Miss, Do I Know You?

01 - Monday, August 31

"Thanks, you're a life sav..." The words evaporated into thin air as I beheld the ghastly attire. "Liv, no. Please tell me this is a joke."

She chuckled, raising her hands in a conciliatory gesture. "You haven't unpacked yet. I couldn't find anything else."

"I was like twelve the last time I wore this!"

"You better hurry and put them on if you don't wanna be late."

Staring into the mirror at the vibrant pink fabric, a few sizes too small, another fit of laughter came from my sorry reflection. "Well, this should at least save me from unwanted conversations," I remarked with a sardonic sneer twisting my lips. "Or get me suspended."

"Mhm." Olivia tried to stifle her laughter. "You could use a bra."

"Give me yours."

She recoiled. "Like I don't need it."

"Come on, Liv. I can't go around looking like a mix of a hobo and a hooker on the first day of school."

"Since when do you care? And are we not going to address the elephant in the room?"

I drew closer. "Give it."

Her mouth twitched at the edges before giving way to full-on laughter. "You're seriously deficient in the shame department," she remarked, reaching into her bag to produce a different set of clothes. "Were you really gonna go out there looking like that?"

"I clearly don't have much dignity left," I mumbled before slipping into the socially acceptable pants and sweater, the atrocity of a t-shirt repurposed to hastily blot away the dampness of my blonde hair. "You know, I'm starting to think I also might have a problem with luck."

"Stop being all philosophical and come on." Olivia snorted. Her hand took a firm hold of my arm, yanking me toward the door. "If anyone catches you smoking up the faculty bathroom, I don't want to go down with you this time."

I rolled my eyes, filing in beside her on my helplessly damp boots and with an acute throb in my calf. The hallway buzzed with the mundane chatter of just another school day, lined with sleepy-eyed students less than thrilled to be there. It was jarringly normal, a stark contrast to the strange world I had been living in for the past few hours.

"So, um, the elephant?" Olivia broached the topic. "Why are you all scratched up? And what's with the limp?"

"Couldn't fall asleep, so I went on a walk."

The look on her face told me she didn't buy my vague explanation. "I know you tend to wander around like a stray cat, but a walk through where? The trenches of world war?"

"More or less." I gave a slight laugh, deflecting the pointed concern in her eyes. My pride stung more than anything else. "I guess you could say I got a bit carried away."

"By a grizzly bear?"

Laughing, I surmised I could have come up with some good excuse, but instead tried to figure out how to explain my own stupidity. It had been my fault, really. I had stayed up all night, insomnia leading me to meander around all the odd corners of the small town, over bridges, roundabouts, peering into nooks and crannies I had yet to learn. Being up at such late hours was nothing new for me. Walking had always been my release, my way to declutter the mind, and each night was a grueling struggle to do something I had long acknowledged as implausible.

Unlike me, the town had been asleep that night, its streets barren, cemented pavements dead-enders to little shops and homes, no true end to a beginning, while the houses and their yards paused at every turn. My aimless ramblings had led me up a hill, where the forest seemed to fold upon itself, its tangled limbs and twisted roots barring my path. Only a fervent desire to find something worth looking at had spurred me on, deeper into the woodland, until I arrived at a boulder in a clearing that sat at the perfect vantage point in the crook of the hill and overlooked the small town. Like something from a painting, a small slice of perfection. It had been so peaceful, the silence so tranquil, in an odd and intrusive way.