As Sylvie, pulled the damp tee-shirt over her head, I went to the small cracked mirror, and finger comb my hair. It's waist length and blonde. Stick straight, of course, just like my mother. I look just like her. The hair, the Green eyes, our build, even our facial expressions. But my mother hates me. I should hate her back, but I don't. I thought about what I was going home to, as I stared at my fair-faced reflection. Finally, I tore myself away from the mirror, and the memories, and turned to Sylvie, who was now nearing nakedness. I gave a chocked laugh at her butt in the air as she bent over to grab some article of clothing off the floor. She swung her head between her legs and stuck her tounge out at me. I rolled my eyes, and head into our bathroom, searching for something to wear. On the floor, were piles of dirty clothes. We hadn't had laundry day in weeks, and so we had to re-wear clothing. I sniffed a shirt, and decided it was passable, but quickly sprayed it with perfume, to cover up it's slight odor. I pulled off my shirt, and then looked at myself again in this mirror. I took myself in. The slightly defined abs, the straight sides and lack of hips, my outie belly button, and my miniature boobs. I hated my boobs, they were small and lopsided. I was almost flat, and my boobs didn't come out half an inch. I squished them, trying to make them look bigger, pressed them together to create cleavage, but my sports bra wouldn't hold them in their akward places. Finally, I gave up, and put on my smelly shirt but decided to stay in the same shorts. I ran back into the room, grabbed a duffle bag and started collecting all my stuff from the bathroom, and my side of the room.
Once we were all packed, we headed out into the hall and taped the end of term, dorm clean up check list to out door. We met Samantha and Calla out near the exit, getting a cola at the machine. We all walked out to the freshman bus together and found some seats near the back. We stuck our stuff in some seats in front of us to save them for others, and chit-chatted until the boys showed up. Daren waltzed in and slung his arm over Samantha. She promptly ducked out from underneath it.
Johnny came down the aisle and sat beside me without saying a word, and started playing a game on his tablet immediately. Loni and her roommate, Spring were the last on the bus, and the last to join our little powwow in the back. Soon, our driver appeared and called roll. He then got into, and locked the fiberglass room enclosing the drivers seat.
The drive was long. our first stop was five hours away. The first three hours were spent with Daren making goo goo eyes at Samantha, Sylvie talking sports to whoever would listen, as she twirled a tight brown curl, and Loni, Spring and Calla looking up music and hot movie stars on a tablet.
I slung my legs over Johnnie as the bus rolled onwards towards our destination and away from their school. I leaned my head against the window, wondering if my mom would already be drunk when I got there. Johnnie laid the tablet absent-mindedly against my calf as he scrunched his eyebrows angrily at the game he was playing. With my best friends present, the hot southern sun on my back, and a good book in my hand, I fell asleep within ten minutes of the journey’s beginning.
Johnnie was shaking me violently, his eyebrows no longer bent in pointless anger, but in worry. I looked up at him, a strange fear leaking into my heart. The excited shouts and loud hubbub I heard earlier on the bus, had vanished and had been replaced with nervous whispers and anxious faces. I realized I could no longer feel the southern sun on the top of my head, and turned to glance out the window, only to be greeted with a black sheet of hard plastic.
‘What happened?” I questioned, trying to pick at the black obstruction that had blocked my view of the world, then realizing it was on the other side of the window.
“I don’t know.” Johnnie said, “Everything was fine, then about an hour into the ride, those black things came down, the overhead lights came on, and our electronics shut off. The driver said to remain calm, and then, I guess so no one could come confront him, he locked himself up in his cabin.”
