Born of starlight and shadows

~Part one (a): Inescapable Reality~

"Don't forget, you've got your art class tonight at six!" Mom called after me as I stepped out of the car.

"I'll remember!" I promised, hefting my overstuffed backpack out of the passenger seat and slinging it across my shoulders.

"'Bye, Stella!" my little sister, Maria said, waving.

"Bye," I said.

I turned towards the school in front of me and began the long walk to the math wing of the school, where my first period was.

"Welcome to South River High," the sign to the right of me proclaimed. "Home of the eagles!"

I had passed it so many times that it faded into the background, barely even worth a glance.

What time is it? I wondered. I need to get to my locker before the bell rings.

I glanced at my watch. It read: 7:45 a.m. Great. I only had five minutes to make it to my locker before first period, Geometry Honors. I began to walk faster, determined to make it to the building in time. If I was late to class one more time this semester, I'd get after school detention.

Simply thinking about that was enough to make me walk faster. Too fast. I nearly tripped over my untied shoelace. That would have been disastrous. I didn't want-or need-to fall down in front of the fifty-odd high schoolers that were gathered around the school building.

So I bent down, with some difficulty due to the many textbooks crammed into my bag, and quickly double-knotted my shoelace. Then I stood up, brushed aside the few strands of long, dark hair that had fallen in my face, and joined the throng of high schoolers making their way into the school building. Just another face in the crowd, returning for yet another school day.

As the minutes ticked by, I went over the list of things I needed to get out of my locker.

Spanish notebook, History textbook, and...oh, yeah, my English binder, too.

I pushed my way through the crowd of students loitering around the hallway before class, focusing on my purple sneakers and not the claustrophobia that always accompanied me when I was inside. Now I was mostly able to ignore it, thankfully. When I was younger it used to be a lot harder. I used to not even be able to sit in a classroom without having a panic attack.

For the most part I had learned to control my fear. Now of course, it hardly mattered. A new, greater, fear had grown in its place.

No, don't think about that, I told myself. Think about how little time you have left to get to your locker.

Right. My locker. 3015, located on the history hallway, two lockers away from the bathrooms. Ten lockers away from the water fountains. A bottom locker, yellow, same as all the others in the school, with a peeling, mostly faded sticker of a cartoon character that someone had likely slapped on years ago. Locker combination: 21/4/8.

The locker that was now only a few feet away.

Make that right in front of me, I thought as I shrugged my backpack off and unzipped it.

Two turns to the right, one turn to the left, I thought, spinning the dial.

I opened the door, wincing slightly as I heard the hinges creak, and placed the books I no longer needed to carry around in my locker. The books I did need, I shoved into my backpack. Then, finished at my locker, I shut the door and hurried down the hallway, trying to get to my class before the bell rang.

There we go, I thought. Room 318, Mrs. Ramirez's class. Geometry Honors.

I walked through the door and took a seat in my usual seat at the back of the room right as the bell rang.