Chapter 1

  Bzzzz, Bzzzz, Bzzzz “Uhhhhhhhhh” I groaned while grabbing my phone to turn off my alarm. I realized the time at the top of the screen “6:45.” Since my bus arrives at 8:45 I had two more hours so I took my time and opened the curtains to my windows in order to let the light into my room then began to lightly clean it. Once I was satisfied with how it looked I quietly walked into my little brothers blue bedroom to wake him up since he apparently didn’t hear his alarm.

  WAKE UP JACOB IT IS TIME FOR SCHOOL” I screamed while laughing. He quickly jumped off the bed looking scared out of his mind with his brown hair all in his face which caused me to fall onto the ground laughing my head off. “Haha very funny Sierra” he said play punching me on the arm. “It’s your fault for not listening to your alarm I just taught you a lesson” I said still laughing but beginning to catch my breathe.“Is mom awake?” “I don’t know” I said shrugging my shoulders. “Well, I wouldn’t really be surprised if she was because you basically woke the whole neighborhood up” he said being sarcastic. “I’ll go check to see if she is, in the meantime you need to get ready it is 7:00 and your bus comes at 7:45 and I know you would never want to cause mom the stress of knowing you missed the bus. Would you?” “Of course not.” “Okay then hurry up and get ready.” 

  With that I walked down the hallway to our moms room. I opened the door to see her half awake. I walked to her bed and gave her a hug. “Good morning mom” I said cheerfully. “Good morning sweetheart how did you sleep?” “Good.” “Is Jacob awake?” “Yep, I just woke him up by screaming. You should’ve seen his face.” “Oh, so now I don’t even have to ask what that screaming was anymore.” “Nope, and he is getting ready for school right now as we speak. He shou,d be eating breakfast by now. Since it is 7:15” I said looking at her bedroom clock. “Oh my goodness, I have no idea what I would do without you.” “Awwwwwwwwwww” I said feeling good about myself. “Okay well how about you go make sure Jacob gets on the bus, get yourself ready, then I will give you a ride over to Janels house since it is only 15 minutes away, so you two can go to school together.” “Omg, thank you so much mom” I said embracing her into a big hug then walking out of her bedroom, closing the door behind me.

Chapter 2

  I walked into the kitchen and realized that Jacob already made his breakfast. Looking at the time I realized it was 7:35. I walked into the living room seeing Jacob eating his cereal on the coffee table while watching some robot TV show, like always. Since we were doing pretty good on time I decided to eat breakfast too, so I walked to my room, grabbed my phone, walked back to the kitchen and grabbed my breakfast. I was eating yogurt with fruit.

   After finishing my food, I cleaned my bowl and spoon, then put them up in the dishwasher. I walked over to the living room and sat on the sofa. Jacob was still watching TV so I tried to watch it too. I honestly had no idea what it was that interested him in the show because I tried spending 5 minutes watching it, and let’s just say I failed watching it for even 2. I turned on my phone to see if I got any messages and surely I did, but before I could see who it was from, one of my alarms went off meaning it was 7:39 and it was time for Jacob to go to his bus stop.

  “Guess what time it is?” I said. “Aww, I don’t want to go to school today.” He said. “Sorry, but which one would you prefer. Not going to school and becoming a hobo, or going to school and actually doing something with your life.” “Making something of my life.” he said obviously defeated. “Okay then, get yourself on that bus” I said playfully. “Fine” he said lazily. “Bye” “Bye” he said walking out the door. “Well that was easy” I thought sarcastically.

  Once I made it back into my bedroom I grabbed my clothes, towel, and my phone then walked into my bathroom. I hung my clothes and towel on the rack, turned on my music using my phone, and then hopped into the shower. When I finished getting ready I looked at myself in my body mirror satisfied. My outfit seemed pretty reasonable because it was the beginning of Winter so it is getting pretty chilly in Nashville Tennessee now. I was wearing a white sweater that said “SELFIE” in black print in the center, black leggings, black Vans, and to top it all off I straightened my chocolate brown hair and left it down. I checked the time on my phone, “8:10.” I was now ready so I put my phone in my back pocket, grabbed my floral backpack, and went to my mom's room finding that she was dressed up and ready to go too.

  “You ready to go?” she asked. “Yep” I replied. “Ok meet me in the car, I just need to get my purse and lock the door.” “Okie Dokie.” I walked out of her room towards the front door and walked out. I took a deep breathe as the cold Winter air touched my skin. I then began walking toward the car. But, when I tried to open the door to the passenger seat it was locked therefore, I decided to just wait beside the car. While I waited I check who texted me earlier. I opened up the message and found out it was from my dad. I was both excited and nervous at the same time because I haven’t talked to him ever since him and my mom split up and that was five years ago. Before I could text back I heard my mom open the front door so I quickly turned off my phone and put it in my pocket.  “Why aren’t you in the car?” she asked. “Oh, the door was locked and I didn’t want to rush you so I waited here.” I said trying not to look suspicious. “I am so sorry sweetie, I had no idea. You could have came back inside.” “It’s ok, I wasn’t waiting a long time out here anyways.” We both got in the car. The soon as I closed the door I turned on the car A/C and the radio.

Chapter 3

  After 5 minutes into the ride I turned to my mom and found that she had a cigarette in her mouth. I tried to just ignore it but frustration boiled up inside of me and I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer. “Are you serious mom?” “What?” “You know what. Why are you smoking with me in the car or just in general. I thought you promised me you would stop.” “Well, I am sorry you don’t understand what it is like. Once you start you can’t stop. It takes over you.” “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT IS DOING TO YOUR BODY!” I said now screaming. “YES, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT, YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN IN MY SHOES, I TRY SO HARD TO GIVE YOU AND YOUR BROTHER BOTH THE WORLD AND MAKE YOU HAPPY AND EVERYTHING JUST COMES DOWN ON ME, I CAN’T TAKE ANY OF IT!” she said screaming too. “I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE THINGS YOU BUY ME OR ANYTHING YOU GIVE ME IN GENERAL! HOW DO EXPECT ME AND JACOB TO LIVE WITH OURSELVES KNOWING THAT YOU GOT CANCERED OR DIED BECAUSE YOU KEEP POPPING A CIGARETTE BETWEEN YOUR LIPS.” “YOU NEED TO WATCH HOW YOU ARE TALKING TO ME, I AM STILL YOUR MOTHER AND YOU STILL HAVE TO RESPECT ME!” “HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME AND JACOB TO TAKE YOU SERIOUS OR RESPECT YOU FOR THAT MATTER WHEN YOUR THOUGHT OF THE BEST FOR US IS SMOKING!” “YOU KNOW WHAT, I AM SICK OF THIS, WHEN YOU GET HOME FROM SCHOOL TODAY YOU GO STRAIGHT TO YOUR ROOM YOUNG LADY. YOU DON’T JUST TALK TO ME LIKE THIS JUST BECAUSE YOU DON’T AGREE WITH MY DECISIONS. YOU THINK I WANT TO SMOKE EVERYDAY, DO YOU THINK I WANT TO LIVE THIS KIND OF LIFE. NO, WITH ONE BAD DECISION I RUINED MY ENTIRE LIFE AND IT IS NOT YOUR PLACE TO MAKE ME FEEL BAD ABOUT IT! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!” “WHATEVER, I DON’T EVEN CARE ANYMORE!” I said beginning to cry. Luckily, we stopped right at Janels house. “IF YOU GET HURT BECAUSE OF YOUR “BAD DECISIONS” THAT’S ON YOU BECAUSE I DON’T CARE ANYMORE!”
 
  I got out of the car running to Janels front porch and knocked on the door. Not even looking back to see if my mom left, I ran inside. I ran up the stairs into Janel’s room, plopped onto her bed, and cried into one of her pillows. “Omg, Sierra what happened?” “It’s my mom, she won’t stop smoking, she promised me she would stop but she didn’t and when I got mad and asked her why she yelled at me so I yelled, so now I am grounded.” “Sierra, I am so sorry, I can never imagine what I would do if I found out that my dad smoked” she said embracing me into a hug. “It kills me to know that she doesn’t know what she is doing to her body and when I try to tell her it goes through one ear and out the other.” “Yeah, I would hate to see something happen to your mom.” She let go of me then checked her phone to see what time it is. “I mean I love my mom but what if it gets to the point where I get taken away from her. This wouldn’t be the first time they would have tried. If she keeps smoking that is most likely what will happen. I can’t imagine life without her. After all I have lived with her for 5 years.” “Yeah.” she said taking a deep breath. “Hey it is 8:35 so how about instead of my dad taking us to school, we ride to Starbucks on our Penny Boards then ride to school since the bell rings at 9:35” she suggested trying to change the subject so I could feel better. “Fine” I said being persuaded by Starbucks because that is my absolute weakness.

  We walked down her stairs where we ran into her dad. “Where are you two ladies going?” he asked. “Oh, hi dad. We were wondering if we could go to Starbucks and then ride our Penny Boards to school. Can we?” “Yes, only if you make sure to watch over Sierra and get to school on time.” “Kk. Bye dad.” “Bye.” With that we both walked outside, letting the cold breeze hit our skin softly. I guess Janel noticed that I didn’t bring my Penny Board because she grabbed hers and a spare from the garage before walking outside. Since we like to listen to music like 24/7 we both grabbed our phones from our pocket, plugged in our earbuds, and skated towards my all time favorite, Starbucks.

Chapter 4

  Once we arrived, we picked up our boards, then walked inside. When we walked in the line was not long so we didn’t have to worry about being late to school. After 5 minutes it was our turn to order. “Welcome to Starbucks, what would you like today?” the boy employee asked. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, he was pretty tall, and looked like he was about 19. “I would like one medium Caffè Vanilla Light Frappuccino please.” “Okay, and what about you?” he asked looking at Janel. “I would like one medium Caramel Light Frappuccino please.” “Okay both of your Frappuccinos will be done in about 10 minutes.” “Okay, thank you” we both said walking to the side then getting on our phones.

  After getting our Frappuccinos, we walked out of the Restaurant then headed towards school with our Penny Boards in our backpack, drinks in one hand, and phones in the other. Since it seemed like we killed like an hour of time I checked what time it was, “8:55 a.m”. We had 25 more minutes until school officially started so we started speed walking so that we could still have time to get to school and hang out with our other friends.

Chapter 4

  Once we arrived at school Janel checked her phone to see what time it was. It was 9:00, since we still had 6 minutes we went to look for our friend Tatiana. We ended up finding her next to the stairs of the school, yes, our school has stairs. She waved as we walked towards her then began talking.
“Why are you guys so late, I had to stay here by myself waiting for you” she asked making a fake sad face.

“We stopped at Starbucks to get some Frappuccinos” I said fancy while showing her my cup.

“I don’t understand why the cups are red now.”

“Duh, for the holidays” me and Janel said at the same time.

“Oh yeah, I forgot.” With that the bell rang, so we all went our separate ways towards our 1st period classes. But, our of all of our 1st period classes I would choose any of them but mine because my class is computer. Which if you couldn’t tell is 100% boring.

Chapter 5

   Finally, I made it halfway through the day we were now going to lunch. I was walking with my friends Tatiana, Janel, Emily, Sky, and Haiti. Once we sat down on the lunch benches we got on our phones until our table was called to get food.
   After getting our food and sitting down, I began to devour my ham sandwich. When I was done with my food I got up to throw away my food when I suddenly bumped into someone. I turned around and saw it was one of my old friends Derek. Keywords “Old Friend.” I stopped hanging out with him after he humiliated me in front of the whole class in 6th grade by telling everyone about the whole situation with my family being split up and my mom smoking, and instead of saying sorry he just held me to that humiliation throughout the whole year.

“Excuse you” I said with a sassy tone.

“Umm, you bumped into me so excuse you.” he snapped back.

“What ever.” I said turning around towards my table again.

“At least my family is straight.” he said under his breath.

The very moment those words escaped his mouth I turned around and went for it. I pushed him onto the ground and punched him. Before I could do anything else like claw his face off or knock his teeth straight, Tatiana and Sky both grabbed me by the arms and walked me back to our seats while the administrators tended to Derek.