The Butterfly and The Moth

8

"Well," the teacher, Mr. Lincoln— I had started to remember his name about halfway through his rambling, declared. "That's it for today."

When the collective sigh of relief emerged from the dozen or so students in the room, he shook his head and continued.

"I know, I know, school in the summer is just unnatural. How do you think I feel? I should be turning bright red on the beach, and I'm stuck here too. But, what's the lesson in this?"

Mr. Lincoln waited, but there were only slight mutters in response. "Don't skip class next year just because you feel like it. Hit the books, dedicate some of your precious teenage time to actually..."

"Can we go, now?" One of the boys from the other side of the room interrupted. Sterling's side of the room, I had taken to calling it in my head.

Because that's simply how much I disliked him. He had his half of the room. I had mine. I painted an invisible line down the center, and if he managed to stick to his side for this torturous eight weeks, then maybe— just maybe, I could survive.

Mr. Lincoln paused, and it looked like he was debating on how nuclear he wanted to go on the unnamed boy, before he let a sigh roll through him. With a lazy flick of his hand, he said, "fine.  Go."

As soon as he said that word, my feet were moving.

I kept my head down as I passed into Sterling's side of the room, cursing him for sitting down first, and in the half of the room that contained the only exit and entrance. I didn't want to look towards him, or catch his eye.

Maybe, if I didn't, he would forget that he was supposed to be driving me home. Maybe, he would forget the fact that I existed at all. Which, I doubted would be hard for him to do.

I didn't slow as I exited the classroom, sighing a breath of relief when I didn't hear his stupid voice call after me. I prayed that even if he didn't forget, he would simply just leave me be. Let me walk, without trying to keep his stupid promise to my sister.

I didn't slow as I reached the end of the hallway. I barely even registered how weird I must look to my new "peers"— my head pointed towards the ground as I walked as fast as I could without running down their pretty white halls.

I let a small smile of victory cross my face as I pushed through the doors, feeling the sun immediately on my skin. I stood still for just a second, allowing my skin to absorb the vitamin D.

But, I only had a single second to spare. Immediately after, my eyes scanned my surroundings. If I had known what Daisy was planning when she was driving me to school, I would have memorized each and every turn with care.

However, I didn't know what she was planning, so instead, I had spent the duration of the ride with my eyes closed, pretending I was still asleep in the heavenly comfortable white blankets in the pool house.

I walked towards the entrance to the parking lot, thinking that it would be a good place to start. Once I reached the end of school grounds, basically, I was guessing. The streets all looked the same, lined with perfectly planned and maintained mansions. They all had foreign luxury cars in the driveways, and they all had perfectly trimmed, bright green lawns.

But, I didn't let it bother me. I had been lost in worst places than this suburbia paradise.

Nothing bad could ever happen to me in a place like this.