The Girl

Welcome to Hell

Thursday. That's the first conscious thought in her head as she wakes up. And then come the voices. They assault her, but they're all inside her head. They drive her to the brink, but the music she turns on drives them out and lets her mind clear, if only for a moment. She gets ready, and gets out the door without waking anyone up in the house. She puts in her ear buds and begins her trek to school.
At school, she grabs a seat at a completely empty table. She doesn't talk to anyone until a boy sits next to her and takes one of her ear buds out. He looks at her, then speaks. "Hey, Adri." Those two words are enough to make her break down, silently sobbing into his shoulder. He hushes her without understanding why she's crying. He doesn't need to understand, he just knows he needs to help.
He takes he phone from her and turns on a better song. One that makes her happy. Soon, she's singing quietly along as the boy looks on in quiet amusement at his friend and secret crush. She doesn't see him look at her like this, because she has too much on her mind now. Science Olympiad, school, and the bout of yelling that she was faced the night before with all swirl around in her mind in some kind of dangerous soup, only being muted by the music. Someone dismisses them to their lockers, and so the day begins.