Abby: Prologue and Start

Abby Start

Abby knew of no torment greater than proctored study hall.

Abby had been a student at Trinity for all of highschool. By this point, she had settled into the routine of the school, but, part of that routine was being done for the day and being stuck in study hall until the hour was up. She had made peace with it, but tonight was different. She had plans

There was a boy in town. Not just in town, close, or as close for the countryside. If they met in the middle, it took less than a half hour to meet up. It would be the middle of nowhere, the post office parking lot, the elementary school parking lot, or 'on the trails' - which meant the middle of the god damned woods.

Abby didn't like the school, but hated the town.

She had grown up with the Sisters her whole life. They had told her that she was abandoned to the church, yet, she often wasn't treated like the other kids that they had fosters. Her presence here at Trinity was proof of that. Most ended up adopted or leaving or in foster homes with many other children, but the church always seemed to keep her close. She had some suspicions, but mostly she thought about the future nto the past, and what she would do when she was finally done with this place. Yet, she did sometimes wonder if knowing about her family would help explain things. She'd always slept little, and when she did sleep, her dreams seemed so much more vivid than those of her peers. Lately, she would dream these animalistic dreams, running and fighting. Twice now, she had woken to tears in her sheets.

Then, this year, she had met Aaron, a boy her own age, and someone kind of cool at that.

She didn't have a crush on him or anything, wasn't sure she even found him that attractive, but he was different. He was a welcome distraction.

The sisters warned about spending time with boys, and they would never let it happen unchaperoned if they knew. They would say something like 'they'll lead you to sin,' but they were idiots. To her, the evils of the world seemed to stem mostly from people acting in self interest without foresight, and sometimes malice. But, some of these sisters spent their time looking for all the things that they did wrong. Abby made mistakes and had regrets, but she tried to learn from them not dwell in the guilt and shame. And what she considered wrong didn't include things like sex or breaking their arbitrary rules. To them, going out to see Aaron and not letting them know would be a sin.

It was freetime before 'rooms' and she was allowed to do what she wanted. They just assumed the school was isolated enough that the couple hours was too short a time to really get up to too much or go to far or meet up with anyone. They were wrong.

She planned to meet up with Aaron, smoke some weed, and just spend some time talking with someone different - there was nothing wrong with that. What was wrong was having to sneak about, but she didn't want the punishment. Trinity's most archaic aspects came out in their punishments. It sucked, but she was almost done. she could count the weeks until highschool was over.

When study hall was finally dismissed, she she put her stuff away, grabbed her headphones, and headed for the dorms. She thought about taking a shower. She needed one, but delaying the dorms now would mean less time to hang out, but if she didn't stick to a tight schedule and make it back before 'rooms' she wouldn't get a chance to tonight. 'Rooms' mean in your dorm room, and none of the dorm rooms had showers, the shower was communal, and in the hall. But delaying it would be all the more reason to keep a tight schedule, and getting back on time would keep her out of trouble, so she decided to delay. She settled with straightening herself out in the bathroom. Then, she left.

Abby was on the lacrosse team, and would often go to the field in the evenings to run laps or sometimes pass a ball around if a teammate were there. Many nights, it was just her alone on the field. So, she didn't have to sneak off - she just left. Arriving at the field, and, as she expected, finding it empty, she just kept walking, into the woods that surrounded the field.