The Art of Hope

01. autumn

        It was a cool autumn afternoon, colder than previous weeks. Probably due to the fact it was the beginning of May and was nearing the start of winter. The air con on the bus wasn't helping either. Goosebumps prickled up my arms and down my legs but my jacket was at the bottom of my school bag and I didn't want to sift through the mess inside just to find it. There was the crisp smell of an air freshener, but it barely camouflaged the pungent and stale smell of dust that had accumulated in the seats and no one had bothered to clean properly. I had a whole seat to myself but there was only a couple people left on the bus anyway. My soccer gear took up most of the space around me, my boots hanging clumsily from my school bag. A couple months previously, a park had been bought by my soccer club and made into a field, however it's only purpose was for training. I myself hadn't been there yet as it was my first time training my team of under eights and a lot of the new and younger teams had decided to train at the new field and the older teams like mine opted to stay at the old fields.

        The only problem was that it was a half an hour drive away from school, which meant an hour bus ride on the only school bus that went anywhere near the new field. My mum worked late so couldn't drop me off, but she finished in time to pick me up at six thirty. The good thing about the old fields was that it was right behind my school so I could walk there straight from school.

        I sighed, running a hand through my short hair, slouching down into my seat. The bus rounded a corner. I didn't know this suburb well as I didn't come here often; I lived the suburb over and school was even further away. I watched houses speed past in a blur and the cloudy, overcast sky loomed overhead, and I listened to music all the while - one of Macklemore's new songs, 'Let's Eat'. I enjoyed his music. It's great how he has a lot of fun songs like 'Thrift Shop' and 'Dance Off' yet he still has these really deep songs like 'Same Love' and 'White Privilege II'. He uses his power for good and I really like that.

        It was nearly four in the afternoon; probably only a couple more minutes before I had to hop off the bus. Sure enough, the bus rounded a corner and we were on the final street before I had to get off. I pressed the button to let the driver know that I was hopping off, gathered my school bag and my other bag full of soccer things and as the bus pulled to a stop I hopped up and made my way to the exit along with a few other people. It was only four in the afternoon and I started training my team at four thirty, so I was considering spending the half an hour up the road as there was a little shop there and I could grab a small snack before I started.

        Thankfully, it was a lot warmer outside than on the bus, however it was still quite cool and would definitely become colder over the next couple of hours. I decided to rummage through my bag to grab my jacket out before I made my way up to the shops. As I was doing so, I noticed one of the others getting off the bus. A girl with long blonde hair and a messy fringe that framed her face, looking down at her hands that was fiddling with the watch on her wrist. Lily Taylor, a girl who I had seen around school, who was in the same grade as myself, who I knew was quite shy. I had made attempts to talk to her on previous occasions, but it was hard to talk to someone who didn't want to be spoken to.

        I quickly put my jacket on, zipped my bag and hurried to catch up to her. She glanced over at me as I fell into step beside her, clearly surprised at the fact I had decided to pay attention to her. She gave me a small smile, shoved her hands in her pockets, and looked down at her shoes as she walked. Lily was almost the same height as me, and being quite tall myself, was quite weird considering I towered over a lot of other girls at school. She was kind of unique in her own way. She had pale blue eyes that seemed to be on the verge of grey and green at the same time, she had quite a few blemishes on her face but didn't make an effort to cover them up like the majority of girls at my school, and was quite pale with a sprinkling of freckles under her eyes and across her nose.