Chapter 1 // What In The Name Of Heck

  Violet's POV

  Beep. Beep. Beep. I wake up with a spring and shut off my alarm clock. Well, I say "with a spring," but it was more like "after many failed attempts of trying to shut off the alarm clock with my mind." This is gonna be a great last half of senior year!

  Monday's are the worst. You have to wake up early again after weekends of scrolling through social media and eating ice cream while you lay in your bed dressed in your pajamas. I'd much rather be doing that right now instead of eating cold toast at 6:05 in the morning.

  My mom groggily walks downstairs in her bath robe. "Morning," she says, yawning afterwards.

  "Mornin," I reply, taking a large chunk out of my toast. My mom must be up to make breakfast for Olivia. That's my younger sister. She's only 6 years old. Sometimes I envy her. Mom always makes breakfast for her, and she gets to sleep in because her school starts later. Plus, she doesn't have drama at her school.

  We live in Elk Grove, a small town just next to Los Angeles. It's about a ten minute drive. Anyways, the school I go to - and the only one in my town - is Elk Grove High (go figure). Despite being a small school in a small town, Elk Grove High has a lot of drama. Somebody always goes home crying everyday. Luckily, it hasn't been me yet.

  "I'm gonna go get ready," I say, hopping out of my seat at the dining room table and bringing my plate to the sink.

  My mom hums in acknowledgement and starts taking out several frying pans and pots.

  I put on a white tshirt with a red flannel over it, and slip on a pair of black jeans. I pick up a black tshirt to out in my backpack later because you never know if your shirt is too sweaty from PE to wear it for the rest of the day. I rush to he bathroom down the hall to brush my teeth and apply minimal makeup. I grab a hair tie from my dresser and put it around my wrist. A car horn honks from outside.

"That's Meghan!" I yell as a rush down the stairs, grabbing my backpack from next to the door and putting on a pair of grey converse. "Bye, mom. Love ya!" I say lastly and rush out the door.

"Have a good day, Vio-!" She's interrupted by the door slamming. I don't have to worry about my bidding my dad farewell because he and me mom divorced a few months after Olivia was born. She doesn't remember him, but I do.

"Sorry I'm late!" I say, shutting the door as I climb into Meghan's convertible.

"About time, Vi," Meghan replies. "I've been here for like an hour!" she jokes.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, ma'am. I shall never do it again," I say with a posh accent. I usually get a ride with Meghan to school. If she's not here, I just walk. The school's not that far from here.

We drive down the street and I watch as the houses roll by. I know practically everyone on our street, and they all know me as well.

"So, more cold toast for breakfast this morning?" Meg asks, trying to start a conversation.

"Yep," I reply, taking my hair tie off my wrist and attempting to pull my red hair up in a pony tail.

  "You always have cold toast for breakfast though. How does it even get cold?" She makes a turn towards the school.

  "I make it the night before and I'm too lazy to heat it up again in the morning," I reply, pulling my hair through the tie again. Just gotta... Make sure this pulls through... And should should be goo-

  "DARN!" I yell as my hair tie snaps apart leaving a slight sting in my hand.

  Meghan gasps in shock and the car swerves a little to the right.

  "WHAT IN THE NAME OF HECK JUST HAPPENED?" she questions, recovering from her heart attack.

  "My hair tie broke," I reply innocently.

  "Here, just borrow it," she takes her hands a hand off the wheel and raised her wrist to her mouth, pulling off one I her many hair ties with her teeth. She spits the tie into my hands.

  "Thanks, Meg," I say, "You're the best!"

  "So I've been told many times before," she replies as we finally arrive at school. All the preppy populars are in the front yard by the parking lot, including the Queen Bee of them all, Courtney Steele. I see where she gets her last name from. Her glares are so cold and hard, you could practically melt them to make shields and weapons out of it!

  Her sidekick Mariah Coarse is her best friend and will do anything that please her master. She's like Courtney's servant in a way.

  Our school is fairly big but kinda small at the same time. It's has a set of stairs leading up to the main entrance of the school, and flower beds that trim around the school decorated with several different types of flowers and bushes, and the occasional fruit tree here and there.

Meg finds a parking spot near the front yard. To get to the doors, there's a paved path heading straight towards then stairs, dividing a path of grass. The left side of the path is plain, simply a few weeds and dandelions scattered here and there. On the right side, there's a huge oak tree, not to mention extremely old as well. We like to stay under there.

  I might as well mention the other annoying populars. There's the jocks as well. The most popular one - and may I add extremely attractive - is Isaac Gunn. He's also extremely annoying though, so stay away from him at all costs. Isaac has a younger brother as well. He's a player as well. Just the total package.

  Note the sarcasm.

  Isaac has a close friend named Xavier. He's also a jock. I've never been around him much to know more.

  Ok, so you're probably wondering how I know all this stuff about Isaac. Two things: 1) He's the most popular guy in school, literally every girl craves to know more about him. I'll admit, I used to be like that until I realized how much of a jerk he was. 2) He's in all of my classes except for my final period. I have Journaling and he has... Well, I don't know.

Meg and I walk over to the tree. I place my bag on the ground, and sit under it's cooling shade. "You gotta finish your homework?" she asks.

  I nod back in recognition.

  "Mrs. Quentin's class?"

  "You guessed it," I sigh, taking out my pencil and science binder.

  "I know you so well." She smiles and tilts her head left and right.

  "You know me so well," I confirm and finish my homework.

Hey guys! Thanks for reading the first chapter of Partnered. Hopefully you all enjoyed it! We'll see how this story goes, ye? Don't worry, it gets more interesting later on, trust me. I think :P See ya all in the next chapter (hopefully :3)!

Till then,
~Orchid