Poems, Songs, and Other Strange Creations

Overload

I walk into school from the bus to be met with blissful silence. This doesn't last long, though. Within 5 minutes, chatter is filling up the room. Despite my gradually growing headache, I try to shrug it off and keep waiting for my friends to arrive.

Other kids around me start laughing at jokes and stories from their friends, causing the headache to be even worse.

So loud...

When I'm feeling as if I was going to break, my friends show up just at the right time. I sigh in relief and quickly join them in the cafeteria.

I sit down at the table and watch them get breakfast. I would get some for myself, but my still-growing headache leaves me with no appetite. Once they sit down, they start talking amongst themselves. I sit there calmly, despite the headache.

A group of louder kids sits down at one of the tables near ours, leaving a pit in my stomach. This happens every morning and almost never goes well on my end. They start discussing different extracurriculars they're involved in together and start cackling at inside jokes. I try to ignore them, but they're so loud that I can't tune them out.

My friends are still talking about different things in their lives and not talking to me, leaving me with nothing to focus on to help my growing anxiety.

As my thoughts start rushing and going faster, I remember I have my phone and earbuds with me. I rush to get them out and put on some music to block everything else out and calm down.

Everything is finally peaceful for a while, until I notice everyone getting up and heading to their classes a few minutes later. I sigh to myself and take my earbuds out, putting them and my phone in my pocket.

The hallway is filled with even more talking and laughing, giving me more stress. I head to my locker, almost tripping over someone's feet on the way. I hear a group of kids laugh at me and just try to ignore it.

I grab my items for my first class and hesd to the classroom. I'm one of the first people in the room, causing me to sigh happily and wait there in the last brief period of absolute silence that I'll have for the rest of the school day.

Once kids start coming into the classroom, the room fills up with hot air and loud chatter, almost feeling like yelling at this point. I feel a sudden overwhelming sense of dread and try to spin my ring to calm down at least somewhat. Once that stops working, I sit there without anything to do to calm down.

My friend walks into the classroom and slips into the seat next to me. Usually quick to notice when I'm overwhelmed, they instead seem overwhelmed themselves and cover their ears.

I just nod a bit in understanding, no matter if they could see me or not. I stay silent so I don't participate in how overwhelmed they're feeling.

I look down and realize I could draw to focus on something else for a while.  I get an idea and get to work. A few minutes into my sketching, however, I was interrupted by the teacher discussing what they plan on going over in this class period.

Without warning, they flip all the lights off. My eyes slightly ache at the sudden change, but soon accommodate to the darker setting.

This isn't too bad. This is actually better than earlier.

Once the lights are off, they turn on a video going over the lesson being discussed. I watch the video with the rest of the class, fascinated by the topic at hand.

My happiness is cut short when they turn off the video and flip all the fluorescent lights on at once. My eyes, being as sensitive as they are, burn from the lights. The sound of them buzzing makes my head hurt worse somehow.