Young Writers Society

This is a story I keep rewriting, trying to improve. Crits would be lovely, sorry if there's any typos!

---

“We’re not making any progress,”

Judge Matheson’s eyes expressed annoyance at my gum-chewing, snapping, and popping. He pushed his glasses back unto his nose and his magnified grey eyes stared in my green glare, looking for some sort of remorse, which he never saw. He sighed and began to scribble down on some paper. I removed the gum from my mouth and stuck it on the shoe of the lucky bastard who fell asleep with his feet up behind me.

“Celia, you’ve been expelled from your high school and placed in Buffalo’s House for troubled teens. I hope I’ll never have to see you again. Court adjourned.”

The mallet against the wood was a familiar sound, almost like a farewell, until the next time someone pissed me off. I grinned a little and thanked him with my middle finger as I escorted out by two overly macho police officers.

The effect of being sent to detention center hadn’t really hit me until the bus to hell was in front of my house. I didn’t cry. My two flasks were enough to make me numb and maybe just a little tipsy.

After bidding my farewell to my family I hopped unto the bus. Apprehension took over when I realized I was not the only one fucked up. I scanned the bus for an empty seat. I found a match in the back; I collapsed into my seat and looked over at the pothead I was sitting with. Kurt Cobain’s voice serenaded him as his pearly blue eyes looked up through his sandy blonde hair. He even kind of looked like Kurt, well, minus the eyeliner. I tried to shake it from my head but as I looked at him I heard those cheesy wedding bells in my head. I laughed to myself and relaxed in my seat. A few minutes later, I passed out and luckily, woke up as soon as we arrived at the house.

The house has upset my expectations. It seemed almost…cozy. The last detention center I was residing in was on the contrary. The leaky roof and lovely pit-bulls were its best attributes. There was no doubt in my mind that our caretaker had been a pedophile and the daily odor was the lovely scent of bodily fluids in a toilet that refused to flush.

This new place, I was a little confused about. The grass was almost too green and there wasn’t a straw out of place. It seemed impossible to walk from the end of the driveway to the front door of the house in less than five minutes. The bus pulled up to the front of the house and this scrawny guy climbed on. I laughed to myself as I looked at this guy. Was this whole thing a joke? He gave the impression that he was as fucked up as the rest of us. He scratched his full head of messy brown locks. His bloodshot brown eyes glared around the bus at the stranger.

“Hey, I’m Theo. Um, this isn’t the detention center if you’re smart enough to realize that. My dad runs this place. He thinks he can 'fix' you. But we all know that’s impossible…”

A relaxed expression appeared on my face as I watched him fidget about with a sly grin on his face. The atmosphere of the bus became at ease, since the normal first impressions were screaming, hitting, and name-calling.

“Follow me, I’ll show you misfits to your rooms.”

There were about twelve of us. There was no difference between us and kids in a candy store as we glanced around at the luxuries that were to accommodate us. The floor was marble and the ceiling was unreachable, and the sweet aroma of warm cookies enveloped the room. He led us up the staircase to heaven, or whatever was waiting for us up there.

We stopped in the middle of the hallway, which seemed to be unbounded on either side.

“There’s six rooms, don’t be idiots.” He began to walk down the stairs, he stopped and turned around.

“This time we’re avoiding all STDs so no co-ed rooms. Dinner’s at seven” He made it all the way down the stairs before we all began to move.

Sophie was my roommate. Her features were soft and innocent. Perplexity ran through my veins and I tried to reason why she would be here. Her blue eyes enlivened her pale face and her milky blonde strands were joined in a high pony tail that bounced when she walked. We harmonized easily as crude humor and attraction to Theo were commonalities. Within the first hour of familiarizing, we knew almost everything there was to know about each other.

She was caught vandalizing, or “creating a depiction” as she described, on the side of her school. Ten times. I guess you could say she wasn’t one of those people who learned from their mistakes. But I shouldn’t be one to talk.

“Should I change?”

Sophie had just finished putting up a poster of Kurt on our door. She looked at herself in the mirror and released a sigh. Her petite body was covered by a tight led zeppelin t-shirt and white jeans.

“Darling, you’re stunning!” I exclaimed with humor, but sincerity.

She grinned and we meandered through our journey to the dining room. Apparently, we were fashionably late. All eyes were on us as we were the last to seat our selves.

“Nice of you to join us,”

Our eyes both shifted to the odd man who was seated at the head of the table. His striking resemblance to Theo made it quite obvious that it was assumingly his father. He looked quite young and troublesome, which would not do us any good. Sophie and I sat down in the last two seats next to the man.

“I’m Sean, and we’re just about to start introducing ourselves.” He said, with a warm smile less face, his voice was quiet and gave me a sense of comfort. There were a few awkward moments of silence and then Sean stood up,

“Okay, if you haven’t realized yet, this is not a detention center. I’m here to help you not fuck up, so listen to me and you’ll stay out of jail.”

That was it, and most likely all we would know about this place we were at. I was even more confused than I had been when I first arrived. All we had to do was listen? What a joke.

He shifted his glare to the boy at the opposite side of the table.

“Why don’t we start with you?”

The boy shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and looked down at his plate. His black hair cascaded to his cheekbones as he fiddled with his salad fork.

“I’m Luke, and I like to set things on fire,” He looked up with a smug grin on his face and small chuckles were heard.

Next to Luke was Violet, the teen prostitute. She was quite proud of her accomplishments. After Violet, was Steph the alcoholic who provided proof with her drooping eyelids and constant giggling. There were a few other unmemorable rebels and then we got to the wedding bells kid.

“He looks like Kurt!” Sophie exclaimed in a whisper, I nodded and grinned.

“I’m Bo, and I stabbed my best friend.”

The mood in the room changed and a timid feeling spread through the room. He scratched his head and continued to stare blankly at his plate. Oddly, I was intrigued by him; I wanted to know so much more. Next to Bo was Riley the ‘illegal substance’ dealer. I was after Sophie and decided to tell them only of the most recent misdemeanor.

“I’m Celia…and I got in trouble for assault,”

After dinner, I quickly made my way up to my room. I felt nauseous, like everyone knew I was concealing something. I kicked off my shoes and buried my head in the pillow. Painful memories were brought back to life with every escalating heartbeat. I remember his hands; the one that covered my mouth, and the one that invaded me. Every day for months, my father took advantage of me, even forcing my brother to abuse me. My nightmares were interrupted when I was startled by the door opening; Sophie came in and sat on my bed.

“You okay?” She placed her hand on my back and staring at me with sympathetic eyes.

“I’m fine, how long was I out for?” I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

“A couple hours…a few of us are out back,” She giggled, “Luke is making us a bonfire, wanna come?”

“I dunno…”I murmured.

“C’mon, the boys were asking for you!” she nudged.

“Well, I’ve got nothing else to do…” I replied. She grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the room.

We could hear snoring from the master bed room so we crept quietly down the stairs.