I’m Popular (or at least i used to be) Antes Story [GL]

I walked down the main road, the checkpoint supposedly ahead of me. The dense forest around our school seemed to come down here as it was on my left. A field filled with dry grass was on my right.

A couple minutes passed and I could see the checkpoint clearly. When Yuka's aunt said checkpoint I kind of assumed it would be bigger, maybe even prison-like. This checkpoint was merely a police car by one of those arm things you see at train crossings. I can't lie, I was a little disappointed.

I walked up to the police car's window and peered into the window expecting eyes to be staring back at me. Instead of staring, the officer was on her phone playing Candy Crush. I decided to just knock.

When I did, the officer looked up at me slowly. She had an annoyed expression on her face. She lowered her window.

"What do you need?" She said in a bored tone.

"I'm just trying to get off campus. I heard I was supposed to show you my slip." I explained nonchalantly, matching the older woman's tone.

"Ok. Let me see it."

I showed her the slip in my hand.

She looked it over for a couple of seconds.

"You're cleared to go. Just walk around the crossing gate." The officer said while slowly rolling up her window.

She must be trying to get back to her game. I heard those Candy Crush games could get pretty intense.

"Alright." I said to myself as the window was already up.

I put my slip in my pochette and started walking around the gate.

The safety of hundreds of students is in good hands.

Maybe it's karma for always bad mouthing my parent's security detail. If anything ever happened here I know what I will be thinking.

Dina, I'm sorry for always calling you a hag. Save me...That made me sound kind of sad. Pretty sure she spit in my coffee a couple of times too. You know she doesn't deserve anything from me. How can you be 50 (that's being nice she's probably like 70!) and not know how to make a Vanilla Latte.

The road continued on for a while without much deviation. This allowed me to think of things I'd tell Dina if she wasn't fired two years ago for spying for a rival company.

If anything, at least Dina was interesting to talk to. The new security my mother hired were mostly silent. It was boring.

On that note I had made it to the bus stop. It was an uncomfortable-looking grey bench with a red sign to the right of it. The sign read "47 ET".

I stood by the sign and looked to my left where the bus should be coming from. The school was also in that direction. From here it looked like tiny squares on the dry grass-filled horizon.

I wondered what Emma was doing. Probably reading. She was a bookworm after all. Has reading the weekends away been her routine for four years? What's the average routine for a student here?

If you think about it I'm the deviation here since most of the girls at Coraline Miller's go for all four years. Four years doing the same thing...I wouldn't be able to do it. I would get insanely bored. But, then again I couldn't be the only one here who gets bored easily. I could imagine a student trying to talk to her dorm neighbor or maybe trying to run one of those Flash games I've heard Shanice talk about to make things interesting. People could also leave like I did.

Do they though? I imagine that whole sign out rule being a pain, even for students with the most normal of nuclear families.

Not like there's much to do in this town anyway.

So, confined to the dorm and school what is the average Caroline Miller's student to do? Well they could do what I mentioned earlier or...Hmmm. Do stuff on their phones, sit and talk in groups, sleep on the wall, or cook.

I just listed what I've seen girls do in the dorm...What have I been doing these past two weeks? Two weeks?!? Woah. It does not feel like it's been only two weeks. Oh, there's the bus.

Before I could get introspective about my time at the all-girls boarding school I'm attending I saw a red and grey bus barrel down the road in my direction.

What is the etiquette? Do I clap? Do I jump in the air and wave my arms? Do I take out a handkerchief and wave it daintily?...I think I'll just wave.

I waved my hand as the bus started to slow down. It stopped a little ahead of me and made a 'tsssssh' noise as if the bus was living and was taking a deep breath. I walked towards the front doors as they opened. I looked inside once I made it to the doors. There were some stairs that led into a middle section of the bus in front of me. I stepped in the vehicle and noticed the driver staring at me. She was a brunette who I assumed was in her 30's.

Why am I meeting so many middle aged women today?

"Hello. Do you need directions?" She asked.

"No, I'm ok. How much is the fare?"

"A dollar for youth."

That's me. A youth. (Just barely)

I took out a loose dollar from my pochette and put it in the money machine that stood in between me and the bus driver.

"Great. Now hurry and hold on. I'm behind schedule." The bus driver said, turning her attention to the road ahead of us.

"Right."

I turned and looked into the bus. Grey, wrinkled, cheap looking seats were on my left and right. There were two thin metal bars attached to the roof that seemed to run down the bus. Plastic red handles hung from these metal bars. I grabbed one of the handles as the bus started moving. There was trash in some of the seats and a musty smell hung in the air.

I thought it would at least be on the same level as those school buses I rode in the one year I went to public school.

The bus wasn't filled but it sure felt like it was with how loud it was. Some middle schoolers in the back were having a very spirited conversation about guys on Snapchat.

I sat down in the clean-ish seat next to me and realized the seats were pretty stiff and uncomfortable. I took out my phone from my back pocket and my screen lit up in the motion. It was 12 PM.

12!?! Oh god. This is the meeting time. Maps said this was a 30 minute bus ride too. I can't even text Gwen cause I don't have her number.

I sighed.

Whatever happens, happens. Hopefully she's still there when I get there.

I took out my earbuds from my pochette and plugged them into my phone. I watched Pautips videos while I waited for the bus to get to my stop.

*

I'm glad a lot of people got off and on at my stop because I almost missed it entirely. I got up as soon as I realized it was time to get off and shuffled towards the front of the bus.

I noticed that the girl in front of me thanked the bus driver so I did too as I stepped down the stairs. I hopped on the sidewalk and took a deep breath.

It smells like gasoline and moldy pizza...

Bad smells aside, there wasn't much around me. There was a strip mall right in front of me with a couple random knick knack shops. To my left there were more fields. (Get excited! There's a lot of those in this town!) To my right there was a huge empty parking lot and an apartment complex further down. Across the street from that complex was the gas station and Little Caesars. My destination.

The bus started moving as I turned to my right. I checked my phone for the time.

12:35. Great.

I put my phone in my back pocket. I started walking only to stop after taking a couple of steps since I heard a familiar voice yell from across the street.

I looked over and saw a tall woman with her hands around her mouth calling out to me.

"Jocelyn! I'm over here." Gwen yelled, her southern accent apparent.