The Bus Ride
The weather is awful. Everyone is packed on the old, tattered school bus with their luggage clutched tight while we head towards campus.
It’s a tight fit on this bus. It’s easy to tell that there’s kids who packed more than enough to last until Christmas break and some that won’t have enough for 2 weeks.
And yet the driver still made some of us sit 3 to a seat.
Some are sleeping. Some gossiping. Some looking out the windows.
I feel out of place because everyone else already seems to know each other.
The boarding school groups grades 9-12 and this bus is for first-years only, making it worse that everyone already seems to have picked their friend groups out except me.
It’s morning, but the sky is extremely dark. Rain pounds on the metal roof and streaks the bus windows. I hear the tires hissing on the wet roads.
We approach a bridge that sits over a giant lake in front of the school. The water looks dark with an ominous fog hanging over it.
All of the sudden, lightning flashes right over the lake.
For a second, I see something glow at the bottom of the lake. It didn’t look like metal. It almost looked like… windows.
Like a building but underwater.
I continue to stare out the window trying to catch a quick glimpse of the mysterious structure again.
Then, the red head girl that sits beside me taps me on the shoulder and quietly says:
“Don’t look at it too long.”
