Free Sunder by Tara Brown Page B

subconsciously, thinking about Josh. Perhaps he would be my only friend. I could live with that, couldn’t I?
     
    No. Girlfriends were a necessity. Who would I toil over Josh with? And who would I talk about Briton with?
     
    No, I needed fiends.
     
    I looked at my grey skinny jeans, black and white striped, three-quarter-sleeve shirt, and beige dress boots that came to my knees, and smiled. I looked like a city kid. Great. No one would want to hang with me.
     
    My long hair looked silky and fine, not thick and unruly like it truly was and I had on too much makeup.
     
    Yikes.
     
    I grabbed my bag and left feeling like it would be a bit of a hike to get back up on top of the world. I needed friends, besides the ones blowing my phone up from home. I had answered forty-five texts before bed and was already back to thirty. It was only breakfast.
     
    Chatty bitches. Although I was grateful they hadn’t just forgotten about me.
     
    I never wanted to move senior year, but at least I was going to try to have as much fun as I could, even in a shit hole like this. I’d always had a dream about senior year, and I was damn well not giving that up. Dad may have fallen in love, but I would have fun senior year. It had to rock. And if anyone could make it rock, besides maybe Kurt from Glee, it was me . I was going to do it. NRA Barbie and a crappy town meant I would have to work harder, but I could do that.
     
    I mentally scolded myself on the NRA Barbie comment. I was trying to like her. Actually trying.
     
    Downstairs she smiled at me, looking the beautiful tomboy as ever. “Good morning, Liv. Did you sleep well?”
     
    I nodded. ”Yeah, I did.”
     
    It was a lie.
     
    The red eyes were still haunting me. I looked around. “Where is my dad?”
     
    “He left already, he had some important stuff to do today.”
     
    I nodded slowly, trying not to freak on Judith for something that was clearly not her fault. “Better than wishing me luck on my first day of school?” I smiled. “Awesome.”
     
    I sighed and shook my head, rearranging my thoughts. I needed to stay focused on my mission. The year would rock, even if my dad were a fail at the really important moments.
     
    I turned and walked from the kitchen, pissed off but not letting it ruin first day of senior year at my new school.
     
    Granted, I couldn’t believe he would let me go to school on my first day without saying goodbye or good luck or screw you. Anything was better than gone from the house already, like he didn’t even care. I didn’t even know where the friggin’ school was.
     
    But ‘Honey Badger didn’t care’ and neither did I!
     
    I stormed to my car, a small dark-blue 2008 Honda Civic, and drove around looking for my new school. I was missing my mother more than ever.
     
    I parked at the only high school in the wee little town. It was right downtown. Weird.
     
    The leaves crackled under foot as I made my way to the steps of my new school. I stood there for a second as the warning bell rang. Kids scurried, leaving me alone on the emptying front walkway of the ancient white and red brick school. I looked at the flag whipping around on the pole. There was a huge grass lawn on either side of the wide paved walkway. Maple trees starting to change color dotting the schoolyard and lined the streets I could see.
     
    Everything was small and old and either white, blue, yellow, or red brick. These fossils of buildings made up the downtown core. I counted yesterday when we had gone for groceries, and thirty-four buildings were all that made up downtown in Wolfville, Maine. The population sign alone, as we had been driving into town, was enough to terrify me—6,411. There were schools back home with more kids than that.
     
    The narrowing front steps were daunting until I saw his face in the crowd of kids going inside. He smiled at me and waved. I hurried up the stairs, hugging my bag to my shoulder. “Hey, Josh.”
     
    He offered his arm when he