Seeing in Color

Six

Frank

As that yellow school bus raced away, so did my courage.

I had moved into town just a week ago, and I was already starting school. The summer was over, the sorrows of those sunny days behind me. Now it was time to face a new problem: Rolland Prep School.

I had always been homeschooled, either by my mother or grandmother. They were two very different people, but they both were geniuses. I had started school a year late, but I just told people that it was because my mother and I moved around a lot. That was true, the moving around bit, but that wasn't why I started late.

I watched the school bus pull away and sighed as it disappeared around the bend in the street. Pulling myself to my feet and slinging my heavy backpack over my shoulder, I glanced down at my uniform.

Grandma insisted that I wear every piece of the outfit required by my new school, so I was stuck wearing a white button-up shirt under a maroon sweater-vest and dark purple blazer, a gold and dark purple tie, and black dress pants. The school didn't say anything about footwear, other than banning open-toed shoes, but Grandma forced a pair of brown dress shoes into my hand that morning.

It wasn't the most comfortable outfit I had worn, but it was better than the Chinese dragon costume at Halloween when I was seven.

I started walking down towards the bus stop. The girl I had just met was shy and sweet, just like me. I hoped to see her after school. I couldn't believe she was a freshman!

The sleek bus with the bold purple and gold letters spelling the name of the school pulled up, and I was the only one loading. There were three other kids on the bus, and only one older than me. She sat near the back, flipping through a thick leather book. I decided to sit on the other side of the bus from her. She glanced up and gave me a cold warning with her dark eyes to stay away. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a thick braid, and her uniform was so different from mine.

She wore a dark purple blouse underneath her black blazer, and she wore black pants. She had a maroon bow on, and her nails were painted gold. Her makeup was gold and dark purple, and her shoes were gold flats. She was tall and slender, with long fingers and Latino complexion.

I waved a hand and nervously glanced over at the other two kids on the bus. One was a pale boy with the lightest blond hair I had ever seen. He caught me looking at him and sneered. He was wearing the dark purple blazer and gold seal of the school, but he looked more like a scarecrow than a student.

The other kid was a young girl with light brown hair and freckled skin. She kept glancing over at the blond with a look of distaste and worry.

I looked out the window of the bus as it passed down the street and turned the corner.

Making a mental note to look for local restaurants or stores to apply for a job at, I shoved my earbuds in and turned on music. Back in Canada, in the little town we lived in, everybody knew everybody, and working at the only pet store in a thirty-mile radius from home, I was used to knowing everyone walking through the door. But now I was in a different place, a different country.

Sighing, I changed the song and felt a jolt as the bus stopped. I glanced up at the door and saw an older boy step in. He was tall but pudgy, and his lips were stained red. He staggered over to the brunette and sat beside her, glancing over at me with a friendly gleam in his eyes.

A few stops and several songs later, we arrived at the school. The driver pulled up next to three other buses, and we all unloaded. I kept my earbuds in and stuffed my hands into my pockets. Walking along the brick pathway to the double doors and keeping my head down, I passed a few statues and plaques. Several students, all dressed in perfect form, were crowded in the shiny hallway with pristine lockers and glossy mosaic tiles, holding thick textbooks and neat notebooks. A group of girls in maroon blazers over white blouses tucked into dark purple skirts, with the gold seal of the Rolland Prep Eagle on their chest, were chatting by a classroom door, and when they spotted me, they giggled and flirtatiously waved. I avoided their gaze and walked through the open doorway past them. A few kids were already in the class, browsing through their textbooks and whispering to each other. I sat next to a girl with glasses and light hair. She didn't even look up from her book. The noodle scarecrow from the bus strutted inside and joined a group of jocks near the left of classroom. I didn't see anyone else from the bus.