Shorts

Whispers

I sighed as I woke up. I would rather spend my life in the world of unconsciousness where nobody--nothing--can hurt me. Instead of falling back asleep like I would have liked to, I rolled out of my bed and got ready for another agonizing day. As I dressed, I picked the clothes that I thought would fit my mood; black skinny jeans, a white camisole, black scarf, and black ballet flats. As I wrapped the scarf around my neck, I realized that I was forgetting something rather important.

My iPod.

I snatched it off of my nightstand with a satisfactory curl of my lips. Not a smile, but it's the closest thing you would ever get from me.

I walked out into the cool October morning, goosebumps arising on my arms from the chill. The streets were fogged up and I could barely see over thirty yards away from the front door. I breathed out another sigh and saw a cloud of condensation leaving my barely parted  lips. I plugged my ears with my noise cancelling earbuds. The world looked frozen. The leaves were losing their colors. There were no cars. Everything was just...still.

I walked to school, waiting for it all to begin.

~*~*~*~

The shadows lingered and crept up the walls of the classroom. Their dark energy were like tendrils, trying to touch every aspect of the room. The teacher's voice was muted as I focused my energy onto forcing them away. Their very presence distracted me. They shied away with each blast of Light I sent towards them.

I was far too tired to manipulate the actual Shadows.

Eventually, they were gone and I was left to wonder where they came from.

'Everybody, remember to do page 35 for homework tonight!' the teacher called after us. Some groans left the lips of my classmates while I stayed coolly neutral. It's just homework--something we get every night.

The halls were crowded--in more ways than one. The half-there, sepia apparitions floated through the halls, still in their poodle skirts and letterman jackets. They smiled and giggled, shouted and hollered, all while present-day students were checking in and out of their lockers.

And here, I was, stuck in the middle. I could feel the heavy Victoria skirt of my other self brushing against the tops of my thighs, weighing down my waist. I don't know why she wore such olden attire when the rest of them were in the 1950s.

I sighed as I stumbled into my next class. I straightened myself and sat in my desk. I pulled out my notebook and began copying the notes the teacher already had up on the board. In the midst of my copying, a new body dropped into my seat. The normal cobalt blue of the girl who sat next to me wasn't there; in fact, I couldn't see much an aura at all due to all the Shadows.

Without disrupting the work of my pen, I peeked out of the corner of my eye and just saw black--black motorcycle boots, black jeans, black leather jacket, black hair--everything, just black. The only thing that wasn't black as his porcelain skin.

The tardy bell rang and the teacher appeared before the class with a huge smile on his face. He was perpetually swinging his lanyard around his fingers.

'Hello, class!' he greeted. 'You guys better be pumped because your day is about to peak!'

<i>Oh, joy</i> was the general energy level of the class; except, I actually heard that part in my head. One unfamiliar voice...

'We have a new student today,' he continued on. 'Liam, would you like introduce yourself?'

'No thanks,' the guy beside me replied.

'Well,' the teacher spoke, 'our new student is Liam Gaivanni. He just moved here, so Mark'--he directed the class's attention our football player--'go easy on him.'