CHAPTER ONE
[1]

song: love my way by the psychedelic flurs

"CAN'T YOU KNOCK?!"

Daisy shouts, pushing herself up off her bed to face whoever stood in the doorway of her bedroom.

Her mother's face was as stone cold as ever. "Your room's a disaster." She says, looking around disappointedly. Daisy waited for her mom to speak again. "I got you an outfit for your first day tomorrow." Susan says, holding up one of the many shopping bags in her hands.

Oh. Daisy thought. Unexpected kindness from a mother who usually spent her time condemning her.

Susan plopped the bag on Daisy's bed as she made her way around the room, beginning to pick up the clothes on the ground and throwing them towards Daisy to put away. "I thought maybe you'd want to look nice for once, considering it'll be your last first day of high school."

And she blew it.

Daisy pulled the magenta blazer out first, then the bright blue skirt next. She really tried to hide the disgusted look on her face. She really did.

"You don't like it?" Susan cocks an eyebrow.

Daisy put it back in the bag. "It's nice, mom." She sighs, getting herself off her bed and putting the bag next to her closet to put away later.

Susan shakes her head frustratedly. "I always try and do nice things for you and you continue to treat me like I'm some sort of— lower being." Susan went off on a tangent that Daisy immediately began to drown out, as something out the window caught her eye.

Daisy walks toward the window and peers out, noticing a moving truck at the house next door, her mother still speaking to her. A moving truck was parked in the white house that stood across from her window.

A huge family began to bring their boxed furniture into the house. There were at least seven kids— from what she could see. "Jesus." Daisy mumbled.

"Are you even listening to me?" Susan says.

"Who are they?" Daisy gestures out the window.

Susan sighs and walks over to the window to observe with her daughter. "The Parkers." She begins. "Julia told me their old house burnt down to the ground a few weeks ago."

"You're such a gossip, mom." Daisy shakes her head, watching as the younger kids played in their front lawn.

"It's not gossip." Susan retracts. "They'll be going to your school."

"Okay." She spoke.

"Twins, I think. Seniors, like you." Susan thought for a second as she tried to think of their names. "Josette? Maybe? and Kai?"

Daisy shrugs, watching as a boy walks out of the house to get more boxes— probably Kai. He was walking over to the moving truck and gave some of the smaller boxes to what looked like his little brother, then took some in himself.

"I made some brownies earlier, I was thinking we could all take them over and introduce ourselves." Susan shrugs chirpily.

"Oh, absolutely not." Daisy walks away from the window and sits back down on her bed, putting a new tape in her walkman.

"Well it's not up to you." Susan sighs sharply, lingering in Daisy's room for a bit before Daisy puts her headphones on as a sign for her to leave. As her mother walks towards the door, she gestures towards one of the INXS posters hanging next to her door. "Take these down, people will think you're a whore." She shut the door behind her.

Daisy plopped her head back onto her bed, kicking her legs up to lean against the wall as she tapped her feet to the Duran Duran tape she had in her walkman.

Daisy's mother, Susan, was task master, mission maker and decider of everyone's general direction in life. She organized the chores, the activities and the fun like any good army drill sergeant.

Her father was dead. She didn't know him very well, he died in a car wreck when she was four. The only memory she has of him is when he blew out her birthday candles for her at a birthday party and it made her really mad.

Susan started dating this cop, George, a few months ago, and now he practically lived with them. He made it to every family dinner, bringing along his seven year old son, Michael. He was nice. But he was trying too hard, and Daisy saw right through it.

Her older sister, Allison, was the champion, the go-getter, the model child that mom had so carefully crafted. She used to be fun, and her and Daisy were really close— but then she turned into a stuck up brat.

Daisy, however, felt like she stuck out like a sore thumb against her suburban family. She tried to dress different. She tried to act different. She did everything she could to stop people from associating her with the 'perfect little family' on Oak Street. Maybe it was just apart of a phase that all teenagers go through, like her mom said, but it was better than doing what she was expected of.

Daisy was smart— yet she never applied herself. She knew she could get better grades if she actually tried sometimes, but the effort wasn't there. It's like the more bad grades she got— the more her mother would differentiate her from Allison. And she liked that.

"Come on!" Susan yells from downstairs.

Daisy heard her over her headphones, yet chose to ignore her and make her walk all the way back up the steps.

It didn't take long for the door to swing open again. "Take your headphones off, for once." Allison says frustratedly. "We're going to meet the neighbors, come on."

"Fuck off." Daisy says, not turning to face the door, and continue to tap her feet to the music. She felt the footsteps of Allison charging towards her bed, before she ripped off the headphones.

"That's really mature, Daisy." Allison says.

Daisy swats Allison's hands away from her and takes the headphones off herself. "Aren't you supposed to be in college right about now?" Daisy rolls her eyes as she gets up and off her bed.

"I don't start until next semester, you know that." Allison responds. "Come on."

Allison left without another word, leaving the door standing wide open. Daisy shoves her boots on before heading downstairs, seeing the disappointed look of her mother and sister as they waited by the door.

"They're gonna think she worships the devil in that outfit." Allison mutters to her mother.

That's something Allison and Susan had in common, they were quite focused on what others thought of them. That was the whole reason they were headed to the neighbors in the first place. Not to be good neighbors, or make new friends— but to make sure the Parkers thought well of their family .

Daisy walked down the sidewalk the street with her hands shoved in her jacket pockets, trailing behind Allison and Susan who quietly gossiped about how out of date the house was.

As they got to the driveway of the house, Susan readjusted her posture and put on a fake smile as a woman set down a box to come greet them.

"Can I help you?" She asks, brushing the sweat off her forehead.

"I'm Susan Hendrix— we live next door." She begins. "We just thought we'd come say hi and bring these by for your family."

"Oh." The woman nods, smiling at her. "That's so kind, thank you." She accepts the tray from Susan's hands. "I'm Diana, Parker." The woman seemed kind, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. She had one of those faces that immediately made you feel like you could trust them.

"These are my two daughters," Susan says. "Allison and Daisy." She gestures behind her towards us.

Allison immediately holds out her hand for Diana to shake. "Very nice to meet you, Mrs. Parker." She spoke like it was rehearsed.

Daisy stayed back, snorting at Susan's wide eyes that were trying piercing into her skin as an attempt to get Daisy to introduce herself to Diana.

"This is my husband, Joshua." Diana says after a man comes back out from inside. "Josh, these are the people that live next door— they brought us some brownies." She smiled faintly and nodded towards him.

Joshua smiled as her shook Susan and Allison's hands, sending a quick wave toward Daisy in the back. Susan swallows. "Daisy actually goes to Wayward High." She nods. "I heard your kids might be going there, too."

As Susan spoke, Daisy's eyes trailed off toward the front door as a boy walked out. She immediately recognized him from earlier— but this time she got a better look.

He had tousled dark brown hair, which was thick and lustrous. His eyes were a mesmerising deep ocean blue, flecks of silvery light performed ballets throughout. His face was strong and defined, his features molded from granite. He had dark eye brows, which sloped downwards in a serious expression.

"Yes, they'll be starting tomorrow." Joshua spoke.

Daisy's eyes didn't lift off of Kai— not until he caught her staring— to which she quickly darted her eyes back to the conversation.

"Daisy, he asked you a question." Susan spoke.

Daisy saw Kai stand next to his father out of the corner of her eye. "What?" She raises an eyebrow towards Joshua.

"I asked if you liked it there, at Wayward high." He nods.

"Oh." Daisy shrugs. "Not really."

Susan scoffed and shook her head. "She's being dramatic."

Joshua laughed slightly. "This is Kai." He pats his son's back. "He'll be a senior, along with his twin Josette."

"So will Daisy." Susan nods happily. She always had to make the conversation about her.

"Oh, perfect." Diana says. "See Kai, you already have a friend."

Daisy and Kai both scoff, earning disappointed looks from their parents. He turns to Daisy. "You have a weird name." Kai says bluntly.

Daisy was taken back at first, he didn't look like the type to blurt out random shit like that— especially in front of so many people.

"Malachai." Joshua mutters, looking at him sternly.

Daisy raises her eyebrows. "Ooo, Malachai's not much better." She says sarcastically.

Allison quickly took action to change the subject. "I, for one, loved Wayward. I just graduated last year and now I'll be heading off to Reed College next semester." She nods happily.

Daisy rolls her eyes at Allison's need to tell everyone she was going to Reed, beginning to drown out her words.

Daisy felt Kai's eyes on her and she looked up— waiting for him to look away— but he didn't. She narrowed her eyebrows at the subtle smirk on his face, sending him a nasty sneer in response.

"We better keep unpacking." Diana spoke, sending Susan a kind smile. "Thanks again, you didn't have to do this."

"It was no problem at all." Susan mirrored her smile. "We'll see you around."

Daisy had already turned around and began her walk back to the house, knowing Kai's stare lingered on her back. She already knew they wouldn't get along. Only after saying one sentence to him, she knew Kai was already her least favorite type of person.

All it took was avoidance. Just because they were neighbors— didn't mean they had to speak ever again.