My fourth period history class was a breeze since all we did was watch a video and I took a nap. I may seem like a slacker but I have a 4.0 grade point average. How? Because my classes are easy and need very little attention. Except math, that class causes me enough stress it makes up for the rest of my schedule. The bell rings to go to lunch and today Judith is waiting for me by my locker.

"Hey," I smile at her.

"Hey, have you seen the new kid?" she whispers to me pointing behind her. Even though I know who she's talking about I look where she's pointing. I see Colton struggling to open his locker. Without responding to her question, I grab her hand and pull her towards the exit of the building.

As we pass Colton I whisper quickly, "three to the right, two to the left, one to the right." He turns around but I keep walking, not waiting to see if he gets the locker open.

Once we're outside, Judith squeals, "So you do know him! Cam he's so cute!"

"Girl, calm down. He's my new neighbor but he's a total jerk," I say briefly.

"I wish I had hot neighbors," she sighs and I let out a laugh. We make our way to our usual lunch spot and sit down. Judith and I discuss the book we're supposed to be reading for English. "It's a great book, I just wish Lennie didn't have to die," she says.

"Well how else was the book supposed to end?" I ask her, raising my brow.

"I dunno, I guess it was a good ending," she sighs.

"It was a great ending," I correct her and we both laugh. I notice Colton enter the cafeteria and right away I see Nova and her pack of followers right behind her. Nova's twirling her blonde hair with her finger as she talks to him. I can't help but look disgusted.

A group of football boys come passing by our table. "Hey Camryn," one says loudly, loud enough to get people's attention, "I was wondering if your parents and my parents could maybe meet up some time. They're planning on adopting a dog and your parents have a lot of experience in that kind of thing don't they?" Well that's a new one. My mouth falls open a little as everyone around us starts to laugh but I quickly recover.

"Very funny," I say to him, " but being a dick won't make yours any bigger." His jock friends burst into laughter and his face goes red.

He tells his friends to shut up and they all walk away from our table. I don't know why, but I look over at Colton and I think I see a smile on his lips.

***

After fifth period I go straight to my car to head home. In the back parking lot I see Colton standing by a planter. I remember from his schedule that he doesn't have a sixth period because seniors are able to have a class missing. I expect to see his dad's car pull up, but instead I see the same car that picked him up yesterday with the same sketchy guy driving. Colton's about to get into the car when he notices me watching him. He steps away from the car and makes his way to me.

"Try not to rat on me this time will you," he says coldly. What is with him?! He's literally bipolar. His mood swings are starting to piss me off.

"Try not to get beat up this time will you," I say back mockingly. He lets out a cold laugh and walks back to the car. They drive off loudly and once again, I'm left alone. I get in my car and I'm home within minutes. Outside of Colton's house is a nice looking motorcycle in the driveway. His dad's black Suburban is nowhere in sight, he must be at work or something.

I walk into my house to find that both my parents are at work today. My mom works at a makeup counter at Nordstrom at the mall. She doesn't get paid much, but she gets a great employee discount. I start work at five today so I get straight to work on my math homework.

I decide to make myself something to eat before heading to the diner because if I don't, I'll end up eating the junk that's served there. I warm myself some left over enchiladas and eat them quickly before heading upstairs to change into my uniform.

The diner's uniform consists of a white short sleeved V-neck, black jeans and a red apron with 'Bobby's Diner' printed in gold letters on the front. I throw my hair into a ponytail and carry the apron downstairs with me. I grab my keys and walk out the door. As I walk to my car I hear that loud car leaving our neighborhood. I look and sure enough, Colton is walking up his driveway. He looks me up and down before shaking his head and looking away.

I'm offended by his look. Do I look bad? Whatever, I haven't cared about what people think of me in years, why start now?

The diner is pretty close to the school but luckily our only customers are old men and women. The manager of the diner is a woman named Abel. She's like a second mother to me. She's a little shorter than I am and she describes herself as 'the hottest black woman you'll ever meet'. Even though she's in her late forties, I always agree with her.

"Camryn!" she cheers as I walk in, "it's pay day!"

"Oh that's today," I smile, as I tie my apron behind my back. She laughs and puts the envelope with my check in my apron pocket.

I've been working here long enough to have the privilege of working the counter my entire shift. It's less work and the tips are great since the usuals are pretty much the only ones who sit there. I get behind the counter and put on my name tag.

"There's my favorite diner girl," an older looking man says from the counter.

"Hey Dan, how are you this evening?" I smile at him.

"I'm good now that you're here," he says.

"Oh stop that old man," I laugh and pour him his usual cup of coffee. He takes it black because according to him, creamer is for the weak. His coffee costs one dollar, but he leaves me a five dollar tip. This is why I love the usuals. There's absolutely no reason to leave that great of a tip, but what else is the old man going to do with his money?

The rest of the night is slow, so I spend it sweeping up the whole joint. My shift ends at ten and the cook always walks me to my car. I tell him goodnight and get into my car.

Right away I pull out my check to see how much I made in the past two weeks. $467.52. Not bad, but that's not getting me to college. I pull my tips out of my apron and count $56. That's great considering the slow day we had.

I start my car and head home. I try to quietly get up the stairs, but my dad hears me and calls me to him in the kitchen. It's pretty late for him to still be up.

"Cam, you got paid today right?" he asks. I nod. "Okay, I'm going to have to borrow your check again this week," he says.

"Dad, that's my fifth paycheck in row," I say, "and you haven't paid me back anything."

"I'm sorry but do you enjoy having a roof over your head? Work is slow right now, we need the money." He says. I feel bad that he stresses about money but I need to save my own but he has now borrowed over a thousand dollars from me. I hand him my check from my pocket and turn around to go upstairs. "Oh and Cam, do you have any cash on you?" I sigh and turn around. I pull my cash out of my apron and count out forty dollars and hand it to him. He asks for the rest but I glare at him and he takes it back. Can't he just leave me $16.

I take a quick shower and lay on my bed. I check my bank account on my phone and the amount makes me feel like shit. Almost two years of work and all I have saved up is three thousand dollars. The reality of never leaving this place is overwhelming and suddenly it's hard to breathe. I open my window and step out onto the roof. The light coming from the room across from mine reminds me that I can't lay in my usual spot. So instead I sit in front of my own window and take in deep breaths of fresh air. I can feel the tears forming in my eyes and I blink them away.

I pull my knees to my chest and rest my forehead on top of them. The tears roll down my face faster and it's getting a little harder to control them. I hear a noise in front of me and my head shoots up.

It's Colton opening his window. He sticks his head out and eyes me carefully. I wipe my face and stand up. "Are you okay?" he asks.

"What do you care?" I snap. His expression remains neutral and I climb back into my room. I feel bad as I lay in my bed, but he's been nothing but mean to me so I get over it. My eyes feel heavy and I allow sleep to take over.

***

The next morning I decide to skip school due to my late shift last night and I sleep in until 11. I wake up feeling refreshed and a little guilty that Judith will have to sit with someone else at lunch today. This day off gives me a chance to clean up the house and surprise my parents who are already at work. Okay it's not really to surprise them, it's really so they won't be so mad that I ditched.

At around 1:30 I check to see if my teachers put any homework online and of course I have two math assignments. I get to work on those but soon give up since I have no idea what it's about. My teacher enjoys teaching a completely different thing each day so if you're absent you're pretty much shit out of luck.

Just as I'm about to turn the tv on in my room, there's a knock at the front door. I walk downstairs and the knocks grow louder and impatient. I swing the door open to see who the hell is banging on my door. It's Colton.

"What?" I ask, a little annoyed by his banging. He holds out a stack of papers for me to grab.

"You missed this in anatomy today," he says. Oh. I take the papers and look them over. They're our weekly worksheets. He's not wearing his sunglasses today and his black eye has now faded to a light bruise.

"Oh, thanks," I say. He looks me up and down with his hazel eyes and I'm reminded that I'm still in my pajamas. They consist of just shorts and a tank top and I'm suddenly a little self conscious.

"Why'd you ditch?" he asks.

"I was tired," I say and he laughs.

"What's your deal?" I ask boldly. My question catches him off guard and his face hardens.

"What do you mean?" he asks. He has a very strong facial structure and it's more prominent when he clenches his jaw.

"One minute you're mean and then the next you want to be my friend," I explain to him.

He laughs coldly and says, "I don't want to be your friend," and walks away.

Well I'm glad we got that cleared up.

I close the door and feel a little hurt by his remark. Why doesn't he want to be my friend? Is it because everybody at school thinks of me as some type of disease like 'oh hanging out with Camryn will make you unwanted by your birth parents'.

Well if that's his reason then I don't want to be friends with him either. I throw the papers he brought me in the trash. I can get my own tomorrow.

I walk back upstairs to my room and here my phone ringing. I check the caller ID and see that it's my cousin Aimee.

"Hello?" I answer.

"Camryn!" she says loudly. Aimee's a couple years younger than me and she just started her freshman year. She's extremely pretty and has an attitude to match.

"What?" I ask, putting her on speaker phone as I walk into my bathroom.

"You won't believe what happened, ok so you know how me and Nico just made it official? Well he came over and and we started making out," she goes on with her story before I can even say a word. I gather my hair in my hands and put it into a ponytail. "And we were on my bed and he was on top and out of nowhere he just stuck his hand down my pants and..."

"AIMEE!" I shout, dropping my hands from my hair. "I really do not want to hear about your first experience with third base," I tell her.

"But Cam I tell you everything," she whines. I pick up my phone off the sink and take it back into my room where I throw it on the bed. I open up my curtains and open the window to let some air in.

"Fine," I groan. She goes on to tell me how it hurt and was uncomfortable and a little awkward. "Well did you guys have sex?" I ask.

"No, I don't think I'm ready," she says and I let out a sigh of relief, she's still a baby to me. "What about you Cam, how's your sex life?"

I laugh and say, "Nonexistent."

"C'mon, you need a boyfriend," she says.

"Sorry to break it to you but nobody really wants to date the adopted freak," I say, picking at my nails.

"Ugh, you're not even a freak, people are just stupid," she groans and I agree. But if that's true then that means 99.9% of my school is full of idiots.

I want to change the subject so I ask, "when's Mando's birthday party?" Mando is her little brother and his 1st birthday is coming up soon.

"Um in about three weeks I think, you're coming right?" she asks.

"Of course," I say, "hey I gotta go, I'll talk to you later, kay? Bye."

"Alright bye, love you."

"Love you too." I hang up the phone. I get up from the bed and turn to face my window. I'm startled when I see Colton sitting on his roof. He's reading a book and doesn't seem to notice me. Did he hear me? Oh god was he listening the whole time? That would be so embarrassing if he did but he doesn't seem as if he heard me. Anyone listening to that conversation would've of surely laughed. But could I really picture Colton laughing? No.

I pretend I didn't notice him an lay back on my bed, turning my tv on. I hear a phone ring and it isn't mine.

"Hey," says Colton. "Yeah I'll be right there," he says. I can hear him perfectly so he must've heard my phone call. I peek my head up and look out my window. He's gone and I hear a loud engine roar. It's not loud like the car that always picks him up, it's loud like.. a motorcycle. That must've been his motorcycle in the driveway.

The sound of the bike fades as he gets further away and I find myself thinking about how he doesn't want to be friends again. Why does it bother me so much about what this boy thinks of me?