The Sun Shines Bright

The Other First Day of School

Amy can't sleep. It's only four. She can't go anywhere. Great, just great. Good for her. She's not tired, so she can't. Great, just great. She hates this. This is terrible. She repositions herself into a semi sitting position, with her back against her pillows. She turns on her phone, the bright light blind her. But she barely cares. She searches for stuff on her phone, anything of even mild interest for her. Anything to stimulate her brain. Just for a bit.

She can't do this. She puts her phone back and looks around the dark room, nothing's here besides empty space and furniture. She goes to try to go back to sleep. She can't. Her brain or whatever else refuses to let her. She doesn't care what, she just wants to sleep again. Until she has to get up to the school bus. She waits. She keeps checking her phone. She keeps reading or watching anything, not even of interest. Anything to keep her mind stimulated for a bit longer. She fails and turns off her phone and lays there, and there she lies. Until finally, after a seemingly eternity. Her alarm goes off. As soon as it does, she gets up.

She's more than ready. She's been up since forever and now, finally a change of scenery. She puts on clothes and goes out of her bedroom. She reaches the bathroom where she does her teeth, her hair, her makeup and a bunch of others. She rushes out of there as soon as she's done and makes herself breakfast. A nice meal of cereal and milk. Delicious. She gets it down very quickly. She goes back to her room and gets her stuff and leaves her house. Not looking back.

It wouldn't surprise you that she was twenty minutes early. She checks her bag and herself for everything, she had everything. So she waits, but now, she's outside! So she waits, at the end of her criminally long driveway. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits. She waits.

Finally, the bus comes. She waited long enough. She gets on, finally. The bus starts and goes. It keeps going. It's a smooth ride. But it's not like Amy notices it, the ride has always been smooth. So she looks out the windows. Looking at all the houses and trees as they pass by. She breathes. Her bus group is small. Only about twenty people. Enough for everyone to have a seat. She gets picked up fourth to last but the bus still has to go all the way back to the school.

Once it finally gets to the town, the window appears with significantly more buildings and significantly less trees. Standard but still disheartening. The bus flows into the traffic like it has always been there. They stay in place for a lot of the journey. But when they move, they move. It takes seemingly forever to get to the school. It doesn't but it feels like forever. Nobody sits next to Amy. Nobody talks. It's dead silent. Nothing except the noises of the bus. It's seemingly way too quiet for a bunch of high schoolers.

Amy doesn't mind. It's always been quiet. It has always been like this. This is abnormal. It's just quiet. Dead silent. Nothing is happening. Besides the bus. Besides her. Besides her bus mates. Her fellow students. The people who she should know. Who others know. They have friends, she doesn't. She starts to feel lonely again. The bus wheels go round and round. Again and again. The lights go red then green then yellow then red then green then yellow then red then green then yellow then red then green then yellow then red. It keeps going, the wheels turn, the colors change, nothing but silence. She keeps looking out the window. The houses, businesses, the occasional park or patch of grass. All of them seemingly different.

All of them are seemingly silent. Most of them seemingly have no business. Some of them do but barely. Not having enough. Not nearly enough. Maybe everyone is just at school or work, maybe that's just it. Or maybe it's not. Who knows? She came to learn not to try to examine the place this place is in. That's not her goal or assignment, that's just what she does when she's bored, she gets bored again. This sucks. She'll be off soon but still, eventually. But still, right now, this sucks.

She finally sees the school and the bus line. She hates the silence, she hopes the school is louder. Like her. She loud and proud. She wants everyone to know that and to know her. So as soon as the bus hisses open she gets off. She's not too far back. Well she gets off after everyone else in front of her gets off. They get off slowly and inefficiently. Bugging Amy but they aren't happy to be here, so she lets it slide, she already hates this place, it's seemingly contagious.

When she finally gets inside, she's admittingly surprised by the action and the talking. Maybe that was just a boring group of kids on her bus. This is good. Finally, her people. She walks around and looks at her schedule. Pondering for a second. Looking at it and trying to wonder what this does. It's a lot different from her last school. Great... This is terrible. So she asks around. People should be kind here.

"Excuse Me! Can you-"

That person walks past her. Amy's frustrated by this. But she keeps on pushing. Nobody takes her up to help her. Frustrated she keeps trying, not everyone can say no to her! Right? She almost gives up, but she's determined. So she keeps trying and failing until.

"Hi!"

The girl stops and looks around and then points to herself and tilts her head.

"Yeah, you"

"Sorry, do you need me for something?"

"Yeah, do you know where Mrs.... Um..."

"I can look at it for you."

"Oh! Thank you so much!"

Amy hands the girl the paper.

"Oh, I have the same class. You can follow me. Also, the rooms are displayed on the far right side."

"Oh, thank you!"

"Ummm. I didn't get your name?"

"Oh it's Amy! Amy Rose."

"...okay..."

The girl and Amy stand nervously across from each other. A silence looms over them. Amy isn't one for silence though.

"We should go now!"

"Alr- oka-" the girl is pulled away by Amy before she can finish her sentence.