Home (Finding My Home Book 1)

by Nikita Parmenter

  The next morning, I awake from another nightmare filled sleep, clamping down on the scream that tries to make its way out of my throat. It's still early but I’m not going to get back to sleep now, so I pull out my spare outfit and get changed in record time. Pulling on ripped black skinny jeans, a falling in reverse band tee and my red and black plaid shirt. I tug my bike boots back on, shooting looks at the bedroom door the entire time I’m changing. I really hate not having a lock on that door. Throwing my black hair up in a messy bun, I line my eyes with black kohl and call it good. I mess around in my room for a bit straightening things and exploring, before I hear Rob and Jenny moving around and figure it’s OK to venture out for coffee.

  Grabbing my helmet and bike jacket, I transfer one of my knives to the holster in my jeans and keep the other in my jacket. I know I shouldn’t take them to school, I know I’m safe and I know that this neighbourhood is nowhere near as dangerous as the one in Fresno, but I can’t bring myself to leave them behind and I no doubt have dangerous drug and gun dealers looking for me. Even though the likelihood of them finding me here is slim, it’s not a risk I’m willing to take.

  I learnt very quickly to always be armed and it's saved me more than once. It's another habit that’s going to be hard to break. I quietly pick my way back downstairs and towards the kitchen. My eyes widening as I see the spread Jenny's set out on the breakfast bar.

  “Morning sweetie, help yourself to the food, there’s plenty. What would you like to drink?”

  “Oh erm, thank you. Coffee, black please?” I ask, taking a seat and piling my plate high.

  She raises her eyebrow but thankfully doesn’t say no. I need my morning coffee. Jenny chats about random things over breakfast and I listen with half an ear whilst stuffing my face.

  She reminds me once again that the boys will be at school by lunch.

  “Are you going to be alright riding your bike to school?” she asks a bit apprehensive.

  I shrug.

  “I'll be fine. I rode it to school back home” I cringe at calling that shit hole home, before shrugging again, “besides, I’ve been riding since I was twelve. I’m probably safer than most.”

  Her eyes widen at my confession and I inwardly curse again. It’s so different out here, no one would’ve given two fucks if I’d said that back in Fresno. It was odder not to have been able to drive from that young. I can just imagine her face if I told her I’ve been racing bikes for that long too.

  I’m actually hoping to find somewhere around here to race, it’s my escape. When I’m racing everything fades into the background and I’m free. It’s just me, my bike and the speed. There’s no hunger, no bruises, no wandering hands, no drug deals, nothing. For however long the race is I’m fucking free and I crave that. I didn’t get to keep whatever winnings I made, they went straight to dear old dad, since the only races were run by him. I tune back into my surroundings as Jenny nods then leans forward and gives me a quick hug. She steps back as soon as I stiffen and smiles sadly at me.

  “Have a good day Ever, see you after school.”

  I offer her a tight smile before spinning, putting my helmet on and rushing out of the door, not wanting her to see how much her words have affected me. The last person to say something like that to me was my mom. A pang hits my heart and I breathe deeply as I swing my leg over my bike and nudge the kickstand away. I give a short wave to Jenny before starting my bike and pulling away. I remember at the last minute to stick to the speed limit. I have a feeling cops in this town are more concerned with speeding than back where I’m from. The cops back home had bigger things to worry about like murders and gang disputes so unless it’s affecting the public, they usually turned a blind eye. I don’t think that’ll be the case here.

  Jenny gave me directions to the high school this morning and I vaguely remember driving past it as a kid. Making it there in good time, several kids turn and stare as I pull into a space in the lot.

  I subtly glance around, realising there are no other bikes here and although not all the cars are fancy expensive brands, there are no second hand barely running dented old bangers either. Huh, I’m so not going to fit in here.

  Ignoring the stares, not really giving a shit either way what these kids think of me, I take off my helmet, hoping my locker will be big enough to store it. I don’t fancy lugging it around all day and I’m sure as shit not leaving it out here where anyone can mess with it, it’s bad enough I’ve gotta leave my bike out here. I’ve got trust issues; can you blame me?

  Straightening my shoulders and keeping my head held high, I walk towards the school.

  “Hey new girl, I’ve got something you can ride” a guy snickers from behind me.

  I glance over my shoulder giving the guy a once over, he’s got greasy dark hair mud brown eyes and obviously thinks he’s worth something at this school.

  “I don’t think you do” I scoff, “I think I'd be very disappointed” I smirk wiggling my little finger in his direction before giving him the one finger salute, spinning on my heel and walking towards the big double doors again, this time laughter follows me.

  Just before I step through the doors someone steps up beside me. I give her a cursory glance. She’s about an inch taller than my own five-foot three frame and dressed in a similar style to me but her clothes are in much better condition. She’s got blonde hair cut into an edgy pixie cut, several piercings in her ears and bright blue eyes.

  “That was fucking brilliant, Ralph thinks he runs the fucking school when the football team are away, just because he rides the bench as a wide receiver. He’s never even played a game” she chuckles. “I’m Riley” she grins, and I feel myself responding. I can already tell she’s good people.

  “Ever, and thanks” I chuckle.

  “Nice to meet you, office is this way” she points towards a door off to the side.

  I smile my appreciation as she follows me through the door.

  “Hey Miss Mullins, got a new student for you.”

  Miss Mullins is a young Librarian looking type, in a starched white blouse and pink cardigan. She smiles warmly at me.

  “Everleigh Thomas” I say using the name the officer at the station told me to use.

  It’s strange using a different last name, but I love it because it separates me that much more from my asshole father. It did occur to me that I should probably remember the other kids from when I was younger but honestly, I can only remember the guys, and no one is likely to recognise me either.

  She nods and sorts through some papers on her pristine desk. She hands me my schedule, which I get a quick glance at before Riley snatches it out of my hands and looks it over making me chuckle.

  “Your locker number is at the top of your schedule” Miss Mullins says, shooting Riley a disapproving look, which Riley ignores before grabbing my hand and dragging me back through the office door.

  The quick movement automatically makes me flinch although my reaction is not as severe as it would be if she was male and I quickly relax letting her drag me out of the room and chuckling. I know she felt me flinch but instead of making a big deal out of it, she just squeezes my hand gently and shoots me a soft smile. It's then that I realise that she gets it, she understands. I return her smile and she changes the subject.

  “You’re in three out of five classes with me, which is fucking awesome and we have the same lunch period.”

  “Sounds good, do you think I might be able to get a look at my schedule now?” I ask grinning as she blushes and hands it over.

  “Whoops” she says shrugging.

  I loop my arm through hers and follow as she leads me to our first class. Which as I glance at my schedule, I realise is home room and English lit combined.

  The rest of my classes are fairly standard and all what I was doing back in Fresno. Although gym seems to be compulsory for seniors here, it wouldn’t bother me accept my body is covered in loads of little scars and some not so little ones. It wasn’t a big deal back in Fr
esno the kids were used to me and no one gave a shit anyway, most of the kids were dealing with something similar themselves. Here though, I have a feeling it may be made a bigger deal of. I'll figure it out, change in a shower cubicle or some shit.

  We take our seats not too far back and I like that I have something else in common with Riley.

  "Too far back and you get called on more because you’re obviously trouble” I roll my eyes, “too far forward and you’re easily noticed but smack in the middle of the class and you’re practically invisible, right?” I ask Riley raising my eyebrow.

  “Damn straight, I knew it was a good idea talk to you earlier” she chuckles, and I join in ignoring the looks of everyone around me, I’m new, I get it. They’ll get bored of me soon enough.

  Out of the corner of my eye I spot a black-haired girl glaring straight at me, she’s unsurprisingly surrounded by similarly beautiful girls. She obviously has a problem with me, but I can’t believe I could’ve possibly pissed her off already. I’ve pegged them as the Queen bitches of the school but turn to Riley for confirmation. I tilt my head in their direction.

  “Queen Bitches?” I ask and she chuckles.

  “Nailed it, the one with black hair is the ring leader she thinks she dating the football captain but him and his close circle of friends, that are also on the team, don’t date. They fuck obviously but they never date” she shrugs.

  “Huh, so deluded Queen Bitch then?” I waggle my eyebrows at her and she chuckles again just as the teacher calls class to order.

  English lit goes OK, they're doing a book I’ve already read so that’s simple enough. It’s not long before the bell rings and I gather my stuff.

  “I need to run to my locker quickly and see if I can stow some of my shit” I say to Riley.

  “It’s near mine and down the same hall as our next class fortunately! Your helmet should fit, mine does” she says as she gathers her stuff.

  “You ride?” I ask intrigued it’d be nice to have someone to ride with.

  “Oh yeah, I’m not allowed to at the moment though. Got caught sneaking out two days in a row, so dad took my bike away. I get it back in two long ass weeks” she sighs, and I feel her pain.

  "That’s fucking shit Ry” I sympathise with her as we reach my locker, I quickly put my stuff in the locker, my helmet only just fitting.

  "So, what’s our next class then?" I ask, "since you know my schedule so well and I barely got to look at it" I smirk at her and she grins.

  "Maths, lunch, history and then fucking gym!" She replies shuddering.

  "I'm glad it's not just me that shudders at the thought of gym class" I grimace as I follow her to our maths class and we take our seats in the middle like before. Just as I go to sit down, I notice out the corner of my eye something coming at me fast. I bring my hand up to catch it just before it hits me in the side of the head and turn raising my eyes at the dark-haired queen bitch.

  "I think this is yours?" I say sweetly glancing down at the paper wrapped tennis ball, "here, have it back."

  Using the throw Trick taught me when we were younger, I launch it back at her, hitting her smack in the chest and then casually sit down in my seat, ignoring all the stares now focused on me.

  "That was fucking awesome, she’s going to be out for blood now though" Riley smirks at me not in the least concerned.

  "Yeah well where I come from quick reflexes are essential for survival and fucking bring it" I smirk back. “I don’t know what the fuck I’ve done to make her hate me already anyway.”

  "I hear that sister" Riley replies with a knowing smile.

  Math was boring as fuck. I'm not surprised but still. Can't they do anything to make it more enjoyable? I gather up my things, stuffing them into my backpack, it was ridiculously difficult to leave all of my things at Rob and Jenny's this morning, but I knew I couldn't take them to school with me. I wait for Riley to finish her last math problem and by the time we're walking through the halls for lunch there’s only a few stragglers left still traversing the halls.

  "I want to drop this stuff off at my locker and pick up my gym stuff before lunch if that's good with you?" Riley asks.

  "Of course, I'm in no rush. I'm just going to get stared at in the cafeteria too!" I chuckle.

  "Good point" she grins.

  We make it to her locker in no time, probably helps that the halls are practically empty.

  "Think I might do the same and put my books in my locker, Ry" I say as walk a few lockers down and start stuffing my maths things in my locker.

  I'm just bending down to pick up my now empty backpack, when a large hand grips my shoulder.

  "Hey" a deep baritone voice says from behind me.

  Before the fucker can utter another word, my survival switch is flipped, and logic no longer plays a part in my actions. Quicker than most, I grab his arm and flip him over my shoulder. I position my knee on his sternum and my knives at his throat, even I'm not sure when they appeared. Glancing down at the threat, it becomes abundantly clear that I'm not in as much danger as my body thought I was. As soon as it clicks that I've just attacked some random guy in the hallway, at freaking school, I start to freak out all over again. Looking over his handsome features, because of course the guy I attacked would be smoking fucking hot, I ever so slowly stand back up, sheathing my knives and taking stock of the situation.

  My heart pounds as I realise, not attacker guy wasn't alone and standing in front of me looking equal parts, shocked, pissed and sad for some unknown reason, are five other giant, gorgeous guys. I glance down at the floor where not attacker guy still hasn't moved, to see that he’s grinning up at me dopily, a dark heat in his eye’s that makes my core clench.

  What the fuck.

  He strikes me as vaguely familiar, but I shake it off.

  "I'm so fucking sorry, I thought" thinking twice, I change my sentence, "it doesn't matter what I thought, fuck."

  They all glance around at each other, apart from not attacker guy who seems to just be staring at me in awe now.

  One of the guys still standing takes a step forward and I instantly take a step back and go down into fighting stance. He stops immediately and throws his hands up looking even more confused. He opens his mouth, but I interrupt him.

  "Look, I thought you were someone else. I'm sorry it won't happen again" I say again trying to diffuse the situation.

  "What the flying fuck are you guys thinking! Since when do you give a shit about new kids enough to introduce yourselves. If that's even what you were fucking trying to do!" Rylie comes storming through them and grabs my arm towing me in the opposite direction.

  "Thanks for getting me out of there" I say as we enter a deserted classroom, my head drops and my breath comes in gasps.

  Shit.

  I flinch as I feel Rylie’s hands touch my shoulders but relax when I realise it's her.

  "Deep breath Ever or you're going to have a full-blown panic attack, take it easy. I promise you; you are safe right now."

  "Thank you" I smile tiredly at Ry.

  "No problem. I've been there, I have a feeling you'd do the same for me."

  "Abso-fucking-lutely."

  "Lunch?" She grins at me.

  "You're not going to ask me what that was about?" I ask, genuinely curious.

  "You've been through some bad shit and its left shit behind that you still have to deal with on the daily. I figure you'll tell me when you're ready, just like I'll tell you when I am and if you never are, that's good too" she shrugs like it's no big deal and I just gape at her.

  I mean that’s always been my view, but I’ve never met someone who feels the same. People normally like to pry.

  "You are so mother fucking awesome Ry" I say sincerely.

  "Oh, I know. Aren’t you lucky?" She smirks.

  We make our way through the lunch line quickly. After my panic attack I'm absolutely starving but since I've got no money and forgot to bring anything from Jenny and Rob’s, I'm going to have to wait
. I do find a dollar and some change in my bag though and manage to grab a coffee. Once we find a seat I glance around, there's the normal curious looks I've been getting all day but no more than usual, so I'm assuming those guys haven’t told everyone about my crazy ass, yet.

  "You think those guys will cause me trouble?"

  "Normally I'd answer that with the usual, well they rule the school, no one ever messes with them and you did somehow manage to flip one of the star football players over your head like it was nothing" she pauses as I let my head smack onto the lunch table.

  Of course I'd piss off the stars of the fucking school. Dickhead. Rylie smirks at my theatrics.

  "As I was saying, miss drama queen, normally I'd be saying something along those lines but none of them looked particularly pissed. They looked more curious than anything" she shrugs.

  "That's even worse" I groan. "I don’t need to be on some jocks radar!" I groan.

  She chuckles and shrugs before nodding over my shoulder, I glance back and see all six of them looking at me with expressions varying from confusion, awe, frustration to sadness and even fear. It’s those last two that I just really don't fucking understand.

  “There used to be seven of them, dude was a scary motherfucker, he transferred in at the beginning of freshman year and within the week he was as close to the guys as brothers. Some shit went down over the summer last year and he just up and disappeared, no one ever knew much about him. He only ever spent time with the guys and everyone else was too damn terrified to try to get to know him, but we all thought his parents moved him due to what went down with Tomlinson high” she shrugs.

  This school just got a whole lot less boring, I’m tempted to ask what went down but I’m distracted by the guys at the table again. As I watch them, the one with light, sun streaked, blond hair that curls in gentle waves around his forehead and ears, emphasising his grey eyes, smirks at me. The expression seems so familiar that I find myself tilting my head to one side and scrunching my brow, trying to figure out why that expression is so fucking familiar. I've nearly grasped at the link when queen bitch plops herself down on his lap. She smirks at me, missing the briefest look of frustration and if I’m not mistaken disgust, that crosses blondies face.