What Little Worlds

One

Thirteen Years Ago...

Amelie liked to imagine a little floating bubble above each person's head whenever she rode the bus home. Each bubble represented that person's world. Their family, their friends, their thoughts and hopes. 

Her elementary school bus typically packed sixty kids. It was difficult for her to imagine everyone's bodies fitting into the small space, but even more immense to imagine sixty unique realities on the bus with her. Sixty bubbles each the size of her own world. Everyone's reality as large as her own.

All of those realities fit into the space of the world...

"Mom says that you can come over again next week once Dad has calmed down from his new job," Maggie whined, disrupting Amelie's train of thought. "I'm sorry you have to go home alone this week. My house isn't fun right now anyway. Mom keeps making me do chores and play with Emmy."

Maggie slid down so her knees were propped up on the back of the seat in front of her and her butt rested on the very edge of the seat. Amelie copied the motion. Sitting like this so their heads were hidden from the rest of the crowded bus always made her feel like she was in a little club house with Maggie, instead of on a yellow school bus with sixty other kids. It made it easy to forget the invisible bubbles she had just been visualizing.

"That's okay. I understand." Amelie replied, nodding.

"She even tells me how to play with Emmy. Even if we're playing pretend. I'm not allowed to make her the baby who can't talk like we did last time. She cried last time and Mom said I was a bully." Maggie huffed. Now that the girls were ten years old, Maggie's mom made a big deal about them setting a good example for her younger sister, Emmy who was only five.

"That's not fair. You're not a bully!" Amelie said, trying to comfort her friend.

"Ugh yea I guess. I just hate babysitting Emmy when Mom is at home. Why can't she do it?" The bus lurched to a stop, its tires screeching along the asphalt causing all the kids to cringe. "I'll call you Saturday morning then and you can come over?" Maggie said.

"Yeah that sounds good. Maybe we can go ice skating. Then even if Emmy comes with us we won't have to entertain her the whole time," Amelie replied. She loved scheming. Even if she didn't mind if Emmy joined them, scheming about ways to avoid it was half of the fun.

"Ah yes I love it. I'll ask my mom. See you later!" Maggie squealed and stood up to get off the bus. About ten other kids got off with her. Maggie lived in a big posh neighborhood up a hill with houses that each fit three of Amelie's own house.

About ten minutes later, she arrived at her own bus stop. She always walked the same way home, down the same path, and had recently started counting her steps. She wanted to get home in under 200 steps, but she wasn't letting herself jump between steps. She also was not allowed to step on any cracks. If she made it home in anything over 300 steps it was sure to be a bad night.

She was concentrating on her feet so she didn't notice the sound until she had almost passed the alley.

There was someone crying.

Amelie sped up to hide behind the wall. She peeked cautiously into the alley. There was a boy about her age curled up next to the dumpster. Someone she did not know. She really didn't want to stop. She was cold. She shouldn't talk to strangers. People who are crying don't want to talk.

But....she had seen a boy in her class, Luke Smith getting bullied earlier that day on the playground and had spent the whole bus ride home secretly feeling really guilty for not intervening for him. She knew the teachers would have wanted her to stop it. And Luke was really nice. He was in her advanced math classes and when he wasn't in a huge classroom with lots of other kids he was a lot less awkward. They were almost friends in math class.

She sighed and started towards the boy. She knelt down in front of him. "Hey...are you okay?"

The boy sniffed into his knees. He said nothing.

"It's okay. I cry too. I cried in front of my whole class this year when I tripped on the playground. Everyone kept trying to come up to me to comfort me and it made it worse so I swatted them all away. I wish I hadn't. They were just being nice to me but I was too embarrassed about crying." The boy said nothing. He didn't move.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry. If you hurt yourself, I understand. I also get not wanting to show me. Because that's embarrassing too. Well it's not something to be embarrassed about but I understand being embarrassed, like I said. I hope you don't feel embarrassed." Amelie continued. She knew she was rambling, but how do you comfort a stranger? She barely understood what she wanted when she was upset, let alone what other people might want.

"Can I sit here with you? I'll be quiet if you want." The boy nodded. Less than a minute later she watched him pull his arms tighter around his knees. He breathed in a great sigh and looked up. He didn't look at Amelie, who was now sitting beside him on the brick wall, but straight ahead.

"I got left here. I've been here once before but today they decided to leave me here...by myself...with these strange...people?" He said people as if he was testing that word on his lips. "It's a test...and I'm going to fail. I can't do this at all."

Amelie did not understand the boy's reason at all. "Your parents left you here? Like they lost you? Do you know their phone number? Come to my house and call your house!"

"No, no it's ok," the boy replied. "They know where I am and they're coming to get me later. I'm here with my...teacher. It was like a field trip. I have to wait until later to go back to school. I just got scared being alone."

"Oh," Amelie still did not understand. "Um...what's your name?"

"Adrien. What's yours?" He said his name very quickly, pronouncing it with only two syllables instead of three.

"It's Amelie. It's French so you pronounce it like Ah-may-lee even though it's spelled almost like Emily."

"Oh yea.. ok."

"Um...I'm cold so I'm gonna go home. Although, I'm serious, if you're lonely or just bored...you can still come over to my house for a little bit. My dad doesn't mind me having friends over on school days. You shouldn't just wait out here until your...teacher comes and gets you," Amelie said slowly, still contemplating her words. "I feel really bad that you're here alone," she added.

"No, it's okay. It's not that cold out. And I'm not supposed to go with strangers," Adrien replied.

"I don't know where you're from, but for Pennsylvania, we think it's cold when you can see your breath like this!" She blew out her breath in three small puffs and smiled. "I like to pretend I'm a train when I do that," she said, looking directly at Adrian.

He turned and smiled widely at her. "Yea, I do that too! I tilt my head up so the steam comes up like a train engine's!" She grinned wider because he was smiling. But suddenly he stopped. "Your eyes...what color are they? They're so...strange."

"Oh! They're violet, my gran says. I don't know anyone else with purple eyes like me. My hair is just a normal dark brown so it doesn't really match. I'm adopted but my dad's eyes are brown and my mom's were like really dark blue. My big brother's are brown too. I think mine are too dark sometimes, I wish that they were a little lighter, like a lavender color!"

"I like them like that." He sniffled, "If you really are okay with it, I'd like to come with you to your house," he said quietly.

"Yes! Okay let's go then. I'm cold." She stood up and reached her hand down towards him. He looked at it like he didn't know what to do with it. She shook it a little and wiggled her fingers towards him. He still looked at her questioningly so she reached down and grabbed his hand, then proceeded to pull him up. He stood the exact same height as her. She let go of his hand and started walking home.