I woke up to someone shaking me, I slightly opened my eyes to see once again Jesse, he was standing above me with a smile. He looked happy.

"Hey sleepyhead!" He said. I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up on my bed.

"Hi.." I mumbled, still tired.

"Okay you should get ready, we have to be out the door in a half an hour." He said. Wait what..?

"Where are we going..?" I asked. His face lit up.

"Your only escape from this hell." I looked at him in confusion.

"High School." What.. I haven't been to school in so long..

"W-what grade will I be in..? I'm sorry that's a s-stupid question.. but I haven't been to school in a while.." I admitted.

"11th grade, you might have to get Luke to help you get caught up if you need, he's like 3 grades smarter than he's at! So I bet he'll help!" Jesse suggested as he started to make his way to my door.

"Ok well you got about 25 minutes now, you can just meet us downstairs when your done! Bye!" Jesse said shutting the door. I sighed, hopefully school isn't that bad.. I got off my bed and walked over to my closet, I was expecting to see my old clothes, but no I saw a whole closet full of fresh clothes, no holes, no stains, nothing. After a minute of admiring my new clothes I picked out a pair of black skinny jeans, a black tee-shirt, and a red flannel. I got dressed and walked out of my room towards the bathroom. The door was shut so I knocked lightly on the door, something in the bathroom started to shuffle around, a few seconds later the door opened and I was faced with Noah. I never really got to meet him since he was in trouble yesterday.

"H-hi.." I stuttered, I was still nervous since I don't really know if he likes me or not.

"Hey. Sorry I took so long, you can use the bathroom now." He said, and without another word he left, leaving me with my thoughts. He seems nice! I walked into the bathroom towards the mirror, my eyes were dark and I had bags under my eyes, I'm guessing since I fell asleep still crying. I looked at my neck and there was still a big bruise although it did lighten up a bit. I quickly got ready, once I was done I walked downstairs. I saw everyone down there instead of Luke. I walked towards them and stood next to Jesse. I received a weird look from Carlos. He stepped up to me and took a hold of my chin and made me look him straight in his eyes. I flinched by the sudden movement.

"Ace. You need to cover up that bruise. We can't have people thinking we hurt you guys. Can we?" He asked with a smirk on his face.

"N-no sir.. I'm sorry I d-didn't know if you had any makeup.." I said. He let go of my chin and reached into his pocket and pulled out a foundation bottle. He grabbed my chin again and lifted it high enough so he could put the foundation on my neck. I stood a still as I could as he rubbed the foundation over the bruise. Once he thought it was covered enough he let go and put the bottle back in his pocket. That hurt more than I thought it would..

"There! Now we can get going. Wait." He paused as he looked at his watch then back to us.

"Where is that boy." He hissed. He walked over to the stairs and walked up. He was out of my sight for a few moments then he came back out but with a hurt looking Luke. Carlos had a death grip on Luke's arm as he dragged him down the stairs. Once they got downstairs Carlos let go of Luke and started walking out the door with nothing but a pissed expression. I looked back over towards Luke, Jesse was holding him as Luke relaxed his head onto Jesse's chest. Noah was standing beside them with a scowl on his face. He's going to say something to Carlos.. isn't he.. and to my surprise he stayed silent as Carlos walked out the door, Marco following. Everyone else including me followed them out the door.

Outside there was a big red van, I don't know how vans could look so expensive but this one did. We all got in, Mateo and Alec sat in the first two seats and me, Noah, Luke, and Jesse sat behind them. Marco was driving and Carlos was in the passenger seat. I got comfortable and looked out the window, we were all silent as we made our way to school. When we arrived everyone quickly got out of the van. Marco didn't even say anything as he quickly sped off. There were a few students out front and they all turned to look at me. Some of them laughed, some of them looked confused, I was just standing there uncomfortable. Like can't they look at something else.. after a few seconds they all got this scared expression and quickly turned around so they couldn't see me anymore, I was confused until I turned around and saw Noah glaring at everyone. He quickly stopped once he saw me turn around.

"Just ignore them. We should probably get you your schedule! Here follow me!" Noah said happily as he started walking towards the building. I quickly followed him. We walked into the school and all eyes were staring right at me, but it didn't last long as Noah glared at them and they quickly stopped staring. I don't know if I was happy or scared. I wonder why they all listen to Noah, I get that he is scary looking, tall, and he's muscular.. did I already mention muscular? Like seriously he must work out a lot.. He also has a glare that can shut you up without him even having to say a word.. Okay I think I get why now.. heh.. We finally made it to the principals office.

"Okay I'll wait out here for you." Noah assured.

"Thanks.." I mumbled as I walked over to the principals door, I knocked on the door slightly and got a quick "come in" I slowly opened the door to see a blonde haired woman sitting at a big desk on the middle of the office.

"Hello! You must be Ace!" She assumed, I quickly nodded to her.

"Great! Have a seat!" She said, pointing to a chair in front of her desk. I quickly walked over to the chair and sat down.

"Okay so here is your schedule" she said taking a piece of paper out of a folder and handing it to me. I quickly scanned over my classes.

"So there is not much rules, just your usual "be respectful" and that stuff. Your schedule should say the class, the teacher, and the room number. If you ever need help finding your way around, you can always come to me and I can get you a tour guide!" She explained.

"Thank you ma'am.." I said to her.

"Well hope you have a good first day here!" I nodded my head in thanks then walked out of her office. I got out and saw Noah standing in the same spot he was in when I left.

"So! Let me see your schedule!" He said. I handed it to him and he quickly looked over it, then a smile appeared on his face.

"Yay! You have all the same classes with me!" He said excitedly. He was kinda cute when he was happy..

"That's cool" I said back as he handed the paper back to me.

"Okay we should probably go before we are late." He suggested as he took a hold of my wrist and started walking to where I'm guessing our history class is since it's our first class. We finally arrive and I don't know where it came from but suddenly I was very nervous, I'm guessing Noah noticed because soon after I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"It's okay, if you think this is anything like what happens at home then your wrong. Most people don't like school. But for us, this is the only place we can get away from the abuse. You will eventually find it quite comforting!" He said convincingly. It definitely helped I could already feel the tension dyeing down. We stood there for a little bit before I took a deep breath and slowly opened the door..

*7,715 letters*

Hey guys! I hope you liked this chapter, I was originally planning this chapter to be all about school but I ended up writing a lot at the beginning so I could barely fit school into the chapter! 😂 So hopefully I can get another chapter done today! Have a great day! 😌

*Made: June 18, 2021*