The Trouble With Willow

Chapter One

Chapter One:

I remember the days when life seemed to be holding together nicely. I was blessed, a loving family, nice friends and very popular; thriving on attention and the desperate need for affection.

But sometimes, life is cruel. It decides that you’ve had enough fun and luck. And it goes on and changes the game, spinning you off balance.

Boy, did I stumble backwards, I was flipped so fast I may have even gotten whiplash. Life took everything from me; and all that remained were the scares of memories of what used to be.

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The sky was a drooling toddler, lazily plonking down large, heavy droplets.

Willow awoke with a smile; it was her favourite kind of day. A giant blanket of clouds kept the sky hidden, with some even daring to lurk as close down as they could, making everything musky and mysterious.

It was a Monday, a melancholy kind of day; one that began with Biology and Math but was redeemed in the end with Ancient History, a personal favourite of Willow’s. She loved to learn about the people who once roamed the earth, thousands of years ago.

This Monday however, was no ordinary day.

The young girl rolled out of bed. Traces of a smile abandoned her thin lips and were replaced with a neutral expression; one that was frequently worn. She fixed her hair, slipping on a light blue dress with white polka dots.

She ate her breakfast alone, the silence of the house posing a reminder of her current dull life; and perhaps her future.  The only remains of other human life, was a piece of paper placed onto the table, her mother’s handwriting clearly displayed.  Willow’s brown eyes skimmed the note before she carefully placed it down again. A quiet sigh escaped her lips, but to Willow, it sounded more like a thunderous roar of disappointment. The bus was to be her transport for this morning.

There was something so completely distasteful about the bus. Maybe it was its leaking air conditioning conductors, or the way it groaned in sets of tantrums, as if it were a child being dragged along by its mother. Or perhaps, it wasn’t anything to do with the features of the bus itself, but the people that filled it; those noisy, irritating children all yelling over the top of one another, demanding to be heard.

The bus that morning was no different to the other occasional day when Willow’s mother couldn’t drive her to school. That was until; it made an unusual turn travelling down a foreign road to its usual route. Willow didn’t pay much attention to this, as it was probably the stop of a new comer. However, she caught the surprised comments exchanged between the other members of the bus.

A deep and disturbing moan resounded as the bus slowed to a halt. But before it could stop, the engine screamed out all of its years of pent up distress. It had finally cracked, and this was the tantrum of all tantrums. The bus lurched forward and sagged so quickly, for a moment it felt like Willow and her companions were sinking. Cries, shrieks and other expressions of irritation were exhaled. Even Willow couldn’t help but role her eyes in annoyance; nothing was better than being late on the first day back to school.