A.N. I couldn’t pick out an actual Richmond high school without annoying at least one of my friends. As a result, K.R. Stirling High is purely fictional. Also, this is just a sort of practice story that I’m writing on the side, so please don’t expect my best work in it.

Chapter One

            Brianna opened her locker door with a sigh and dragged out the books she would need. Like everyone else, she was grateful that it was finally Friday. But unlike everyone else, she wasn’t planning on a night of staying out late. Her plans were quite different.

            She turned sideways to regard her reflection in her locker mirror. Tawny brown locks framed an ovular face set with hazel eyes. She wrinkled her nose at the delicate bones that made her look so feeble. She had always hated that part of her visage.

            Thinking of all the disadvantages of looking weak, she closed the locker and began walking towards the school exit.

            “Bri! Yo, Bri!” someone called.

            She turned to see Claire and Rayne running towards her.

            “We’re going to the mall. You wanna come?” Claire asked, when they reached her.

            “No, thanks. I’ve got plans tonight.” It wasn’t exactly a lie.

            Rayne gave her a look. “Alright, but you gotta come with us next week then. Don’t think we haven’t noticed that you never go shopping with us.”

            Bri blinked. She hadn’t thought they’d noticed. “Oh, well. Umm. Sure, next week then,” she agreed, smiling weakly.

            Damn, this was going to put a cramp in her plans, but she supposed she owed it to her friends.

            She waved to them and headed out of the school, only to be stopped by yet another person in the parking lot. What she would never understand was why their high school still had such a large student parking lot when only the grade twelve’s could legally drive a car on their own.

            “Hey, Brianna. You going to the dance at Southarm next Saturday?” a deep voice asked.

            She looked up to see Shane Leroy, one of the handful of guys at Stirling High who were actually considered ‘hot.’ In was a constant matter of complaint amongst the girls. There were some ‘cute’ guys, quite a lot of ‘ok’ boys and a rather unhealthy number that went below that.

            Dance? Southarm? Oh, damn I forgot!

            “Uh, no, probably not,” she said, mentally recalling her schedule. “I promised my friend at work I would take her late shift.” Actually, it was mutually beneficial. Cecilia hated it when she had to miss her Saturday nights and Brianna needed to buy a whole bunch of things at the hardware store, which was only open from nine to five on weekends.

            “Oh.” He looked disappointed for a moment, but smiled. “Well, I was just wondering, that’s all. See ya ’round.”

            “Yah, see ya,” she called back and continued on her way home.

            Home was a drab little blue and white house that had once belonged to her grandparents. After her father had left, twelve-year-old Bri and her mother had moved in with her grandparents. Three years later, her grandfather had died from a heart attack and soon after, her grandmother had followed. Knowing their daughter’s reckless nature, the elderly couple had deemed it wiser to leave their possessions to Brianna rather than her mother. Of course, Bri wouldn’t have full ownership until she was eighteen, but it didn’t make much difference to her. Either way, she would never sell her grandparents’ house.

            She unlocked the door and slipped inside, glancing over the worn furniture as the excitement of her project gathered inside her. She dashed upstairs to her room, changed into a pair of old jeans and a faded T-shirt, tied her hair up in a ponytail under a purple bandanna and went back downstairs.

            Well, she thought, the first thing I have to do is get all the furniture into the garage and sort out what stays and what goes.

            On that note, she began moving things into the garage that had been vacated of cars since Cherie, Bri’s mom, and her boyfriend, Chad, had left two weeks ago. In truth, Bri did miss her mother, however little she deserved that title, but mostly, she felt relief. Cherie had never possessed much capacity for responsibility and it wasn’t like Brianna was emotionally or financially dependent on her mother. It was just Cherie’s presence that she missed.

            She sighed as she dragged the heavy three-seater sofa through the hallway. It barely fit through the door leading into the garage, but she managed. She pushed it up against the left wall, where she had decided to put all the stuff she no longer wanted. When she had finished doing up the whole house, she’d call a truck to take all the junk to the Salvation Army or the junk yard, respectively.

            The loveseat and armchairs she put with the sofa on the left, as well as the coffee table Chad had broken a few days before he and Cherie had left town. She stood in the centre of the garage, grinding her teeth as she studied the dining room table for a long time. It was solid wood, still serviceable and just needed a bit of touching up – but it was just so old. Finally, she resolved to put it against the back wall and decide what to do with it later.

            The chairs that went with the dining table had mostly been thrown out years ago. The two that remained looked as if they had been patched several times and were hence put on the left.

            In the end, the right wall only displayed an antique sideboard, the china cupboard, a quaint old rocking chair Brianna couldn’t bear to part with and a bookshelf.

            Bri was just returning to the now-empty living room when the doorbell rang. Frowning, she crossed the hall, opened the door and blinked at the person on the other side of the fly-screen.

            Shane Leroy ran his gaze over her ruffled appearance. When he met her eyes, he said, “Been doing some work, huh?”