C1 Chapter 1

W I L L O W

"Willow are you done?" my mom yelled from downstairs making me jump a little

"Yes, mom! I'm coming down in a few" I yelled back while taking down my last posters.

I took my bags and took a last look at my room, at my childhood.

The room was empty and it felt weird to leave my whole life behind and I was scared of leaving everything behind.

I looked at the wall beside the door and saw all the markings my mom had done of my height since I was 5 and a smile made its way onto my face.

I took a last glance and made my way downstairs taking in everything of the house just in case I forgot how it looked.

"Finally! You're here" my mom told me smiling like a kid.

At least one of us is happy about this whole moving thing.

We started walking out of the house and packed all of our things into our car and I got into the car.

While mom started the car I looked out of the window and saw my childhood slowly disappearing. I clenched the picture of my dad between my hands and tried to hold the tears back.

It's gonna be okay. Everything's fine Willow.

"Oh, come on Willow you know this is for the best," my mom said giving my shoulder a small push.

"I know mom," I told her giving her a fake smile.

I didn't want to make things difficult for her too.

Well let me introduce myself:

I'm Willow Edwards I'm seventeen and I'm what you would call a troublemaker. When I was 7 I threw a tomato at my classmates dress because she wouldn't stop talking about her ugly doll and I guess that's how my troublemaker "career" started.

I never got to meet my dad because he was a builder in a building company and apparently, what my mom told me that happened was that he was in an accident while working and died from his severe injuries.

I've never been in love and I've never had a boyfriend which I don't plan to have because guys are just a no.

And right now my whole life is taking a big turn.

After living my whole life in a small town called Springdale I'm forced to move to Colorado with my mom to live with her best friend and her family because she wanted me to have a better education.

And I'm thankful that my mom is thinking about my future but what about my past?

How can I leave my whole life to start a new one with no one to lead me. I was born into this small life and now I'm going to start a big one by myself.

I have a bad feeling but I have to do this for mom. For us.

S A R G E N T

*Flashback*

"Sargent, you bastard! come downstairs right this minute,"

Sargent had done something as always and, he was ready to go downstairs and take responsibility for his actions. He was, used to this, but his parents were tired of his reckless behavior.

Ever since his brother had passed away, nothing had ever been the same for him and his parents.

"Calm down, I'm here," Sargent said when he finally came downstairs.

He had his usual dark-colored clothes on and, his eyes were red from the drugs he had been taking. He felt numb and, it felt like the world was spinning, but he loved it.

His dad started to take his belt off slowly, motioning for Sargent to come closer.

That was Sargent's reality. His own hellhole, made for him.

You could hear his dad muttering words to himself, spitting out his hatred for his son.

"Take this, you bastard,"

"It's all your fault,"

"You should've died instead of him,"

"Die,"

"Die"

"Die"

Sargent finally started to feel some of the pain, but he still didn't react to it. He let his dad torture him like this almost every day, not because his dad was right, just because Sargent blamed himself as his dad did.

It should've been Sargent, not his brother, not Blaine. Just Sargent.

"Oh my god!" you could hear Sophie, Sargent's mom scream through the whole house.

"Let go of him!" she tried to drag Peter, Sargents dad, away from Sargent.

"Are you out of your mind! How can you do this to our son!" his mother was full-on crying now. She couldn't believe what her husband was doing to their son.

Sophie had not once seen her husband look so vengeful. Sargent's mom didn't have any idea of what was going on in the house while she was gone for work, and Sargent didn't want to tell his mom and make her sadder either.

"I had to do it, Sophie! He's the reason our son is dead," his dad yelled at her trying to get away from her grip to take his anger out on Sargent, who was now unconscious on the floor.

"Peter! He didn't kill Blaine,"

"But-"

"No! Stop this! Blaine died in an accident and, Sargent had nothing to do with it!"

Sophie felt like she was in a nightmare, Peter needed help, and she knew it, but her thoughts were spinning in her head.

Poor Sargent had been taking the beating for something he hadn't done for years, and it came to the point where he believed his dad's words.

Maybe he killed Blaine.

That night Sargent's mom had been up all night cleaning his wounds, crying while she looked at the old scars.

When the morning came, Sargent woke up to his mother's scream that echoed through the whole house.

Sargent's dad had taken his own life.

There was blood everywhere, and Sargent didn't know what was happening.

Fourteen-year-old Sargent was confused because he didn't want to understand what was happening. He just wanted to forget the memory of his dad lying on the bathroom floor with blood dripping down his wrists.

And Sargent did what he always did. He blamed himself, just like his dad.

If he didn't kill Blaine, maybe his dad would be alive, and his mother wouldn't have gone through all this misery.

W I L L O W

After a few hours of driving around at Colorado trying to find the address to my mom's friends house, we finally arrived. We had been in that damn car for 7 hours, and my back was screaming for help. I hope I'll be able to walk after this.

Agnes: My mom's friend's house was massive. She and her husband got this house as a gift from her parents when her son Neo was born. He is a little, chubby boy with blue eyes and almost no hair. Agnes was the principal of Hills High. The most popular school in Colorado and she told my mom that I could start school tomorrow.

Great.

We ate dinner, and later Agnes showed me the room I was going to have, and I started unpacking. The room was big, and the walls were white, and it had massive windows going from the floor up to the roof. I immediately started hanging up my posters, so it felt like home and went to bed with a smile on my face.

This could be a good start for mom and me.

****

I was late.

Yup, the first day of school and I was late, what a great first impression to make.

I started running to school with my phone in one hand since I put the address on google maps.

I was going to take the bus, but it was so packed, I had to run.

By the time I reached school, I was, drenched in sweat, and my hair was a mess.

Just what I needed.

After 15 minutes of running, I was at school, and my lungs were burning as I tried to steady my breathing.

I was trying to find Agnes's office, but I soon found myself wandering in the sports hall. I also heard some muffling, and sounds of someone crying in pain and groaning was echoing behind the door.

I looked at the small door, the noises were coming from, and when I slowly opened the door, the scene ahead of me left me speechless.

And that's how my life turned upside down.

I was screwed.

W I L L O W

There is always that one moment in life when you get this feeling that this might be the end. And you start to picture every moment of your life.

This was my moment.

"What are you doing here," asked the voice angrily

I looked up at the owner of the voice and my heart started beating faster.

In front of me stood four boys but the one sticking out was the guy with jet black hair and sky blue eyes, he gave me the "I'm trouble" vibe and I immediately knew he was not gonna let me go.

They were all mercilessly kicking and punching a guy who was laying on the floor. Trying to cover his face but failing since his hands were tied behind his back.

"What are you doing! He'll die!" I heard myself scream and for a minute they stopped but continued kicking him even harder and there was blood everywhere. The guy was coughing up blood now and the scene in front of me made me want to throw up.

The guy with the Jet black hair was walking up to me and I looked at him with wide eyes. It felt like I was drowning in his eyes. When he was inches from my face he held up a lighter and lit it, holding it close to my face.

"Stop" he said to the guys who stopped torturing the guy who looked relieved but it also looked like he was dying. He was coughing up blood so bad and while all this happened I was still having this mini staring battle with the jet black haired guy while the light was still lit.

He put the lighter in his pocket without breaking eye contact with me and put his lips near my ear making me nervous.

"Next time you will be the one laying down in your own puddle of blood if I see you putting your nose into my business ," he said with a smile that didn't reach up to his eyes.

"What the fuck? Who do you think you're?" I heard myself say and I was shocked that I even talked back. Stupid me.

"I own this school dumbass, I own everything here and I own you too so I suggest you watch your tone while speaking to me" he answered before getting out the door.

While all this was happening she hadn't even realized that the other 3 guys had left.

And on top of everything she was really late this time.

Great.

S A R G E N T

Hit.

I had to win the race.

Hit.

I wanted to crush that fucker Ryan in half and I wanted to see his broken face when he saw me win.

Hit.

"If you want to win so bad I suggest you stop hitting the bag so hard before you break something" I heard someone say from behind me.

I turned around to come face to face with my best friend Cody. Cody has been like a brother to me since forever, even before Blaine.

"Damn, you back so soon from LA? How was it, any hot girls?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Nah man I don't think I'm ever going to find someone" he replied with a smile giving me my water bottle.

"Oh fuck off, let's get out of here so we can have some real fun"

***

W I L L O W

I was standing outside of the school building waiting for my mom to pick me up since we'd already gotten so much homework and I thought it was a good idea to sit at the school library and study.

But now that I'm standing here, outside alone in the dark it doesn't feel like it was the right choice.

And on top of me being alone, I hadn't realized the group of guys who just got out of the school building and was behind me.

Why me. Why me. Why me.

As they got closer I heard their voice clearer and they were talking about some stupid race.

And when I looked behind me to see who they were one of them was already looking at me, he had light brown hair, dark blue eyes and he had another school uniform on so he was clearly not from our school.

I turned around immediately not liking the weird gut feeling the guy gave me and started playing games on my phone.

But not even a few minutes after I heard footsteps behind me and when I looked up from my phone I looked right into a pair of dark blue eyes.

"Hey, are you waiting for someone?" the light brown-haired guy asked with a small smile.

"Yeah, I'm waiting for my mom" I answered with a smile too.

"I'm Ryan"

"I'm Willow" I introduced myself back while shaking his hand.

"Cute name" he replied with a smirk and it made me blush.

And when I was about to answer him I got a message.

Sorry, can't pick you up I'm stuck in traffic! Love you!

"Fucking hell" I whispered to myself but I guess Ryan heard me.

"What happened?" he asked with worry.

"My mom can't pick me up and now I have to walk home"

"You can catch a ride with me if you want," he offered and I couldn't say no.

"Sounds good," I said with a smile.

He told his friends that he was gonna take me home and they exchanged some words and we started walking towards his car, or so I thought.

...

"Are you gonna drive me home with this?" I looked at the motorcycle and then up to him with a shocked face.

"Yes, are you scared?" he asked with an amused look.

"No, I'm not" I hate lying.

"Get on it then princess," he said and put his extra helmet on me.

***

I screamed all the way home. I was a mess.

"I thought you weren't scared?" he asked with a chuckle and I got even redder if that was possible.

I got off the motorcycle and took off the helmet trying to stand on my own since I was so dizzy.

"I'm not scared, you were just driving too fast" I lied again.

"If you say so" he chuckled.

"Thank you for the ride, Ryan," I told him with a smile.

"No problem princess, it was really nice to meet you"

"Goodnight," I told him walking to the door.

"Goodnight, see you around Willow" he replied putting his helmet on waiting for me to get in the house.

When I closed the door I heard his motorcycle and smiled a little.

I hope I can see him again.

Oh, shut up Willow! You just met the guy and he gave you a ride home.