Second Chance

Chapter One
I’ve led a pretty crappy life. Keeping up to date with everything in my life and my whole story could fill an entire book! But, then again, that’s what this is for I guess. Perhaps I should explain. Hello, my name is Peter West and I should probably start from the beginning before we get into my crazy life. 
When I was young, perhaps about seven, life seemed perfect for me.  I had an amazing best friend named Jack Miller. We had been best friends since, well, as far as I can remember, diapers. We did everything together and were rarely seen apart. Especially since we were next-door neighbors. 
I also had a great family. My dad worked for some succesful company doing who knows what while my mom stayed home with me. She was one of my best stay home companions and always had the sweetest smile with her dirty-blonde hair and bright blue eyes. My dad was much calmer than my mother, but he needed to stay at work most of the time. On the weekends though, when he wasn’t at work, he was being an absolute goofball. And my little sister, she was the sweetest little five-year-old I knew. Her name was Charlotte but everyone just called her Charlie. She had our father’s dark brown hair and his dark eyes but she had our mother’s smile. Even if she doesn’t have legs she can move faster in her wheelchair than I can run. 
Everything was great for me until some tension broke out between my parents. I don’t remember what it was, but it caused them to split up when I was ten years old. My dad moved to another country while my mom stayed with me here in Washington state.
We moved from our big house to a squished apartment complex called LiveFields. Soon, I was in middle school and Jack and I soon grew distant. Jack was the one who would always stand up for me against this big group of bullies who always made fun of my eyes. But, Jack gravitated towards them and turned on me. He would call me names, graffiti my locker, send me hate-filled notes, and constantly push me into fighting him. And each, and every time, he wins. 
Oh wait, am I going a bit too fast? Wait, what do I look like? I’m not sure you want to know. All right, fine, if you’re going to be so whiny about it. I had sandy blonde hair, a skinny frame, and one blue and one brown eye. Jack though, had dark blue eyes with ruffled e-boy styled dark brown hair with a muscular frame. 
One night, in sixth grade, mom was driving me out somewhere. I can’t remember. All I remember was arguing with her while on a dark winding road at night. She was fully facing me to fight with me when something bright flashed in our eyes. Another car. We had no time to react before the two cars collided. For me, everything went black. When I woke up, I was in a hospital with Charlie sitting beside me. Her eyes were bloodshot and her nose was stuffy. She cried out to a doctor when she saw me open my eyes. The doctor told me that I had two broken ribs, a sprained wrist and I had come in with a black eye and bloody nose. Other than that, nothing that a few bandages, casts, and time won’t heal. 
I was relieved. But only for a second. I stopped and turned around. I didn’t see her anywhere. “Where’s my mom?” I asked, my voice hoarse and shaking. 
The doctor shook his head and looked away. He couldn’t look me in the eye. “Peter, your mother died during the car crash. Her chest slammed into the wheel which caused her ribs to fracture inwards piercing her heart. She was barely breathing by the time she arrived.”
“No…” I mutter. Mom was the only one who took care of us. Our grandparents were dead and we had no cousins, uncles, or aunts. Dad had cut off connection with us years ago. We only had two choices, foster care or an orphanage. 
“Don’t worry Peter, we’ve arranged a funeral and you and your sister will be staying at an orphanage until someone adopts you.” 
I look at Charlie. They must have gone back to our house in order for her to be with us. Probably so that we would be together when they broke the news. I can feel my eyes burning. If I hadn't been arguing with Mom, maybe she would have lived.  
I wipe away my tears before turning back to Charlie. She's all that I have left. I will not let anything come to harm her. That included me.  
Chapter Two
 Fast forward a few years I'm in my senior year of high school. All alone. I still live at that dreadful orphanage despite the nuns who work there telling me that someone will eventually come. But I'm not sure how many people are willing to adopt two high school kids.  
It might have been better if we just lived by ourselves, but they wouldn't allow it. Besides, how would we get the money? But the problem is, the other orphans there are just as bitter as us. The only difference is how they channel that frustration. I'm not sure how Charlie does it, but I've just been doing a lot of puzzles and problems.  
The other kids though, they channel it out onto me. They first tried to get me through Charlie and eventually I had to shut her out in order for them to leave her alone. I pretend that I don't care so that no one comes after her because of me. I often feel bad about it, but I would feel worse if she was bullied just because she was my sister and I cared about her.  
In case your wondering, Jack is still bullying me along with his little gang. Perhaps I should introduce you to them. There are about five of them in the group. Jack is obviously there and he's sort of the leader. Next in line to his power is Mark Rahmer. Mark has the palest blonde hair of anyone that I've ever seen. He also has cold pale blue eyes that are so pale you can clearly see his pupils which are always dilated. Then there's William. William's pretty new to the group but he's proven himself useful. He's this huge big black guy with muscles like Chris Hemsworth. He's 7 foot 3 and never smiles. Even so, he's ironically the nicest one of the gang. Everyone just calls him William since nobody knows his last name. Fortunately, there are no other Williams or even Wills in this school so no one mixes him up. There's also Adam Wheeler, who is notably the most handsome guy in school. He has these gray-blue eyes with dark dirty blonde hair. He's also caucasian but has a pretty nice tan. His hair is styled so that it's somewhat long but swept to one side like an overgrown mohawk. He's probably never had acne in his life and has never heard of a bad hair day. Finally, we have Fin Stone. Fin is the smallest kid in the group and no one knows how he actually got into the group. Even so, he likes to act like he's better than everyone else. He's got red hair so dark that it nearly looks purple in the light with some intense green eyes. Freckles artistically dot his face from cheek to cheek crossing the bridge of his nose.  
All of them apart from William, are players. They love to tease girls and are often seen with more than one girl/girlfriend by their side. Nearly every girl in this school goes head over heels for each and every one of them, even Charlie. The one girl who never seems impressed by their popularity is my crush.  
Her name is Katie Smith. She has the prettiest smile with shiny golden hair. She has big dark brown eyes that in the light, seem to have golden flecks in them. She always has a book in her hand and never lets her hair down. She always wears the same dark blue tattered jacket to school even if it's 90 degrees outside. She's smart, funny, witty, and pretty too.  
I've had a crush on her since the 6th grade! But, how could she ever pay attention to me? I'm the kid in the background. The kid who only has one kind of friend, Roger Jones. Roger Jones is the textbook definition of a nerd. He has square classes that are taped together after that time Adam Wheeler punched him in the face. He has freckles dotting nearly everywhere on his entire body with dark dramatic eyes and curly brown hair. He's not athletic in the slightest so he has this skinny skeletal frame where the smallest shirts will hang over him like a banner. He has this gap in his two front teeth that never got fixed even now when he's wearing braces. Almost every day he has some new acne blending in with his forest of freckles. Oh, and he's also got an intense crush on my sister. It's a bit awkward when he starts asking questions about her, but he's a nice guy, a guy that Charlie definitely deserves. So I honestly answer every single one of his questions about her.  
"What's her smile like?"  
"Sort of subtle, but it's definitely real. You can just tell."  
"What does she do when she gets bored?"  
"She always scribbles on her sleeves, most notably stars."  
"What did you think of the time she got those red streaks in her hair?"  
"It was pretty cool."  
"What's something that makes you wonder about her?"  
"How she dances randomly during the day. She almost acts like she's alone even if she's not."  
"Something interesting that you notice."  
"You know those magazines for teens? Well, she still answers those weird personality and future telling quizzes."  
On and on, she was his favorite topic and I would try to answer all of them as best as I could.  
Roger is absolutely head over heels for Charlie and the only other thing that he loves nearly as much as Charlie was computers. He once hacked the school grading system which the teachers went nuts over. He eventually fixed it but he was so good that no one ever knew it was him. I only knew about it because he told me.  
When we were both at school, we were always next to each other. Since we had nearly identical schedules (which he created) it wasn't too hard. The only problem was that Roger had the weakest immune system known to mankind. Someone could sneeze from across the gym and the next day he was stuck at home with the flu.  
This meant that he would sometimes leave me to fend for myself against Jack and his gang. I know that he never means to leave me alone, but it sucks.  
Great! Now that everyone's caught up, I think I'll start with when my life turned upside down. Jack had goaded me into fighting him again. Only this time, it was behind the cafeteria. He was knocking me over, blow after blow until eventually I finally managed to dodge one sending him hurtling over me and into the cafeteria.  
Immediately, I made a run for it. I lunged into the cafeteria trying to get away when William suddenly pinned me to a table. I yelled out in pain as he twisted my arm behind my back.  
I could hear the others running to catch up before I felt William's grip go slack. I looked up and saw Mrs. Little standing in front of me. Despite her name, Mrs. Little was the largest, scariest, strictest teacher in the whole school. She was also the only one who scared Jack and his entire gang, even William. She was the only one who believed anything bad about Jack or his friends and was the only one who would ever catch them. The woman has superpowers I tell you.  
She is my absolute savior as she hauls my weak and bruised body off of the floor. She gives a piercing stare with her sharp hazel eyes through her glasses and the other boys immediately fall into line, their heads bowing in shame.  
"Well, what do you boys have to say for yourselves?" she hissed.  
No one said anything until some random kid from the crowd that had surrounded us with anyone's noticing shouted, "Jack was beating up Peter again!" Jack growled and glared in the direction of the poor soul who whimpered in response.  
Category:Original Stories (Unfinished)