I don't know yet???

eight

Charlotte loved the bus.

    It was a big rusty yellow thing: nothing new, really. She had been on school buses before. But this one was quite a bit different.

    She had never been on a bus that wasn't for an elementary school. But in this small town, the same bus serviced almost all the kids, from kindergarten to eighth grade. It was a little crowded, and definitely loud, but at the same time it was completely amazing.

    In the back of the bus were the eighth graders, all huddled around a Bluetooth speaker playing bad top 40s songs. Sometimes they sang along, sometimes they didn't, but it was always loud and lively and really pretty cool.

    Then there were the kindergartens, looking at the pages of picture books like archaeologists would look at rows of hieroglyphics. They joked about cooties and old teachers and parents being parents. They all were adorable: always smiling and laughing.

    And then there was everyone in between. There were the people just sitting two-in-a-seat, talking. There were a few scrolling through social media pages. There was a girl who always pulled out pages and pages of homework, pulling on her blond hair as she struggled through it. A girl with a similar face read quietly. And then there was an eighth grader sitting near the front, leaning over the back of one of the ugly brown seats as scrolled through her phone's music library, handing the boy behind her a pair of black and silver earbuds.

    Charlotte looked out the window, smiling slightly. She watched everyone walk home; watched the smiles on all the kids' faces, even if they were going back to little beaten-down houses and pothole-ridden roads. No one seemed sad in this small little town, at least not for longer than a day.

    She had just found out about Eleanor's new home. Eleanor had been happy as the little kids walking home in clusters on that day, all wide white smiles and twinkling in her dark golden eyes. She told stories about her new school, her new house, her new friends. Eleanor deserved luxury. She deserved happiness, just like anybody else.

    While Eleanor was gleaming, Cole was not. He had bruises and split lips and dulled-over eyes, but he always said he was alright. Made jokes about it. Charlotte just kind of watched him fake his way through their FaceTimes and calls, turning the attention to Charlotte. She always told stories about how funny her class was and how nice her foster mother was. But she didn't ignore it.

    But then there were her siblings, who were happy as can be. Blake had easily made a multitude of friends, and the teachers adored him. He was the only student in his class who knew how to tie shoelaces, and was always willing to help others with the task.

    Faith and Piper together were a unit. As third graders, they had just started getting homework, and they always did it together at library down the street. They went to movies together, went to the park together (with supervision, of course). They were together, but together, they were alone, and they were alright with that.

    Charlotte wanted to be like the kids on the bus.

A/N: hey Audrey describe yourself

"short and shitty

just like this chapter"

v sorr

thank fr being here and gOODBYYEEE