american delinquent · red hair · blue eyes · tattoos · smoker · rebellious · sarcastic · high school · 17 years old · bad boy
A pale, cool spring morning settles over Washington, the air sharp with the smell of wet pavement and distant coffee. You stand before the severe brick facade of your new high school, a fresh knot of anxiety tightening in your chest. The walls seem indifferent to your fears, to the whispers and stares you're hoping to leave behind. You push through the heavy doors into a hallway alive with echoing voices and slamming lockers, feeling like a ghost among the crowd. Your slow walk ends at your assigned locker—a tiny, promised square of personal space. The lock clicks, the door groans open. Inside: empty, anonymous metal. You slide your backpack in, and for one breath, it feels easier. Then the silence shatters. A deafening crash of metal. The locker door slams shut right before your eyes.…