Broken - Chapter One: New Home

The Car rolled to a stop in the driveway, causing her stomach to lurch.



"Home sweet home," her uncle said. All she could do was look at the ground.



She watched as he closed the door and walked inside of his - their home.



"Come on Raine," she breathed. "You can do this."



Finally, she gathered the courage and opened the front door.



She could hear the T.V in the living room next to her left, and her the blender in the kitchen just steps away from the living room. Swallowing hard, Raine stood at the edge of the kitchen, taking in the appearance of her aunt.



"Raine," her aunt stopped cooking and walked over to her, hugging her tightly. "How are you sweetie? Are you okay? I was so worried after the crash..."



"Hey Liz," She said, faking a smile. Suddenly a girl and guy around her own age appeared in the kitchen through the opening to the hallway near the backdoor. She presumed them to be her cousins, Trevor and Taylor if she remembered correctly.



Liz turned to the two,"Taylor, Trevor, you guys remember Raine. She's your cousin."
"Oh right, the charity case." Taylor crossed her arms and smiled fakely.



"Seriously Tay?" Trevor griped at his sister.

"Your room is upstairs Raine, the second door on the right and the bathroom is the door before it. I'll call you down for dinner when it's ready. Chandler already had your stuff moved here." Liz spoke to Raine, an apologetic tone in her voice.



"When will Daniel come?" Raine asked before she could stop herself.



Liz watched her children as they suddenly left the room and she sighed. She didn't look Raine in the eyes.



"Daniel didn't make it."

"What? I thought-"



"Getting better? We all did. But the damage was just too much for doctors to fix. I'm sorry Raine."

Raine swallowed the lump in her throat and calmly left the kitchen, walking up the stairs, into the room Liz said was hers. Tears were running down her cheeks as she took it in. It was almost the same as her old one.



She leaned against the wall and sank to the ground, the tears still on her face.



This was her new home.

Broken - Chapter Two: It's Gonna Be Okay

"Raine," Her uncle knocked on her door. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," Raine looked in the mirror one last time, absorbing her facial features and how her wounds were fading and faked a smile. She knew her mom and Daniel wouldn't want her crying before the funeral even started. Practicing her smile in the mirror was a good place to start.



She walked out of her bedroom, faking another smile to her uncle. "Let's go."
Her uncle nodded and they continued down the stairs and into the living room where the small memorial would be held. Together they sat on the couch, Raine staring into nothingness.



"It'll just be me and you today, if that's alright with you. Liz couldn't leave her business trip, Taylor went shopping - as usual, and Trevor skipped out to go to a friends, but some old friends of your mothers will arrive shortly."

"It's okay Uncle Chandler," she replied quietly. "They didn't really know them like we did."



Chandler smiled at his niece and she darted her eyes, picking at her fingernails.
Before long, guests were at their door.

Chandler went to the front door to welcome the guests inside, and Raine was surprised when they lined into the room. They were her old neighbors, the Quintens. Davis and his teenage daughter whose name she couldn't remember. But she did remember the silly crush she had on Daniel years ago. Davis's wife left them when his daughter was just a baby.



Raine swallowed hard and forced another smile as she was forced to walk over to them while the family greeted her and treated her like an old friend, as if they had actually gotten to know her.

"Your mother was such a lovely woman, Raine. We are all saddened by her passing." Davis told Raine, trying to make her feel better even though she wasn't visibly breaking.



Finally, Raine broke away from the conversation and moved to the dining room, where lunch would be served in about thirty minutes.

Fighting back the tears, and losing, Raine studied the two photographs. She remembered taking both of them, because they encouraged her to pursue her dream of becoming a photographer.



As always, her mother looked beautiful, posing for the camera without even having to try.



Daniel. silly as ever, posed for the camera by fake flexing one arm.

She could hear the memory replaying in her head.

"Take a picture to immortalize my strength, Ray!" Daniel playfully growled.

"Alright," She laughed in response and snapped the picture.



She sighed and reality crashed down upon her.

They were gone. She realized that now. They were never coming back. Tears began to stream down her face even more and she ran out of the house, sobbing.



Suddenly, she felt arms around her.



"It's going to be okay Raine..." Her uncle whispered soothingly. "Its gonna be okay..."

Broken - Chapter Three: Little Dawson Private School

The few days that Raine had left all to herself seemed to fly by rather fast, and before she knew it, it was the morning she had to finally attend her second first day of sophomore year.

But this time it would be different because it was a new town, completely different from the one she had known all of her life. Little Dawsbury was a much smaller town compared to Ashbourne - and the school mascot was much more prideful too. While the name Ashbourne Reapers brought intimidation, the Little Dawsbury Llamas brought laughter.

Raine couldn't get all of these thoughts out of her head as she lay on her bed that morning, procrastinating actually getting up as much as she could.



But as her clock read 7:00, she knew she had to.

She sighed as she got up and walked over to her wardrobe, deciding that she officially hated school uniforms. Maybe she'd at least try to spice it up for her first day then just go back to a normal style the next day.

"No, that's too much work," she told herself as she grabbed the uniform and dressed in it.



"Raine, if you want breakfast you better come get it now!" Liz yelled from the end of the stairs, as her family ate in the dining room.

Raine walked down the stairs, giving a small smile to her aunt. "No thanks, I'm not hungry."

"Well alright, do you need some lunch money?

"No," she shook her head. "Oh, the bus is here, gotta go."

Raine quickly walked out the door to the bus before her aunt could say anything, her cousins following behind her.



Eyes peered at her as she walked on the bus, and she swallowed hard. She heard Hannah clearing her throat impatiently and realized she was taking too long, her face turning red.

"Sorry," she mumbled and took a seat in the very front where nobody else was sitting.

All throughout the ride, nobody paid her attention. And when they arrived at the school, she was the last to get off.

All around her, at the front of the school hallway, people hung out with their group of friends. There wasn't any segregation by style - like at her last school - but everyone sort of just blended together. There were emo jocks and nerds who wore ten pounds of makeup.



Taylor walked off to a group of girls who sat on the ground talking and giggling. All of them were fairly pretty, but they had different styles. Of course, they all had to be like Taylor though - rude and entitled.



Trevor walked to a group of three boys who all had an athletic sense to them - but one of them looked like an emo Justin Bieber.



Raine stood in front of all of the groups, unsure of where to stand - if she should even stand near someone. Maybe she should just head into her first-period class.

As she walked towards the empty desk she decided to sit in, she passed by Trevor and his friends sitting at their desks. One of his friends with dark hair and striking blue eyes followed her with his gaze as she passed by, Raine not even noticing.

"Who is that..." Jones mumbled to himself.



"Huh?" Trevor followed Jones's gaze to his cousin. "Oh, that's Raine, my cousin. She just moved here like last week because her mom and brother died in a car crash, so she'll be living with us."

"Oh," Jones nodded. "Just wondering."

But he couldn't peel his eyes off of her.



The school day went by pretty fast for Raine, nothing interesting or out of the usual. Teachers didn't pay her attention unless she went up and told them she was new and they worked on getting her situated into her new courses.

Before she knew it, it was lunch.



As she stood in front of the cafeteria, unsure of where to sit, a strange duo motioned for her to walk over to them.

And so she did.



There was a pretty Hispanic girl, with her hair up and her brown eyes sparkling. "Hi, I'm Natalie," she greeted Raine. "And this is Jack, we saw you up there looking kind of frightened. Are you new here?"



"Yeah, I am." She said awkwardly. "My name's Raine, I just moved here from Ashbourne."

"Wow, Ashbourne. That's a big city. What's it like?" Natalie tilted her head curiously.

"Their football team the Reapers is like, one of the best teams around," Jack added.

"Why don't you sit with us?" Natalie smiled at her new friend. "We could give you the gist about Little Dawsbury."

"Sure," Raine smiled and sat down across from Natalie.



"Well first thing first, you need to know who basically runs this school. Her name is Taylor Fonte, brunette, naturally born gorgeous - or so they say. She and her little team of glamoured-up-hogs run the social life of this school. London Grayes is the pin-up wannabe, Posie Ramirez is the goth who's real name is actually Isabella and she just adopted her 'punk rock lifestyle' for the attention of a particular boy, and the nerd is Reese Hardin - don't let her innocent look throw you off guard, she's only a little more innocent than the rest."



"Oh uh, I know what Taylor is like. She and Trevor are kinda my cousins." Raine blushed. "My name is Raine Fonte."



"Woah! Major social points, nice!" Natalie laughed.

"Well then you must know about her complete opposite then," Jack grinned. "Trevor Fonte. In his group we have, Caden Travis - the dorky blonde who kind of resembles a duck, Brent Samuels - the emo who's hair is his lifeline, and Jones Gadlin - the only other normalish one in that group."



"Oh I saw them hanging out with Trevor this morning," Raine nodded. "Jones wouldn't stop staring at me in first period."

"Everyone else is kind of just meh in the sophomore class, the only other 'cool kids' lie in the other grades. But we don't really interact with them during school much, the grades are separated. Perks of a private school!" Natalie grinned thinly.



"Ohhh, don't look now blondie but, Gadlin is looking at you!" Jack looked between their table and the table where Trevor and his friends sat.

Raine glanced in that direction and sure enough, the black-hared-blue-eyed being was staring at her. And there was something in his eyes that Raine couldn't exactly pinpoint.

Broken - Chapter Four: First Encounter

Down stairs was quiet, not a noise being made. Raine sat on the couch, reading a book peacefully.



Suddenly, Taylor ran down the stairs grinning. "Get off of your lazy butt and dress into something nice. People are coming over."

"What why?"

"I'm throwing a party, duh."



Raine rolled her eyes and walked up stairs to her bedroom, opening her closet and studying the clothes inside. She wasn't sure if any of the clothes inside were "party material." The most exciting her outfits got were funny sayings on her shirts.



Suddenly, she got an idea.

She tiptoed over to Taylor's room, and when she was sure the coast was clear, she darted inside. Heading straight for the closet, Raine remembered Taylor offering her some of her uniforms because they were around the same size - but for different reasons,

"Well, I'm sure she wouldn't mind as long as I returned it," Raine mumbled to herself as she searched through Taylor's clothes rack.



She searched, and searched, without finding anything that was even close enough to something she would actually wear. Finally, at the very back, she found the perfect dress.

Grinning to herself, she grabbed it, and ran back to her room where she put it on.



Glancing at herself in the mirror, Raine liked what she saw. But something was missing.

"Maybe you should do something with your hair," Taylor appeared behind her. "You can't just wear it in a ponytail for every outfit every day, you know."

"You say that but I've only ever seen you with your hair down," Raine snorted.



"Look, let me help you." Taylor walked closer to her, and started doing stuff with her hair that Raine didn't even know was possible. When she was done, Taylor stepped back and admired her work. "There, now your outfit is complete."

Raine looked herself over again and realized Taylor was right. She looked amazing.



"I'll see you down stairs, the party is starting soon. Maybe do something with your makeup too." Taylor turned and left the room, leaving Raine all alone in her bedroom.



Raine adjusted her makeup just like Taylor said and then sat down, letting a few minutes pass by before she decided to finally join the party. She knew she would regret it, but she knew she had to make more friends.

Raine got up and looked at herself in the mirror one last time, deciding that she didn't even look like herself at all. She quickly undid Taylor's work and settled for a much more simple but elegant hair style.

She walked to the hallway, instantly hearing the music playing from down stairs. She swallowed hard and forced herself to walk down there, trembling just slightly as she took step by step.

She saw the others there, naturally socializing, and some even doing more.



Reaching the end of the stairs, Raine was too busy looking at the others who stood in the living room, socializing, to realize that she was about to crash into a tall figure.

"Ow," Raine grumbled, stepping back and rubbing her head. "Watch where you're going," she mumbled and looked up at the being.

"Sorry," Jones smiled weakly at her. "I didn't see you there."



"Oh, it's okay." Raine offered a small smile back.

"I'm Jones by the way. You're Raine right? Trevor's cousin?"

"Yeah, I am. I moved here a couple of weeks ago from Ashbourne. You're in my first period right?"

"Yeah," Jones laughed. "Mr. Reeves is the worst isnt he."

"Yeah," Raine laughed in unison.



Jones looked back at the group of people standing in the living room and then back at Raine. "Do you want to go outside?"

"Uh, sure," Raine shrugged.

Jones lead Raine outside to the back yard, and sat down on one of the swings. Raine sat by him.



They talked for hours like that, while the party continued on. They talked about random things like their hopes and dreams, their famalies, their fears and movies. Raine found herself trusting someone she barely even knew, and opening up to him.

It felt like she had known him all of her life.



"Can I be honest about something?" Jones piped up after a couple of minutes of silence.

"Yeah, what is it?" Raine tilted her head and looked at him.

"I know this is going to sound kinda weird but, ever since I first saw you, I couldn't get you out of my head."

"Yeah you were right, it does sound weird." Raine laughed awkwardly.



"But the point is, I want to get to know you more Raine, and I hope you'd feel the same about me. So would you like to maybe go hangout sometime?"

"Depends on where..."

"What about bowling? Or skating? Or you can pick, it doesn't matter to me."

"Sure then," Raine laughed.

Raine wasn't sure if it would be a good idea, seeing that she was still recovering. But she needed the fun, and she'd rather it be with him than anyone else.

"Great," Jones smiled. "I'll call you with the date."