Chapter 3

   *next day* I hear my alarm go off and I quickly get ready for school- a dark blue t-shirt, jeans with holes in the knees, checker tennis shoes, checker jacket, and my checker bookbag (maybe I’m a little addicted to the pattern)- I grab my phone and run out of the door. I ran over to Ash’s house and knocked on the door. It takes a couple of minutes but he answers. I giggle a little. “Why aren't you ready?” he doesn’t answer and looks extremely tired. 

   I grab his arm and walk to his room sitting him on his bed. I look through his clothes and grab a pinkish-red t-shirt with a gold star on it, blue skinny jeans, and his high-top tennis shoes with a star on the side of them. I brush his hair and put the star hair clips in it. I walk to the kitchen to wait for him to get dressed and make some coffee, putting it into a water bottle with stars. He comes out dressed with his bag on one shoulder. I hand him his coffee and he thanks me. We both walk out to the bus stop and get on the bus.

   “Good morning, Asher,” the bus driver says.

   “Good morning, Ms. Haren,” he says with a smile. We start walking to the back of the bus and all the kids start pointing, saying “ew” and laughing at Ash. He looks down, his smile completely gone and tears in his eyes. We sit down and he stares out the window. The girl in the seat across from us is still laughing. I look at her and she stops. “Hi I’m Subree you must be new, here's some advice, don’t hang around Asher.” She gives me a calm smile but I give her a glare.

   “And why not,” I say and the anger in my voice seems to startle her.

   “He’s gay,” she says in a whisper.

   “So? I’m bi, is that a problem?” When I say that I see Ash quickly look up at me his eyes still watery and tears still on his cheek. I wipe away his tears with my thumb and he still looks at me shocked. I look back at Subree and she looks mad and a bit disgusted but I could care less.

   We pull up at the school and we get off the bus. The school is big and doesn’t have much color. We walk up to the door but as we’re walking Ash is still looking down, his lips are moving but barely a whisper comes out, I guess he’s mumbling to himself. We walk through the doors and to our lockers. “Come on top locker again?” Ash says looking up at the lock about a foot above his head. I laugh and pick him up. I see his cheeks go red but he opens his locker and tosses his stuff in.

   We start walking down the hall to the breakfast room when a girl starts running to me, two boys and one other girl walking behind her. “Hi, you must be new here,” she says, her short pink hair swinging.

   “Uh yeah I am, my name is Waylen.” she jumps around.

   “Cool, our names are similar. My name is Maylen.” One boy behind her with dark brown hair gives her a small slap on the shoulder.

  “Meki stop lying your name is not ‘Maylen’ it's Meki, start trying to lie your way into similarities with new kids.” he holds out his hand.

  “Hi I’m Jay, this is Meki, the girl with the black high ponytail behind me is Amanda, the boy next to her with the black and blue emo hair is Devin, love your accent by the way dude.” Amanda and Devin both have bangs covering one eye and they are on their phones.

  “You should totally sit with us,” Meki says, still bouncing around like a Rabbit. 

  “Meki! You left me!” She turns around and Subree is running towards her.

   “Oh sorry, Subree.” I watch them talk and then look at Ash, he hasn’t smiled once since this morning on the bus. 

   “Uh, I'll sit with you guys only if Ash can too.” Subree gives me a glare but I don’t pay any attention. 

  “That's fine,” Meki says, jumping around. We start walking and make it to breakfast. We sit down and I listen to them talk, I look over at Ash and he hasn’t even touched his food. I tap his shoulder.

   “Hey you ok?” he’s silent for a moment and then nods.