The Punishment

"Alright, are you strapped in your seatbelt?" Leighton asks and I look at her.

"Of course I'm gonna get in my seatbelt Leigh I'm not five" I remind my bestfriend as I take hold of my seatbelt.

Leighton is a blonde, brown eyes and average height. She's actually a little bit taller than I am...only a little.

I've got ginger hair, I got it from my mom and hazel eyes.

"Do you have your cute pen?" Leighton asks.

Last school year, I bought this cute pink pen with a teddy bear on it from Amazon and I've been buying the same one since. Everyone knows my cute pen.

"I do" I say.

Today is the first day of senior year and for the first time since the first day of Sophomore year, Leighton Reyes was up and out of her house at 7am. She wouldn't have been up at 6am if it wasn't the first day of school, she's never gonna be up this early till maybe the first day of College. We do this together on the first day of every school year.

We just finished our McDonald's meal in McDonald's parking lot and now Leighton is driving us to school. School isn't far from here and I like to be early, I've never been late for school in my entire life.

"So, on a scale of 1-10 how ready are you for this year?" Leighton asks me.

"Well...I'd say 10" I say and that is a lie actually.

Leighton glances at me. "Really?" She sounds surprised.

"Yeah, I mean why wouldn't I be? Do you want me to not be ready?" I ask and chuckle nervously.

Leighton chuckles. "No, I'm just glad that you're ready" She says.

"Are you ready?" I ask.

"Sure, I'm ready for school but not the classes though" Leighton says and we burst into laughter.

It's wonderful how we're opposites yet we tolerate eachother. Leighton doesn't like school whereas I love school.

"Don't worry, Rio and I are here to help you" I say and Leighton sighs.

"I am so glad I have nerdy friends, a sentence I never thought I'd say, but I am glad" Leighton says and I smile.

"Also, I can't wait to be out of these uniforms for good" Leigh says.

We wear uniforms to our school. Leighton's not the only one who doesn't like this, a lot of people don't but I like wearing the uniform. It makes you look smart, grey pants for guys and grey pleated skirt for girls, white shirt, grey tie and grey blazers. Beautiful, if you ask me.

Now, why did I lie earlier when I said that I was ready for today? Because I'm not ready for today. Before I go on, let me take you back a few weeks ago to when my heart was shattered into a million pieces.

It was a Saturday evening and Jaxon, my ex was having a party at his place. Jaxon and I started dating towards the end of Sophomore year, I never thought that the day would come when I'd have a boyfriend talk less of him being Jaxon. Jaxon Otto has a history of playing girls, infact everyone knows how he is so if Jaxon is flirting with you, know that he's not serious, he just wants to get in your pants.

So, I'm basically one of the smartest people in school. I only hang out with my friends, Leighton, Rio who is my guy best friend, Poppy who is a sweetheart and Carmen who is also Leighton's boyfriend and bestfriend to Jaxon. Leighton and Rio mostly, this is because I am not a social butterfly and socializing is not my thing. I never used to do parties or any crazy stuff then I met Jaxon and some things changed. I started going for parties often, I started drinking more, everyone noticed that I'd changed a bit including my dad.

Okay, Jaxon and I were already acquainted because our best friends were dating and Rio is friends with him but it wasn't till Mrs. Dawson paired us for that English assignment that we got closer.

I was never interested in Jaxon although half of the girls in school liked him and still do, I was more of the academics-only type of girl, I wasn't looking to fall in love or date anyone. I also felt that Jaxon was bad news and I'd be stupid to actually have anything to do with him but then I saw a side of Jaxon that I didn't know existed and I fell hard for him. This was when my friends started to worry about me because he's Jaxon, a playboy, everyone kept saying; "Sky, you are way too good for him sweetie" but I didn't listen because I actually believed Jaxon when he said he liked me, when he said he loved me. When Jaxon asked me to be his girlfriend, I said yes. I was already so into him but I still had self-respect so I told him that I wasn't like the other girls and he'd have to stop with the flirting and focus on me, his girlfriend and he actually did that or I thought he did...I don't know. I also told him that I wouldn't have sex with him till I was ready and he agreed to that.

We dated for about six months. Actually five months and twenty-six days, I counted. That day, I told Jaxon that I wasn't going to make it to his party because I had studying to do and I'd been doing a of studying because new flash, it's not easy juggling a relationship that you want so badly together with your studies that you love especially when dating is new to you.

I'm an A student or I used to be one. Before last school year, the last time I got anything less than an A-which was a B-was the first year of middle school. Last year, I got two B's and a C, I've never been so ashamed of my report especially since I knew that it was my fault. I put away a lot of study time just so I could hangout with a guy that was still going to cheat on me.

So, that night I decided that I was going to go for my "boyfriend's" party anyway because I felt that it wasn't fair to him since I hadn't hung out with him much in weeks and he'd been trying to get me out of the house. I went to Jaxon's party without telling him or anyone because I wanted to surprise him there, I walked in on him having sex with Paris Roland on his bed and that was it for me.

I thought that maybe it was my fault because I didn't want to have sex with him.

I was beating myself up in the beginning but when you have a bestie like Leighton, you don't have that mindset around her.

Leighton made sure I understood that it wasn't my fault, I wish I listened when she adviced me not to be with Jaxon. I thought that she was a little jealous that the star quarter-back of the school noticed me. I was out of my mind, I know.

I understood that it wasn't my fault that Jason cheated on me but it didn't stop me from staying in bed for weeks and switching off my cell phone. I mean, I sacrificed my reputation for that relationship and I got that it return? Nice one, Jax.

So now you know part of the reason that I'm not ready for today. I'm better now than I was a few weeks ago but I haven't spoken to Jaxon since that night, I thought that I could avoid him forever but there's school so...not entirely possible.

I don't exactly know how I'm going to handle today but what I do know is that I have a plan for this school year and that is a hundred percent focus on my grades and zero percent on boys. I need to get back the Skylar who topped her classes because that's who I am, I enjoy being the nerdy girl on big circle glasses and I don't care what people think about that.

I also have to be serious this year because I need to get a 4.0G.P.A for college and win all the competitions so that I can get a scholarship and make things easier for my dad. Dad isn't poor but I want to do something for him because he works so hard and right now, getting a scholarship will make him really happy.

My mom passed away when I was eight and since then it's just been Dad and Skylar. It was lung cancer, she uh...used to smoke a lot. I think she was addicted, she was also a really great ballet dancer.

"Earth to Sky" Leighton says to me, snapping me out of my thoughts and I look at her. We've made it to our school's apparently busy parking lot. It's 7:45am and the lot is full of cars and students excited about the new year and talking in small groups. The whole school knows about Jaxon and me, just the attention I need-this is me being sarcastic-I actually need to be as invisible as I can this year. People won't even notice I'm here except that would be difficult since I'm Skylar Cooper, I really don't mean to brag.

"See what I did there, earth to Sky?" Leigh giggles and I chuckle.

"Oh I see" I say. "Are you ready for the last year of school?" I ask, smiling at Leigh. We've been low-key waiting for this day our entire lives.

"I was born ready, bestie" Leigh says.

"Then let's go get that G.P.A" I say and we step out of the car.

"Do you see Carmen anywhere?" Leigh asks, scanning the parking lot.

"Maybe they are all inside" I say, referring to our friends and Leigh sighs.

"No, I think we arrived too early" Leigh says.

"It's 7:46am" I say but I know what she means. "Okay, let's give them ten more minutes while we put our lockers in order" I add.

"Okay then" Leigh says and we head into school.