Imaginary Pip

1

"Honey, you're going to be late for school!" Mum was yelling at me from the kitchen.

"Coming, mum!" I yelled back. I quickly put on the first pair of jeans I could find in my closet and ran downstairs. There were only 5 minutes left until the bus would come so I quickly wolfed down some toast with butter on it. Mum quickly kissed me goodbye and I ran to the bus station.

It felt so odd going to school by myself. Normally, Mum would drive me but I was in high school now and I really didn't want to face the embarrassment of coming to school with Mum. Knowing her, she would blast some 90s music on the radio for the whole street to hear.

On the bus, all of the seats were filled up except for the ones near the front. I sighed. I knew from my experience with school trips in middle school that the front of the bus held the most travel sick people; I had been vomited on one too many times by Betty back then.

I thought that nobody else would come on at this stop, but I was wrong. A small raven haired boy came running onto the bus and sat next to me as all the other seats were full. I sighed. I really wanted Pip to sit next to me but now she couldn't. Oh, by the way, Pip is my imaginary friend. I wasn't exactly a social butterfly back in middle school, so I made up Pip so that I didn't completely lose my mind from the loneliness.

The raven hair boy looked a bit shy, like me, so I decided to make small talk with him.

"Hi! What's your name?" I said as enthusiastically as I could.

"I'm Michael." He muttered. I had to strain to hear him. "Who are you?"

"My name is Stella." I responded.

"Cool. That's a pretty name."

"Thanks."

This was starting to get really awkward. I fished my headphones out of my bag and listened to some music as an excuse to not talk to Michael. Unfortunately, the music wasn't coming out of my headphones as I had thought it was.

I flushed red in embarrassment as everyone on the bus started laughing at the "cringe music". It was just my rotten luck that it just so happened to be a Justin Bieber song playing. Personally, I didn't have a problem with him, but I had learnt from the kids in middle school that his music was for 7 year olds.

The only person who hadn't laughed was Michael. He was looking at me with a pitying smile and I couldn't help but smile back. This only lasted a moment though, as we both looked away quickly afterwards. Still, maybe I could be friends with him; it would be nice to have an actual friend instead of an imaginary one.

"So, you like Justin Bieber, huh?" Michael asked mischievously.

I scowled at him. "So what if I do?" I replied.

He quickly held his hands up. "I'm not saying anything against it. He's actually kinda cool sometimes."

I smiled. "Well, he's not my favourite artist, but he's up there."

"Oh really? Then who is your favourite artist?"

"Choe Adams, duh."

"Cool! So I assume you've seen the tictok audio she made?"

I shook my head. "My cousins taught me the dance though."

"Well, maybe we can record it after school? I could post it on my account."

"We'll see."