100 Days and Nights

Chapter 2

As soon as breakfast was over we headed out to the bus. Sophie and I hugged our mother goodbye and headed out with Nelly and Zack. My sister spotted her friend Sarah in the crowd. I allowed her to go with her. One by one we piled onto the bus.

Nelly and I headed straight to the back of the bus, getting a seat in the back with me one the aisle. Zack took a seat beside us and rested his head against the window. I glanced around the bus for my sister. I spotted her with Sarah in the centre of the bus. We waited patiently until everyone was seated. Once seated, the solider closed the door and started the engine, driving away. Another soldier sat behind the driver, holding onto a gun.

I glanced over at Zack where the guy with blond hair sitting beside him tried to start a conservation with him. I think his name was Jeremy. He spoke softly because we weren’t allowed to speak on the bus at all. Zack remained silent and just nodded his head or shook his head at whatever Jeremy was saying to him.

“Do you think Zack is ever going to speak again?” Nelly asked me quietly.

I shrugged my shoulders and then turned to face her. “Who knows? I hope he does. I miss the old Zack.”

“I miss the old Zack too, especially when he used to go around flirting and playing pranks on everyone.”

“Yeah, same here.”

Zack was known as one of the sweetest guys in our grade. He was a friend to everyone. I was real surprise of how much he changed after he watched his parents get killed. It was like nothing mattered to him anymore and all he wanted to do was just shut himself away from everyone. He doesn’t like to talk about it and sometimes I wonder if talking about it would make him feel better rather than just letting it all stay inside him. Scott said that maybe when he is ready he will speak again.

Once the bus pulled up outside what used to be our high school before the Japanese took over it, we all got off the bus. We headed off to classrooms where we were divided by our age groups. I was glad to have Nelly and Zack with me because I don’t think I could handle being here without them. We took a seat in the back of the classroom beside Kevin, this Vietnamese guy that no one liked to talk to anymore. He isn’t a bad guy. He used to be my Maths tutor at one stage. I occasionally wave to him when I get the chance to just so he doesn’t feel hated. I didn’t completely agree with how some of the prisoners would act towards the Asians. They felt as some of them were undercover and supporting the Japanese, but I didn’t agree with them. We were all upset about what was happening around us that we would just go around and accuse anyone.

Our teacher whose name I couldn’t even pronounce walked into the room. She didn’t even bother to greet us good morning. She just decided she wanted us to go over review of greetings before we go onto the next topic she wanted us to learn. I was horrible at learning the language and had trouble pronouncing a lot of the words.

The teacher walked down the aisle, saying phrases and sentences for us to repeat. She walked past everyone, making sure they were saying the correct thing. I felt nervous as I tried to pronounce the words, hoping I would get a beating for not saying anything correctly. When the teacher’s back was to me, I glanced over at Zack who was sitting beside Nelly. I knew he was mouthing the words and not actually saying them. I quickly turned back to the front, hoping I wouldn’t get caught staring at Zack or anybody else, and hoping that Zack will get away without speaking Japanese. So far he was getting away with it, but I wasn’t sure how long he will get away with it before the teacher realises that he is only mouthing the words.

When the teacher did reach Zack’s side, from the corner of my eye I noticed that she was circling him. I quickly glanced his way, seeing how nervous he was. Nelly glance his way as well and then glanced back at me, giving me this worried look in her eyes. We both knew something horrible was about to go down.