Forever Hidden

The Day

The leaves whipped and fluttered through the air, their reds, yellows, and browns shining slightly from the light covering of water splattered on from the previous night's rain. My eyes scanned the scenery, watching the people go about their day, never realizing my existence and only seeing me as a side character to the story that is their life. It gave me a weird feeling, knowing that they see me as I would see them and see themselves as the most important being while I don't even take the time to look at their face.

I heard someone call my name and my eyes focused on my reflection in the glass of the window. I looked back at my blank stare.

"Jerry! Jerry, pay attention to class. I am trying to teach you," I rolled my eyes and turned around. I tried not to pay attention to the snickering of the kids around me.

When will these kids grow up, anyway? We are in high school but still laughed when some kid got yelled at by the teacher. My mind immediately wandered.

Some kid behind me tapped my shoulder."Hey, Jerry, are you going to the carnival later?" I had almost forgot about it. The November Carnival. It was held every year the day after Halloween. I found both holidays quite stupid and never took part in them. But my mother had told me to go this year, because it worried her how antisocial I was. After some arguing, I gave in just so she'd leave me alone.

I made a point to not turn around when answering. "I don't know. Possibly, if I don't find anything better to do."

"You should come with me and a couple friends. It will be fun," he told me.

"I'll think about it," I answered flatly.

The rest of the class went by slowly, but no one bothered me again. I didn't pay attention to what the teacher was teaching and stayed in my mind, brooding on my previous thoughts.

The kids around me began to pack up their stuff and get out of the classroom. They all scurried out, quickly packing up their stuff, and looking to strain under the weight of their books. Why use up all that energy, anyway? We were just going to another boring and useless class. They rushed to the things they didn't like as if it would make it go by any faster.

I neatly stacked my books, biggest on the bottom, with the smallest on the top and slung it under an arm and slowly walked out the classroom, not talking to anyone and looking straight ahead of me. Suddenly, I felt someone standing close behind me.

"Yo, Jerry! How's it going?" Jack, the only person in this school who didn't bore me to death, said to me.

"Hello, Jack. It is going exactly the same as always, extremely boring."

"Could you not answer like a robot next time?" He then began to imitate a robot, with his hands going up and down, and moving around mechanically. "Hello, Jack. It is going ve-ery good. How-how isssss... ERROR ERROR! I CANNOT SHOW ANY INTEREST IN YOUR LIFE. IT IS NOT IN MY PROGRAMMING!"

I smiled then and we made our way to our locker. I liked Jack. He made my life a little more interesting.

"So are you going to the carnival?" Jack asked me.

I looked back at him."You know I never go," I answered.

"Yeah, yeah I know, but you should go this time. I swear you will like it," he looked at me expectantly and for the first time in 10 years, I felt like going to the November Carnival.