The Sound Of Silent Birds

Chapter Two

My feet hit the pavement, sending rocks flying and crackling along the ground, though the teens around me did not seem to notice. They chirped like birds, singing their stupid songs and too wrapped up in their own tunes to notice a person like me. My shoulders brushed that of others, sending glares and stares my way. I looked up at the cage that was to hold us all for the next year, a solid and grey thing with a large sign above its entrance, the words 'RIVERSIDE SCHOOL HIGH' lay branded in golden type, too proud for its own good.

It wasn't that I disliked school itself, I was actually not oppose to learning believe it or not, however I had very few friends and those I did have usually moved on or annoyed the hell out of me on a regular bases. Speaking of friends-

"Juli- JULIET! Oh honey, you look well! How was your summer?" Maddie, a popular and pretty blonde with fabulous green eyes and a smile the size of Asia, came running, the sound of her too-high heels scrapping the ground. Why she took any notice of me? Heaven knows, but she was sweet and relatively gentle, a friend. Yes, maybe I could call her a friend... just. Don't get use to it.

"Hey Mads! Yeah my summer was good. Yours?" It was better if I left her to talk, even if too much, it took the spotlight of me which was always good. I didn't want to say anything embarrassing, I don't need to be noticed, not now that I had made it to my two final years. Alive.

We walked the halls, dropping our bags in our lockers, while Maddie's constant chatter fell into background noise. The busy buzz of busy birds enveloped our small conversation, as we too joined the masses and were consumed by their hungry rush. Everything appeared normal, the way school should be on a first day back: over flowing and baring, though somehow this year felt different. There was a strange warmth and flutter in the pit of my stomach every time I turned a corner, a weird spring to my step I wasn't sure I had control of and for the first time since I arrived in high school, I wasn't ready to punch the closest object I could find. However, I said nothing, chalking it up to a little too much sun and continuing to push my way through the masses of people that clouded the hall.

Our form room had not changed much, a little new artwork, a few more desks, maybe a new white board, but nothing extravagant. The girls around me still wore too much make up, the boys still too flirty, the noise too loud and the air thick with gossip, though I blocked out most of the world around me using my headphones. Sleek and black they fell against my misfits top and skinny jeans, filling my ears with the pleasant sound of my favourite bands. My hair pulled up into a neat pony tail and my fringe lined my eyes, black polish clung to my nails and a piercing hung from my lower lip.

I took residence in my seat, in the back row next to the window, and hummed softly to the site of the bright open day that lay behind the glass. The class was growing, the teacher looking up from her book to note our arrivals, one at a time we entered and sat, each teen looking relatively the same. Guys winked, girls giggled, nerds fell and jocks pushed, I, however, kept my focus outside the building, gazing at the tree, MY tree that sat just beyond the gates. I was the last person to look up, the last to notice but it did not mean I was not as awe struck as every other person in the room. I just... wow.