The star above us (English)

1

Estelle stared at the maths formula on the blackboard with a depressed face. As on so many other days, the classroom looked grey and empty. The stuffy air enveloped her like a thick coat in winter. She nervously tapped her foot up and down. Then Estelle's gaze diverted and focussed on her teacher, who flitted from one place to another. Her fingernails clawed into the skin of her hand and she took a deep breath. Unconcerned, her teacher pressed a sheet of paper into her hand. On the right-hand side, at the top of the page, was her name.

Estelle Thálassa

However, when her eyes fell on her score, her throat suddenly went dry and she felt her cheeks heat up. She could barely follow the correction of the test. While her teacher's voice sounded to her like the background music of a bad film, Estelle had turned over the sheet of paper. Her eyes stared at the blank page and she tried to ignore the whispers and giggles of her classmates talking about how easy the tasks were or asking each other about their good grades. She could hardly put into words how happy she was when the lesson, and therefore the whole school day, was finally over for her.

"Do you still fancy going out for a meal today?"

"Oh yes! This new restaurant is supposed to have opened in the centre. Why don't we try it out?"

"Good! Then everyone follow me!"

Before she knew it, Estelle was the only person left in the classroom. She put her hand to her chest and ran her fingers around the object under her black turtleneck jumper. Normally, the girls' school uniform in Britannica consisted of knee-high socks, a skirt, a blouse, a tie and a blazer to wrap everything up nicely. But she fell out of this category. Ever since she was a child, she had never left the house without a turtleneck, regardless of the season. The reason for this was her illness, which had been with her since birth and would probably stay with her until the end.

Estelle looked bitterly at her worn rucksack. Maybe after all these years she should be used to not being invited anywhere. After all, who would want to hang out with someone who was ill? She left the school building and walked to the bus station. Even though she came here every day just like everyone else, this place still felt so foreign after all these years. But maybe she was the only stranger in this whole structure. Everyone looked the same, everyone behaved the same. Like a perfectly rehearsed melody. The only thing that gave it a harsh undertone was her. The dark blue double-decker bus opened its doors and she briefly looked up from her mobile phone to get in. Her hand quickly found a handle to hold on to and then the driver drove off.

She didn't have time to take in her surroundings as her gaze was immediately drawn back to the screen of her mobile phone. Too many people made Estelle's stomach turn. Every time there were too many people around her, the same thing happened. Sweat formed on her forehead and it felt like everyone's eyes were on her. The voices and giggles of the others became whispers and laughter in her ears, making fun of her. Fortunately, she was able to hide in the big world of the internet. By reading various posts or watching vlogs and trying to distract herself. Sometimes she would just scroll around so that it looked like she was actually doing something on her mobile phone.

After watching and liking a thousand different cat and puppy videos, the bus suddenly seemed to stop. Confused, she stared upwards. After all these years, she knew the route to Killigan Street Station by heart enough to know that she was nowhere near her destination. It was at this very moment that she had first realised that no one else, apart from the driver himself, was on the bus with her. Her gaze fell upwards to a small screen that showed her various images of the seats on the bus through the distributed cameras. During rush hour, the bus was always overcrowded, and if no one was sitting downstairs, it was always upstairs. Sometimes it was so full that she was worried she wouldn't be able to fit in. But there was no one there. The purpose of the screen was to show people that they were always under observation.