26 Days Before
The new school that I’m going to is called Ocean View Academy. From what the website says there are about 460 kids in the entire school, meaning there are about 115 kids per grade. You would then have to subtract 90% of the kids for either being jocks or stoners which leaves 10% of the kids left in my grade that would be normal.  However, the chances of them liking me are slim to none.
We’re flying to California while the rest of our stuff is being driven there. For the first week in our house we will have no furniture, kitchen supplies or the majority of our clothes. So, my mom told me to pack the essentials that I would need for the first few days of school; five shirts varying between white, gray and black, one pair of athletic shorts, two pairs of khaki shorts, socks, underwear and my toothbrush.
23 Days Before
I was told that we were moving to a coastal city in California yet I have been here for three days and haven’t seen a glimpse of the ocean. I had high hopes for this new house thinking it would be on a private beach maybe with a spectacular view of the ocean.
We live in the absolute middle of nowhere.
I thought Maine was remote but this beats it. We live a half of a mile down a dirt road that leads to a clearing in the woods where our house stands. Now it is a very nice house with three floors, modern features, my own bathroom, and two extra guest bedrooms, but the fact that I live closer to bears than human civilization is less than ideal.

21 Days Before
I was organizing the folders that mom had labeled for me inside my new backpack since tomorrow was the first day at my new school. I began to hear the pattering of feet approach the hallway leading to my room, then the soft rapping of knuckles on my door.
“Yes?” I said impatiently.
Mom and dad came into my room with giddy smiles on their faces clearly looking to have a conversation with me.
“Pretty neat, huh?” Dad asked motioning his arms around my room.
“Yeah. It’s a lot bigger than my old room I guess.” I replied.
“Well we were thinking, due to the lack of kitchen supplies, we should go out to eat tonight. Anything you’re in the mood for?”
“No, I don’t care; I’ll eat whatever.” I mumbled trying to show that I was clearly uninterested in talking with them right now.
They finally got the hint and eventually left with defeated faces because they had failed yet again to bond with me.
20 Days Before
I rolled over onto my side and glanced at my alarm clock.
5:45
I still had 15 minutes until I had to start getting ready for my first day of school. I layed in bed staring at the ceiling thinking up all the possible ways that I could embarrass myself on the first day:  walking into the wrong class, going into the girl's locker room instead of the boy’s, and then sitting alone at lunch would be embarrassing, but I’ve prepared myself for that so it’s not an issue. I heard my dad walking down the hallway and I wondered why he was up so early.
“Max! Why are you still in bed?”
“Uh, what do you mean? I don’t have to get up until 6.”
“In Maine you got up at 6 but here you have to get up at 5:15 because we don’t live close to the school.”
I didn’t end up having enough time to take a shower because my mom insisted on the three of us having a big sit down breakfast in honor of me going to a new school.  My mom also insisted upon driving me and I figured it wasn’t worth it to try and argue it with her. I reluctantly agreed to be held hostage to her many questions about my thoughts and feelings on going to a new school. To be honest, I wasn’t that nervous. I was used to not standing out in a crowd so I assumed it wouldn’t be hard to blend in at Ocean View.
My first period class was psychology. I had to retake it this year because last year, along with the rest of the kids in psychology, I failed it due to our teacher getting arrested. Rumor was he killed someone, but we’ll never know for sure.
My schedule said that psychology was in Section B, room 168. I was hoping that I would be able to find Section B right away and get to my first period class without being late, but of course, with my luck, that didn’t happen. I had gone to to almost every part of the school and figured out where all of my other classes were located except for the one that I needed to be at right now.
“You look so incredibly lost it’s almost making me feel like I don’t know where I’m going.”
I turned around and realized it was only me and this one other guy standing in the hallway. I glanced down at my phone and realized it was 7:40, classes started at 7:30.
“Um, yeah.” I stuttered. “Today’s my first day here and I don’t know where I’m going.”
“What’s the section and room number?” the guy asked as he rubbed his hand through his freshly buzzed hair acting like it didn’t even bother him that he was going to be late to class.
“Uh, Section B, room 168.”
“No way. Well good, now Mr. King won’t beat my ass for being late because I was helping the new kid get to class.” He smirked reaching down to readjust his jeans.
As we walked to first period together I barely got a word in. Wes, as I figured out his name was, liked to talk about himself a lot, but it surprisingly wasn’t as annoying as you would think.
“So Max, why the hell would you come to this school? Out of all of the schools in California why did you pick this one? I mean it’s called Ocean View and we don’t even live anywhere near the ocean!” Wes asked.
“Well.” I replied thinking up an answer. “My dad got a job promotion and told us that we would be moving to California, so naturally I was excited. Thinking we would live on the beach, but then we got here and we live in the woods a half of a mile away from any human civilization. My parents also didn’t want to pay for me to go to a private school when I’m going to college so soon so here I am.”
We got to psychology and Mr. King hardly even noticed us coming into the classroom late. I soon learned that students don’t start actual academics until the second week of school because the administration thinks the students need time to adjust before starting classes. During the 55 minutes of psychology that we didn’t learn anything in, Wes and I compared schedules and figured out that we had three classes together. It was reassuring I would know at least someone in some of my classes.
Wes invited me to sit with him and Denver at lunch. I had no idea who Denver was, but for right now I had achieved my goal of finding a half friend. Wes and I had fourth period together and lunch was fifth so we got to walk down to the cafeteria together.
“We don’t eat in the cafeteria because Denver doesn’t like to watch ‘neanderthals’ as she calls them inhale the meal of the day. Personally I’m not a fan of it either.” Wes chuckled.
Wes led the way through the winding rows of lunchroom tables and out through a side door into an open grass courtyard. From the way Wes talked about Denver I had assumed that Denver was a guy, but seeing that the only other person out here was a girl, I was able to put the pieces together. Denver was hunched over a book reading with such deep concentration I started questioning whether or not she was awake. I began to study the parts of her face that I could see and looked intently at her features. She didn’t glance up from her book until we were standing right in front of her.
I was in awe.
“Wes.” She said slightly raising her eyebrow. “Who is this kid you brought with you that is gawking at me like I’m half naked?”
It took me a few moments to realize that she was talking about me before I quickly averted my eyes to the trees in the background and tried to hide my increasingly red face.
“Denver meet Max. Max meet Denver.” Wes announced. “We have three class periods together and I didn’t want to have to see him sitting alone in the cafeteria so I invited him out here with us.”
I know I shouldn’t feel happy because Wes didn’t exactly give me a compliment, but he seems like the type of person who doesn’t like many people so I couldn’t help but feel honored.
Through my time with them at lunch I only realized more and more how gorgeous Denver was. I normally don’t pay all that much attention to girls just because I know they don’t pay attention to me, but in this case you can’t help but notice.
In my conversations with Wes and Denver,  I got to know both of them better. They were both insanely smart and utterly hysterical. The honesty and wit that they both possessed made it impossible not to laugh around them. The way they interacted with each other, I was almost convinced they were dating until Denver talked about how she had tried to break up with her possessive boyfriend for the sixth time and he started to cry.

Through our daily hour spent together at lunch the three of us started to become very close. We would talk the entire lunch period leaving no room for silence. Denver had made it extremely evident that I was in the friendzone, but she appreciated my pathetic attempts at flirting. I guess I was a little too obvious about it the first time I met her.
“So, Max,” Denver asked randomly. “What’s your biggest regret?”
“Well, probably failing psychology last year.” I replied
“Are you serious? Please do not tell me your biggest regret in life is school related.” Wes demanded.
“Well I don’t really get in trouble. I mean I have never smoked or drank or anything if that’s what you’re asking.” I replied uncomfortably.
“Holy s***!” Denver laughed. “I knew you were a loser but I didn’t think you were an innocent loser.”
“You have got to be kidding me. You really have never done anything fun?” Wes barked.
“I’ve done fun stuff, just nothing illegal.” I replied, astonished they thought that I was that type of kid back in Maine.
Denver and Wes fell back on the blanket and started laughing to themselves although I didn’t see anything that was this funny about the situation.

13 Days Before
I was upstairs in my room finishing the minimal amount of homework that I had been assigned. I heard the muffled sound of the doorbell downstairs and figured that Dad had made some new friends from work and invited them over to dinner. Since I was not in the mood for small talk I decided to stay in my room and avoid the questions about how old I was, how I was liking school, etc. I heard the chopping of whatever my mom was cutting stop as she went to answer the door.
The unmistakable voice of Denver rang through my house.
I grabbed my sweatshirt from the back of my chair and darted down the stairs, making sure to slow down on the last few steps to make it look casual.
“Oh, hi honey.” Mom said suspiciously. “Your friend Denver said that you guys have a project due and tonight is the only night she’s free.”
Denver winked.
“Oh, yeah, I completely forgot to text you back; my bad. Is it alright if I go to her house to work on it because that’s where the poster is?” I asked turning to face my parents.
My mom replied without hesitation and Denver and I turned and walked through the door.
“Text me if you need a ride sweetie!” my mom blurted out.
I turned and gave her an annoyed glance because she knew I hated when she called me “sweetie” or “honey”, but she just blew me a kiss and gave me a big smile. I think she’s just ecstatic because this is the first girl from school that they have ever met. Which is probably why they didn’t comment on my unfortunate ability of not being able to lie. We climbed into Denver’s old Subaru and began the journey down the long dirt road driveway.
“I’m assuming we don’t actually have a project due to the fact that we don’t have any classes together.” I smirked
“Good job catching on!” Denver said sarcastically. “I am on a mission to give you some valuable memories so when your kids ask about your high school experience, you will have stuff to lie about like every parent does.”
I asked Denver several times throughout the drive where we were going, but every time I asked, she turned the music up and stepped on the gas pedal a little harder. I didn’t feel like getting pulled over or blowing out my eardrums so I determined that not asking anymore was the best option. After about 10 minutes of no talking, we pulled into the school parking lot. Denver began to slow down and pulled into a spot on the edge of the woods.
“Here we are.” Denver announced.
“What do you mean, we’re here? Why are we at the school?” I asked.
She ignored my question and started walking towards the woods, “Let’s go!” She said motioning her hands towards a path in the woods.
Denver lead the way as I trudged behind her thinking of all the possible things that could happen next. We walked in silence hearing the leaves crumple under us and the occasional stick crack. I looked around and tried to make out any familiar surroundings but all I could see was the dark ominous look of tall trees in every direction. After what seemed to be about half an hour we came up to a clearing at the end of the path where a small brown shed stood alone. There were kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards leaning against the side of the shed and stacked on the outer parts of the clearing.
“Are we going kayaking or something?” I asked not knowing whether that was a valid question or not.
“That was a dumb question, Max.” Denver turned around and glared at me. “Since you have been here have you caught a glimpse of the ocean yet or even a lake. Exactly!  You haven’t, so no, we are not going kayaking. Those kayaks got donated to the school a while ago because some company thought we were located on the ocean and figured we did outdoor water sports for gym or something.”
“So then why are we here?”
“Because this is where Wes and I normally go on the weekends because neither of us enjoy being home.”
We walked into the shed and Denver pulled on a string hanging from the ceiling and the inside of the small shed lit up. Denver turned around and smiled at me. The walls were lined with all sorts of alcohol.
“So this is your idea of making memories?” I laughed.
“Well I’m not gonna force you to do anything, but I recommend you do something out of your comfort zone. Plus, Wes will be here any minute and he is even funnier when he’s drunk.” She replied.
Denver told me to text my mom and tell her I was spending the night at Wes’s because they weren’t dumb enough to risk their lives drinking and driving just to get me home by curfew. The whole night we sat in that small shed and drank. The only time I had ever had alcohol previously was when I accidently took a sip of my dad’s vodka soda thinking it was sprite at my 14th birthday party. They watched me intently as I took my first sip of beer while they chugged down a half of a bottle. We spent the whole night playing Truth or Dare type games. I would like to thank God that Wes was there and not in a conscious state of mind because without him I wouldn’t have had one of the most amazing moments of my life. Wes dared Denver to kiss me and although she had a boyfriend, she wasn’t about to lose Truth or Dare just because of a relationship.

5 Days Before
We had gone to the shed several times since that night. I had no doubt in my mind that my parents knew that I wasn’t sleeping at Wes’s house every night because the next morning I came back looking like hell. The only thing my mom wanted for me during my high school years was to fit in and I think that’s why she didn’t question any of my shady behavior lately because I was actually doing things with friends for once.

The Day Of
The weather was finally starting to get a little bit colder which was a bit of a relief because I could finally go without sweating. However, when I say it’s getting colder, it’s really still 80 degrees, but it’s a significant difference from the temperature of the summer months. School was starting to pick up and because I was originally thinking that I was going to spend all of my weekends studying and doing homework, as well as trying to get into college, I took three honors classes and two college courses. So in other words, I was absolutely swamped with homework, studying and projects. I was planning on spending the whole weekend working on all of my projects to get a head start on studying for midterms.

The Night Of
I was halfway through finishing my English paper when my phone rang. I picked it up and found a smile creeping across my face when I saw it was Denver.
“We’ll see each other on Monday.  Do you really miss me already?” I said jokingly.
“I”m pulling down your driveway right now and I need you to quietly sneak out of your house and come meet me.” She paused. “I need you right now.”
Darting up from my seat, I grabbed my sweatshirt and slipped on my shoes halfway. I tried to get out of the window as quickly and quietly as I could manage. The front of her car emerged through the trees. Denver had put her car in neutral to make sure the headlights didn’t draw attention. I sprinted across my lawn and opened up the passenger side door and looked at her as I was getting in. She had forgotten that the interior car lights would turn on when I opened the door. Quickly, she darted her head to the side, but I was able to catch a glimpse of her face.
Bruises and blood replaced her vibrant skin. She knew I had seen her and she looked at me. Fear and sadness displaced the usual joy in her eyes. We stared into each other’s eyes.  Her hair was missing in some parts. A stream of tears began to roll down her face.
Denver doesn’t cry.
“What happened?” I stammered. “Who, who did this?”
“Remember how I told you vaguely that I have been trying to break up with my boyfriend. Well I went to his apartment to talk today and I guess he had been drinking and he didn’t like what I was saying and that I was trying to break up with him.  He hit me and I screamed and he hit me again and told me to shut up, but I couldn’t stop screaming so he kept hitting me. I grabbed the nearest thing I could and hit him with it and then ran.  I don’t know if he’s following me or not, and I couldn’t go home like this. I don’t know what to do.”
I sat there trying to make sense of all of her words. Looking at her tear streaked face, sadness started taking over me. I was livid. Livid that someone did this to her. Livid at myself for not being able to protect her. Livid because I know I would never have done this to her.
` “You can stay with me for as long as you need.” I said after a long silence.
She nodded. I heard the passenger door open and looked over as Denver started to make her way out of the car. With her feet on the ground, she started to stand up then quickly fell over. I rushed to her side of the car and picked her up. I held her in my lap. I felt her hot tears on my arm. I saw headlights far away. I tried to get her to stand up. I saw them coming fast. The pit of my stomach dropped.They were approaching fast. Then they slowed down. Then they stopped.
The truck door opened and a man lunged out of the car slamming the door behind him.
“Hey!” He bellowed
I tried to shield her but he grabbed her hair and arm and yanked her from me.
“You can’t just walk out on me. You don’t have the right.” He hissed inches from her face.
She said nothing as she tried to slip from his tight grip on her arm. He threw her on the ground and kicked her in the stomach. The high piercing of fright in her scream rang through my ears and I charged at him. He pulled the gun out of his belt.
I froze.
She screamed.
I heard the shot and it went silent.