Haunting

Meeting the Locals

(Pic is of the school bus -->)

“Bye Tris, have a good day at school,” Tally called as she walked across the road to where the school bus had stopped near the house. Their grandmother had already left, promising she’d be back in time to drop Tristan to his school for his first day as soon as she returned from the store with some food for sandwiches for Tristan’s lunch. While Tally had been given a five-euro note and informed that her school had a cafeteria, Tristan’s did not, as apparently a student population of seventy-two students did not merit such facilities.

The bus was very old looking, and made similar noises to their grandmother’s Skoda, but its engine clearly ran and the bus driver seemed pleasant enough. Tally glanced up and down the road, more out of habit than any real necessity- the only traffic this road received was the occasional tractor or antiquated tin-can car. Just as Tally had determined the road safe enough to cross (after the car crash that had changed everything, she had become much more wary of traffic), a sleek black motorcycle sped past carrying two passengers, only one of whom was wearing a helmet. The brief glimpse Tally got of the two people on the motorbike was enough to tell her that both were boys, and attending her school if their uniforms were anything to go by (grey trousers- or optional skirt for girls, a pale blue shirt/blouse, dark grey jumper with a yellow crest, and a wide yellow and green striped tie).

“Hurry it up, kid!,” the bus driver called impatiently. Tally hurried across the road quickly, flashing her ticket before making her way towards a seat. Sitting down in the first empty two-seat spot, Tally took stock of the other passengers on the bus.

The first thing she realized was that, excepting the packed back row of the bus, almost every other person had a two-seater bench to themselves. The second was that most of them seemed to know each other quite well, and the group occupying the back rows in particular seemed to be very close, if the rowdy noises coming from their area of the bus were anything to go by. The back row was packed to maximum capacity, five teenagers sitting almost on top of each other, with another boy close by, at once included and excluded.

From right to left, there was: a tall, pretty-looking girl with bright pink hair; another girl, who appeared identical in almost every way to the first, except with brown-black hair and a more surly expression; a lanky, cheerful-looking boy with bright red hair and freckles, wearing an old-fashioned-looking green knit hat with an oversized scarlet bobble; a handsome boy with sandy hair and a light tan, who seemed to be attempting to lean over the red-haired boy to speak to the surly-looking girl, who ignored him; and a slim, elegant-appearing boy with dark hair and high aristocratic cheekbones, pressing himself against the window as though to avoid making contact with the oblivious blond boy. In the bench in front of them, sneaking quick glances at the elegant boy, was a pale-looking boy with messy curly black hair.

After a while, Tally realized that she’d been staring and abruptly turned to look out the window with a deep blush. Of course, her staring hadn’t gone unnoticed, and it was with a chilling horror and crushing sense of humiliation that she saw, reflected in the glass of the window, the pink-haired girl blatantly pointing Tally out to the rest of her friends. The surly-faced girl seemed angry, the blond boy adorably curious, the redhead intelligently amused, and the aristocratic boy simply appeared bemused by their reactions. The boy who sat alone didn’t even turn around, preferring to take the opportunity to stare unwatched at the aristocratic boy. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Tally registered faintly that the lone boy must be gay, and judging by his stares, definitely had a crush. Cute, she thought.