The Colourless Days

Chapter 2

I groan. I hate school. I'm so behind in all my subjects that it's going to take forever to catch up. The teacher, Mrs Brown, is droning on about something. Wait, what subject is this? Biology. 3rd period. Right, almost forgot there. I sigh and lean my head in my hands. When does this torture end?

The bell shocks me and I jolt awake. Aw s**t, I fell asleep? That's not so good. I look to my left and Noah's staring at me with a smirk. I widen my eyes, asking silently what the hell I just missed. He just shakes his head and rolls his eyes. Idiot.

"Come on, Sparks, get your lazy ass awake." He says and pulls my bag over his shoulder.

"Shut it, you little bastard." I say and grab his hand. Needing his touch, needing him to be near me. He swings his arm around me and I grin when I see jealous looks from other girls. You want to take my best friend away from me? I scoff, that's never happening again. You'll have to go through me first. Noah sees me glaring at the girls and hides his face in my hair to stop his smile.

We reach the cafeteria and I immediately swamped by people. There are people everywhere. Milling about, sitting at circular tables, playing on phones, pushing food down their throats and I even see a couple of people having a dance battle. This is literally a perfect picture of our generation. Of teenagers being teenagers. I catch pieces of conversation and voices crowd my brain. The constant chattering in the room fills my ears, deafening me, but making me feel as if these are the only voices in the world.

I can clearly spy the stereotypes as if I had invented them. The athletes, throwing a ball back and forth. Well done - you can catch. The bad boys, sitting on chairs backwards like they discovered the word, 'cool' and now own it. Then you have the geeks and nerds that, for some inexplicable reason, people like to bully because they're smart. Of course you have the bullies; tripping helpless kids over and arguing with teachers.

And then I gasp. Because I have missed one very important group. The misfits. Why are they so important? Because I was one of them. I glance up at Noah and he's looking in the same direction I was a minute ago. He nudges me then,

"You wanna go see your friends?" he asks as we weave between tables - him bumping fists with his acquaintances and me absently shifting my gaze across the cramped room. Recognizing some kids and discovering new people with each glance. "Storm?" I hear Noah say and I snap out of my trance.

"Yes of course." I bite my lip nervously, "Do you think they'll be angry because I left without saying anything?"

"I'll think they'll be angry at first but they'll get over it because you're back now and that's all that matters." he replies after thinking about it for a few seconds.

"Awww, well aren't you sweet." Noah leans in to whisper in my ear,

"I wonder if you taste sweet? Hmmm?" he gently bites my earlobe. I push him away,

"Asshole." He laughs and picks up my hand again, pulling me in the direction of my friends that I haven't seen in months. The friends that I left - I abandoned. I am in some deep s**t.

I see Sarah first. Her back is facing me but I see her light brown hair tumbling over her shoulder and I know it's her. She's wearing bright yellow jeans - I'm not even surprised. Sarah's always been different, her weirdness astounds me - but I like it. We all like it. And the thing is, Sarah doesn't care about what people say about her. Because she already knows she's different. Her confidence with her appearance comes from her drama lessons. She acts as she is already an actress and I love that about her.

Then I spy Samantha - or Sam as everyone calls her. Her short blond hair is layered, falling just above her shoulders and she's dressed in her athletics gear because she's probably got a competition later. Sam's shy but when she's surrounded by our group, she's comes alive. The only other time this happens is when she's running - cross country running. And she's fast, so fast that I don't think Noah could keep up.