Acacia Tree

People.

I sit down on the bus seat, wishing I could be anywhere else. I hate the smell of school buses, it's practically another form of the torture inflicted on children by adults.

I glance up at the emergency exit on the ceiling. Has anyone ever actually had to use that? I doubt it. But I'm pretty sure that millions of kids have been sitting here before me. There's enough gum on this seat to pave a sidewalk, if anyone would even want to walk on something like that.

I turn my head and stare out of the window, ignoring the mindless chatter and singing going on around me.

"Acacia? Earth to Acacia!" My best friend, Ash, waves a hand in front of my face.

I turn to her grumpily. "What?"

"Are you going to that school dance next Friday?"

I sigh. "I've...been thinking about it, I guess..." I haven't. I really don't want to go. But...for a friend...my only friend...

She leans across the aisle to talk to her other friends. She's everyone's friend, really, not just mine. I barely talk to her anymore except before school, between classes, and after last period. But she's really cool when she does talk to me. So I keep talking to her.

I look down and daydream until we reach our school, a horrible grey building with a sense of doom hanging around it. There's nothing remotely pretty about the outside of our school building. It's a depressing mass of grey metal that doesn't even have the self-respect to make a slanted roof. It's a box, but it couldn't just be a rectangle shaped thing, oh no, that'd be too attractive. It's built in an L shape, and has two floors above ground. I've heard that there's a basement, but I've never seen it. They could just be rumors.

The building is no nicer on the inside, with its white-tiled floors and a combination brown and barf green walls. To add to the discomfort, the ventilation sucks. Every room is either too hot or too cold, they basically have the same climate as the opposite side of the world: freezing in our summer, and boiling in our winter.

I hate it. And I go there nearly every day.
I hate it.

I sigh, daydreaming about sneaking away from the building when nobody's paying attention and wishing that could actually happen.

Ash shakes my arm. "Acacia! We're leaving! Get up."

I nod and unbuckle my seatbelt, standing up and stretching. I walk off the bus and over a depressingly grey sidewalk into my depressingly grey school.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

By second period I'm already bored to death. Oh boy! I'm learning...nothing! Again!

I don't understand what's wrong with my school, but the teachers in sixth grade teach us the same things as the seventh grade teachers. It's probably an issue with them communicating to each other. I can't blame them. I don't like communicating either.

The teacher yammers on about off-rhymes while the class communicates in a way that all of the teachers should admire, quite frankly, as they clearly need some lessons in communication. Strangely, they don't seem to appreciate my class's amazing talent, and enjoy yelling at us for it quite often.

I lean over my notebook and rub my eyes. I look up at the teacher again, half expecting an accusatory finger pointed in my direction. Nothing. She's just here to lecture us, whether or not we listen, and to collect the money that she makes off of that lecturing. I yawn, and imagine what'd happen if, say, Santa Claus barged in and demanded that teachers give us a snack time or nap time or something. I imagine that she'd say no. Perhaps Santa would then toss her into his sleigh and carry her off to the North Pole. I snort. Good riddance.

When class is finally over, I dash through the hall, give Ash a quick hug, and go to my next class. Every class is pretty much the same, and I can't wait to get home and read.