Property of Billie Eilish (✓)

001

- Several months before.

September 6th. The familiar beeping if my alarm startling me out of my sleep. The was sky still black from night. It was cruel, how early I had to get up.

As i rubbed the sleep from my eyes, I felt my stomach (or chest?) grow that pressure, the static feeling. Butterflies, was it? I was so anxious, but excited at the same time.

I took my time getting out of bed, stretching and finally turning the damn alarm off. My mother would most likely be in the living room, staying up on her computer like she did every night.

I quickly got dressed, having already picked my outfit the night before, and went in the bathroom to do my hair. I had absolutely nothing creative planned for it, and just threw it into a high ponytail. After looking at my reflection for a while, i took the hair elastic out and plugged in my curling iron, brushing my teeth and washing my face while waiting for it to heat.

"Riley! The bus is coming soon" My mother called, and I cursed. I must've spent a little too long getting out of bed.

"Yeah, alright!" I called back, unplugging the curling iron and running a brush through my hair again because I no longer have time to curl my hair.

I double check the curling iron is unplugged and rush back into my room, grabbing my bookbag, phone, and keys. Once i was sure i had everything I ran down the stairs.

6:52

Five minutes to get to the bus stop.

I said bye to my mom, who tried to slow me down by praying for me, and walked down the block. The bus stop was two blocks away, not really that bad considering the blocks here weren't very far at all.

As soon as I made it, I saw the horrid yellowish orange bus roll down the street. I waited as the other kids got into the bus, glancing back the way I'd came. I wanted to go home, but as my feet carried me up the stairs, my excitement for the day ahead only grew stronger.

I sat near the back, next to a girl. I didn't pay any mind to her, probably a middle schooler or a freshman based on the fact that I've never seen her before. She cleared her throat and tapped my shoulder.

"You're sitting on my sweater sleeve" She mumbled, and I hurriedly got up, apologizing. I looked at her, and my lips parted a little in surprise. She was stunning. White hair and pale blue eyes. Full, pink lips. I wanted to reach out and touch her cheek, just to make sure she was real

She looked away.

"You go to American Prep? They're uniform, you know" I say, referring to the middle school this bus also goes to.

She put her headphones in, signaling the conversation was over. I rolled my eyes. Rude. Middle schoolers could be so snippy.

I watched her hand tap on a brownish...dark ivory colored notebook. It had a few words written on the front of it, newspaper cutouts, and a line of floral tape on its front, with "Property Of" written on it. I craned my neck to read the name, and the girl pulled the notebook closer to her, giving me a warning look before turning back to the window.

The bus stopped in front of the middle school, and all the students from that school got up and headed out. The girl next to me didn't move, and I mentally shrugged. A freshman, then.
There was a possibility she was in my year, but that would suck, because i had signed up for the welcoming committee last year, and that would mean I'd have to show her around the school.

*

"Let me see your schedule" I sighed. The girl, Billie, handed it over. Her face was completely blank, no emotion on it whatsoever. This was unusual to me. Normally people would look around, curiosity laced on their features, but Billie had nothing.

"Okay, so, you have first period science with DeMarco, he's a nice guy, but if you turn in your assignments late he gets really mad" I chuckled a little, looking back at Billie "He also loves his rocks"

She said nothing. She didn't even blink. The only sign of life from this girl was her lower lip, twitching.

"Uhm, okay, well. The bell is going to ring soon, so I'll take you there. When class is over, I'll already be there to-"

The schedule was snatched from my hands, and Billie let her eyes scan the paper and then the hallways. She walked down the hall and disappeared around a corner as the bell rang. I didn't feel like following her, and she was heading in the right direction, anyways.

I made my way to my own class, showing the teacher my welcoming committee pass. She nodded and I took my seat. We did nothing in class. Ice breakers, class expectations, the grading system, normal first day of school stuff. I packed my stuff up 5 minutes before class, and left. Welcoming committee had to leave before the bell in order to get to their assigned student & escort them to their next class. I made my way downstairs and around the corner, stopping in front of the classroom Billie was in.

I waited for two minutes, and once the bell rang, Billie stepped out and walked right past me. I rushed to catch up to her, but her pace only got faster. She eventually broke out into a run, and i groaned. After a while of chasing her around the school, she stopped and turned to me.

"Stop following me!" she huffed, her voice strangely flat "Leave me! I'm tired! I can't find the keys, I need to clean" she blinked at me and then looked at the floor

I gave her a weird look and had to take a second to process her words. She was incoherent, nothing she just said made any sense, so i just stuck with the stuff I understood.

"I'm a part of the wel-"

"LIAR!" she screamed, putting her hands into her hair and pulling "You're going to- GET AWAY FROM ME" she yelled again. Students passing gave her confused looks, and others laughed. There was something wrong with this girl, and as I watched her twitch and pull at her hair, I noticed the silver and black medical bracelet on her wrist.

Suddenly, she went still. Her back straightened and her lips parted as she started moving backwards, eyes darting around the room. Something told me she didn't see the maroon and white hallways that everyone else saw. A lady with blonde hair walked towards Billie, whispering something into her ear over and over until Billie blinked, her eyes finding mine and narrowing.