Several Short Storiesss

Walking Backwards 2

I don't know where I am. I don't know why my head is throbbing. I don't know why my eyes are burning. 

I definitely don't know why the tile floors in the school bathroom feel like grass.

I have to be in school, but I literally can't open my eyes. They sting like someone just threw a handful of salt into them. I'm trying not to cry, but I already feel hot tears singeing their way down my cheeks.

There is no way I'm lying in random grass right now.

My ears are buzzing, but as they start to quiet down, I hear voices.

"I didn't know how to explain it, so I panicked," said a completely unpanicked, weirdly accented voice.

"So, she thinks she's here for kicks?" says another weird accent. This one has a richer tone, and I can hear personality.

"That was an excellent use of slang, Madellinia," Another voice says. They say slang the way a teacher would proudly say vocabulary. I definitely know that 'kicks' isn't on the vocab list. Otherwise, I'd be passing English!

"No," The first voice says. "She doesn't know anything. I just asked if she wanted to exit. Well, leave seemed to be a more effective term."

"Ugh," I groan loudly. "Can someone clean my eyes?"

"Oh, geez!" said the voice with great slang. "It's awake."

"She," I pointedly croaked before someone could compliment her again.

"I do think I got some miasma in her eyes..." Oh. That voice is snake eyes.

"It must have been a lot," The voice of 'good-use-of-slang!' says. "Look, she's lacrimating."

"Is that bad?" I ask. A crooked cough follows immediately. My throat's too dry to learn what 'lacrimating' means. Weird words like that are on vocabulary tests all the time, though.

Test? The history test! Did I miss it? Please, please, please... Fingers crossed...

Someone sits me up and wipes a napkin on my eyes. They instantly stop crying. I open them, and immediately I jump back like a hundred feet. Bright red goat eyes stare right back at me. A kid who owns the eyes, turns her head, slightly confused. "Are you alright?" she asks.

"Are you the Devil?" My mouth tumbles out. Instantly, I know that's wrong because the Devil probably wouldn't ask if I was good, but who else has goat eyes?? They're awful to look at.

The kid turns away towards a white table, her short red hair hugging her cheeks. It barely covers her ears. Snake eyes sits there with some lemon-lime green person. Well, just their hair and their clothes. And probably their eyes, if I gave them the chance.

I'm sitting in a huge green field under a dirt brown sky. Glowing yellow clouds float in it, and I feel like throwing up. It looks so unnatural and disturbing, but no one else seems to notice.

Goat Eyes says something, and Snake Eyes quickly springs up. I close my eyes as I hear her and Green crunch through the grass towards me.

"Are you alright?" Snake repeats Goat's question. I don't open my eyes.

"Stay away from me," I croak. My throat is still too tight.

"We need to know if you're okay." The vocab-teacher's speaking, so they must be Green. I don't even wanna see their eyes.

"Oh," says Green. "Ladies, your irises are true." WAIT.

"Did you just read my mind?" I hiss out.