A weight on her chest and a purring sound pulled her from the dream she had been enjoying and Ash opened her eyes with a groan. Ripley sat on her chest purring loudly, butt facing Ash's face, and claws flexing against her t shirt. Ash pushed her off with a murmured grumble and sat up reaching for her phone. The old battered smart phone, with the cracked screen and scratched metal, showed the time and Ash grumbled some more. Ten minutes before her alarm was due to go off, she wondered why she bothered setting an alarm as her cats were pretty good alarm clocks all on their own. Lola sat by the bed let out a plaintiff meow and Ash stood and stretched. 

"I'm up." She muttered to the cat."Chill."

Ten minutes later she was downstairs cleaning up the many beer bottles and takeaway rubbish from around the unconscious form of her father. He had drank himself to sleep on the sofa again and still wore the same clothes he had worn for the last two days and Ash shook her head and sighed. Knowing from experience that he wouldn't thank her if she woke him she left him snoring on the sofa and finished her chores before grabbing the stuff she would need for school. Her backpack was an ancient faded one with numerous holes in it, Ash couldn't remember the last time she had been able to buy anything new. Pretty much all of her clothes were patched, sewed and then patched again, she was just glad that holes and patches were somewhat in fashion. She shrugged into her battered leather jacket and left her long hair to fall loose, it hid her face when she wanted it to, and lef the house.   

By lunch she was ready to crawl back into her bed and pretend the world didn't exist, her day seemed to be going from bad to worse. Anything that could go wrong seemed to be doing so and Ash was fed up. When she saw the "Junkyard Jane" video she felt sympathy for the new girl and reminded herself that there were worse things that could happen. After grabbing some lunch she scanned the cafeteria and spotted her close friend Samantha. She was sitting with the new girl, Ash wasn't surprised, Sam was a sucker for the hard luck cases. Though as she approached the table she had to admit that the new girl, Diane?, didn't look so junkyard anymore. She plonked her tray down on the table and slid into the seat next to Sam. 

"Hey hun."She said to Sam and then grinned at Diane. "Hey new girl, grats on handling that video thing." She said in her typical blunt way, her english accent clear to all. 
[hr][hr]

"Jessica! I'm not calling you again, you're going to be late for school!" 

Jessica appeared a few moments later, running down the stairs and into the kitchen slightly breathless. "Sorry mom, I was feeding Fred."

Georgia Bowman shook her head and smiled fondly. "You and that parrot."

"Why couldn't you have a dog like normal people?" Ryan Bowman joked as he reached over and ruffled his sisters hair. She playfully smacked his and away and ignored his comment. 

She wolfed down her breakfast and drank her herbal tea a bit too quickly burning her tongue in her haste, yet again she was running late after sleeping through her alarm again. She had never been very good at timekeeping and was frequently late for school, her friends knew that if she said five mins it usually meant twenty at least. The complete opposite of her friend Ash who never slept well and consequently always woke up before her alarm. Jessica grabbed her books and backpack, hugged her mother, lightly slapped her brothers head and then headed outside to her jeep. 

It was lunchtime before she saw anything of her closest friends. Both Samantha and Ash were sitting at a table already but surprisingly they weren't alone. Jessica recognised the new girl, who wouldn't after that video had made her famous around the campus. She slid into the other spare seat between Ash and Diane. 

"Where have you guys been all morning?" She asked Samantha and Ash. "I've been dying to tell you about Stacy Keeler. You will never guess what she's gone and done now!" She was referring to the resident rebel on campus. Stacy "stealer" Keeler was known for doing anything and everything she could to get into trouble. Her exploits had reached legendary status. "Oh hi, Diane right? I'm Jessica." Jessica spoke in her usual fast and bubbly tone.