Chit and Jake

Chit

Morning came in a blur of violent beeping and hectic actions as I frantically rushed around in hopes not to miss the bus. Although school was only several blocks from my house and I usually walked, I noticed it was already 7:40 am. I wouldn't make it to school in time unless I caught the bus. I rushed out the door roughly throwing on my blazer, with my stripy tie hanging loosely around my neck and a piece of toast stuffed in my mouth and ran as fast as I could in our tight winter uniform pants towards the bus stop. There were two other people standing at the bus stop when I reached it, both from my school; a petite girl with square-ish, red-framed glasses and long, cascading blonde hair listening to music and a tall, broad guy with spiked black hair enthralled in the novel he held in his palms. As I finished buttoning my blazer and fixing my tie, the bus pulled out in front of the stop with a shrill screech. I ate the last bite of my toast as I stepped onto the bus behind little miss red glasses girl but in front of the guy with his nose still stuck in that book. I noticed the bus to be mostly empty- with only seven people other than me spread sparsely across the large chairs, each person taking two seats to casually relax on. I sat down, also using two seats to lounge comfortably across. I leant my head against the window watching the outside world zoom by nonchalantly while I thought back to last night. Was Jake alright? Probably not, but hopefully he'd missed seeing the fight. All I could do was hope. The girl with the red frames from before shot several glances in my direction from her chair on the other side of the bus- about three in front of me. I ignored this by keeping my eyes down as I had never seen this girl before in my life, despite her going to the same school as me, and because she most likely wasn't looking at me anyway. I wasn't what you'd call attractive; maybe if I was five, but when everyone else matured, I stayed the same. I was mentally and emotionally mature, had been since I was six, when my parents decided I was old enough to take care of myself for two weeks while they went to the Bahamas. I've never told anybody about that, not even Jake, as I realised it was illegal to leave such a small child on their own for long periods of time. By the time I was eight I'd gotten used to them disappearing on exotic trips without me, though I never could figure out why they didn't just take me as well, and had learnt how to be self sufficient. They would leave me money, plenty enough to care for myself and would bring me back some precious, priceless souvenir. Regardless of being entirely mature, I'd still not lost my chubby cheeks or my big green eyes, nor had I grown very much. By society's standards I was too feminine to be attractive to women which naturally left men, though I wasn't gay. After I'd thought about it a little more I realised it was impossible for her to be looking at me because people that looked like her, and even most that didn't, never spoke to me let alone checked me out. She was probably looking at the guy engorged in his novel, he seemed like her type. I began looking over my shoulder to see what book he was reading as he seemed so enthralled by it and I'd recently run out of books and needed something new. By the time the bus pulled up I'd still not been able to decipher the title but had glimpsed it several times. People started to get up and get off the bus, as I assumed he'd felt my eyes on him. I didn't want to be creepy and seem like a stalker so I stood and followed the trail of people leaving the bus. Behind me all I heard was chatter; not wanting to be rude and eavesdrop, I focused on the hoards standing around the main building in clusters either gossiping or chastising the latest fads. I felt a tap on my shoulder from behind, ignoring it and passing it off as an accident, which had happened so many times before, I begun scanning the crowds for Jake. I felt two more gentle taps on my shoulder; I wonder who was trying to annoy me this time.
"Um...excuse me?"Asked a soft voice followed by two more light taps on the shoulder. Slowly I turned around in shock, not only had someone approached me nicely but they were also a female. When I faced her I noticed she was keeping her gaze low, directed at her feet.
"I, uh, I noticed you were we're doing the same as me earlier, d-did you end up seeing it?" She stumbled, obviously feeling awkward.
"Um, I'm sorry but what do you mean?" I questioned, very confused.
"The book. Y-you were trying to figure out the title, right?"
I stood there and stared open mouthed at her for a few moments. She wasn't checking him out? She was just trying to see the title of his book?
"Pardon?" Was all I managed to coax out of my mouth like an idiot.
"The title of his book...did you- um were you able to see it?" She continued to reply timidly.
"Oh...no. I didn't sorry." Damn it, she didn't know either, I suppose neither of us were much help at all.
"Ah! I thought as much...It's called Linger by Maggie Steivater. You, um, might want to keep walking off the bus..."
"Th-thanks." I managed to stutter. So she did know the title. Whoa, what a nice thing to do...and for a random dude. She must be a really caring person, to be that timid and still approach a stranger for their benefit is way beyond my ability of niceness. I pondered this as I stepped off the bus. Once off the bus and out of the way I turned around and begun with, "So what sort of books do you-" but lost the words as I noticed she'd disappeared into thin air. This girl, a person I'd spoken to only for a few moments had surprised me more than most other people have in hours, days and even years.