L E O N I E

"You know what, no! Fuck off. I've had enough. This isn't fair. You haven't been around for three months and then you show up, shouting and behaving like an asshole. Leave me the fuck alone."

The alarm clock on the bedside table had little response to the outburst. In fact, all I got back was the repeated obnoxious blaring while the numbers flashed on the digital face.

Seven.

Seven was the most hideous number that I had ever seen. Instead of turning it off like a rational human being, I twisted in bed so that my feet were at the head and kicked out so hard that the clock flew off the side table and hit the wall on the other side of the room. The face shattered, leaving plastic shards on the light grey carpet beside the ensuite door.

"Oh," I shrugged with my head hanging over the side of the bed so that the room was upside down. "Who still uses digital clocks anyway? That's what phones are for. Right, Dad?"

I rolled over and glanced at the framed photo, also on the bedside table. Dad - Hank - was such a handsome dude. Mom took the photo of him. His plaid shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows while he smiled at the camera with a newborn lamb in his arms. He and Mom used to live on a farm. They married young and I was born when she was nineteen. But I wasn't even one when Dad died in a four wheeler accident. He'd been herding cattle when one went to close to a cliff face. He drove towards it but his wheel hit a rock that was concealed with tall glass. It flipped the four wheeler and he went over the cliff edge.

Mom couldn't manage the farm alone and even though his parent's offered to help, Mom couldn't stand the thought of remaining in the home that both of them had shared. So she packed up and moved into the city where she reinvented herself. She went into law school when I was three. She worked harder than ever and with the help of her Mom - Gran - who took care of me as often as she could, she was able to graduate and go on to become the most boss lawyer in her firm. She did a lot of travel now. Helping firms and cases all over Florida.

"Leonie," Mom's voice and a loud thud on the door came from the corridor. "Get up. School."

"Another reason that I don't need an alarm clock," I sighed, picking up the frame and giving it a kiss. Talking to Dad was how I kept him alive. He couldn't answer me. But sometimes that was for the best. I talked some shit most of the time. "Mom's a fucking fog horn."

"Heard that."

"And an elephant. Big ears," I whispered, standing and staring at the bed in contemplation. It wouldn't be hard to lift the comforter and lay it out so that it didn't look as if I'd had a fit in the middle of the night. But the effort seemed too great. So I crossed the plush carpeted floor and opened the ensuite door.

My bathroom was never out of order. I kept it clean and organised because I hated the feeling of using a gross bathroom. The glass shower doors were stain free, the black tiles didn't have a speck of grime on them. The gloss marble benchtop and black basin sparkled while all of my products sat in the corner in perfect order. It just made it ten times easier to shower and get ready when I didn't have to stare at mess that needed to be cleaned. It made sense to me. The bedroom was a tip because I spent so much time on the bathroom. I was just one woman. I couldn't do it all.

When I was showered, I combed my hair and let it dry on it's own. It was a natural wave and all it needed was a little bit of product to set in a perfect style. Light make up was allowed at school but I didn't bother with it. Mascara was a must have though. I felt like a naked mole rat without lashes. But that was it. When I was in uniform, which wasn't bad as far as uniforms went. Black knee high socks and a pleated skirt with a white blouse and blazer. There were about seven days out of the year that I would bother with a blazer. It was too hot.

Mom knocked on the door again while I was begrudgingly standing at the desk beneath the window, shoving books into my bag. We were a floor beneath the top floor of our apartment building in South Beach. Some producer had the penthouse but he didn't live there. He just came and went once in a while when he was working.

I had no complaints though. The view from our apartment was worth whatever Mom spent when she bought it. I never asked. I was sure that I didn't want to know. She made a ridiculous amount of cash but it wasn't something that I based happiness on. I knew that being as comfortable as we were was something to be grateful for. But it wasn't everything.

One last longing look at the bed in the corner of the room made me yearn for more sleep. I knew binge watching an entire season of Gossip Girl last night was a terrible idea.

No regrets.

The photo board on the wall beside my bed was covered in photo's from the summer just been. I'd had them developed and pinned up last week and it made me wish that we could do it all over again. The whole crew was there. We went to the beach, we went to parties, we went to Daytona beach and boardwalks, concerts, go- karts, laser tag and we did a hell of a lot of drinking.

Well apart from Amy of course but there were no surprises there. The miracle was that she came at all. I had an amazing group of friend's. I would never have got through half of the shit that I've been through if it weren't for them.

My bedroom was my sanctuary. It was a mess. But it was mine. And I loved it. The pale lavender walls and the big wide window at the end of the bedroom with the desk that I use for nothing but storage beneath it. Mom spent a bomb on it with the impression that I would use it for homework. The closet on the same wall as the ensuite was almost big enough to live in if it weren't stuffed full of clothes. The television mounted from the ceiling at the end of the bed kept me company most nights.

I fell asleep watching whatever series I was binging at the time. I've seen most on Netflix. I just re watch the favourites now. And of course, behind the television was the window. So if, on the rare occasion, I get into bed without the television on, I watch the stars instead.

The kitchen was just down the corridor. It was the last door on the left. A few more feet opened up into the living room and off the living room was the foyer and front door. It was all spacious. More spacious than two people needed. Mom's enormous master bedroom was at the end of the corridor and we had a main bathroom and a guest room. Which I made use of on the odd occasion. One such occasion would never be forgotten. It still made me snort with laughter when I remembered it. Bray - a good friend - was not quite as fond of the memory.

I wandered into the kitchen and found Mom capping her thermos full of coffee. Foul stuff. I used to think that when someone became a certain age, their taste buds just decided to embrace the flavour of caffeine. But no. I still detested it and I believed that I forever would.

"You look stunning, Mom," I kissed her cheek and sat down at the table where a bowl of fruit loops was waiting. If I ever became a certain age and no longer enjoyed fruit loops, I would neck.

She smiled and tucked her shoulder length brown waves behind her ear. Mom was a MILF. And that's not even a biased opinion. The amount of male friends that have expressed how hot she is. . .  well lets just say that if I had a dollar for every "damn Lee, your Mom is hella fine." I'd be richer than her. She smoothed out her cream pantsuit and I swear that the buttons themselves would have cost more than the tuition at Everglades. Which is a lot.

"You think?" She started packing up her Tom Ford handbag full of files. "It's a new suit. Is it a bit- I don't know, Ellen?"

"Mom," I gave her a blank stare. "You don't look like a lesbian just because you're wearing a pantsuit. We've been over this seven thousand times."

She rolled her eyes with a subtle grin. "Behave at school. Understand?"

"Mhmm," I responded with a mouthful of fruit loops.

"I'm not kidding. Jess is coming back and I don't want trouble. Not again. Or it'll be boarding school on the other side of the universe."

I grinned. "Don't threaten me with a good time, Woman."

She sighed with exasperation and picked up her bag before she came around to give me a kiss on the head. "I mean it. Last chance. If you even so much as get a detention, it's off to Kansas for boarding school and you'll spend breaks with Gran on the farm. Milking the cows and growing vegetables."

I scowled at the threat. How dare she. After Mom got back on her feet, Gran moved back to Kansas where Mom was raised. Dad met her when both of them attended some sort of cattle auction with their parents. I don't understand a lot of the lingo. Dad's parent's passed not long after he did. Which was hard for Mom.

They were the last piece of him that she had left. She wasn't close with the extending relatives and most of them were spread out across the US. So it was just Gran, still kicking it in her little cottage where she swore she would remain until she died. She was so old. It wouldn't be long. We went and saw her for Christmas each year but she didn't come here. She was too old to travel now.

The point is, is that I can't imagine a worse fate than being stuck in the middle of nowhere with an artifact who complained about Mom moving to Florida whenever we saw her. I mean, I still had no idea what brought Mom to Miami of all places. It's fucking forever from Kansas. But whatever. Gran came with her and helped in the beginning. But she never stopped moaning about it. She sure knew how to make a girl feel like a burden.

Mom left for her kick ass job, with her kick ass bag and her kick ass suit and I was left to feel a hint more excited about school than usual. But only a hint. Because as she said, Jess was coming back. Jess. The sister that I never had. The sister that I should have had because her parents fucking suck.

But regardless, she and I were soulmates. Forget finding true love in a man. She was the one. In an innocent sense of course. I mean, apart from the odd pash during spin the bottle or truth or dare, our relationship was strictly platonic.

She used to attend Everglades as well. But she'd just spent the last year at Pine Crest which was almost an hour away in Fort Lauderdale. Her Mom and Dad who owned and managed a successful string of Salons across Florida, pulled her out of Everglades when we got into a little bit of trouble just before summer last year.

Everglades has an expensive tuition fee and to be honest, it looks more like a building for google. It's modern with light timber fixtures and glass walls. White concrete tiles. It's transparent, the entire thing is windows and plush green lawns. Our football field extends out on to a river. It's ridiculous. But whatever.

At the front of the school, where the almost white concrete staircase and window walls are, is a body of water about the size of an Olympic swimming pool. It's beautiful and clear with delicate trees growing from the water and it looks fresh as hell.

The senior pranks that year were weak. In our opinion. So we snuck into the school one night with dressed mannequins and litres - i mean litres -  of the strongest red colouring that we could find. The next morning it looked like a murder scene with face down floating corpses and we thought it was hilarious.

I'll argue to this day that it was not worth a suspension and my best friend's stuck up parent's overreacted to the highest degree. But it was worth it. I would do it again. But I can't because I'll end up in Kansas and Jess will be sent back to Pine Crest. She was allowed to come back for senior because she had shown a huge improvement in her behaviour. Not that she was ever that bad. Like I said, her parent's overreacted.

It takes me about half n hour to drive to school. On the occasion the traffic is worse. But I can leave at around eight and arrive on time. Freddie, the old man on our door who had been working for the apartment building since we had moved in when I was thirteen and a lot longer, wished me a swell first day back at school. Of course he wished me luck as well with a mischievous grin because he knew how much I despised solitary- I mean school.

When I arrived, I parked the Rover in the lot and climbed out, pouting as hard as Chanel #1 does when her pledges step out of line. Most of the students in the lot and on the staircase seemed to be in good spirits but that won't last. It's all of the fake girls screaming at their 'besties' who they hadn't seen all summer as if it was out of their control rather than just disinterest.

"Cute backpack," Zoe Sander's commented as she skipped past me on the top of the steps where I was waiting with as much patience as a fat cat waiting for his food.

A number of other girls that I had seen here and there over the summer greeted me when they passed.

"Hi Leonie."

"Good summer?"

"How about that party at Tara's?"

It continued until I saw Jess from the top of the staircase. She was running through the parking lot. Her long brown hair bounced up and down and I almost burst into tears of laughter at how ridiculous she looked.

I stood up and raised my hands, screaming so loud that almost the entire student body stared. "My life is worth living again!"

From where I stood, I saw her throw her head back, her teeth baring grin illuminated in the sunlight. I side stepped down the staircase as fast as I could. I managed to avoid colliding into the other students and we ran towards each other at full speed until we met on the strip of grass between the parking lot and the pavement.

We crashed into each other and collapsed onto the ground, rolling around with excited squealing and laughter that would have been earning us curious stares. But I didn't care. I held her face and smothered it in kisses while she squinted at the sun and giggled like a lunatic. 

Suddenly a masculine voice that I knew all too well was hollering with excitement from behind us. "This a damn good start to the semester."

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School