Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

I smack the alarm clock with my hand and sigh. I rub my eyes and look at the time. I woke up late, again. And of course my idiot brother didn't think to get me up. Since it's after seven, Matt's already left for work and I'll have to take the bus. Most days I can hitch a ride with him in the morning, but he never bothers to make sure I'm awake.  

Things weren't supposed to happen this way. Everything was meant to go smoothly. My parents even told me I would get my own car when I turned sixteen. But then they died. And there's no chance of that happening with my brother in charge of me. Between his array of girlfriends, and trying to keep up with all his frat brothers, he barely even remembers I exist. I guess the only reason social services hasn't taken me away yet is that I'll be 18 soon enough and it's not worth the trouble. 

If I wasn't so independent, I probably wouldn't have survived this long. The only things in the fridge are beer and cheese slices, and Matt pretty much lives off cereal and potato chips. The only reason we haven't been evicted is that the mortgage was completely paid by the time our parents died. Otherwise Matt and I would be homeless by now. 

After the accident, Matt had to drop out of college to take care of me. He moved back into the house, got a job at Walmart, and developed a minor addiction to alcohol. He had been on his way to getting a degree in Art History-which is what he settled on when my parents told him he had to go to college or else he would get kicked out.

Matt's job is crap and he only makes minimum wage, so I had to start picking up the slack. I got a job down at the pottery store in town. Mostly I just have to clean the store and stock the shelves, but at least I'm surrounded by art. 

I love ceramics, and I've always dreamed of being an artist. But after the accident, my chance of going to college was shattered. If I want to go, I would need a full scholarship and a lot of financial aid. There's no way I can afford college- all the money I make goes directly to taxes and bills. I can't save any of it for myself. 

Without even thinking, I pull on a pair of leggings and a top, throw on my converse and head out the front door, almost forgetting to grab my bag. I walk two houses down where a couple of underclassmen stand waiting for the bus.

Most people who go to my school are rich, so all the Juniors and Seniors drive themselves. I used to be rich. Our parents used to work for a huge international insurance company. But now they're dead, so Matt and I are poor people living in a rich person's world. But I guess what really matters is what's on the inside, right? 

The bus pulls up and I plant myself all the way in the back, sliding my headphones in my ears and trying to drown out all the chatter. The bus starts moving and I slowly let myself fall asleep again, feeling the hum of the engine beneath me. 

"Wake up!" I jump a little and see that everyone has already gotten off the bus and now the driver is yelling at me to do the same. 

"Oh, sorry!" I grab my bag and run to the front of the bus and down the steps. I shove my iPod back into my bag and zip it closed when I bump into my best friend, Loren. 

She smiles at me and laughs a litte, brushing off her pants. "What's the hurry?" She jokes. Loren and I have been best friends since Kindergarten and we've always stuck together. We're practically sisters and she's the one who keeps me sane. At least she was until she met Jesse. 

Jesse was some burnout pothead senior with a tattoo and an earring. Loren fell in love with him a few months ago and ever since she'd been ditching me to run off with him. Jesse was always meeting up with his friends behind the grocery store or in the woods behind the school. Sometimes even the old abandoned shed next to the river. Loren promised me she would never get into drugs, but either way, being with Jesse has changed her. I guess as long as she's happy I should be glad she found someone. 

"Sorry. I had to take the bus again." I fix up my hair a little and we head to the front doors of the school. "Where's Jesse?" I ask even though I don't really care. 

"Uh." She squints a little. "Sick." Jesse ditches school alot and sometimes Loren goes with him, but part of her also still cares about her future. "I think he said it was allergies." Loren is famous for fabricating elobrate stories to get out of things. In third grade, she told our gym teacher that she fought off a hungry lion on her way to school just to get out of volleyball. 

Once we make it into the hallway I pull open my locker and shove my bag inside. "Morning." Carrie stands on my other side, eyes bright and smiling. Her hair is a new shade of bright red and she's standing in tall in a pair of tall white pumps. It's quite a contrast to Loren whose taken a new liking to band t-shirts and converse. Carrie looks like a page pulled out of Vogue. 

Before my parents died, I could afford to buy clothes like that. Now I prowl around thrift shops hoping to snag something name brand. I mean having a low clothing budget isn't the end of the world, but i just wanted something to hold onto after my parents' death. But everything changed.

I guess no one ever really gets a happy ending.