Trampoline

Trampoline - Chapter Two : Electric Blue

It’s clear that I should stop worrying about Drake. I can’t do anything to help and I know that more than anything. I know that I should cut the ties that hold me down to his memory. It’s been seven years, after all.

The familiar creaking of the trampoline’s springs brings back the memories of us playing when we were nine, bouncing upwards and trying to reach the sky – believing that we could if we were just that little bit taller.

It starts to rain, small droplets at first but graduating into a heavy downpour that soaks me to my skin within seconds. I jump off the trampoline and sprint for the door, managing to grab my maths books on the way but not before they are soaked too.

I pull open the door and run in, slamming it shut behind me. I slump against the wall, breathing heavily and watching as the rain falls from the sky.

That night I find it hard to sleep. The relentless pounding of the rain against the windowpanes keeps me awake, and what little sleep I have is interrupted by nightmares and the harsh sound of the wind rattling the window panes.

Finally, giving up on sleep I push myself into a sitting position and leave the warm cocoon I have made with my sheets. The blinking alarm clock on my bedside table tells me it is four in the morning. My feet make contact with the cold wooden floor and a shudder runs through me as I am engulfed in cold air. I pad slowly through the hallway till I get to the window seat and there I huddle inside the patchwork blankets and pillows and rest my head wearily against the wall.

I stare out the window at the faint silhouettes of the trees and garden furniture. The trees look skeletal and fragile, waving violently back and forth in the wind. I reach downwards and fumble through the small box of random objects that is always under the window, and I pull out a torch. Clicking it on, I swing the beam of light into the garden so I can see the trees better. They look eerie under the wavering light of the torch and I move to switch it off but something stops me.

For a second, I see a sudden flash of bright blue. It takes me a second to process what I have seen and in that second it is gone. I desperately swing the torch back to the spot where it had just been but nothing is there except for the trees.

It must’ve been a trick of the light, I tell myself. It was a strange thing to see though, a blue flash in the middle of the night. I decide it is just my imagination and I switch of the torch, stowing it back into the box.

Sighing, I curl up in the mass of blankets and fall asleep almost instantly. 

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A yawn escapes me as I stand alone at the bus stop. I’ve barely had two hours of sleep and I already feel like I’m about to fall into a slumber at any moment. I can’t wait to see the bus for once, just so I can sit down and rest my head against the window for that twenty minute journey.

Dianna Liddell, the girl from the bus stop who I’d met Monday morning, does not turn up. I’ve seen her around school since Monday but she never gets the bus anymore – I’m hoping it’s got nothing to do with me.

As usual, the bus is late. I see it ten minutes after it was supposed to have arrived, driving towards the bus stop in an agonizingly slow pace. It screeches to a halt and the doors open in jagged movements. I step inside, grateful for the fact that the heating is on – even though the rain from last night has cleared up it is still a bitterly cold day.

All of the seats are full except for one which is next to a tall guy with messy auburn hair. I know his name, he is Kent Richards. Sophia had tried to set us up together numerous times, saying that we were meant to be together – which all of us knew wasn’t true. I’m too shy for Kent, and he’s too popular for me. We’ve barely even talked to each other and the one thing that we seem to have in common is that we both don’t want to.