Jungle Of Grit

The Beginning - 1

The bus trundled along the country road spraying a thin layer of mist in its wake from the rain-soaked road. Above it the sky was a monotonous slab of grey, the potential for rain had already come and gone and now the clouds simply hung in the sky refusing any heat entry into the dying hours of the day.

There was no living sound; the low rumble of the bus’s engine was all that could be heard for miles around. It seemed that on a day like this even the birds had left or perhaps simply felt no need to lighten the mood, as if their song was a garnish for only the nicest of days and not to be wasted on some bland scene like this.

Inside the bus the mood was no lighter. The windows were steamed up preventing any view of the outside and the passengers -all teenagers, except the driver- sat in a stony silence, most with some form of headphones plugged into their ears. In fact two of the only boys who didn’t have headphones in seemed happiest: two small boys, who seemed almost too small to be in the same school as the others, although the uniform they were wearing made it obvious they were. They chatted away quietly to one another, blissfully unaware of their dull surroundings.

The three boys sitting at the back couldn’t have been more different. All of them were taller than the average man although, once again, the uniform they all wore gave them away and, in fact, they were no older than fifteen. Slouching in the middle of the row, the first boy had his fully elongated legs stabbing into the aisle in front of him. His arms were crossed and he had a vaguely angry expression on his face. He seemed almost cut off from the rest of the bus, with his thin, white headphones blocking all outside sound and his dead, brown eyes gazing inwards, lost deep in thought.

To his left sat another boy, visibly taller than him. He was sitting up straight and staring out of a small area of the window which he had wiped clean of condensation; he had no headphones in but had a thin glaze over his deep, blue eyes which made him seem as if he was further engrossed in his own world than the first boy.