Riley (Rhett and Link Fanfiction) (completed)

Chapter Forty - Nine : Growling

Riley's POV

As I got off the bus, my head down holding my lunchbox with cold hands; the growling of the buses was apparent. There was the constant low rumble, that descended to a purr and came to life with a roar and returned to it's ordinary growl of movement. My bus pulled away. The purr of it's idle turned to a mighty roar of a lion and to the growl of a dog.

Voices, voices. Swallowing me whole. Talking about this and that. Friends, foes, Friday's, farms. Everything and everything was being discussed on the way to the lobby and there was no way around it, it was inevitable to happen. The chit chat, and it happened everyday. There was no version of middle school, not even this version, that escaped the hard clench of teenage girl gossiping and rumors. Rumors everyone was subject to.

The scraping of the souls of people's shoes rang in my ears. It was too early to concentrate on anything but the low burning annoyance of a few budget cuts that caused Renee and I to have to ride the public school bus in the morning instead of the usual private busing company that ran only for CPA.

There was an annoying boy, a year younger than I, who yelped and screeched and mooed and barked and banged and hit things as if he had Tourette's. The thing was, he didn't. He just did it to annoy everyone and the make them all fired up. And it worked on me.

I would sit and seethe in my seat. Squirming at the moos, flinching at the loud bang of backpacks full of textbooks hitting the backs of the benches. Curse words I hadn't heard since my Aunt flung from their mouths as if it was as second nature as blinking. Screaming derogatory terms, being explicitly racist, yelling cuss words not to be uttered aloud; yet were.

And no one did anything.

The bus driver had been beaten up by the high schoolers at a point and was horrified to speak up again. So there I say, squeezing eyes shut and putting hands to my ears acting as if I was the one with Tourette's now, becoming furious with the boy who was naïve and unaware of the harsh realities of the world.

Renee and my friends were close but far enough for me to feel alone at night. Lying there in bed staring at the ceiling thinking of my parents and friends and life with tears and a lump welling up trying to choke me and make my face a place of a waterfall. I was depressed and there was no way I could deny it. I was and things were getting to me quicker than they had ever before and threatening to build the small angry man of boiling pent up anger and frustration to break my shell and explode into a person who was only the angry small man who was no longer small.

I wanted my life to be back the way it way. Back in Pennsylvania laughing at my funny History teacher living with my two loving parents Violet and Henry and being happy and not sad ever. Going to see friends at parties and taking fun trips to places not our home. Exploring what it meant to be a regular birth parented family.

Of course I only felt this way.

Lily and Lincoln and Lando all had those father and mother and friends and school and a regular family. No one could understand what I felt and I wouldn't stand for a half-hearted: 'I know what you're going through, I know how you feel.' Because they didn't know because they weren't me.

Only one thing would make me happy at the moment and that was unobtainable and if I said so to anyone would be thought of as rude and ungrateful.

So as the growling and scraping and chatting continues I listen and look and try to think clearly, which is hard when your mind is racing and picking up everything and being overactive and annoying.

As I push the door to my wing open, my skirt swaying back and forth, I overhead a few girls who intended for what they said to be unheard.

Girl 1: "Did you see that girl Riley?"

Girl 2: "Yeah, what about her?"

Girl 3: "I heard she was put up for adoption because she's crazy."

Girl 1: "I heard the same thing."

Girl 2: "I heard she has bipolar and is insane."

Girl 3: "No way, oh shit, here she is."

I have no idea where the rumor started and how it progressed to: "Riley Neal sees headaches and hears colors and tastes sound." Like I have synesthesia, but the school's most reliable source for the information and I am now being called "freak" and "weirdo" and "idiot" and "psycho" and along with the head thwacking on the way to science my hands often found themselves in fists and my mouth wanting to reply quickly with sneer comments on my tongue.

Renee had become engrossed with work and other people and Lauren and my other friends became preoccupied with other things leaving me quite alone except Renee and Lauren. I felt alone and I tried not to show it. Luckily I am pretty good at hiding things apparently.

I reach my homeroom and sit down and notice Ollie's seat is empty. I take my pencil out and write down a few things from the board like when a parent meeting or picture day will be. I briefly wonder where she is before she bursts through the door with her French Horn case in hand her cardigan nearly flying off of her but pinned by her backpack straps. Her red curly hair that sits on her head nearly flaps around before she settles down her blue eyes scanning the room before her freckled face spots me from the opposite side of the room.

She smiles and waves.

I nod back.

"Freak."

The grip on my pencil tightens.

A/N

I am not dead and the word count is 1012 story and it's nearly 10:00pm and I have school tomorrow bye