Chapter 1: Daybreak

Eveline Rogers’ alarm clock went off a third time. It seemed she had just hit that fucking snooze button, and here it was, already tormenting her, yet again. No, there was no getting out of it: the day most definitely had started.

The student forced herself to sit up. The early morning sunlight was pouring through her window. She had left her curtains open on purpose the night before, precisely so the light would add to the noise of the alarm clock and force her to get up. As much as she wanted to go back to sleep, it was too late. The light was blinding and the alarm was still going.

Yes - yes, time to get moving. The teenager forced herself to stand up as her eyes adjusted to the bright room. She groaned from a horrible headache, an upset stomach, and the fact she had only had three hours of sleep.

She looked about the room, which was in about the same condition as her head. Dirty clothes were tossed around, the sheets were pulled off her bed, and several days’ worth of dirty dishes were piled on her dresser. The stench of rotting food from the plates and filling her garbage can was getting pretty bad. She’d have to take all that shit to the kitchen and dump it in the sink. Then she thought: screw it. I’ll take care of it in the afternoon.

In the corner nearest the window there was a small table that was somewhat cleared off, covered with a couple of schoolbooks and an assignment she had half-heartedly tried to start the night before. She had not gotten very far into it, which was nothing new. It looked like it would be yet another missed assignment and yet another “F”.

Eveline wondered if there was even any point in bothering to go to school. The fall semester had just started and it seemed that she was already failing everything. She had been held back the previous year and because of that was still in the eleventh grade. The whole thing was getting to be an embarrassment, especially since it looked like she’d be flunking this year too. Maybe it was finally time to just give up and quit.

Alright, so, if she didn’t go to class, where could she go? She sure as hell didn’t want to stay in the house. There was nothing to do around town except wander the streets, since she didn’t have any money. So, she would indeed end up going to school, simply because there was nowhere else to go and nothing better to do with the day.

Eveline badly had to piss. Hopefully the hallway bathroom would be open. She opened up her bedroom door and stepped over a passed-out fat dude wearing greasy jeans and a torn black shirt. The shirt was pulled up to his chest, leaving his hairy tattooed stomach on display. Gross.

She looked in the bathroom. Someone had vomited purple slime all over the mirror and the sink. And, of course, there was a man sitting, fully dressed, in the shower. Go figure. Another of her brother’s creepy tweaker friends, puffing on a meth pipe. She knew better than to try to tell him to move, because he had an ominous look in his eyes that indicated he was more likely to punch her than do what she asked.

The house had another bathroom in the master bedroom, but Eveline had not seen it for months. Her brother Lucas had converted the main bathroom into a meth lab and kept the door locked whenever he wasn’t in there. Not that Eveline would have dared go in anyway. All those chemicals and equipment scared her. She knew that stuff was dangerous.

Fuck. That meant she’d have to go in the yard and piss outside. She went back to her room, grabbed a roll of toilet paper, and went out the back door. She glanced over at the neighbor’s house to make sure no one was looking out the window, then went between a partially disassembled pickup truck and the fence. She lifted her oversized t-shirt and squatted. She glanced at a dilapidated dog house that was near the back porch. Seeing it reminded her of the dog her family used to have, back when they were leading more normal lives. It also reminded her of her own squalid situation.

Am I really doing this? Am I really in the back yard, shitting outside like a fucking dog? She finished, wiped herself, and left the shitty paper on the ground. Fuck ‘em. Everyone else is coming out here to piss. All the fucking drunks, pissing out their beer. Like my shit’s gonna make any difference, one way or the other.

Eveline returned to her room to see if she could find any clean clothes. She found only a pair of shorts and one of her mother’s blouses. It was a total mis-match and would look ridiculous. She decided to wear her school basketball uniform. Maybe it’d look a bit out of place in class, but at least the outfit was clean.

She stuffed her untouched homework and school books into her backpack, along with her ID’s and library card. She didn’t bother trying to straighten anything in her room. The room was only slightly less trashed than the rest of the house, but she didn’t care.

She went to the kitchen to see if there was anything to eat. She walked through the living room, where Lucas and his girlfriend were sleeping on a mattress on the floor. A couple of other tweakers were there as well, one asleep in a reclining chair and the other in a sleeping bag on the floor.