k-12: the shadows

༺ wheels on the bus ༻

the other girl appeared to feel it too; she pulled her hands away from her face and looked up for her gaze to meet alexis's. her lips were parted slightly as her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

alexis stared back for a moment,

almost defiantly,

until something came over her.

she reached out and flicked a finger;

the note sailed across the bus,

landing on the lap of the girl who threw it, and igniting.

a small, satisfied smile spread across alexis's face as she watched the girl shriek and flap around. the fire was not stopped, but in fact grew, consuming the ends of the girl's dress.

the bus driver looked away from the road, to the back of the bus in shock;

the bus screeched and swerved on the road,

until it wasn't in the road anymore

but splashing into the roadside water.

the kids in the back of the bus shrieked and screamed, slamming their bodies against the windows as the bus sank slowly down into the depths of the lake.

"ally- alexis!"

alexis felt something smacking her arm, and spun around to see isabel staring at her in shock.

"what the fuck was that?" isabel hissed, gesturing towards the girl with the singed dress who was now stamping firmly on the burning paper.

alexis blinked, and looked down at her hands, frowning. "i- i don't know." she looked back up at her sister again, who flinched away and hit the window with the back of her head in shock.

"your eyes- they're black," she said quietly.

alexis looked away in frustration, her gaze meeting the eyes of the bicoloured hair girl behind her. her jaw dropped a little in shock when she saw a pair of matching black eyes blinking steadily back at her.

the bicoloured hair girl's friend, with the long dark hair, leaned over; now complete with eyes to match theirs.

"hey- you're like us. help us get this thing outta here," she said smoothly, holding out a hand to alexis.

alexis blinked. "w- what?"

"you're like us," the girl repeated patiently. "you did that thing with the note. help us get this bus out of the water."

"what? how?"

finally, the girl with the bicoloured hair spoke up.
"just think of the bus rising out of the water," she said quietly. "up, up into the sky. come on."

the dark haired girl held out her hand further still to alexis, who hesitated before taking it.

she closed her eyes, and did as she'd been told- pictured the bus rising up,
up,

up.

a jolt ran through her body,

and suddenly she was plunging upwards-

no, the whole bus-

and then they were in the sky;

the students in the back gasping in awe as the little pink bus rattled amongst the pale blue sky and clouds.

"it's so pretty up here," alexis murmured.

the bicoloured hair girl hummed in agreement. there was a few more moments of blissful silence between the three girls, until the same girl spoke again, reluctantly;
"you think we should land this thing?"

"i'd rather stay up here," replied the dark haired girl honestly. alexis nodded in agreement, but all the same, the girls allowed the bus to slowly drift back to the ground.

the bus landed with a gentle crunch of gravel on the drive;

the drive of the school in which they were going to spend the next years of their life,

k-12.