That One Moment...

Chapter 1

Ryan looked around his room in frustration. Where had he left his soccer gear? Why would coach have practice after the first day of school? Senior year should be epic, but he was already feeling stressed. He had maybe 30 minutes to drive to school and still needed to eat something and grab the guys on the way.

"Ryan! I got some breakfast ready. What is taking you so long? I don't think you've ever been late for your first day of school before. Why start now?"

"Mom. I'm coming, but I cannot find my soccer bag."

"It's already down here by the door."

"Shit." Ryan muttered. Glancing in the mirror, he saw his reflection and smiled as his cell phone binged a text. Would it be one of the guys or another girl asking him out. Did it matter? Senior year was going to be awesome. His schedule was a bit intense, but both teams (soccer and basketball) looked pretty good. Just needed to keep juggling things to clinch the scholarship to a D1 school. As he ran downstairs to the smell of pancakes he ran through his schedule for the day: grab the guys on the way in, make a stunning senior year entrance...haha, AP Calculus, Art, AP English Lit and Comp, Chemistry, Lunch, Second Year Spanish, AP Government, and Gym. Then practice, maybe go out after with the team.

"Hey mom, we got anything easy for me to eat before practice?"

"Sure honey. I think I grabbed some stuff at the store that would work. Let me check."

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Sarah was flustered. Another first day of school. Junior this time and she didn't have her sister around for support. Damn, why did Kathy have to go away to college and leave her alone in this house? As she wandered over to the closet to find some clothes, Sarah debated how to blend into the crowds easiest this year. Her anxiety and self-doubt really made it best to lay low in the swirl of high school clicks and drama. Jeans and hoodie should do that. Brushing her blonde hair up into a messy bun, Sarah glanced in the small mirror and saw her blue eyes looking back. Worry was evident. What was there to worry about? She'd been able to blend in pretty good for the last two years, just two more until she could get out of this town.

Looking over at the clock she saw there were at least 30 minutes until she had to catch the bus, enough time for a quick breakfast. Where'd she leave her bag? Did she have enough notebooks? Colored pens? Sticky notes? Man her bag was heavy...I guess that's what happens when you love office supplies.

Running down the stairs, Sarah had just enough time to grab a bowl of cereal and lock up before walking to the bus stop. Looked like the same old crew would be riding again. Not many households on this side of town had an extra car for their kids, so there was typically a decent cluster waiting around 7:15am, even in the cold Michigan winters. She wasn't looking forward to standing out in the snow, but that was a couple months off still. Summer was still winding down, so the walk had been pleasant and Sarah actually enjoyed zoning out to her music in the mornings. Keeping her ear buds in, she found a spot towards the middle of the bus for the ride in. A few kids glanced her way, but were quickly sidetracked when she didn't do any more than a slight smile and turn away. It was easier being a loner than dealing with any extra drama, she had plenty of that at home.

Zoning out the ride was pretty quick. Even before the bus came to a complete stop kids were already starting to stand up and push their way out. Waiting for the chaos to die down, Sarah debated whether she should try riding her bike in sometimes. It could be a nice change, well, at least until it got cold.

Stepping down off the bus, she took a moment to glance around and get her bearings. The school was a single story sprawl across what was otherwise an open field on the outskirts of their semi-rural town. An architect had thought it was a great idea to make the building have four wings, one for each grade, with the gymnasium and cafeteria in the center. This made for some great traffic jams as students tried to run between the wings since most people didn't stick to a single area. Scattered further off were various athletic fields and outbuildings, along with the parking lots that were almost filled with cars by this point in the morning.

Thinking over her locker combo again, Sarah meandered into the building to dump off her backpack and lunch. Even though the wings were mostly divided by grade year, the lockers that ran throughout the school were distributed alphabetically as one class graduated and another arrived. Hers had always been over in the senior wing, which was rather uncomfortable as a freshman but now served her well since she was taking a combo of third and fourth year classes. What was it this year? American Lit (Junior homeroom), Computers II (J), Pre-Calculus (S), Chemistry (S), AP US History (J), First Year Spanish (J), and Gym (ugh). She really lucked out with gym in her last period, first period was awful last year and second period had been no better as a freshmen. Why did we still need to have PE every year?!?!

Feeling the movement of other students around her shift, Sarah pulled her attention back to the present. What was going on? Looking up, she realized the disruption was some of the popular kids who had stopped to catch up with each other. They were wearing school gear, so must be on one of the teams. It's fall, so must be football and cheerleaders...maybe. Maybe she should pay attention to the gossip now filtering through the influx of students, but she had to make a quick turn to branch off into the senior wing and find her locker. It had to be close to homeroom by now. Tossing most of her stuff into her locker, Sarah decided to quickly retie her hair before hurrying over to the junior wing. Quickly glancing at her small locker mirror she was surprised by the anxiety simmering beneath the surface. It was likely just the mass of people. It had been awhile since she was around a crowd...they didn't really do much in her household.

The first bell rang. "Shit" she muttered as she hurried down the hall. "Here we go."