Whimpers

Chapter Two: Pigs on a Bus

I believe that it was the sound that woke me up. I could hear it from even down here. The creaking of beds and the moaning noises penetrated the morning silence. I groaned. Sitting up, I pushed my stiff body off of the hard wooden floor. Oh, I had slept here all night? Well that wan't too bad. I actually liked sleeping on the floor. I grimaced, and then immediately stiffened, remembering last night's consequences. No, I told myself, I would not allow my mother to train me like that. I would grimace whenever I wanted to. At least, behind her back... Just to be sure, I grimaced again as I heard more creaking noises through our paper thin walls.

Paper thin walls... You would think that with walls that are practically the opposite of sound-proof, someone would have heard my screaming. Maybe they did, but if they did, they didn't call 911 or anything. If they had, then I would be back with my dad or even in foster care. Anywhere would be better than here. I cracked my neck and wiped the drool off of my face. Time to get ready for school I suppose... My "parents" would be at it for a while, I knew from experience. So I had some time.

Hopefully, I would be up by the time they made it downstairs. If I wasn't out of the door by then, they would make me make breakfast, and then I would miss the bus. They didn't care about school or tardies or anything, but if I got detention, then my mother would hit me. It would be my fault and no ones else's of course. If I missed the bus, I would have to walk. I really didn't want to walk, and if I did, I would be really late. It's not like I would get a ride to school or anything.

Thirteen minutes later, I got on the bus and sat in a middle window seat with no one else in it. I sat alone every day on the bus. I liked being alone, it hurt too much to be around most people, and the people who you ended up liking were always forced away by some cruel circumstance. And anyway, I didn't know any of the kids who lived on my bus rout.

A girl jumped into the bus with both feet at the same time, and then applauded herself for making the three foot jump. It was actually kind of impressive. She grinned and bowed to her imaginary audience, before the bus driver told her to sit down already. She had yellowish blonde hair, most of the girls at our school did though, so it wasn't that surprising. Now that I thought about it, the girl was rather attractive though. I think I recognized her from school or something. I might have said hi to her at some point. I sighed, and went back to looking out of the bus window.

A soft thump made me jump and whip my head around to see what caused the noise. To my utter bemusement, the girl had sat down next to me.

"Uhh, what are you doing?" I asked her, almost incredulously. Usually my moody aura was enough to put people off. That was, after even the goths realized that I wasn't interested in being mutually depressed with them.

"Sitting here. Do you have a problem with that?" She stared back at me defiantly. I immediately looked away, with embarrassment. I was a shy guy.

"Oh, umm, no, not really." I mumbled, feeling heat rise slightly to my cheeks. I went back o staring out the window, and after a few minutes, I begun to forget that she was there. Or at least, until she spoke in that interesting voice of hers.

"So what's your name?" She had a slight lilt to her words, I realized. She sounded almost British... Or maybe she had a faint Scottish accent... she tended to draw her words out. But then again, I had never heard either of those accents.

"Umm, it's Kaelan." I mumbled again. There was a pause, in which I might have been supposed to ask her what her name was.

After a pause, in which she probably realized that I wouldn't asks her name, she spoke again, "You're... really not that good with the whole 'speaking to other humans and connecting with people' thing, are you?"