Chapter 6: Friends

Buzzz! Buzzz!!

The sound of my phone alarm echoes throughout my room, commanding me to awaken from my slumber.

As I rose out of bed, I could feel my body ache from heavy sores. Everything that transpired this month seemed to have caught up to me. And to make matters even worse, it was a dreadful Monday morning which meant I had school duties to attend.

I even had a strange dream about being chased by zombies. That demon from last month must’ve really gotten to me.

I limped out of my bed and got my morning routine started, which I had about an hour to do. Ample of time I thought, and it surely was. So much time in fact, that I even had the leisure of watching anime before I had to leave.

I was completely glued to my screen and lost all track of time. The episode ended and realizing my dilemma, I quickly checked to see what time it was.

It read 7:28. Five minutes after I was supposed to have left. I raced out the door and toward the bus stop.

As I suspected, the bus laid still in front of the stop, and had begun starting itself up to leave. I raced down the road hoping I would be seen by the driver. I'm honestly glad that this person was my driver. Any other and they would’ve probably left me.

I hopped on the bus and looked through the aisle, trying to find an open seat.

Before any seat, my immediate gaze fell on Alice, who seemed to be glued to her phone and beside her was some random guy who seemed to be trying to get her number. I was almost tempted to completely murder his entire lineage but it was far too early to get riled up.

The only seat that looked free was the seat behind her, who seemed to be looking down on something.

The person in question was a girl named Emily, and she was pretty well known for being “the school nerd”.

I actually quite acquainted with Emily seeing as we went to the same middle school. I'm pretty sure, we even had the same classes during 8th grade. Though I never really got to know her enough to make us friends. To be honest, I didn't even know she rode the same bus as me. In fact I kinda forgot what she looked like.

Sitting beside her I was able to get a full description of her.

She had tall brown hair, long enough to touch her lower back. She wore a short blue skirt and an all white blouse. And like I suspected, her silver colored eyes were buried inside a book.

I decided to attempt small talk, in hopes of rekindling our acquaintanceship.

“Already reading this early huh?”, I asked as the bus began moving.

“...”

She completely ignored me and continued to bury herself in her book. Here I was trying to be a nice human being, and this book worm has the audacity to just ignore me. The nerve of some people.

Feeling a bit annoyed by her rudeness, with a tint of embarrassment I decided it was best to give up on this soul all together. As so, I looked ahead to the brown seat in front of me. My death-like stare pierced the seat and was drilling right through the heart of however was hitting on Alice.

“I- I umm- I’m sorry for ignoring your question”, Emily muttered to me.

I turned to face her and it seemed she was also a bit embarrassed by what transpired, even more so that I was.

“oh.. uh.. no it’s good”, I replied.

Of course a moment ago I was ready to eliminate her entire lineage for it, but that's all water under the bridge.

“Umm… D-Did you study.. for the test we have today?”, she asked.

“...No, why would I?”

“W-Well, it's supposed to be really hard.”

The concept of “studying” was pretty native to me. While others felt the need to study and cram knowledge into their brains, I was one of the lucky few who could get by no matter what I did. And not just pass the exams, but ace them with flying colors. I truly felt bad for the “lesser folks”.

“I’ll be alright. Actually I’ll be more than alright, I’ll be splendid.”

This was the first time she turned her head to look at me, and with such intensity at that. To be honest I was a little nervous.

“What's up?” I asked as I attempted to doge her eye contact.

“You're pretty amazing, you know that?”

I was expecting praise, but I wasn’t expecting her to say it so directly.

“Y-Yeah, of course I know.”

“You’ve always been amazing”, she muttered as she glued herself back to the book.

“Huh, what was that?”

“Oh..ahh, nothing.”

A bit of a mystery this girl was. All the same, she seemed like a fun person to be around. Maybe even a good friend to have.

“So.. What's that book you're reading?”

As I started to think of her in a new light, she quickly sunk my thoughts into the mud and reminded me why she was known as the school “nerd”.

“I-Its uh… A light read about world war 2.”

Now I wasn’t one to judge, but how in the hell was a book on WORLD WAR 2 “a light read”? This girl has got to be crazy.

“...That's, uh.. Very interesting… What’s got you so hooked?”

Her earlier nervous and shy tone flipped to a clear and almost sadistic one.

“It’s fun seeing the masses repeat the same dumb mistakes. Hehehehe”

“A bit sadistic don’t you think?”

“I mean they just don't learn anything at all. The wars fought between countries, the poverty, the pollution, the corruption; it's all there, just under the surface. It has always existed, but now it's more rampant than ever.

You want to know why? Because most people are content to living in ignorance, not wanting to learn. They would rather watch tv shows and gossip about celebrities, instead of learning something new. If they did, then perhaps their lives could improve."

I wasn’t quite sure if I was more impressed by the energy she had for the morning, or the fact that a highschool had such a thing weighing on their minds. I was under the impression that teens during this generation were more ignorant on these matters than ever.

“Don’t worry. I plan on changing that one day.”, I accidentally muttered to her.

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, Ahh. Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

Great save, if I say so myself. I was inches away from repeating the same mistake I made in middle school.

Our small talk was put on hold as the bus pulled over to the school grounds.

With the bus coming to a full stop, everyone grabbed their bags and left the bus one by one. Naturally I followed suit.

I timed my exit, so that I could walk behind Alice. Of course I had plans on greeting her, but I was still mentally preparing myself for such things. Things like these are very delicate matters that must be handled with an ample amount of care.

The entrance was littered with students and in the middle of the horde, was the star of the show currently feeling like a background character.

I finally gained the necessary mental barriers to greet her, when suddenly Emily startled me.

“Oh… Is she the one you have eyes on? Yeah better luck in your next life.”, she said in a smug tone.

“I-I don’t have eyes for her. You're reading too deep into it.”

I was more than a little embarrassed from her statement and I wasn’t doing a good job in hiding it.

“I don't blame you. She’s so pretty and small. She’s pretty smart too.”

“...I have no comment”, I said in an attempt to cover my embarrassment.

“Do you… wanna grab breakfast?”

That might’ve been the biggest curve ball she’s thrown all morning.

I usually wasn’t hungry enough to ever eat the food served by the cafeteria but today I was absolutely starving. Not only had I skipped breakfast this morning, I’m pretty sure I didn't even have dinner last night.

“Sure. I’m actually a little hungry”, was my reply.

I was more than “a little hungry” but the last thing I wanted was to look like some airhead. Especially to a girl like her.

“Great, cause I actually skipped breakfast.”

My eyes sparkled as I turned to look at her. In the moment I grabbed her hand and pressed it between both of mine. I didn’t say anything, I just nodded as the tears rained down my eyes. I was absolutely delighted to know that she was one of “my” people.

“U-Uh what is it?”

“Nothing”, I replied as I sniffled from the tears.

I slowed down to match her pace, and we entered the school building together.