I can feel my hair whipping through the bitter wind as my face hits the pavement. I lift up my head just in time to see the laughing girl in stripes scurry away. I sit there for a minute, blood oozing down my cheek. I think about the day ahead, this is just the beginning. At least I have Anna, I think to myself. Anna is my best friend in the whole world, she's actually my only friend in the whole world. I can feel the blood rush from my head to my feet as I get up with a sigh.
Once I arrive at school, I see Anna's emerald eyes gazing at me. My palms start to sweat as I walk into my daily nightmare. Anna's electric smile fades into horror as she sees the wound on my face.
"What happened?" she says, the concern in her voice feels like bullets. I hate worrying her.
"I just tripped, I'm alright." I can tell she knows, but she wants to believe me.
Before she has a chance to respond, the bell rings. I walk through the doors that hold the memories of the past three years of my life. I take a deep breath and hope that no other students will be in the halls. Like always, there are. I feel like the eyes of the students are glued to me. My heart drops, it's them; I can feel every hair on my body stick up.
"Go get her, Jack." one of them says with a grin. I can hear their evil snickers floating through the room. His fist brushes past my face, I barely dodge it. Anna's eyes widen, a single tear streams down her dejected face.
Before I can even think about it, I'm running, running from the laughter and the yells of the children who are ruining my life. I grab Anna's frail wrist and bring her into an empty classroom. I can see cobwebs dangling from the beige ceiling, and the coffee stained rug beneath our tired feet. For a moment, the only noise is the soft whistle of wind coming from a crack in the window.
"I didn't know they were hurting you." Anna says, finally breaking the silence.
"I didn't know what to do." I reply. I feel like there's a pit in my stomach. I should have told her.
I start to hear the rustles and stomping of shoes in the hallway settle down.
"We should go to class." I whisper. I grab the heavy door and push it open, the creaks sound like an old rocking chair. We walk through the empty hallway to our first class, geometry. We sit down on the cold, blue chairs and start working. I try to ignore the stares.
A sharp pain spikes up my leg. I see a blue shoe pull away. I reach over and squeeze Anna's warm hand, my scared heart beats start to slow down. I don't know what I would do without her.
Just to be safe, we wait for everyone to leave the hallway before leaving each classroom. The lunch bell rings, the hallway immediately starts to flood with excited students. I glance down to see a paper bag with "Anna" written in blue marker.
"We can eat here," she says with a grin. She rips her peanut butter sandwich in half. The feeling of the sweet peanut butter sticking to the roof of my mouth brings back memories of when everything was okay.
I feel a light tap on my right shoulder. I quickly turn around and see a girl with long, dark brown hair.
"You must really miss Anna, you guys were so close." I can hear the sadness and sorrow in her raspy voice.
"I think about her everyday," I reply.