Bottled Stars

*

If I could bottle anything, I would bottle the stars.

I would bottle the whole damn universe if it meant I could have my own piece of the sky, with the deep velvet blue and little prickles of white.

Unfortunately I cannot bottle the stars, and with that, I cannot glide away to another planet while I walk to school.

Instead I listen to Lo-fi and hope that someone I know will pass by so i can chat with them.

I pass my house, my neighbors house, and the mailboxes, all things I've seen before and need to pass before getting to school in a solid 15 minutes.

I feel a tug on my backpack.

"You dropped this..?" I turn and a girl maybe 3/4 of my height is holding something out to me. Its a pale green letter, and on it is my name.

Ellory Archer

Written across the top in loopy script.

"Are you sure this is mine?" I ask, taking it and twirling it around.

It is my name...
But where did it come from?

She peers up at me through short dark-coco hair, big blue eyes scan mine curiously.

"It fell out of your backpack." She looks at the letter again, then pulls her scarf up over her mouth , in one move curling herself up like a turtle. She hikes her cherry red backpack and walks in front of me, towards the school, without a second glance.

I look again, at the letter, and decide that i should open it after school, when I have more time to ponder this mysterious incident.

As for the Mystery Girl, I've never seen her before, and i wonder if I will see her again.