“Wake up. Get ready.” He barked into the room, “I’m not driving you to school if you miss the damn bus again.”

Typical. I laid in bed for another minute staring blankly at the ceiling while I try to find the strength to get up. Finally I gathered myself and stumbled blindly in my dark room towards the light switch. The light stung as it filled the room for the first time in five hours.

As the steaming hot shower water struck my face, I began to feel rejuvenated. In a way, the shower was cleansing. As if all the shit that had happened in my life prior had simply been a dream. The fantasy was short-lived, however, when I heard the pounding on the door. Him.

“What the hell are you doing in there?” He screamed, “Get out of the damn shower and let’s go! Christ!”

I soaked in my last few seconds of warmth before shutting the water off and facing the cold world in which I lived. I got dressed and dragged myself out into the kitchen. He was sitting at the table.

“Make yourself breakfast”, he said. In a way, it made me happy to hear him say that. It was as if he cared. “We’re going to pitch when you get home today”, He announced. “You haven’t thrown in three days.” I retrieved a pack of Strawberry Pop-Tarts from the cabinet, grabbed my backpack, and left for the bus. As usual, I “forgot” to say goodbye.

The bus ride was okay. I pulled out the old iPod I had saved up to bye and listened to my music as I gazed out the window. I cherished the morning bus rides I had to myself. No one to talk to me, no one to talk to. Not that it was ever any different.

My morning classes were just as they normally were. Strain to stay awake in math. Write until my hand cramped up in history. Try to figure out what the hell was going on in chemistry. However, I tried my best. Before her death, my mom had told me that hard work in school would get me away from this place. Away from this life.

Lunch was just as it always was. I wandered around the cafeteria for a while, looking for an empty table. After 10 minutes and no tables, I elected to sit on the floor. I was use to it by now and besides, I was already being treated like dirt so why not hang around my own kind?