Outcasts

Chapter 1.

— Alyssa's POV —

Every school day starts the same, the first class is filled with half the class almost asleep, the rest ridiculously awake - annoying the tired students with their energy bouncing off the walls. The second class drags as we wait for home room, and although it's only ten minutes, God, it breaks up the day and has to be my favourite part of school, mainly because of the teacher.

But, nothing beats lunch, hanging around with my friends, catching up on the terrible day we've all had so far.

My friend group is what some would say is random. We all found each other when we were all at our lowest.

First there was Rory, they found me eating my lunch in the toilets one afternoon and we both started eating under the bleachers together. They were an outcast from the start, being non-binary the school gave them little to no support, they started using the bathroom they chose that fit them and changing their name on their school books and the bullying followed in an instant.

Then there was Sara, she stumbled into us one break time after her partner broke up with her, wanting somewhere to sit without everyone's eyes on her and we let her, she sat under the bleachers with us while we ate, no words shared between the three of us until four days passed of the same routine.

And lastly there was Ollie, the only openly gay guy at the school. He came out last year and everyone he knew pushed him away - at this point we had our own table, we stopped camping under the bleachers - and he found his way over to our table.

Although, we're a random bunch, it seemed to all fit together perfectly as time went on. The four of us now have our routines. I wake up to a text from Rory everyday, usually telling me that they slept horribly because of their baby sister. Ollie's the first one to start conversations at lunch, usually about the guys he's meeting on Grindr in the middle of the night. And Sara's still the shy one, me and her are quite similar in that aspect, we butt into conversation when needed but usually keep quiet.

It's half day today, so we've got one last class to finish and then school is over and I am nothing but grateful for that. I'm so tired, and I need my afternoon nap. It's almost like clockwork now that I nap after school, and honestly, that's why I sleep so badly on a night.

"You have Biology next, right?" Rory asks me, I groan to them the second it's mentioned. I am smart, maybe the smartest in the class, but God, I hate it. Yes, I'm good at it, but never the less it's still very difficult to understand, especially as the year is coming to a close. It's like their cramming every last bit of information into our brains before leave for college and I hate it. Not the mention that my whole class is full of the people I hate most - all my bullies from the first year.

"If I have one more assignment from Professor Samson, I'm gonna kill myself." I tell them all, and they all look slightly worried for me. I forget suicide jokes don't always pass with my friends. "I'm obviously not going to, but, God, it's like every other week now, he hates us."

"Okay, Allie, come on, we've got eight weeks left of school, eight! We can do this!" Sara boosts me up and I can only shrug my shoulders. I'm excited for school to end, but I will miss these moments. I'll miss my friends. We aren't the type of friend group to hang out outside of school, so I just know once school ends, this ends too and that hurts.

"I just don't wanna be grouped up with anyone, everyone sucks in that class. They're always teasing me and staring. I just hate it." I roll my eyes, looking around cafeteria at everyone. "Enough about me, what's everyone been up to over the weekend?"