i was never normal

I was a pretty normal kid for a 16-year-old, I usually went with my friends to the local Café after school to work on homework so when I went home I didn't get distracted by my computer or phone. My friends weren't exactly friends. They were just a reason to get out of the house when I needed to. They're a bunch of self-centered pricks who only admire people on their standard. All of our parents were friends; Pine Hill is a small community, most people who grow up here end up staying here. My parents went to school with my "friends" parents, that's how we met, I was two years old living my best life, then dad died and my mother moved us back to her hometown in Pine Hill. She reunited with a bunch of her old friends. Most of them married with children, they all married their high school sweethearts which sound like something out of a cheesy romance movie.To this day I still don't understand why my mother even had me participate in those Stupid play dates, I was two. You wouldn't really need friends at two years old if I was 14-18 that would be a different story. High school is way different than elementary school or pre-school, you NEED friends to survive. You need at least one and if you don't? You'll be spending your entire high school career getting swirlies from the Football team or getting your underwear hung up on the flag pole for the entire county to see. I have seen a few boys get shoved into their locker and locked inside, not one person even bothered to approach the janitor for them, and as much as I wanted to support them, I couldn't risk my reputation to help a few kids. They were only found when the teachers didn't notice them in class.I guess that's why my friend group is so stuck up, they've known nothing but special treatment from teachers. Sophia Michaels basically buys her way through school, Sophia's a year younger than me, she's also currently dating Jackson, the only guy I can actually stand in that group. He's my best friend, possibly the smartest guy I know. Although he's not smart enough to see that his girlfriend is going behind his back and sleeping with the entire football team. Jackson's in love with her, but she's head over heels for the money. Jackson will buy her everything she wants, no question about it. He won't care if it's the most expensive diamond necklace or a 1 dollar ring, he'll buy it. She is very Controlling, Jackson can't even go with me to my mom's business parties without Sophia being up his ass 24/7. He deserves better."Hello? Earth to Mikey?" I was completely out of it until I felt a hard kick come in contact with my knee cap. I snapped out of my hallucination and morphed back into reality, I winced and held my knee with my hands, hopping on one leg to keep balance. I breathed out and turned to the cause of impact, "ow! What was that for?!" I kept my knee in my hands, keeping my knee pulled up to my waste, foot almost touching the ground. The girl in front of him crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "you were daydreaming again, you know how hard it is to get you to break out of it?" she lightly laughed and punched his arm a bit. I rolled my eyes and smiled a bit, releasing my leg, "sorry, Lila, I was just in my own world again," I told her. Lila Prescod, She's probably the realist girl you will ever meet in this school, one of the reasons I get along with her so well. She doesn't look down on people, nicest girl in the school, also the smartest. Whenever she makes her way into class, she always seems to have a big smile on her face. Outside of school she's really artistic, she even sewed her own dress for homecoming, and it was probably the best dress that was even in that ballroom. Lila shrugged, "it's okay, You basically daydreamed through the entire lesson, the bell just rang, wouldn't want you looking like a dummy staying after class while everyone was gone. Why do you have blood under your nose?" she asked, taking a long lick of the lollipop she had just pulled out of her backpack, before grabbing a tissue and wiping the blood. I shrugged, "bloody nose." I stood up collecting my things, I turned to Lila and smiled, "thanks for getting me back into reality so I'm not bullied for the rest of the year." I joked. Lila nodded and returned the smiled, "no problem, What are friends are for?" she replied, Grabbing her bag and throwing it over her shoulder but keeping ahold of the strap. Lila gave me one last glance, "ill see you later, yeah?" she tilted her head a little bit, taking another long lick of her lollipop. I nodded, gathering the rest of my items in my arms, "see you later," I replied. Lila took off out of the door leaving me behind in the empty classroom, with my thoughts. I shook my head and also walked out of the door, walking to my locker, passing students that usually had after school activities. They looked at me for a minute, probably wondering what I was doing here so 10 minutes after school had ended. I slipped my books inside of my bag and flung the strap over my shoulder, taking out my skateboard and slamming my locker shut. My locker was close to the exit of the school, right when you strolled into school, my locker was the first one your eyes would be on. I stepped outside of the school doors and made my way down the stairs, breathing in the fresh air of nature around me, my feet touched the sidewalk and I threw my skateboard onto the ground, placed one foot on top and pushed off the ground with my other foot, I pushed off the ground two more times to catch a little speed, once I was close to the corner of the street I turned on my skateboard, soon flying down the sidewalk, Passing a few students who were delaying their walk home as much as possible, but I, I was actually excited to go home for once. I had Ordered something in the mail a few weeks ago, the notification on my phone had told me that it should have arrived by the time I got off. It didn't take long for me to reach my destination, just a couple of turns and you're there, it's not that hard to spot it, it's the only big yellow house on the street that has roses going up the sidewalk. My mother was always a big fan of roses. She talked a lot about how my father would bring her a rose every day when she was at school. I rolled up the driveway beside my mother's car, causing me to raise an eyebrow," I thought she had work today?" I mumbled to myself before stepping on the back of my skateboard and picking it up by the wheels. Walking up the steps of my front porch I saw a box sitting on the lawn chair my mom would sit every morning when she would drink her coffee and watch the sunset on hers and my dad's anniversary. Walking over to it I picked up the box and gave it a little shake, my smiled grew big, I walked into the house and placed my skateboard on a rack that my brother had made for me before he went off to college. I wandered into the living room and threw my backpack on the couch before setting the package on the coffee table and walking into the kitchen to get a box cutter. I stopped in my tracks when I heard the familiar giggle of my Mothers, but I heard another voice alongside hers. Stepping farther into the kitchen, I saw a tall man back turned to me and his front-facing my mother as the two drank out of their wine glasses. My mother made a joke which he instantly laughed at, he seemed to be trying to get my old lady's attention by laughing at whatever she said. Seems to me like he's trying too hard. I scoffed and walked over to a drawer in the kitchen and grabbed onto the handle and pulled the storage space out. Moving the contents out of the way so I could find my box cutter, when I found it I took ahold of the box cutter and closed the drawer, I turned around and my Mother looked my direction and smiled at me. She walked over by my side and looked at the man who stood there with a little smirk plastered on his face. My mother placed her hand on my back, "Ryan," She smiled, "this is my son, Michael." she told him, Ryan looked at me and set his glass down on the countertop. He wore a blue cardigan and blue jeans, his hair was slicked back, a tie was tucked into the Cardigan. The same smirk on his face as he held out his hand for me to take, "you're mum told me all about you" he let that sneering smile go and gave a sincere smile, his thick British accent struck you in the face once he opened his mouth. From first glance, you would have never guessed he was from the United Kingdom. I took his hand and shook it, "I would say the same but, I didn't even know you existed. "I replied. My mother took her hand from my back and slapped me upside the head causing me to wince, "Michael!" she screeched, I held the back of my head and rubbed it. Ryan chuckled a bit, "it's alright, Nellie. He's right, he doesn't know me." he replied. "I'm from Newcastle, I met your mum when she was on a business trip a few years ago. I knew this town was important to her, but I don't know why I decided to move here, but I ran into your mum in town and she invited me here for some wine." he admitted. It took a moment for me to process his words, but when I did I just nodded, "alright then," I looked over at my mother, "may I go? my package just entered the mail, and you know how excited I was for it to come in. "I replied. Mother nodded and pushed me a little, "go on then." she told me. I nodded and grabbed my Box cutter from the counter and walked away into the living room. I sat on the couch and grabbed the box from the coffee table. I pushed up the blade on the box cutter and began to cut through the tape on the Package. I sat the Box cutter on the table in front of me, basically shaking with excitement I opened the box and began to dig through the packing peanuts. Digging throughout it until I felt something hard and cold touch my hand, I grabbed onto the mysterious object and pulled it out of the box. My eyes went eyed with excitement as I starred at the hunting knife that I held in my possession.I placed the box back onto the table and slowly took off the leather case that hung onto the knife itself. Pulling the case off I saw the shiny knife that I had paid 90 dollars for over eBay. I smiled to myself before placing it on the table and grabbing the box, taking it into the kitchen and throwing it into the garbage. Soon I returned to the living room and grabbed the knife, going up the stairs slowly and making it to my bedroom door. I opened the door to my room and entered it, going over to my closet door and opening it to reveal my walk-in closet, I walked into the closet and went over to a drawer in the closet. I unlocked the drawer and looked at my other knives that were neatly placed in the drawer, sighing, I realized the drawer was already full. I closed the storage space and opened a different one, placing the new hunting knife into that drawer neatly. My phone began going off in my back pocket. I slipped it out of my pocket and answered it, the contact showed up as, "Alisha" I rose an eyebrow, me and Alisha never really talked other than when we would go out with our friends. She was a nice girl but not really my type even though she constantly tried to get my attention. She always smelled like Vanilla. The smell made me think back to when I went to Paris with my mother, a very sweet smell. I clicked the answer button, "what's up?" I began, "Oh my god, Mikey, thank god you answered, nobody else will respond to me, but you need to get to the school NOW!" I scrunched up my face, "do you mind telling me why I need to go back to school? I just left." I replied, walking out of my closet and turning off the light before shutting the door. Soon Alisha was in tears, "Mikey, please, you have to come, I was walking out of school when I heard a scream, so I went to check it out." she began crying harder, "Ali?" I said, "Alisha! What happened?!" "she was just there. Bleeding. there was nothing I could do!" she began hyperventilating. At this point I was concerned, "hey, Ali breathe, who was bleeding?" I asked calmly. "Sophia! I found her in the basement, she's dead, Mike." she finally told me.