forbidden • luke hemmings

0.1 : first day

Being greeted by the emphatic sound of her alarm, Emma frantically sat up from her lying position, violently lurching forwards to press the stop button on her phone. The somewhat unfamiliar sound that she hadn't heard since before summer coming as a complete shock to her.

Rubbing her tired eyes whilst checking the time, Emma let out a throaty sigh. Knowing that it was her first day back at school, she had been an anxious mess all night which concluded in her only getting a measly two hours of sleep. Although, she knew that this wasn't a viable reason in preventing her from getting out of bed so grudgingly, she threw her quilt to one side and groggily got out of her bed as she routinely made her way into her bathroom and turned the shower on.

Having her morning routine nailed on the head, she knew that the shower would take a minute or so to heat up so instead of wasting that minute, she strode back into her room and turned on her straighteners so that they would be ready for her coming out of the shower.

As she returned to the bathroom, she hastily threw her clothes to one side and got in the shower. Letting the warm water seep down her to wake her up a bit, she couldn't help but let her mind wander to the day she had ahead of her. She was going into her final year of school and the thought of this scared her shitless, but at the same time, exhilarated her. She longed for the freedom that a lack of school could give her but she also knew that she'd miss seeing her friends daily and having the general safety net that school provided.

The thoughts of what her first day back would entail consumed her, creating a nervous pit in her stomach that she was unable to shake. As she watched the suds from her shower gel wash away into the sinkhole, she couldn't help but to halfheartedly wish she were them. Being swooped away into a meaningless voyage into nothingness instead of having to complete a entire day of school after three months of doing pretty much nothing —just like the suds— seemed all too appealing.

Turning off the shower, she grabbed the towel waiting expectantly for her on the rack. Taking no time in effortlessly wrapping it around her and darting to her room, knowing that she woke up as late as possible and therefore having little to no time to waste.

As she got ready, her choice of subjects for the year arose in her head and with every other little detail of school that was floating in her mind, she became even more so filled with worry. Having done all the subjects she needed in the previous year and actually doing well in them, she took drama and politics just as random subjects that she had a slight interest in. However, math was a whole different story.

No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't quite wrap her head around it and therefore, even the mere thought of it was enough to fill her with dread. It didn't help that her teacher for the past five years, Mrs Thompson, must've scraped her degree with the most minimal pass possible because she was nearly as hopeless as Emma.

Shrugging off the thought of her poor subject choices, Emma sheepishly took in her appearance in the body length mirror in front of her before letting a small smile but still noticeable cross her face. Not often did Emma actually appreciate her own appearance but the look of her blouse, skirt and knee high socks that adorned her petite body made it hard for her to find something to be critical of as it was such a basic uniform.

Grabbing all of her essentials, Emma swung her backpack over one shoulder and made her descent downstairs to start her short walk to school.

As she opened her front door, the sultry late summer weather hit her and she almost automatically mentally thanked herself for deciding to wear knee socks instead of tights today. With her school only being a ten minute walking distance from her house, Emma nearly always deciding on walking to school instead of having one of her friends pick her up. She seen it as an opportunity to absorb her surroundings, allowing the fresh air to fill her lungs and the small yelps of birds to sound through her ears, all whilst having the early morning sun beaming down on her.