Falling Awake

Part 24

We arrived at school that Monday, after the long walk. The walk was our test, if we could walk to school then we would be fine at school. It was tempting to feign exhaustion to get out of school, but we knew better. Me and Cass have been caught in a blizzard, lost our best friend, 'fallen awake,' and we were still terrified of school. That's just how messed up the modern day school system is though, right?

We walked in the wooden doors, and people started cheering. Great. This was going to be even worse than them mocking us, I'm not a big fan of hero worship if you couldn't tell... By the look on Cassie's face though, she was loving the attention, looking around it was just her grade doing it, so they probably knew that. It wasn't until we started reading the signs people were holding, and listening to their chants that we realised what was really going on... Some of my favorite signs included:

Congrats on going insane!

oh shoot, they made it...

Isn't Jory a boys name anyway

Congrats on getting no one to believe your story, attention seekers!

Yeah, it was bad... they were chanting something along the lines of 'not even your parents wanted you alive.' I could see Cassie turning as red as a beetroot, but she wasn't getting mad, just upset. It was strange to see, instead of stomping away and slamming the doors, Cass just looked at the ground and followed my lead. I saw teachers trying to usher kids away, threatening suspension, but we all knew they couldn't suspend the entire school. Sometimes I really hate living in a small town, there's so few kids that if one so much as gets their ears pierced it's practically in the school newspaper. I went to my first period class, math, where the teacher gave me a stack of papers to catch up on. The entire classroom was watching my every move, as if they were waiting for me to have a psychotic breakdown. My other classes were all the same, stacks of homework and a class full of stares, until it came to lunchtime.

Me and Cassie sat at a table in the corner together, we never used to sit together for lunch, but I guess times do change.

"How's your day been?" I asked, in an attempt to make polite conversation

"Bad." Cassie responded, picking at her pasta lunch.

"Same" I sighed. I could see that Cass's eyes were red from crying, her day must've been even worse than mine. I was used to being alone, i'd never really had friends, but Cassie's friends had just abandoned her overnight. It must have been tough for her. We ate lunch in silence, trying to ignore the stares of everyone around us. In our school, there's only about fifty kids per grade, and four grades, so everyone knows each other, and sometimes I really hate it...

The rest of the days classes were pretty much the same, the same staring, the same whispers, the same stacks of work, you know the drill. We finally walked out those doors together after surviving six awful classes, the crowd making a circle around us, no one wanting to be next to us, and made our way to the parking lot that dad had promised to meet us in

"How was your first day back girls?" My father asked, grinning. Me and Cassie looked at eachother

"Great!" I lied

"Yeah" Cass added "everything was normal!"

"That's great girls" my dad smiled, relieved. We walked home slowly, dad letting us lean on him when we needed it. I still haven't gotten in a car since the accident (our one, not our mom's), there hasn't really been a need yet, but I think i'll be okay with it. We drove so much in coma-land that cars don't really bear the trauma for me. We sat on a bench at the elementary school to wait for Edith and Liberty. We sat there for a few minutes while kids filed out of the building, until Libs ran into my arms, sobbing.