Hidden

Hidden 5

Bianca’s P.O.V.

“Dad!” Bree yelled. “It’s only fair if I go! I’m older and-“

“Bree, WE’RE THE SAME AGE. You’re a MINUTE older than me!” I cut in.

“Well, Bree is older…” Dad said, obviously trying to reach some sort of conclusion, even if it was an ill thought out one.

“Sixty extra seconds in this world does NOT give Bree the right to THREE YEARS OF FREEDOM. In fact, because she has been on this planet longer, I think I deserve to go, to spend more time in my youth-“ I started.

“I’m more mature,” Bree intruded.

“No you’re not! Dad, remember a couple of years ago, when she started crying because I wanted my pink sweater back?”

“Because you broke my glass swan while looking for it!”

Our dad was rubbing his temples gingerly, looking as though he had a bad headache, and was quite possibly going deaf.

“Well, I think that maybe Bianca has a point-“

“DAD!” Bree yelled, while I began to smirk. “It’s not fair!”

“Okay, maybe Bree should-“                           

“DAD!” I interrupted.

“Okay, maybe neither of you should go, and we can hire a hobo to pretend to be one you guys instead.”

“DAD!” We yelled in unison.

“You know what? You both deal with this and decide which one of you goes to school, and which stays home. When I wake up tomorrow morning, ONE of you is going to be ready for school, and the other is going to stay hidden. Understood?”

Reluctantly, we nodded, and turned to each other.

“Good. I’m going to go find some aspirin.”

And he left, and I spoke.

“Bee, we can’t argue.”

“But it really isn’t fair,” she said solemnly. “Even if I go, I’d still feel bad that you wouldn’t ever get to go to school. And if you went, I’d have to kill you so I could go.”

I made a face.

“Not funny, Bee. Don’t worry. I have a plan.”

***

When our dad woke up the next morning, one of us was standing at the door, wearing her new school uniform (a plaid skirt and a navy blue polo), and smiling innocently. Dad sipped his half cup of coffee and gestured towards the door.

“Bianca?”

I nodded back. Today, I was going to school.

“Is Bree asleep?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you have your schedule? Your new books? What about-“

“Daddy, I’ll be fine.”

And I opened the door, feeling the cool air brush my face and ready to go on an adventure.

***

It was a long walk to school, but I couldn’t exactly take the bus that was going to stop by my neighborhood later. I didn’t want to meet anyone, not yet. I needed time to see the school, to get an overall idea of what it was going to be like before I could actually interact with anyone.

And I couldn’t just talk to anyone. I had to choose carefully. Because Bree would kill me if I befriended someone who she would label as a loser. During our discussion yesterday night, she had told me to look for someone who looked like they had a lot of friends, and who was, well, popular. I had argued of course, saying that in all the books I’d read, the popular kids were always jerks, and the social rejects always turned out to be much better friends than them. But we had traded off. I got to go the first day, as long as she had a say in who would be our friends.

That is, if we made any.

I had to admit, I was nervous. Crazy nervous. I was pretty sure anyone within a mile of me could hear my heart beating through the scratchy uniform. I had taken special care to try and look my best today, and Bree had woken up even earlier than I had to pick out a special outfit for me. She hadn’t known about the uniform that Dad had set out downstairs.

I could only imagine how I looked by now, though. Sharp wind cut through the air and rustled my dark brown hair, which probably had gone back to its frizzy self by now, despite the care that Bree had given it this morning. I pictured my skin to be blue, my brown eyes to look tired from all the cold, and the black sweater (dress code appropriate, of course, and therefore terribly itchy as well) I had hurriedly pulled over had gotten caught on a tree branch and now had a small tear in the right shoulder.

I was a mess.

At least I had left an hour early. Once I reached the high school, I could fix my hair and take off the torn sweater. And with a wave of relief, I realized that in the near distance, I could see a building that looked like it could be my new school.

It was a large building, and as I got closer, I could see that there were a lot of bushes. Big, fluffy green ones everywhere. On the right of the building? Bushes. On the left? Bushes. On the side of the pathway? Bushes.

When I looked up, I saw the plain black text that was my school name.

Bush High. Go figure. Of course my school was named after a plant.

I walked through the doors, finger combing my hair along the way, completely unexpected for what I saw.

***

The floor was made of a tile I had never seen before, tinted blue. The air smelled vaguely of cupcakes. Small tan lockers lined the walls; there were hundreds of them! How was I supposed to find mine? Someone who looked official enough to be an administrator or teacher was walking down the hallway too, so I caught up with them and asked her where locker 259 was. She pointed me across the hall in the direction of some orange lockers, and I went.

22-28-22. It seemed like an easy enough code to remember.

I spun the lock, and it clicked open. After warily pushing all my books, except for my math ones (which I had first period), I shut the door and turned, only to bump into something.

When I looked up, I realized I hadn’t bumped into a thing- I had bumped into a person. A very, very tall person. At first I thought the boy was a teacher because he was so tall, but his face was one of a fifteen year old, maybe. He had wavy black hair and stunningly blue eyes. I didn’t know how to judge him.

I faked a smile, trying to look as natural and not nervous as I could.

“Sorry,” I said apologetically, tilting my head backwards to look at his face. He laughed.

“That’s okay. Are you new here? I haven’t ever seen you before.”

“Yeah, I was homeschooled all my life. This is my first time going to public school.”

He smiled, displaying a set of perfect white teeth.

“Well, I hope you have a great first day. See you around.” And he walked off into the hallway, never even giving me the chance to get his name.

Then he turned around.

“You know your sweater’s ripped, right?”

Great first impression, Bianca.

************

I UPLOADED! Finally! :D And I tried to make this chapter longer.. (:

So yeah, I don't really know how this chapter is. I just spent the past 2 hours writing it though. Well, writing, and wasting time on Facebook, lol. (:

Oh, and fyi, schools in the future are MUCH like schools right now. Lockers, passing periods, etc. It's much cheaper for the government, than making it all technilogical. But intense, cool technology DOES exist in this world. It's just not seen on a day to day basis. :D

So, comment/ vote/ fan! :D Thanks!