In Between The Lines

Ch. 2

Liv's bright white shoe stepped onto the bus. The loud sound of yelling and laughing students bothered her ears. She glanced at the bus driver. His old white cap and cheerful blue shirt balanced out the grim look on his face. The driver's wirey grey mustache looked sloppy and his white hair stuck out from under his hat. Liv did a double take and saw that the driver was wearing earplugs to block out the screeching sounds of the seventh and eight graders.

Must be nice. 

She made her way down the bus isle kicking away an empty plastic water bottle. Almost tripping over a student's backpack, she took a seat in a bumpy green chair keeping her head low. She leaned on the cold bus window and looked outside at her house. Her huge modern mansion looked back at her. With sleek white marble, it was illuminated by the lights surrounding the house. The other kids on the buss looked at the house in awe. Liv heard waves of whispers about her float into the air. 

Tucking her braided light brown hair behind an ear, she scrolled through her phone. It wasn't until the bus stopped at a small colonial cottage she reentered the world again. In it's shabby neighborhood, the cottage blended in perfectly looking unnoticed. Excitement built up inside her as she saw her best friend Sabrina casually stride down her driveway. Wearing a over sized black "Thrasher" graphic tee and dark jeans with rips, she blew her long ash-blonde hair out of her face. Kids peered out the window at the girl. Easily swinging her old jean backpack over her shoulder, she walked on the bus. Students immediately moved their backpacks out of the way for her to come through. She looked at them weirdly and kept walking down the isle. Sliding into her seat next to Liv, she whispered,

"These people are so weird, why are they looking at you"

Liv giggled and responded, "They're not. Everyone's watching you!" Sabrina gave her an odd look and pulled out her old iPhone six. Scrolling through her social media, she tried ignoring the kids staring at her. Finally, she quipped,

"What're you lookin' at? Leave a girl be, Jesus."

Whispers erupted through the bus and Liv looked open-mouthed at her friend. 

"What did you do that for?! They liked you!" she asked. Though she knew it was bound to happen, she thought that Sab would change her attitude towards attention for the first day of school. 

"Who cares if they like me? It's freakin' weird." Sabrina snapped back. Liv pondered this. All her life she loved attention. If she was in Sab's position she would put on a show of herself. Pulling out all her new trinkets and scrolling through her new phone. She knew that Sab wasn't anything like her though, Sab was cool. She was edgy and care-free.

Kids kept glancing at Sabrina. That should be me, she thought. All her life, she was the popular girl. Liv felt a pang of guilt for feeling jealous of her best friend. Looking down at her clothes, she compared them to Sabrina's. She felt her silky pink top and glanced at Sab's top. The worn out black "Thrasher" tee had the print flaking off slightly. Her medium-wash jeans with small rips compared to Sab's almost black ones with huge tears looked silly she thought. I should have gotten the ones with more rips. They weren't as expensive as the ones she had on now. She knew that other kids noticed her designer jeans and she changed her mind about wanting the ones with more rips. 

The bus stopped at more houses on their way to school. Finally, it pulled up to River Valley Junior High. Kids spilled out of the buses. Students hung out around the school talking to one another in small groups. Liv filed out of the bus behind Sab looking at the huge building. Who cares about what happened on the bus, she knew she was going to rule this school.