— welcome to your life —

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"MISS Thomas..." Eloise watched the teacher in front of her with a smile, "please... these sessions are not going to work unless you actually try to work with me,"

Mrs. Jennings was a middle-aged woman with a kind face. Her hair was knotted into a high bun, and her glasses rested on the tip of her nose. Eloise briefly wondered if Mrs. Jennings could have perhaps resembled Harley Quinn in her younger years.

Harley Quinn, the infamous psychotic villain. A woman whose true colors were revealed by a man, only for her to rise to even heights the Joker would never reach. Such a shame. Eloise always hated that the Joker could not see how lucky he was to have had someone like the badass bitch Harley Quinn by his side.

Mrs. Jennings watched Eloise expectantly, but Eloise only let out a tired yawn. She leaned back dramatically while doing so, allowing her knees to fall apart in a way that was anything but flattering.

Once upon a time, Eloise could not even imagine acting so disrespectful to a teacher. But then again, she never would have imagined herself to end up at a place like Chief Hill Reformation School either.

Eloise had been in New York City and attending Chief Hill for a little over two months now, and in that time she had changed drastically. No longer was she little miss perky and popular Eloise. No longer does she live in California and drive a Jeep. No longer was she captain of the figure skating team—relying on her skills at skating to get her a full-ride athletics scholarship.

No.

Now, she was Elle—a mischievous and wild teenager with an eye for trouble. Sure, she was still go-lucky and hyper, but now rather than use her natural ADHD to be perky, she used it to be carefree.

Oh, how times have changed.

A part of Eloise's big change came from the accident. But the rest came from Chief Hill. This school was made to make kids into better people, but what no one expected was for it to actually be a worse influence on her.

Of course, when it is a literal reformation school—there was bound to be some rather "troubled" kids roaming the halls. Except, these "troubled" individuals were practically the entirety of the school population.

Unless Eloise wanted to be chewed up and spit out, then she had to change. And change she did. It was surely giving her Aunt Taylor a headache, but she tried to remain as positive as she could.

Humming, Eloise checked her phone for the time.

"Looks like the session is over," she stood, grabbing her backpack, "thank you very much, Mrs. Jennings—I really do enjoy our little chats," and by that, they both knew Eloise meant sitting there silent for over an hour while Mrs. Jennings tried to get her to talk.

Mrs. Jennings simply sighed, taking her glasses off and pinching the bridge of her nose. Eloise bit her lip and rose her brows at the scene. She shrugged, spinning on her heel and heading toward the doors of the office.

The office was decorated in a bright array of colors, inspirational quotes posted all over the walls in an effort to show kids that "they can do it!"

Just as she grasped the metallic handle of the door, Mrs. Jennings's voice rang out.

"You cannot keep doing this, Eloise," she cringed at the use of her full name—only family called her that now, "if you want even the slightest chance of going home earlier than a year, then we need to make progress..."

Eloise's shoulders dropped, but she ignored the teacher and continued out.

The hallways of Chief Hill were nothing like most schools. Unlike Mrs. Jennings's office, there were no bright colors or sloppy flyers, or even any school spirit. To be honest, Eloise was not sure the school even had a mascot.

This place was dull and meant for the forced education system of the country. At first, because all the halls looked the same and were dull—Eloise had a hard time navigating it. But now she was more than fine, she knew all the best hiding spots to skip class, the places the hall monitors would never find her at.

Eloise walked quickly with a pep in her step. The hallways were emptied out as school was dismissed over an hour ago. Considering there were no afterschool activities other than counseling for certain students, the campus was practically abandoned.

Eloise jumped over the metal detectors in the foyer of the school and shoved her way out of the main entrance. Her colorful Nike shoes slapped the ground, the wind of New York hitting her harshly.

She allowed her gaze to rake over the now familiar big city. It was surely different than L.A.

Just as big, but more compact. And much colder.

Her previous fear had been correct. No longer was her skin that gorgeous olive shade she loved, it was much paler. Thankfully, she still had a slight natural tan that would never go away, but overall, she was much paler than she has ever been.

The girl adjusted her beanie while walking down the steps of the school. Her locks were still much shorter than they had ever been, but her hair had grown to her shoulders. If she had not bleached and colored her hair, then surely the curls would also be back by now.

However, Eloise decided about two weeks after arriving in New York that she needed a drastic physical change. And so, Elle now sported a shoulder-length bob that was an interesting color.

It was technically dark purple, but blue highlights weaved throughout giving it a blue tint. Because of this, many people could not tell whether it was actually purple or blue.

The ringed nose piercing was also a new look. Aunt Taylor and her Fiancé, Forrest, nearly had a heart attack when Eloise walked through the door after dying her hair and getting the piercing. And when Eloise proclaimed that she would now be going by "Elle", Aunt Taylor had broken down in tears.

Yeah, Eloise had kind of just waddled off to her room after that. They had not spoken about it since then, and while neither of them scolded her over the sudden change, they also did not start calling her by that nickname.

"Yo, Elle!"

She turned her head, stopping in front of an alley a few blocks away from the school.

Bingo.

A small group of teen riffraff who Eloise now called her new friends loitered in the alley almost suspiciously. Eloise waltzed up to the group of three, the smell of pot greeting her. The group nearly always smelled of pot and cigars, so it was nothing new for Eloise.

"Aye, Zeke," she greeted the member l she was closest to.

They fist-bumped and Eloise nodded to the other two members, a scraggly boy named Martin and a girl with a scarily skinny body named Bridgette. Both were obviously high if the way their pupils looked had anything to say about it.

Eloise remembered the days when she was obsessed with staying as skinny and fit as possible. Figure skating helped with that goal a lot, but now that she was not doing any sport—she lost a lot of muscle and gained a few pounds.

She was still on the lean side but had more of a figure now. Her ass was something she was especially proud of. The jeans she wore hugged it in a pretty hot way too. Her flannel covered almost all of her upper body leaving everything to the imagination of others.

Zeke messed with his quiff with a sniff and smiled down at Eloise.

Admittedly, surrounding herself in a new environment and having constant distractions made it easy to keep herself from thinking about the accident. Having ADHD made it a lot easier as well, she was already easily distracted as it was.

"Soooo," she bounced on her toes, excited for yet another day of after-school mischief, "what're we doing?"

————————

The grocery stores in New York were interesting. Mostly because in the city, they were located in multileveled buildings meaning a multilevel grocery store. It still amused Eloise, and she found herself looking around Whole Foods in interest.

Many people, mostly mothers and single parents lingered around. The group of teens had only stopped to grab some eggs so they could head on top of a parking garage and egg people from up top.

"Three cartons of eggs?"

Eloise was the only one to make eye contact with the shopping clerk. Zeke avoided her gaze from behind Elle, Bridgette stood with a dopey smile, and Martin was... wait, where is Martin?

Eloise's thoughts were cut off as she and Zeke split the payment for the eggs, choosing not to say anything to the clerk. Just as the cashier was placing the cash in the register, a movement from the corner of her caught Eloise's attention. Her attention, ever easy to catch but easier to lose, drifted to the side.

There was Martin. At the front of the store, starting to move his body around in the beginnings of some sort of dance.

What the fuck?

Eloise realized that the grocery store was currently playing a Rhianna song, and Martin was starting to dance to that. A small smile lit up her features, and she nudged Zeke who followed her gaze. He snickered upon seeing his friend, laughing loudly when Bridgette suddenly to join him.

The clerk and a few other customer's attention had been caught by the duo as well. While it was not the worst thing they could do, the two rambunctious teens started cheering and hardcore dancing as though this were a rave.

It was causing quite the scene and they were being a nuisance. With no hesitation, Zeke suddenly hopped onto the counter of the register—waving his arms and dancing around like. lunatic.

Truly, they all looked high as fuck.

The clerk let out a small scream of shock, picking up a walkie.

"Security to the front of the store—security to the front of the store..."

The clerk called on her walkie, and just as Elle started to bounce with her friend, security appeared. They were walking up the aisles with an air of authority, as though they were the actual police.

Oh no. Oh no, no, no.

This just would not due. No way, this grocery store security guard had to be taken down a peg. And what better way to do that than by a bunch of teenage dirtbags.

In complete honesty, it was Eloise who did it. With no hesitation, she reached for the carton of eggs and immediately starting chucking some at the security guard. Zeke hollered a laugh, and soon the other three had joined in, spitting lewd curses to the security guard who had already called the cops.

Chaos erupted. People got out their phones to film this, making sure to stay out of the way of the naughty teenagers who were now just chucking eggs anything and everyone.

One lady let out a blood-curdling scream as though she had been shot in the chest, but in reality, Zeke just hit her tits with an egg. In minutes, the sound of the police siren echoes throughout, and the group of four scrambled.

Eloise cursed, but a giant smile widened her face. She was having so much fun!

But she also had to be careful. With her current situation, an arrest would be anything but helpful. She raced out the doors of the grocery store, hot on Zeke's heels. They avoided the dangerous grasp of the cops who stood outside about to make their way in.

Of course, the cops went after Martin and Zeke first, as they were boys and the trashiest looking of the quartet.

However, that attention soon shifted to Eloise who raced away at the speed of light, holding her middle finger out and shouting a gleeful, "suck my nuts, you assholes!"

New Yorkers cried in indignation as Eloise shoved past them, the cops doing the same as they chased her down. She had already lost the other three, and her backpack jangled as she ran. Her pupils were blown wide, the same stupid grin ripped across her face.

After minutes of running, she turned into an alley. She rose a brow at what met her sight.

What in the hell?

Was it a huge buggy? No maybe a tank? No, it was a buggy...?

Okay, this was definitely some sort of tanked-up buggy. It was huge and almost glistened in the sunlight.

Eloise's easy to grasp attention had been more than caught as she gaped at the thing. It looked so cool!

Her fingers twitched as she gazed upon it. It was like an adventure wrapped up and waiting to be opened.

She had never seen anything like this at all. Eloise wondered who could have created such a thing. It must have cost millions, probably something met for a military. There were none of the normal car brand logos on it as far as she could tell, so it must have been an off-brand thing.

It had a rotund build, the top of it arching down almost like a shell. The tires were triple her size, and the entrance was so high that without a plank to walk up—Eloise would struggle to reach it.

Who could have afforded such a vehicle? How did this thing get its power? There was no way it just ran on gasoline!

A billion questions ran through her mind as she blinked at the buggy is awestruck.

Yeah, there is no way she was just going to pass this up.

Especially upon hearing the sounds of the cops not too far behind.