Howl

xv

April

"April! We're going to be late for the bus!" James yells from the front of the house. I rush out of my room and to the front of the house. The bus is parked outside of our house, with the big MR TAILS ORPHANAGE CO. on the side. Two honey-brown foxes, who are my neighbours, leap past us and onto the bus, backpacks tied around their ankles and scraping along the ground. We hurry onto the bus and sit on an empty seat towards the middle of the bus. The doors close behind us as it starts moving.

The next stop is in the neighbourhood next to ours. We have to wait there for a solid five minutes so all the people from the Orphanage Co. get on in time. The first person is always this one guy with black, emo hair. And, of course, he is the first one on again. The next is my friend, Jason.

He hasn't bothered to put on the right pants, making him look extremely dumb.
"You know you're wearing the wrong uniform, right?" I say to him as he sits next to me.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious" he mumbles back, shoving his backpack between his knees.

It was like him to do that, and get in trouble for small things. Everyone asks us why we're friends.

"How was your break?" he says to me, cheerfully.

"Good." I respond, not sure what to say besides that.

"Same" he yawns, stretching his arms over his head.

As we talk, the bus starts to move and we head for the school.

***

We were late to class by a couple minutes, as per usual, and as we walk into the classroom, we go sit next to Kir and Arty. Kir was Nova and Esta's little brother, and Arty was his best friend.

"Heyyy!" calls Arty.

"Hello," Jason says as he slips into the chair.

"Good morning April, and Jason" Our teacher, Mrs Chili said.

She marks the roll on her computer and gets up out of her chair. She picks up an orange whiteboard marker and writes 'The Solar System' on the whiteboard.

"Right," she begins, clasping her hands together. "What does everybody know about the solar system?"

Arty shoots up his hand and Mrs Chili points at him.

"THE ASTEROID BELT!" he shrieks.

"Uh, um, yes. The asteroid belt. Thanks, Arty." she says, writing 'The asteroid belt' on the board.

A mix of tentative and confident hands rise up, people glance around nervously, some not wanting to be called upon yet still wanting to contribute.

One kid throws his hand up confidently and says, without being asked,

"Space stuff."

He smirks with pride and the teacher shakes her head.

"Petey, please try and put more effort into answers." Mrs Chili says comfortingly. Then she moves to the next student willing to give an answer.

"Earth!" She says.

"Yes, Hazel, we are a part of the solar system!" she says as say writes it on the board.

Petey raises his hand again and, like last time, says his answer without being called on.

"Everything orbits around the sun," he says.

"Yes, Petey." Our teacher says impatiently, she takes a breath. He's not wrong, but I think she's annoyed that he keeps calling out. Reluctantly, she writes what Petey said on the whiteboard in neat handwriting.