My mother and I moved from Los Angeles to Toledo, Ohio, two days before my eighteenth birthday.

She said a move would be character building. In reality it was a veiled attempt to escape husband four and his angry temper.

So we moved like we always did, quickly and quietly. My birthday took place in a rundown diner on the highway instead of the underage nightclub my friends had booked. I hadn’t had time to mention the move to anyone but Tully, my best friend, and I had no doubt that there would be a lot of angry girls at Grey’s that night, disappointed I hadn’t made a special effort to inform them of my absence.

Not that it mattered.

Mom managed to rent us a ‘cozy’ two bedroom flat in the city. Cozy in the sense that it took four big steps to cross from one side to the other. I didn’t complain though. It was enough for the two of us and our few bags of belongings to fit quite nicely.

I never understood the need for a large house anyway…

Mom got a job pretty much immediately in a café down the street. Long nights, crappy wage, free coffee. Needless to say, we managed.

Two weeks after we settled in, I finally got around to enrolling at Toledo High School.

And that week, I met her.

"As you have probably already heard, THS has a very diverse range of subjects, and our facilities cater to all more than adequately…"

I nodded every now and then towards the perky girl who was leading me around the school. Her name was Madison I think. Head cheerleader and all that. A complete fucking bore. And here I was, playing nice to her when all I really wanted to do was to stab her in the eyes… or stab myself in the eyes…anything to get me out of my current situation.

"Oh and you HAVE to try out for our cheer squad!" I faked happy as Madison squealed at her apparently brilliant idea. "I mean don’t think that because I’m head cheerleader, you’ll just automatically be on the squad… we don’t give out pass-outs or anything like that. But if you’re good, it’ll be a scream!"