CHAPTER ONE

“Five more minutes…” I said. 

“ADAM! YOU ARE LATE FOR SCHOOL!” my mom yelled in anger and disappointment.

I looked at my alarm clock. What time is it?, I thought. *click, Buzz* 

8:32. 

“8:32!? Fudge” I say. Only that it’s not what I say, if you know what I mean. “Shoot, I am so late!” 

I ran out of the house with my shoes barely on. 

“You can’t be late again,” the principal told me with a dry voice with absolutely no emotion at all. I was sitting in her office. An office that I knew very well. Too well. “This is your 29th time this year.” she added. 

“Well we only have one month left, and we barely learn anything anyway, so why does it matter?” 

Our principal was old. Very old. And no one in the whole school dared to talk to her like that. But I just did. 

“Oh my god, I am so sorry!” I said. I was shocked at what I just said to her. How did this happen?

“It just came out of my mouth I swear! I didn’t mean to-” I stop, staring at the floor nervously. What's the point?, I thought. 

The principal's wrinkled face was turning red. From pale to red. Very fast. Her expression became angrier and angrier from second to second, and every second I wanted to disappear more and more.

CHAPTER TWO

Here I am, in detention. It’s 2:48, so I've only been here for about 15 minutes. Feels like 15 years.   

Ms. Bolgar, the detention supervisor, looked at the clock, sighed, and went back to sleep. 

Then, it happened. She entered the room. Who entered the room you might be asking? Her name is Amery Sloane, she has smooth, black hair, a beautiful oval shaped face, two beautiful sky blue eyes, and a slightly sad face.

Today, I noticed that she had a bleeding cut through her brow and a bruise under her left eye. “Hi,” she said nervously.

“Hello,” I replied. Some people have trouble talking to girls. I don’t even if I am in love with them. And here I was. Fully in love. “What happened?” I asked.

“Just some bullies.” she said. 

“They're sitting over there.” she pointed.

It was fine until one of them turned to us, grinning in evil.  “What are you doing pointing to us beautiful?” one of them said. “Do you want some more?”

The next day, when I got to school (on time thankfully), I wanted to help Amerey. I asked her how I could help, and she told me not to worry about it. I insisted, but she said not to help her. I wanted to help anyway, but I just felt like I should let her be.

  A lot of people tell me I'm not organized. I used to be very organized. 

It all changed at the start of the school year, when I met Amery.

Well no, it didn't start then. It started when I fell in love with her.

CHAPTER THREE

The next morning, I woke up early. The moon was still a cold, pale coin pressed against the bedroom window, and a deep, weird quiet had settled over the house. My toothbrush felt shaky in my hand. I stared at my face in the mirror, watching the ghost of my sleep-deprived eyes stare back. I was going to be on time. Finally.

It was a good morning. The bus pulled away as I walked around the corner, but I didn’t care. The walk was better, the cold air sharp and clean. I checked my phone. 7:30. A full half hour until the first bell. I put the phone away, a small, triumphant smile playing on my lips. Then, I saw her.

  The principal was standing just inside the school gates, a shadow in the morning haze. Her hands were clasped behind her back, her posture rigid and still. She didn't wave. She didn't move. She just watched me approach, a dark statue against the gray sky.

My feet slowed. The air grew heavy, like a dense fog. The silence felt wrong. It wasn't the quiet of an early morning, but a complete absence of sound, as if the world itself were holding its breath. Every step I took was a heartbeat against the asphalt. Thump. Thump. Thump.

When I finally reached the gates, her gaze met mine. Her eyes, normally a watery blue, seemed impossibly dark. It was then that the first bell rang, a shrill, mocking peal that fractured the silence and made me jump. My phone was still tucked away. I didn’t need to look. I already knew.

“8:07,” she said, his voice a low rumble. "You're late."

I could feel the blood draining from my face. It was impossible. The numbers were wrong. They had to be.

"But... how?" I stammered. "It was 7:30 just a few minutes ago. I swear."

She said nothing, only raised a single, bony finger. "30th time," she stated flatly. The words hung in the air, heavy and final.

All the color, all the sound, all the triumph drained out of the day. A cold dread seeped into my bones, a knowledge of an inevitable punishment that was already in motion. The world felt like a trap, and I was caught inside a ticking clock that only moved forward, no matter how hard I tried to stop it.

***NEW!!!***

CHAPTER FOUR

 I walked home in a daze. The world was a blur, a collection of shattered images. The front door opened with a familiar groan, and there she was. 

My mother stood in the kitchen, not yelling, not disappointed, but with a strange, blank look of resignation. She held up a piece of paper. Not waved it, not showed it, but simply held it, as if it were a talisman of an already-known consequence.

"Your principal called," she said, her voice hollow. "Today was your 30th time being late."

My own words from earlier echoed in my head, a whisper of a lie that had already become a truth. Just as I thought...

She continued, "School policy." She didn't have to read it. She already knew it by heart. "If a 10th grader is late to school more than 30 times in one year…" the paper begins to tremble slightly in her hand, "...he will have to repeat the 10th grade."

CHAPTER FIVE

Her words weren't a warning. They were sentences. But the most chilling part was that neither of us seemed surprised at all.

Next month, I would have to start 10th grade all over again. I would be the only 16 year old in a class of unfamiliar, younger faces, marked by the whispers that followed me. Being held back felt less like a punishment and more like a constant reminder of the chaos I'd been part of.

But when I stepped into the classroom on the first day, my eyes landed on a figure that made my blood run cold. It wasn't just a familiar face, it was the last person I expected, or wanted, to see. Amery.

"Amery!" I blurted out, the name escaping before I could stop it. A wave of the past year's tension washed over me.

CHAPTER SIX

She turned, her eyes widening slightly before she composed herself. "Hi," she replied, her voice carefully neutral.

A risky idea formed. "I was wondering if you would want to hang out after school," I asked, the words feeling heavy with unspoken history.

To my surprise, a faint smile touched her lips. "I think I'd like that," she said.

Needless to say, we started spending time together, cautiously at first. It turned out that the complicated events of the previous year had left their mark on both of us in unexpected ways. Our connection, born from shared turmoil, was intense and fraught with the potential for everything to unravel if our past caught up with us. The boring repetition of 10th grade was quickly replaced by a different kind of challenge, one where every interaction felt charged with the weight of our secret history.

EPILOGUE

“Five more minutes…” I said.

“Adam! Time for school!” my mom said calmly.

 I looked at my alarm clock “what time is it?”  

*Buzz* 

“6:34”

“Oh,” I say. “I’m fine. Coming!” I tell my mom through the stairs.

“Hi!” Amery told me when we got to school.

"I missed you,” I replied in a playful voice. We hugged.

In the cold evening, Amery and I sat on a bridge above a waterfall, and kissed. If only we saw the group of people creeping up behind us. If only we felt their breath behind our back.

- To be Continued -