Ch. 6: Day Two

CHAPTER SIX:

That night I had a horribly vivid nightmare. A series of them. But the one that stood out the most was one where I was in complete darkness while being slowly turned into -something else. I had been standing there, feeling around with my hands trying to figure out where I was - trying to find a light switch or anything really. But there was nothing around. When I felt for the walls, there was air. When I felt up above my head, there was nothing there, and when I tried to feel for the ground, my hands just passed through chilly air. I was in a vacuum in space. There was no light, no sound, and there were no other objects other than myself. Then I felt something on my face, a feather. I reached for it and became attacked by countless birds. There were beaks pecking into my flesh, harsh rough feet grabbing hold of my hair and clothing, digging into my skin and breaking through flesh, making me scream. But I screamed in silence. I couldn’t make a sound as I was attacked. I woke up with my heart racing and the feeling that something was watching me through the window. So I ran out of bed and lowered the blinds more than the half they were already down. I sat in bed for a long time trying to let go of the feeling of feathers all over me before I finally passed out from exhaustion.

My second day was starting off like a real first day. While I was used to getting on the bus in the morning to head to P.H., today was the first day I was going to get off at my new stop. There will be glares, I guarantee it. My mom dropped me off at the park, and as I got out of her car I quickly pulled out my ear buds to ward off nosy people who probably wanted to continue to bother me about my transfer. I turned the volume up as loud as I could stand and walked to the stop just as the bus came around a corner. The meandering upperclassmen began to gather more closely at the bus stop and I thought I was doing a good job of looking annoyed so no one would bother me. Wrong.

As the bus came to a stop and the doors opened up, people started filing inside. My right earbud was forcibly yanked from my ear.

“Jesus!” I turned to my side, ticked off.

Sophie stood there, arms crossed, a grim line on her face. Sophie and I had been becoming friends over at P.H. I hadn’t told her I was leaving. I should have, but I didn’t. Guilt ate away at me a tad.

“Are you really going to try to ignore me now? What? You’re too good for me?” She asked with venom. Sophie was petite, with light toffee skin and small dark freckles across her cheekbones. In middle school she had been one of Ally’s best friends but it seemed that they weren’t talking much lately. Her family was very old-school strict, and usually Sophie’s rigid sense of propriety would keep her from confrontation of any sort. Not today. I guessed I really had pushed her buttons. I stood there stupidly not responding. After a moment longer she continued, “You know, I thought we were friends,” before she pushed past me and got onto the bus. 

I noticed that I was now the only person outside of the bus. Great.

While I berrated myself for once again stupidly not responding in the moment, I stepped onto the stairs and began to look for a seat. Sophie and I used to sit together, it looked like that was now something in the past. I found, by the grace of whatever, one totally empty seat and urgently sat down, putting my bag next to me. I looked back a few ailes to see Sophie glaring out the window. I honestly didn’t know she cared about our friendship that much, I thought I was just the only person around. Well, not around anymore. I notice Jake on the opposite seat from hers, looking right at me with a sour look on his face.The bus pulled away from the curb as I put my earbud back in place, looking away. I tried to think about nothing.

I was unsuccessful in thinking about nothing. 

As the bus got onto the freeway I relived my day yesterday and suddenly remembered I would be going to all new classes today. Hopefully Ally could help me locate things before school started so I didn’t have to rely on the help of the goth redhead from yesterday. Why had I said yes to his strange request? After Sophie’s attitude this morning I wasn’t in the mood to make any new friends. Hopefully that guy will forget all about it.

As we approached Belmar, the fog appeared, and we descended down the highway and along the coast in the thick white fluff of fog. The bus exited the freeway and climbed up the street to Pacific. This was now my spot, I made a mental note to never forget to get off here lest I be stuck with Sophie and her rage over at P.H. The bus drove into the parking lot and came to a stop. Three girls got up and began making their way off the bus. This was my cue. I passed all the people not looking at me as I tried not to make eye contact with anyone. Although I thought I saw Jake looking at me again when I had stood up. The four of us got off the bus and started to walk into the giant not-a-hallway. I turned down my music, pulled out an ear bud, and headed inside while hearing the bus rush away to its next stop. I realized then that the smaller van that picked up people in Ally’s neighborhood wasn’t here yet. One of the girls that got off the bus with me turned to me.

“Hey Rachel, I’m Angela. I don’t know if you remember me but I used to come down to the playground when we were younger and I taught you about algebra?” Angela, a senior at Pacific, with her thin long blond hair and dark blue eyes regarded me. I suddenly remembered exactly what she was talking about.

“Holy crap, I totally remember that. I was talking to you above the slide and you were talking about how in your grade you guys were doing math that had letters in it.” I burst out laughing.

Angela grinned and nodded, “Yeah, the good ‘ole days when we thought that was hard.”

The other girls walking in our same direction turned to join us. We made formal introductions. There was Angela, of course, a pale-skinned, fair haired, tall girl who was best friends with Melanie. Melanie was a medium-tan skinned girl with straight black hair and almond eyes, she was about my height. Melanie’s younger sister June looked just like her but wore dark rimmed glasses. June was a sophomore. Somewhere along our formal introductions we had continued walking. We talked about my schedule and what I thought about my first day yesterday. I mentioned making friends with Maxine and Marsha, and the tone suddenly changed.

“What?” I asked Angela directly, as we neared the cafeteria.

Angela paused for a second then said, “Look, they’re great and everything, but don’t take them too seriously. They don’t really care about anything… or anyone. It’s just about whatever is amusing to them at that second.”

No one said anything in response as Melanie opened the door to the cafeteria and for some reason I followed them to a table. We sat down and June pulled out her phone. After a second Melanie started talking to Angela about something and the weight of Angela’s earlier comment dissipated. I figured they had some sort of history together but being that I barely knew anyone, I decided I didn’t care what Angela had said. I would make my own decisions.