Bluebird
The soft wind pushed hard against me. Lifting my hand to my face, my eyelids shifted closed. I stood before a small town, with roughly around 20 residents. It was a small town, but it was peaceful. It was home. I felt the wind push me harshly towards the edge. I stared at the town, I could see some kids playing in the park below me. The wind pushed harder against me, bringing me even closer.
I looked up at the sky. I saw a bird fly over me, it was a bluebird. I could see its sparklingly blue feathers as it flapped away from me. I took a step forward and outstretched my arm to it. I took a stepped forward with the wind, my legs felt almost dumb as I walked. I reached the end of the mountain, and yet, I didn't stop walking forward. The bird flew in circles, seemingly taunting me.
With one more step forward, I fell.
-
"The Bluebird. Can anyone tell me what it symbolizes?"
"The bluebird symbolizes happiness, Mr. Roxell!"
"Very good, Ms. Collymore. The bluebird does symbolize happiness. It's been reported that many cultures see the Bluebird as happiness. This can be dated back almost thousands of years. Thank you again, Ms. Collymore."
I slowly lifted my head. I looked around the room, 'a classroom?' I looked around once more, my eyes soon making contact with someone. She had long black hair in a high ponytail and piercing black eyes. She gave me a taunting look, then looked back at the teacher. I blinked as I processed what was happening. I shuffled back to look at the teacher to see him staring at me, "Miss Terne, would you please read out question 16?" I went to reach for my notebook but my hand met nothing. I looked down at my desk and saw my textbook had vanished.
I looked from side to side and didn't see it anywhere, "uh," I looked back at the teacher. "I don't know where my textbook went. It was just here." His eyebrow cocked in confusion, "What are you talking about?" He pointed towards the desk in front of me. "It's right there." I looked at where he was pointing, and in fact, my textbook was there. 'How in the world?' I quickly opened my textbook up and scanned for question 16.
I opened my mouth as I began to speak, "What are some things that can define a culture?" "Good. Now does anyone know the answer to that?" I closed my textbook once I felt his eyesight leave me. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and looking at the textbook in front of me. I was sure I hadn't seen it when I looked, so how did it just pop up like that? Was I going crazy or did I need new glasses?
Once I heard the bell ring not so long after, I grabbed my bag and quickly walked out the room. The hallways quickly flooded with students. I saw my friend, Viola, standing by the vending machines. She was a short, slightly overweight, girl with ginger hair. She seemingly heard my footsteps and looked up to meet me, her face morphed into a smile. "Hi, Leith!" She quickly ran up to me. I walked past her to the vending machines, "Hey, Viola." I quickly inserted my dollar bill and clicked on the Skittles option.
"How was your class?" I bent down to pick up my bag of candy. Turning to face her once I retrieved my lunch for the day, I said, "It was okay." I decided not to mention my weird encounter with the textbook. I looked down at her, taking in her appearance. She had a white shirt on with black leggings, she had a denim jacket with black shoes.
I popped one of my skittles into my mouth.
I looked at her hands and saw she was holding a small can of sprite with two bags of Dorito chips. I glanced back at her face and saw her holding an uncomfortable expression. I cocked my head to the side, "What's wrong?" She looked up at my gaze before snatching my hand in hers and running off. I quickly stumbled to my feet to match her speed, "Woah!"
I was quickly dragged into the restrooms. "Sorry! I really need to pee!" She squealed as she ran into a stall. I quietly sighed to myself. I heard the restroom door open and heard 3 sets of footsteps. I inwardly groaned as I could hear the girls chatting up a storm. I could hardly recognize the voices.
Azailia B.
Havilah M.
And
Meliora C.
They were considered the 'popular girls', and when I say that, I mean the girls who constantly belittle others because they are absolute garbage and they know it.
"Did you read the new vlog?"
"You mean the new one AVY posted?"
"Well, obviously, who else would I be talking about."
I heard the footsteps turn the corner and their conversation went quiet. I lifted my face and saw them staring at me. I recognized Meliora as the girl from earlier, the one I made eye contact me. She made a sound of disgust before walking towards me. She stood to the right as the other two went to my left. They stood by the mirrors and started fixing their makeup. I went to grab my bag to leave when I heard Meliora speak up. "You know, you wouldn't be half bad if you actually tried." I looked up at her. I saw her looking at me from the corner of her eye. I simply looked away.
I could sense her eye roll as I lifted my bag. I took a quick glance at the mirror before I left. My hair had been all frizzed and messy, it went to my chest. I was wearing sweat pants and a hoodie. It wasn't much, but I didn't care. I walked away and knocked on Viola's stall door. The door almost immediately opened and Viola walked out. A huge smile on her face. I stuffed my hand into my hoodie pocket, staring at her as she quickly shuffled to the sinks.
"Ew, look! Ms. Piggy is here!" I looked up at Havilah. "Don't you have to get back to Kermit?" They all sniggered together. I could see Viola wince at their remarks. I dropped my bag on the ground and quickly took steps forward to the girls. I grabbed Havilahs wrist into my own and slammed it onto the wall next to her. I was about 2-4 inches taller than them, so it was easy to appear threatening.
I could hear the girls stop sniggering and Havilahs voice hitch. I stared at her and opened my mouth, "Don't talk to her like that again." I tightened my grip on her wrist, her face looking away slightly in slight pain. "Okay?" She frantically nodded. I roughly let go of her wrist and walked towards the exit. While walking towards the exit, I picked up my bag.
I walked out of the restrooms and decided to wait for Viola. It was only a few seconds before I heard the rustling of frantic footsteps. I heard the door slam open and looked in the direction of it, but saw a blurred orange color and felt myself falling to the ground. My back made hard contact with the floor and I hitched in pain. "Thank you so much, Leith!" Her arms, which were wrapped around me, tightened around me. "That was so cool-! You're so cool!" I lifted my hands and pushed at her shoulders, "Okay, now get off of me!" I felt her grip loosen and soon she was off of me completely. I pushed myself up and looked at her before shaking my head. I looked around the campus and heard the bell ring. I waved goodbye to Viola and walked to the next class.
As soon as I stepped foot into the classroom, everything went black.
-
'It's so cold.
Where am I?
It feels like it's 30 degrees!'
I lifted my hand to feel around where I was. I felt something sparkly and sticky. It was so cold.
I lifted my head from the mysterious substance and I threw myself back in panic as I saw what it was.
Snow.
'What-' I quickly looked at my surroundings. The harsh winds flew against me, sharply hitting me as it swirled around. I felt myself wince in pain as I slowly stood up.
I felt a presence behind me, quickly I faced in the direction but saw no one there.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and swirled around.
Everything went dark again.
-
The bell rang once more. 'What?’
I heard many footsteps emptying the classroom, probably students taking their leaves.
I lifted my head and looked around, there were only about 4 people left, excluding the teacher. Wait—
That's Mrs. Esha. She’s my Web design teacher. But, her class is the last class on the day. Did I really sleep through all my classes? Even if I did, how did I get to them if I was sleeping?
I slowly sat up and looked around for my bag. It was gone. I frantically looked around for it but it was nowhere. “Ms. Terne?” I looked up at my teacher, “is something wrong?” I opened my mouth to speak, “yes, I can’t find my bag. Have you seen it?” She pushed her glasses up with one finger, “Yes, a student came and picked it up. He said he was your brother and needed to drop it off at the office.”
‘My brother?’ I nodded at her, “okay, thank you.” I slowly started to walk out of the class. ‘But I don’t have a brother. Even if I did, would she really just let someone take it?’ I started to walk to the office, I figured it was my best shot at finding it. I quickly maneuvered my way to the office. The halls were almost empty, due to many students leaving to go home.
I finally reached the office and lifted my hand to open the door. Inside was a few students, probably still waiting to be picked up. I shifted my gaze from them to the front desk, “Excuse me?” I started walking to them. “Have you seen my bag? My teacher said someone came to drop it off?” The lady didn’t look up from her laptop and pointed behind me. I turned around and saw a little boy with my bag. He was wearing a gray hoodie that covered his face. I scrunched my face in confusion, as I have never seen this kid before. I pushed off the desk and started walking to him.
He looked up at me and before I could register what was happening, my wrist was yanked and I was pulled out the office. I felt panic rise within me as he dragged me across the street. Many cars, who were driving by, stopped to a halt and honked at us. I tried desperately to get my wrist back but it only caused him to tighten his grip. He was a small kid, probably around 5’2. 5 inches shorter than me. He pulled me about two blocks before suddenly stopping. I hunched over and tried to catch my breath. I felt my wrist drop and I looked up at him, he was facing me now. He had bright blue hair and his hood was around down now. I took in his features and noticed his circular glasses, much like mine. He took a deep breath in and dropped my bag.
My gaze followed the bag before looking back at him as he extended his hand towards me.
“Sorry about that, my names Finian. Finian Stoll.”
‘Finian?’
