-Chomp-
-Munch munch-
I made these weird noises while I was eating my DIY cookies on the bus. They're homemade cookies but not really homemade, cause all I did was bought round cookies and add strawberry jam between two of em and they're done. So I call them DIY cookies instead.
Eating on the bus was not allowed, but the bus driver didn't care. It's been 2-hours, and we were all doing it, and he was driving, so there wasn't really a good reason to care.
I looked out the window to see the second last station zooming closer towards us.
"Nives, Nives!" I shouted, shaking Nives' shoulder, she was sitting on the left side, sleeping. Her head was supposed to be on my shoulder, but I was too short, so it was kind of on my head.
Nives woke up, she looked like she was still half asleep, like usual.
"Nives, were almost there," I said.
"Oh, where are we going?" She asked.
"To school."
"Right."
She straightened up and looked around, the bus was now crowded, all the seats were taken, ours were at the back so it wasn't so bad, but the front was filled with people.
And not to mention, filled with spirits too.
But the bus is crowded, and the streets are even more crowded.
I looked out the window again and saw the bustling city, filled with spirits. Folks, get yer spirits today! They come in all shapes and sizes, every color you can imagine, even in colors you CAN'T imagine. There are big ones, small ones, weird ones and ones that don't even have a size, amazing right? They walk, they swim, they sink, and they fly. They're everywhere doing everything and anything ya could think of.
As the bus headed closer to the city, ya would see more and more spirits, until it was almost impossible to make out the people in any crowd.
I slouched in my seat to tuck my head under the window. My head wasn't that high up anyway, I was short so it was easy.
"Nives, can we trade bodies?" I asked.
"No?" Nives said while giggling,
"Is it about your height again Jeyne?" she asked.
And I said nothing. Cause she was right.
"I wish I was taller"
"In time Jeyne," she replied.
"Why do you want to be tall anyway Jeyne?" She asked, she didn't need to use my name so much, but she did cause she thinks my name's cute.
"It's good to feel like," I said, but I didn't finish.
'Feel like you could see everything around you', I thought. Being on the bus makes it easy for me. I don't need to worry about what's around me and where I go, I can always look at what's in front of me. And back in the countryside, I wouldn't need to worry about crowds, because there aren't any, and not many spirits too.
But here in the city, it always feels like I'm suffocating. Drowning in the sea of people, in the sea of spirits.
"-like I'm tall and... tall, and tall." I said.
Nives laughed aloud, "Jeyne being tall isn't a fEeLiNG," she said this in a weird way, "It's just being a bit taller."
"But you get to feel the 'tallness' too!"
Nives herself was taller than me, don't even get me started on how normal that is. But she is about as tall as any 12-year-old girl would be, the normal, average height.
Nives has creamy blond hair and her skin is creamy chocolate brown. It makes her look like a Magnum Gold ice cream packet. She has yellow eyes, straight nose and thin lined, cherry lips. She doesn't think so herself but I think she looks really pretty.
"You're pretty Nives," I said sulking. Giving the 'I wish I was as pretty as you' look.
"You're prettier than me Jeyne. You said that just because I'm tall," she retorted.
And I didn't but I kind of did.
"All tall girls are pretty, no questions asked!"
"Pretty comes in all shapes and sizes,"
"...Yeah that's true," I said, but now looking out the window.
The busy streets, although crowded, looks beautiful. Seeing spirits isn't really a bad thing. It gets scary to deal with at times, but at other times, it feels amazing. So many colors, so many shapes, it almost feels like it's a festival every day.
The bus stopped on the last station, and we got down.
I packed my bag of cookies, saving it for later, and followed Nives to our class. It wasn't a long walk but it took a while, I avoided as many eyes as I could possibly avoid. We we're famous in school, but I won't tell you why cause to be honest, I don't know why.
But I guess this is a good time to introduce myself.
My name's Jeyne Scarlet. And I'm turning 12 today. To my friends I look like a ghost. To everyone in school, I look like a doll. I think it's cause I'm short.
Scarlet is my family name, and it runs in the family too cause my dad has scarlet hair, and so do I. But my hair is a mix of scarlet and orange cause my mom had blond hair, or so my dad said.
But I've never seen anyone else have scarlet hair, so maybe that's why I'm famous.
I have scarlet eyes just like my dad, that didn't change. But what's creepy about it is that it glows too, which creeps my friends out, especially when we're having a sleepover at Judy's house.
Judy is also one of my best friends, and she's super-rich. Her house is like a maze, and one time I woke up at night to head to the toilet, I heard them screaming when they saw me cause I looked like a ghost in the dark with scarlet eyes.
I have a small nose, not that I like it small, pale lips and 3 moles under each of my eyes. I heard from my dad that my moles were like what my mom had, but she's gone now so I can't really see if that's true. My skin is white, but a little beige and pink too. It shines like baby skin and that kinda makes me look like I'm 5 rather than I'm 12. It's humiliating.
We reached our class. I looked up to see the sign say 'Class 6B4D'
This was just about our last day in school, but it was December. No one goes to school on December except Kitty Muffins Elementary.
"It's Jeyne!" I heard.
"Jeyne!"
"Oh gosh, the queen is back!"
"Come here Jeyne, you mind lending a hand?"
"Quiet you lot, she's with the humans!"
"Yes, yes, she's with her friends. It is best we left her alone for now."
I heard, and the spirits that were snooping around my table left for the door out of my classroom. They were apparently waiting for me to come to school, like they always did.
"Why didn't Rodo tell us she arrived?"
"I daresay he must've been sleeping on guard duty. He always sleeps in the mornings."
"Next time, we need another fine soul on the job."
And they passed us as we entered the main door. Nives was oblivious, about whatever they were saying, it's like they never existed.
I had my face all scrunched up, hoping they didn't bump into me when they left. I didn't know what to say if I bumped into thin air again.
I let out a sigh when they all left the classroom, beside my table was Judy Zandra and Telly Oliver, my two other best friends. The four of us are like a team. We always hung out together.
Judy had a book in hand, she was leaning on my table-side. She has straight black long hair, a pointy nose, blue eyes and thin lips. She's a neat person, and loves the colour blue. Her bag is blue and she always wraps her books in blue, just to keep the books she read 'confidential'. She's the tallest person in our school, yes tallest. So she hovers over my table like it's a pebble.
Telly was sleeping, she sat in the front seat of mine, but she's sitting on her chair backwards. She was leaning forward, with her head and arms on my table. She does this most of the time. She's just the sleepyhead in our group.
Telly has green hair, I'd like to say that's really weird but I'm not one to talk. She has a small nose like mine but with tanner skin. She likes swimming and loves sports. Her body is a bit built, which makes her look really cool.
-gasp- "Oh my gosh! It's the school queens!" I heard as some girls walked by our classroom.
"School queens huh, I can never get used to it." Nives said with a grin on her face.
We walked to where my table was and I sat down, Judy now towered over me, she was blocking the sunlight.
"I hate this,"
"Come on Jeyne, stop being so doom and gloom, it's the last day of school!" Nives said.
"Jeyne, did you fail your entrance exam?" Judy asked. It felt like she just stabbed me without my consent, not that she needed consent to stab people but it hurts, a lot.
-GROAN- I didn't even bother to reply.
"Girl, you still got 6 more years to do retakes, it's fineee," she added.
Judy's older sister is in JSA. They're both super smart. But Judy didn't want to go to the same school her sister went, so she didn't take the exam. And she wasn't a space enthusiast, so JSA wasn't anything special to her.
JSA is famous for being the best in the world, or more like, best school we know of, cause it's not on Earth so it wouldn't be 'in the world', it's on Mars, and that's what makes it so much more special.
"But isn't that like super weird? Jeyne's smarter than you are." Nives teased
"Wh-... What has that got to do with the entrance exam, she just failed. It has nothing to do with Jeyne being smarter." Judy said. Judy looked mad, she is mad.
Nives and Judy don't get along that well.
"Glad that yOu didn't take the test huh?" Nives said, she was sneering.
"You-" Judy said.
"-Are all too noisy." Telly woke up and said.
"Why are ya'll always this rowdy in the morning?" –yawn-
Judy and Nives were glaring at each other. Sparks flying and all but that was my imagination.
Telly adjusted her position and sat up, "Hey, lets talk about the party after school! Jeyne did ya forget that today is yer birthday again? Ya always did." She teased while laughing.
"I didn't..." I said, but I wasn't convincing, and she noticed.
"I'll ask Mike if we could use one of the clubrooms later." She said,
"And Mike will say no." Mike said, he was standing behind her.
Mike is our homeroom teacher. He likes to come early to class, and by early I mean 40 minutes earlier. Mike's called Michael Oliver, she's Telly's brother.
"Do ya know how much trouble ya caused last time I lent ya a clubroom?" he asked, "Oh right ya don't cause, ya always forget ya do!"
"Hehehe-"
"Why do ya even need one this time?"
"It's Jeyne's birthday!" Telly said quickly.
"Oh, well it sure is." Mike said turning to Jeyne, "Happy birthday Jeyne!"
"Thanks," I said, my face is a little flushed, I don't think anyone noticed.
"Aww, she's blushing." Nives said, "That's shooo qutteeee!!"
They noticed.
"Say Mike," Telly continued,
"I'm a teacher here, call me Mr. Oliver."
"Say Teach," Telly continued, "so can we use the clubroom, please-please-please~~~!"
"Why do you keep doing that, you'll make me puke."
"I'm trying to."
Mike hesitated but Telly continued to give the doggy eyes and doggy eyes always works. At least it always worked when I did it. Mike gave a long sigh. Then he gave in.
"Fine," take the keys. He hands the keys to Telly. Telly was beaming with a smile.
"Only this once, cause it's for Jeyne, not you. AND DON'T mess up the clubroom again, got it?"
"Oh wow, already got the keys? You knew didn't you?"
Mike was caught but he didn't faze, "Got it?"
"Roger that boss!" Telly said, running off to check out the clubroom.
Mike had his eyes tracing Telly as she ran off, then turned to us, "Now I know we have assembly today, but you all probably won't be there, am I right?" Mike asked us.
We didn't reply, cause he was right.
"At least get someone to sign in your attendance." Mike said with a sigh. Then he placed his computer that was in his hand onto the teacher's desk, and walked out to find Telly.
Mike is a nice guy. Me being a single child makes me wish I had a brother like him too. I guess Telly is really lucky.
"Pst-pst, Jeyne!" Nives poked me on the shoulder. So I turned to her. She pointed at my under desk drawer. So I looked. And I found a pink envelope. On it, it says 'To: Jeyne', with no 'By: Who'.
A little heart sticker kept the envelope sealed.
I knew what it was, I gasped.