Notes and Words

Chapter 1 - First Meetings

The bus from the dorm was packed with people on their way to school or work. The dorms were several bus stops away from the school normally she would take the shuttle bus but that morning she had missed the bus. She had run towards the bus but the driver hadn't seen her and kept going, she felt invincible each time it had happened but instead of moping around she walked towards the city bus stop and waited there. She had decided on going to an all-girls high school because she wanted to focus on her studies but she also felt awkward around other people. She felt that going to a school with just girls would take some of the pressure off but she still felt weird around other people.

As the bus moved down the road Riley grabbed onto a handle and pulled out her favorite book, it was a mixture of a travel narrative and beautiful photographs. The book was by one of her favorite authors, he made traveling the world seem like an adventure written in beautiful words, it also encompassed her favorite hobbies writing and photography. Both were things that she didn't need friends to accomplish because the stories she wrote were made of friends she created and not those treated her as though she were expendable. When she took pictures she was able to capture the small things in life that made her own life beautiful.

The bus jerked and Riley's glasses began to slip down her face, "Hey check out four eyes," someone said from behind.

Riley hated taking the city bus because some of the students from the nearby all-boys school took it as well and they would often make fun of Riley because of how she looked. Or they would make loud comments that would just make her uncomfortable. As the bus moved along their comments about her started to annoy her.

"Dude, she goes to that all-girls school right, why is her skirt so long?" the same voice said.

"Zay stop making comments about someone you don't know," someone said.

"I'm not the one eyeing the girl, geez your taste in girls has gone down man. She's definitely not your type."

Riley tried her best not to get angry by the comments or turn around and throw her book at them. Instead she turned up the volume on her headphones and continued reading her book. She was listening to her before school playlist which was filled with a mixture of music mostly rock because she was preparing herself for the long eight hours at school listening to everyone's trivial lives. As the bus reached her stop it jerked her away from the handle and she landed in the strong arms of a boy. When she looked up she saw his forest green eyes looking down at her, his arms were wrapped around her body holding her in place.

"I got you," he said to her but she jumped out of his arms dropping her book. Instead of talking she pushed her way towards the back doors. "Hey you dropped your book," he said as he lifted it off the ground catching her skirt in the process and pulling it up revealing her cuddle bunnies' underwear.

She felt her cheeks redden as she screamed and ran out of the bus. 'Why does this always happen to me?' she thought to herself as she ran down the block towards the school. Some of the local students were making their way towards the building smiling happily but Riley just wanted to drown herself in the school fountain. When she got to her classroom the embarrassment began to die down. She would never see these boys again why should it bother her.

"Oh hey Riley," Missy said as Riley sat down at her desk. "I need to copy your homework, and your notes because I didn't finish it yesterday."

'You're such a liar Missy you never do any of your homework you just copy everything from me and the fact that the teach hasn't noticed drives me nuts,' Riley thought to herself but instead of telling her that Riley just smiled and nodded at Missy.

"Hey Riley, I heard you missed the bus this morning and ended up on the bus with a bunch of guys from that nearby all-boys school," Darby said from her desk. "I heard that they were giving you a hard time."