first day." Justin whispered to himself.

Hello readers, hopefully this first chapter has caught your attention and made you hooked

~KEOKROSTOS