By: Karianne Nicole Gabaldon

PROLOGUE: Suffering In Silence

The banner waved high the day Lavender Jaie Dresden lost her war. The banner was beautiful; but nothing could compare to Lavender’s beauty and grace. Her long, curly platinum hair with thick bangs, her beautiful emerald eyes, her porcelain, chiseled face, so perfect and flawless. Not a scar or pimple on it to be seen. Also those long, beautiful eyelashes. Any man would be lucky to have her. And he was. He was grateful for everyday he got to live by her side. The man’s name is Elliot Ryder James. Oh, that man is me. Lavender was my everything; my queen; my fiancé. We were scheduled to get married in September, and she passed on Independence Day. She lived to be 27; a short life, but she was miserable. And nobody could help her. Not me, not her family, not her friends… she suffered severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it put her in very dangerous and harmful situations. She had self mutilated, hurt her body by purposely not eating or doing other horrible things to help her gain “self control”, she had tried suicide many times. But on the night of July 4th, 2020, she had succeeded. If you’d like to stick around to hear her story, please, I’m not stopping you. If not, I do understand. Time is precious in this world we live in. I should know.

“Could you please read that paragraph again?”

I sigh. “In conclusion, my summer wasn’t the best; a boy, which I will not speak of his name, covered my mailbox with a few of his sweaty, dirty jockstraps. Yeah, my mom really appreciated it, you-know-who-you-are! And at my slumber party, a girl whom I thought was my best friend, slipped tar in my shampoo bottle. Thanks for that. I’m going to be honest I’m wearing a wig. What else is there to be embarrassed by? And lastly, a really cute guy asked me out just to ditch me and record me making out with my pillow. Happy, teach?”

“Very. See, your problem is you’re too immature. Stop being a damn prude and people will stop picking on you!” She said as the class was still laughing at my back to school presentation.

This was the most awful and regretful thing she could ever say to me. Pay close attention to this story and you’ll see why….

PROLOGUE: Amethyst Is…

Hi, my name is Amethyst Rheda. As you have probably figured out, I am an unwanted human being. I’m constantly being made fun of for the stupidest things-but the main thing is, my personality. I’m not like everyone else. And everyone is a afraid of me because I am different. I might’ve also told them a giant lie when I first changed schools when I moved towns, only to get popular, which didn’t make me popular anyway. I told people I wasn’t a virgin. I’ve never even kissed a boy before, or a girl for that matter.

After I spread the rumor about not being pure, it’s like my flower just wilted by itself. I became more hungry for sex and more envious at the popular sluts who always got some. And to make it worse they just had to brag about it the next day at school by my locker. I was at least fortunate to get to be centered in Jock Hall. So I got all the juicy gossip from the popular kids, well not towards me, personally, but around me. What is Jock Hall you ask?

Jock hall is one of the many halls of my high school, Mingus Union High School, located in a small town known as Cottonwood, Arizona. Mingus is a great school, cottonwood, not much of a great town. Anyway, there are many halls in this giant, two-story campus. Us students named them. You see, the hall naming is legendary; and for those who rename our halls, you’re gonna get it!

Some clever names we have are Jock Hall, Hick Hall, Magic Hall, etc. but the most important is Jock Hall, because the glorious cheerleaders reside their lockers there. They’re so glamorous, and their outfits too-showing red, grey, and black-because our school pride colors are red and grey. I want to cheer so badly. I would feel so much more confident in a skimpy cheerleading uniform than these tight ass rocker jeans I wear everyday. Nothing against the jeans, I love expressing my Emo side, but I’m so tired of slitting my wrists to Hawthorne Heights! Even though Ohio Is For Lovers is my favorite song and should have been on top charts on Summer of ‘06. But it wasn’t. Oh. Yeah, I graduated valedictorian in the eighth grade in 2006. I am a Freshman at Mingus. The seniors, or this year-The Snuffs, get to pick an awesome name and color for the freshmen. Unluckily, class of 2010 got Avocados and a green color. Even our class spirit song is cheesy:

“Hola! Qué Pasa? Avocados in the Casa! Hola! Qué Pasa? Class ‘10 is in the Casa!

So I have to live with that. But at least our school fight song isn’t bad. I truly do not want to go through anymore detail, but I will say that we are Marauders! Go! Fight! Win! See? I could be a cheerleader…

CHAPTER ONE: Rockleader!

I entered my first hour, which was Language Arts and I was so lost. My teacher, Mrs. Hutchins, came in and gave us our assigned seats. Honestly I’m surprised I made it to my first class without being late. Of course I did have plenty of time to study the campus and find my four classes before the bell rang, my mother dropped me off about an hour early, literally nobody was there but me for the first fifteen minutes. It was the first hour and I was already the class clown. People already started to appreciate me, but for my jokes. Not for my smarts. I think if the first day was a final exam, I would have failed miserably and had to repeat the day. Second hour, Algebra I, was even worse. Mrs. Mahendran took shit from nobody. Good for her, bad for me. See, I’m the kind of student that, we’ll, frankly I’m a suck up. Big time. And my last two periods were a headache as well. High school was definitely not easy. But at least we didn’t do much schoolwork on our first day. And the day before was Freshman Day and I saw the cheerleaders… and… we did our spirit song…. and… and… those girls looked so adorable up on stage! I must become a cheerleader. It is my mission. Only-I’d be a rockleader! I’d lead cheers, but also rock! I love me some emo!