I Need Some Sleep

A Story by Renae.

Its a chilly Monday morning as I walk to school, I can see my breath in the air in front of me and I dig my hands deeper into the synthetic wool my sweater's lined with. Music blasts in my ears and I hum along to Basement, because that's what I do every morning. I don't think I'm so great at holding a tune, though others say that i sing well, however none of this matters because I don't care what anyone thinks when I can't hear them. I shouldn't care what others think, period.

The cross-walk man named Jared smiles a good morning at me, like he does every morning, and I smile back at him while I squint against the sun, like I do every morning.

I spend the rest of my morning before the bell digging my hands into my pocket, breathing through my mouth to see my breath, and making conversation with my friends. Some things are different, but it still seems the same to me. When the bell rings, I get to class, set my bag down on the floor next to my chair, and grab my project. People say that its coming out really good, but when I look at it, I don't think of a human skeleton. I see alien, but all the same, I kinda like it.

My hands are already covered in pastel chalk when my friends walk in with the bell and smile and shake their heads at me.

"What," I ask, as I pick up another chalk and eye them as they put their stuff down.

"You have brown pastel on your nose," Jose chuckles and sits down. I go to my nose to wipe it off only to cover my nose with more color from my fingers. Keilah laughs and cleans my nose for me. I feel like a child, so I smile. She laughs more at me, then sits and starts picking from the chalk I've gotten for the table.

About ten minutes before the bell rings, the class is buzzing and the substitute that replaced our now retired art teacher is trying to silence us, I slip out and go to the girl's bathroom across the hall to clean up. I wash my hands first, then wet a piece of paper towel. I pick my bangs up from my forehead and wipe my whole face down three times before letting my bangs fall again and tossing the paper. I wipe my arms down, then turn and check for anymore pastel marks on my clothes.