Lyra Ellis
I shivered. Whoever designed this bus had no idea how cold winters got here. There was no heater. I honestly preferred the cold, biting cold to the slight chill that was seeping into my bones.
My phone, which was at the bottom of my bag, started vibrating violently with messages. The boy next to me, who looked about nine, sent me a dirty look.
I averted my eyes and leaned forward, feeling relieved when my bangs covered my eyes. They were pale pink, because of a rare mutation or something. It only drew attention to me, which I hated.
Fishing my phone out from under my spare clothes, I checked it and bit back a groan. It was the school group chat. I had no idea who had added me, considering I'd spent my entire middle school life bouncing between friend groups who didn't actually like me.
Currently they were texting about something called K-pop. At some point during the past few years, things from the 2000s became really popular, including a bunch of horny fantasy books, an insane variety of music, memes about numbers (I'd never understand that) and baggy clothes. The last one I could get behind, honestly. (I don't think I mentioned but this is set in the year 5036 btw, lol)
I unfolded my phone to its full length, which was about the size of one of those old iPads, and pulled up a novel I'd been reading. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on in the plot, but the characters were hilariously stupid.
I checked the time. It was like two minutes until the bus got to my stop. Thank goodness.
Those two minutes were torture.
As soon as the bus stopped, I shot up and pushed to the door and almost got trampled.
Fun.
I stumbled onto the pavement (as a short person, buses are much too far off the ground) and was immediately greeted by a woman in a crisp uniform. She was wearing a name tag that read "Mirem Academy."
"Lyra Ellis?" she asked.
I gulped. "Um, yeah, I'm here for Mirem."
"Right, this is the bus," she said, leading me to a sleek white vehicle.
My eyes widened. "Um... I thought the buses were yellow?"
"Are you from the rural area?"
"The outskirts of the city, yeah."
"Hm," she said. "Well, it's a bit different here, in the city."
I wasn't sure I was going to like the city.
***
The bus ride had been okay, I guess. Nothing embarrassing happened. Now, though, I had to meet my roommates.
I was in room 705. I liked the number 75. The least common multiple of 15 and 25. So good number.
I pressed my finger to the door, hoping my fingerprints weren't deformed and I wouldn't be locked out.
Chaos. Absolute chaos.
The main room was pretty empty, apparently we could decorate them. There was a couch and a small TV, plus a kitchen in the corner. It had a sink, fridge, microwave, and stove, and was the center of the chaos.
"You need more sugar!"
"It's a fucking BAGEL Ness!"
"IT'S A SWEET BAGEL!!!"
"WHY DO YOU NEED YOUR BAGEL TO BE SWEET?!"
"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!!"
"Hey, pinkeye!"
I jumped slightly, and averted my eyes from the scene unfolding about the sweet bagel.
There was a girl eating honest-to-god Skinny-Pop on the couch. Eating popcorn like this was a movie. Her hair was dyed teal at the ends. Her right eye was more of a gold color than the left one.
"Can I call you Pinkeye?" she asked. "Or just Pink. Pinkeye's a medical condition. Pinky? No, that sounds weird." She glanced at my eyes. "Hm, Majenta? Maybe just Madge. You kinda look like a Madge. What's your name?"
"L-lyra," I squeaked.
"Huh," she mused. "Pretty name. I'm Avila Shah. Can I call you Madge?"
I nodded.
"Cool," she said. Then, startling me, she hollered, "Em! Meet Madge!"
The girl who'd been making the bagel turned. "Coming!"
"WHAT ABOUT THE BAGEL-!" The redhead who'd said that was immediately silenced by the one who'd told the two of them to be quiet.
"This is Emery," Avila said, "and she's unnecessarily tall."
Understatement.
I stared slightly. She was like four inches taller than me, with brown hair in two braids and darker brown eyes.
"Ness, I am not making you a bagel ever again–" she said. Then she looked at me. God, why was I so short? "Madge?"
"Um-"
"Lyra," Avila corrected. "I call copyright for Madge."
"You can't copyright her name??"
"Yeah I can. This is my new best friend, because the rest of you are idiots who hate my nerd shit."
"Cool," I managed, even though no one asked. Idiot.
"Anyway, Ness wanted to share a room with Chloe, god knows why," Avila said. "I get my own room, because I got here first–" she grinned "-which means you're with Emery!"
"Oh," I said, glancing up at her.
"You can choose which bed you want," Emery offered.
"Thanks."
"Do you want a bagel?"
Avila rolled her eyes. "Ness brought a bag of bagels. It's kinda the only real food we got. The cafeteria isn't open this late."
Tentatively, I asked, "Which one's Ness?"
She shrugged. "Redhead. They're nonbinary, but they got stuck with us because of their parents. The other one's Chloe. She's Emery's cousin."
"I'm half-white, half-Chinese, she's full Chinese so she looks way more Asian than me," she explained. "Come on, I can make you a bagel."
I looked at Avila, who gave me a subtle thumbs-up. Well, it was subtle for her.
I saw Emery's hand twitch slightly like she was going to grab my arm, but before I could figure out what to make of that, she was at the kitchen, putting a bagel into the toaster.
"You like Nutella?" she asked.
Ness pouted from where they stood, eating their monstrosity of a bagel with whipped cream and strawberries. "How come she gets a sweet bagel?"
"Because she's not a moron. And I think that whipped cream has enough sugar to give you diabetes."
"Why would you put sweet things on a bagel?" Chloe demanded.
"Nutella is good," I said quietly.
The toaster beeped loudly. Emery pulled it out and grabbed the jar of Nutella.
"Here you go," she said after spreading it.
"Thanks."
As I ate my bagel, I thought maybe this wasn't too bad after all.
