the butterfly effect ; chapter one

Caleb

I jerk awake to the sounds of something crashing and an anger fueled fight coming from the downstairs of…wherever the hell I was now.

“You’re such an asshole Connor!” A girl’s voice, sounding exactly like Veronica’s, screamed out rather loudly.

“Oh wow, little miss perfect used a bad word! Someone call the cops!” Definitely Connor’s voice this time.

“Shut up! I seriously hate you!” Why were Veronica and Connor fighting? Why were they even in the same house? Far as I knew, they rarely interacted with each other at all.

“Good! I’m glad!” Connor’s voice sounded different. More confident or something like that. Usually he always has the sound of just being unsure tied into his words.

“Just leave me alone!” There’s a loud slamming sound, and then finally some silence in the house.

If last night had all been a dream, then this was most definitely a nightmare.

I look around the unfamiliar room, honestly just tired of this whole “waking up in a new place” thing. Is this going to happen every time I decide to go to sleep? Where did I even fall asleep? Last thing I remember was roaming around the streets of Illinois, with my job of setting everything straight done. And now this crap, what was this, fucking Inception?

I quickly push the covers off, not bothering to notice anything else in the room, but instead heading straight towards the door. I had to figure out what the hell was going on. But I stopped at the top of the stairs when I heard it.

“Connor, can you please stop antagonizing your sister for just one day?” Vira’s soft and familiar voice carried through the house. It was a voice I was convinced I would never ever hear again, but here it was, here she was, right down the stairs from me. So freaking close.

Now all I had to do was walk down there. Just take the few, simple and easy steps right down the long staircase. The idea seemed extremely…terrifying. But I guess I had to do it. I walked down slowly, looking at some of the things lining up and down the walls. There are class and sports pictures of Connor and Veronica, and some family ones that looked to be taken around Christmas time maybe. I’m in those ones, smiling and looking painfully normal. Yet even though I’m in them, it feels like some strange alien family. Like this life belonged to stranger.

I finally make my way to the bottom of the stairs, looking around. It’s the yellow house, looking pretty much the same from what I’ve seen of it. But I do notice that over the fireplace, the picture of Vira and Mason on their wedding day is different. Mainly because I’m the groom in the picture this time.

Well, hell then.

Vira looks up then, smiling as she sees me. “Well, look who decided to finally get up.” She says, and moves over to kiss me on the cheek. I don’t really mean it, but I flinch slightly when her lips make contact with my skin. I know she can tell because she gives me a weird look, and I try to just smile back and play it off as nothing. This is just all way too weird. There’s no way Vira can possibly be alive right now.

I’m living in a stranger’s life.

She moves away, rummaging through the kitchen, making breakfast. Connor’s leaning on the counter, completely unaffected by him and Veronica’s argument. I’m assuming it’s a regular occurrence in this house.

Okay, I thought, trying to evaluate this whole situation. Obviously I was supposed to be the loving father and husband type now. Which are two things I’ve never exactly been before. I could do this. I could play the role until the kids left, and then I could try to talk to Vira and maybe explain this all to her and she’ll help me figure out what was going on.

But of course there was that daunting thought pricking at the back of my brain. That thought that told me that maybe everything last night really hadn’t been a dream at all. That maybe I really did go back in time and changed it all, and that this was the outcome. This was my life now.

Really, I had accepted the fact that some things aren’t exactly impossible just because they’re unexplainable. I mean, it took me forever to believe in the reincarnation bullshit. And that turned out to be deadly and true. So why couldn’t this?

My train of thought was interrupted by Veronica leaving her room again. Vira kept on working her way around the kitchen, while Connor glanced up. “I’m going to pick Luca up.” He said with a nod at Vira.  I raised an eyebrow at this. “Luca?” I asked. He turned his head towards me, almost surprised that I was even there. “Yeah… Luca.” He said, pushing off of the counter. Vira’s mouth pulled into a tight line. “What about you sister?” she asked, cocking her head.

That was when Veronica emerged, wearing way too much eyeliner and shirt that could hardly be deemed “school appropriate”.

“I got a ride.” She said, walking over to the fridge and pulling out a water bottle. Connor nodded. “She has a ride.” He said, before making his way out the door. Vira didn’t comment on this as he walked out the door, instead more focused on Veronica now. She has on a total bitch face, which was very impressively rivaled by Veronica. It was way too early in the morning for this.

“There’s no way any kid of mine’s going to school like that.” Vira stated matter of factly. Veronica rolled her eyes, causing a look from Vira that could only be described as ‘stern’.

What had happened to her?

“Why not? I don’t see what’s wrong with it.” Veronica said nonchalantly. Vira seemed to only get more upset. “Because, you seem to forget to put on a shirt today.” She said while turning back to the breakfast she was busy making.

“I’m wearing one. And it’s a perfectly fine one, too.” She said, before turning to me. Shit.

“Dad doesn’t have a problem with it, right?” Veronica said, cocking her head to the side and locking eye with mine. I really don’t know how to be a dad.

“Uhm, just don’t get pregnant or anything.” I said, and by the look on Vira’s face, I figured this was the completely wrong answer. A strange look ran across Veronica face, almost like she had been expecting a reaction from me too, and was upset that I didn’t seem to care. But in another second the look was gone.

“That’s right. So I’m going to school now, if you don’t mind.” Veronica said before making her way out the door and leaving me with a house and family and a wife that was staring at me like I was completely insane. 

Keira

Do you know the story of Cinderella? Little girl, daddy’s a king who loves her, but then he dies and the evil stepmother steps in. She pushes Cinderella around and makes her do all the work, but in the end Cinderella ends up running off with prince charming?

Yeah, well, my stories a bit different than that. Because it’s not a story. It’s my life.

My dad’s not a king, not anymore. And my mom is still alive, and she’s the evil one. No need for any stepmoms.

My dad was mayor, or at least heading down the fast track to becoming mayor. Fresh out of school, with his new wife and four year old daughter in tow, he travelled around on his campaign.

And then we came home. But mom didn’t.

And an alcoholic never looks too good on the ballot.

So now, life’s like a game. If I do what I’m told and stay out of the way, I’m winning and can breathe easy for a moment. But if I slip up, make one little mistake…

It’s always so easy to tell when I’m losing.

So I try my best and play the games to his rules, whether it’s cleaning up beer cans while trying not to wake him from his deep hung over sleep, or making sure that the bills actually get paid, considering he tends to forget.

But there are those few moments, a flash of something in my eyes or the way that my hair curls out on certain days that can only remind him of my mom, and how much I look like her. Those are the moments where it’s just too unbearable for him, and I may come out a little worse for wear. But I’m really nothing like her at all.

So after a while, a Cinderella story never looks so good. Because every day I wake up dreaming about a prince coming and saving me, I just end up going to bed with crushed hopes and new bruises.

There’s no such thing as princes. And the only way to save myself is to make it through senior year in one piece, and get the hell out of here the first chance I get.

So maybe I am a bit like my mom.

Dally

Now, there aren’t too many things I really know these days. There’s probably less I don’t know then I do know, if that makes any sense. I rarely make sense though, so don’t worry about it too much. But I do know being the new kid sucks. And moving from the place where you were born and raised just because your dad got a promotion is pretty much the worst. 

I also know that getting high before first period probably wasn’t the best idea either. But that’s never really stopped me before, so why would it now?

My new high school is big, intimidating, all pretty normal stuff. There’s a bunch of kids loitering around, but I don’t really pay too much attention to them, even though they’re all staring at me like I have two heads. I guess they really don’t get new kids too often around here.

Making my way to my locker, I attempt to ignore every single stare. I’m probably supposed to sign in at the office, but that would require asking someone where it is or attempting to find it myself. Yeah, no thank you. I have my schedule and locker already, so I should be set without the whole entire “welcome to our amazing school” speech. From the looks of this place, the principal probably won’t want too much to do with me unless I can throw a football. But sports aren’t really my calling, sorry to say.

As I struggled with my lock, I caught a few bits of conversations around me. It’s all just a bunch of geeky kids who were spending the last few minutes checking over homework, some girls were placed in front of the mirrors the hung in their locker, fixing up their makeup. Down the hall was a group of kids, surrounding two boys mainly. One was taller, more muscular and loud. He had an arrogant grin and was telling some type of story that everyone else seemed to find just completely hilarious. He practically radiated the whole ‘asshole’ vibe. Now I bet five bucks he was on the football team.

Closest to him was a guy slightly shorter and lankier, with dark messy hair. He seemed a bit distant from everyone else, even though he was standing in the middle next to the kid who was, according to all the guys laughing at his story, was named Connor. Instead, this other guy was staring in the direction of some pretty blonde chick that was quickly getting her books out of her locker, oblivious to his leering.

I was pulled out of my slight trance by someone moving in next to me, opening the neighboring locker. I glanced over, seeing who it was. She was pretty, with long wavy brown hair and dark blue eyes. She was a bit on the shorter side, and her shirt showed just enough stomach to leave little to the imagination. And trust me, it made me imagine a little.

Her dark blue eyes slid over to me, eyebrow raised at me. “Can I help you? Or are you just going to stand there and stare at me all day?” She asked, her voice just like ice. I just smiled at her, considering I was used to dealing with girls like this. See, I might not have too much going with the whole education thing, since I probably haven’t cracked open a book since second grade. But reading people? Piece of cake.

I could just tell she was probably one of the more popular kids, and had the whole “I’m so tough” act going on. But underneath all that was probably some dumb girly girl who listened to Taylor Swift every night and dreamed of being homecoming queen. Yeah, I had dealt with a lot of those types of girls. They were easy to crack, really.

“I’m Dally.” I said, holding my hand out for her while still smirking at her. By the way she furrowed her eyebrow, glaring at my hand, I have a feeling this wasn’t too common a thing for her. Usually, people probably backed off at her first sign of mega bitch.

“I don’t believe I care.” She said, turning back to her locker sorting out her books. I shrug, and attempted to open the locker again. And again. And one more time, just for y’know, good measure. But all the number keep mushing together and switching up, and the spinning part of the lock doesn’t help too much either.  Really, it’s all just making my head hurt.

I hear a loud and obviously annoyed sigh from my side, and the girl slams her locker shut. Then, she reaches over and quite rudely snatches the piece of paper with my locker combination on it from my hand. She shoves me aside, twirling around the lock, and popping it open on the first try. Then she hands the paper and lock back to me, and makes her way back down the hall.

I smiled. I give her maybe a week before the walls start coming right down.

Keira

I climbed off the bus quickly, ducking out of the way of other students, and hurrying into the door of the school. Most people were convinced this place was hell on earth, but they didn’t know what it was like at my house. This was the place that for seven hours a day I could lose myself in math or history class, and see my friends and not actually worry about anything. It was a mini vacation from my life.

I made my way to my locker, quickly opening it up and figuring out which books I would need for what classes. I usually use my homework as an excuse to lock myself up in my room, so I never had to worry too much about it. There are still a few minutes till I had to head to first period, so I pull out my math book, studying for the test that was today. 

I glance around the hallway, still leaning into my locker. There’s some new kid struggling with his lock, and a group of guys surrounding that one kid. I think his name might be Connor. I don’t know too much about him, but I do know that he’s captain of the football team, and Luca’s best friend. Speaking of Luca, he’s not doing a good job at hiding his staring, but it makes me smile. We both worked together at the movie theater in town, and he really was a nice kid. I gave him a little wave, which he just returned with a shy smile.

“Who are you making flirty eyes with?” Kylie asked, bobbing up next to my locker. Her blonde curls were bouncing around her face, and she was hurrying to open up her locker, which was conveniently right next to mine. “No one.” I say quickly, even though there’s really no point. As if my best friend didn’t know about my not so little crush on Luca that I had managed to develop over summer.

“Riiiight.” She said, obviously not believing me, but giving me a little wink before kicking her soccer bag violently into her locker. “Good for you, you need a boyfriend. I’m tired of you being the bitter single friend.”

I rolled my eyes. “How are things with you and jack?” I ask, eyebrow raised. I didn’t like jack at all, but no one really did. Except Kylie, for some reason. “Going to try to do the whole ‘long distance’ thing now he’s at college?”

“No way.” Kylie said, slamming her locker shut and leaning against it. “I broke up with him. There was no way we were staying together after the prom incident.” Kylie said, referring to the fact that not only did she have to beg him to take her to his senior prom, but he stood her up and slept with some Abby girl who had her nose pierced and a lip ring.

“Finally. I can’t believe it took that long for you to realize you could do so much better.” I said, finally losing my locker too. And of course right then, I feel someone’s shoulder connect with my back, hitting a currently healing bruise, and throwing me into the lockers hard door. Then someone whispered “Freak” just loud enough for me to hear before walking off.

“Goddamn it, I’ll kill that dumb cheerleader bitch.” Kylie said, succumbing to her rage like usual. I turned my head to see the retreating figure of Veronica Somerhalder, Connor’s little sister. Go figure. She had pretty much been out to get me since elementary school, for reasons unknown.

“Whatever, screw her.” I said, leaning down to pick up my books that had been dropped onto the floor. And as soon as I did that, another pair of hands was already working to pick them up. I glanced up, meeting a pair of warm eyes. I smiled at Luca as he handed them back to me. Kylie was probably urging me to say something, but I was pretty much at a loss for words.

“Thanks.” I said quietly, trying to stutter or sound like a complete idiot.

Just then, Connor voice sounded through the hallway. “Luca, what are you doing? We’re going to be late for class.” He said, motioning at Luca to hurry up.

Luca turned back to me. “I’ll see you around?” He asked with his eyes bright. I nodded and he just smiled back, making his way down the hallway.

Kylie mocked me, but I just shoved her, and started walking to homeroom.

I was probably smiling like an idiot.