It was a familiar winter morning, the sun brighter than ever, setting snow ablaze and welcoming a warm sort of hazel sky through the gaps of a half-closed curtain. The wind was a cool stream flooding through the window that was partially opened at the side. As the wind crawled through the floors it sprinted through Mars’ spine, he woke up with an overwhelming sense of dread. An unusual sensation that shook him fully awake. Yet he wasn’t able to move even a finger.

“Wake up Mars. "

A soothing voice whispered to him through the darkness of his imagination. The voice seemed to put him at ease, and then finally managing to move he sat upright leaning on the frame of his wooden bed clutching his lime green bed sheets, not knowing what had just occurred to him. Still in a state of minor shock deciding if he should be concerned or not.

RING!

RING!

The first of his alarms projected directly into his ear forcing him to silence it in haste, 01/12/2022 the date was.

‘Another boring school day, amazing!’

He thought to himself while slowly getting out of his warm blanket and standing on an ice-like floor. The endless mesmerizing sky stole him of what little control he had left, driving him into a deep daydream. Although falling heavily prone to things like these, they would never last that long as interruption was a huge issue.

Snapping out of it, as soon as he had even gotten slightly invested – vibrations caught his attention as the deafening alarm ‘rings’ were about to chant again. Without a second thought he had swiftly closed it off before any damage was done to his already stone-like mood. Mars was just like any other ‘regular’ teenager, going through all sorts of phases and of course addictions specially to do with gaming, fantasy or such similar topics and what better than an introverted personality.

Strength – 3/10,

Intelligence – 8.5/10,

Athletics 4/10.

Not to state the obvious but he was no popular kid. But rather on the extreme border of being a social outcast. As if muscle memory, Mars had already dressed into his full uniform (that being – black trousers, a blue shirt finally being accompanied by a blazer with a black and purple striped tie). Hurrying out of his room with his phone in hand, he picked up his over-all green synthetic leather bag and put it on his shoulders, leaving the door slightly open he rushed towards the bathroom where the was a door opposing it, which was a storge room and of course his room in the middle. He picked up an orange-coloured toothbrush and squirted a blob of a toothpaste before proceeding to brush his teeth.

While doing all this he was slowly scrolling through his phone. His phone wasn’t the newest of tech, however something well suited to him. The phone’s case was a dull grey colour and very thick. Being done, he gurgled out the toothpaste and hurried down the carpeted staircase while putting his phone away in his inside blazer pocket.

As he went down, he was in full view of the doorway, the metal pegs siding the door and two rooms visible from his position. Mars wouldn’t usually have breakfast in the morning; however, he felt a blanket of fatigue enclosing on him, so he had the urge to eat something small, like a snack.

When he had reached the bottom of the stairs, he shakingly walked over to the second room from the aluminium grey tinted front door. And he entered the room - the kitchen that being, he walked past a small oak table with a dirty plate on top of it and two different chairs mis-placed away from the table. Passing him as he walked across was a stained white marble counter near a sink overviewing a cramped view from a small, closed window. He then crouched and proceeded to open a cupboard and grabbed a pre-made waffle.

He un-wrapped the plastic while getting up and threw the packaging into the large bin opposite him. Munching away on his tasty waffle he made his way back to the hallway after wondering to the fridge. Quickly finishing the waffle, he approached the front door and picked up a pair of black, dirty shoes messily laid on the floor. He then went to sit on the first step of the staircase and put on the shoes. Finally, he was ready. Ready to go out. He seemed confident but thoughts crashed his mind. What if people from his school were outside? Even worse what if they talked to him! Any social interaction would usually send him mad.

“One deep breath.”

He muttered to himself as he took the keys hung up on the wall, inserted them into the lock and then.

“Click!”

One last thing to do, push!

The door swung open outwards far away from hands reach, and rays of bashing light stared him down – blinding him. He covered his eyes immediately with his hands and faced downwards. He put one foot down onto the ground outside then the other before making sure there wasn’t anyone in sight. Finally, he could relax, he made his way through some concrete steps leading to the pavement. The ground was quite slippery since it was covered with frost a few hours ago, forcing him to hold on to the cold metal railings. After completing the flight of stairs, he - yet again proceeded to look left and right. After seeing someone far in the distance with an oversized white fluffy coat covering them, he didn’t waste any time and continued onto his morning commute.

He took a left turn, then would continue to go straight all the way until he would see his school, during this he wouldn’t expect to talk or really meet up with anyone. However, often he would run into one of his friends – Ben or Rayden and walk with them. But with the two-way road was unusually empty, it felt like his preferred plan of not interacting with anyone at all seemed to be going just fine.

As he careful walked, to not fall over, he gazed up into the calming sky. Being alone comforted him far more than anyone else could. He didn’t despise loneliness but didn’t enjoy it either, it was always partnered along with a strange feeling - a feeling of emptiness like no emotion. A road crossing began to come up and he continued to walk, staring into the horizon looking at the not so clear sky scattered with clouds - not alert to his surroundings.

He continued but, all of a sudden, he felt a sharp grip on his shoulder which anchored him back to reality. He panickily turned around, he could see a large, white coat sleave hanging on to his shoulder, and the sound of deep breathes. Frightened and completely horrified, he started to look more to realize it was the same person before that was quite a distance away from him. The person was looking towards the cracked ground. Very slowly realising his surroundings, he then collided into the avalanche of shock noticing he was about to walk in the road with a car that had just passed.

“Be more careful, next time Mars! “

The person spoke, they seemed to know him, and the high-pitched voice seemed very familiar.

“I'm so sorry!”

He mentioned over and over again repetitively. As the person stood up their face became immediately recognisable.

“Am..b.er?”

He stuttered uncontrollably; the girl appeared to be one of his classmates, he had only spoken to her a maximum of four times all being very short conversations. She had long, silkily, dark cherry coloured hair almost covering the sides of her face. Her nose was strangely small, but she had big eyes in contrast. Her eyebrows were thin, but it appeared some make up was on them, and also relatively noticeable were the freckles dotted across her almost pale face. Her cheeks were bright red from what appeared to have been breathlessly sprinting in the cold, and her deep breathes ended in puffs of condensation floating into the air.

Her yellow, orange diamond shaped scarf dangled, hanging but barely on. Amber’s face puffed up; it was as if a child was going to throw a tantrum. Instead of this she sighed unbelievably in disappointment quickly dismissing the entire event as if it had never occurred.

“Come on then! Do you want to be late or somthin’?!”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's not as if we could be late with the amount of time we had. Quickly having made up my mind I started to walk again, but it was unusually silent except for the thumping of our shoes hitting the floor. A gas station was soon in sight and many different colours of cars flooded a queue. The air was polluted with the smell gas even though we weren't too close to it.

”I hate this smell! It reminds me of something like rotting fish! Eww!”

She then blurts out.

"Oh come on it's not that bad!"

I respond a bit confused.

"Of course it is! You'r probably used to at this point!"

"I mean don't you walk this way all the time?"

"Nope not really... The other path I take is too downhill and with all the frost it acts like a death trap! But the smell here is also a death trap""

She bursted out, but smell itself wasn’t too bad and strangely I somewhat enjoyed it. The closer and closer we approached I noticed her face glow a bright red. I stared in confusion, and then out of nowhere a sharp gasp came out as if she had been under water for a minute straight.

“I can't handle the smell anymore! When will it just go away!”

She busted out yet again.

I disappointingly watched thinking how badly she was over exaggerating.

“It's not that bad... clam down.”

“Yes, it is!”

She exclaimed louder than before.

"So... Anything intresting going to happen to day? Im never caught up..."

"So be fair... I'm not that caught up anyways who checks that stuff?"

She laughs back.

Soon enough we had gotten past the gas station. And a large highway bridge was Infront of us and to continue our destination we had to go under the bridge supported by at least one-hundred cement support beams all in a straight parallel line across. The sounds of cars and trucks zooming increasingly became more and more noticeable as well as the honking of all the vehicles as we went underneath.

I could also see many pigeons nesting above silently watching passers-by. Out of the bridge the school was only a one-minute walk away and was very visible from the distance we were at. The rest of the walk was strangely silent, amber was always one of those people who couldn’t help shutting their mouths and would go on and on blabbering. It made me feel uneasy to see someone act so unusual from their normal self, her face was filled with emotions that I couldn’t read. She suddenly noticed me looking at her and I tried to turn around but it was too late.

“what's up?”

she asked me as if I was being weird,

“N-nothing!”

I quickly responded trying to avoid an awkward situation.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The bright coloured gates stared me down as I walked up the three steps onto a pathway which directly led towards the school entrance up the path it joined with another path from a car park with not so many cars, we seemed very early as no one was in sight only a few people in the distance.

“We’re really early it seems.”

She states.

"So... about being 'late'?"

I quietly remarked as I pulled out my phone to check the time from my inside blazer pocket. The time read – ‘7:55’. On any other day we would have to be in school by ‘8:30’ so we seemed to be extremely early. A thirty-five-minute difference really made the area seem like a ghost-town almost. We started to make our way through the pathway as Amber hummed to herself. The rhythm she directed out matched that of her boots hitting the ground, the tune sounds so relatively familiar but I knew it fell on unknown grounds.

Then she looks back at me.

"Realistically... You never know what could happen! What if the bridge collapsed or even I slipped and had to go back home because I ripped my clothes... and..."

She kept going on and on, eventually making me tired.

Meanwhile the concrete path started to fade into a harsh, stone brick floor that narrowed down sided with green, thick bushes with little to no brown leaves at all, which then divided into a large, grassy area for people to park their bikes on sturdy metal racks.

As we began to get to the two metal, double glass doors and sectioned glass walls, it was silent except for the birds nesting on top of the pointed roof striking outwards facing us. Near the brick path it was surrounded and enclosed by the elevated two floors of the building’s rooms which were visibly classrooms. However, the grassy area was a ground levelled place with small, important offices, these office’s had windows that seemed to be always open, but nothing could be in view as the plain white curtains sheltered it from sight. The whole area leading towards the entrance was rectangle-like and slowly rose upwards to match the awkward ground level of the grassy area and entrance doors.

Though the doors no one seemed to be in sight either just a few teachers seemlessly hovering around like robots. And a somepoint the harsh, grey colours became revoltingly dull – ruining the atmosphere. Without thinking I walked across the glass walls into the bike racks where a corner caved in. The green-yellow grass and the somewhat tall yet dead bushes seemed to lighten everything up just a little bit.

“This place is way better in summer or spring. But always a saviour in the winter I guess.”

Amber seemed to feel the same way I noticed as she had a noticeably better expression then before.

“What do we have first period?”

Amber asked me kind of changing the topic, I had forgotten we were in the same class since I only spoke to a handful of people and usually kept to myself.

“Uhh. Lemme check real quick.”

I said while getting out a spiral paper notebook reading “student planner” out. A student planner was expected to be brought in everyday by everyone and would keep track of our timetable (what lessons we had) and could help us remember homework dates. Although this sounded very helpful the timetables were easy to learn off-by-heart as the school year progressed and practically became spare paper to do the most random things on. Turning the pages quickly I stumbled upon the timetable.

“Maths, room twenty-four...”

I responded, and she stared at me in disappointment and pure dread.

“Maths first period!?”

I could tell her day wasn’t off to a good start upon giving her the bad news. To lighten up the mood or at least attempt to I decided to start a rant about all the bad things in the school such as: canteen food, annoying teachers and subjects we didn’t enjoy. The whole detailed ranting seemed so calm and peaceful. To let your frustration out and have someone agree with you or relate was a sensation so amazing, unless they were one-upping or something along those petty scenarios.

"Yeah, but nothing is worse than English! Remember that one time Mr, Wilson screamed at that girl for asking for a pen!"

"Oh! Jackson! I can't believe I forgot that! And now I have him for English every day!"

She says to me laughing and faking a cry at the same time.

We continued to talk for a while, In the enclosed area everything seemed calm, and it was as if for a moment there was nothing in the world to worry about. Much time had passed as talked away in the shade.

“What's the time now?”

I said out loud, accidently interrupting Amber as she was trying to say something, her arms went flat down as I had interrupted, I felt like it was something important that I missed out upon, I tried to dismiss it immediately as I was most likely just me over-thinking it but part of me felt the opposite. Amber pulled out her phone and read it out loud.

“Eight, twenty-five. Shit! I didn’t even realise.”

Time had felt frozen and I hoped it would, it felt like we could have talked forever, the moment it was revealed all unease was set back into reality.

“I think we should really go in now.”

Amber quietly said with her scarf covering her mouth and her small nose slightly, I agreed with what she said and decided I should get up. Standing back upwards, gravity immensely hit my legs at first and took me a few seconds to adjust from the comfortable position that had numbed my legs.

I started to make my way towards the entrance greeted only by the loud screams of crowds from just outside the building doors. It was too early in the morning to be audibly disrupted and I tried to make haste out of the area.

As I stepped into the building warm wind pushed against me, and in front of me and behind me there was large groups of students making their way through the corridors to certain rooms, from the entrance the centre was triangle based and from each point would be a corridor leading to a different department area as well as a set of stairs leading upwards to another floor being comprised full of science rooms and labs.

I started to make my way to the furthest point from the main doors leading into the English corridor. Each specific room in the school would have an assigned number, ‘room 14’ was the room which I had to be in for form time. Form time was the first thing of the day however was purely for attendance and assembly. Everyone in form already had distinctive, refined friendship groups, so to be not know anyone would be an extremely bad start and of course I don’t socialize making this nightmare come true. Continuing to walk I noticed it say, “room 15” then right next to it - “room 14”. I didn’t know if I was ready, the number of possibilities that could occur were unhinged most of them being overall negative. Completely unconsciously as if a reflex action I had put my hand upon the mental door handle and pushed.

The door slightly opened, and some students were already sat down talking to each other. It was nowhere near as bad as what had been imagined. Not even a single person had cared enough to even look or even pay attention to me. I walked slowly through the rows to find an isolated seat which I gladly took.

I stared harshly into the plastic covering of the table and how it reflected slices of light off, all meanwhile lost in intrinsic thoughts

“Mars.”

A loud voice exclaimed from the other side of the room. I stumbled upon the line I was just reading and looked over the top of my book.

“Is Mars here?”

I only had just realised that the teacher was only just taking the register. I awkwardly tried to answer but I wasn’t heard the first time, so I did so again.

“H-Here!”

I wasn’t entirely sure if the teacher had heard me, but I wasn’t eager too find out. I continued to stare into the endless world of my blank mind. Yet again my focus was disrupted by bells signalling we had to go to first period. I stood up and hurried to gather my things knowing a class was about to start in the room I was in.

I quickly rushed through crowds as if they were traps, which in reality very well could have been with all the pushing and shoving.

After having entered the maths corridor, a large crowd of people emerged from more classrooms resulting in practically no space, and I was being pushed around as if in the vacuum of space.

Slowly the crowd dispersed after multiple teachers came, and I manage to finally see and recall the room I was supposed to go in room twenty-four after seeing it in front of me. I entered the room, which was next to a set of stairs that ran to the next floor up and down to the gym. As I was walked into the room with other students, I rushed to the comfort of my desk. My desk this time unlike my assigned form seat was in the middle of the class and surrounded by rows of desks, however this isn't as bad as you would imagine since no one actually bothered me despite being in the middle of everything.

“Hey!”

An energetic voice sprinted down my ears, I wondered where it had come from, but I knew it wasn’t directed at me. I started to get out by books as usual and my pen until yet again, the same voice repeated like a parrot.

“Hey!”

I was confused to say the least now, I look upwards from my bag to see Amber from the desk Infront of me, befuddled if she was actually talking to me, I look behind me and to my surprise no one was there concluding that in fact she was actually speaking to me.

“Oh... Um... hello there?”

I almost stumbled on all my words, I didn’t know where this was about to go so I was a bit cautious to answer in the first place. I then immediately went back to opening my books and getting ready for the lesson; putting a title, a date and finally underlining them both. Silence then welcomed itself for a split second then a clearly frustrated sigh was let out. I looked up slightly to notice this was Amber, still facing towards me.

“Is there... Anything wrong?”

I quietly asked looking up from my book.

“Nothin’... Don’t worry about it.”

More time passed sitting idlily pondering within deep thoughts of silence interrupted by the random noises laundering in the background.

Ring! Ring!

The next alarm signalling us to next period rang. I stood behind my chair gathering everything then eventually heading outside the classroom when my row had been dismissed. I now had the options of going to one of three places open to the student body; one, the playground ,outside, which to me at least this area was a no-go zone as it contained loud noises in every direction and footballs crashing havoc upon the place. Two, was the cafeteria perfect for a snack, however not a good place to for peacefulness and I didn’t partially enjoy eating during early hours nor in school that often. Finally, three, the library for me usually this was the spot to go at all times, a perfect place with quiet areas, books to dive into and several comfortable chairs directed towards the great greenery outside.

Five seconds outside of the classroom, I was suddenly ambushed from behind – it was Amber.

“Hey! Want to hang out with us?”

I was in disbelief. I Couldn’t grasp it at all. A person asking me to hang out? I must have really heard it wrong huh, I laughed to myself inside.

“Wait, w-what?”

I repeated acting as if I didn't heard Amber the first time.

“Want to hang out with us?”

She repeated, I turned around to see a group of three including Amber. If I forgot to mention all-girls. I was turning somewhat red at the thought of it. All at once all my in-securities unleashed into my mind stumbling my words and un-revealing stress. Let alone talking to people but I felt deeply peer-pressured by this.

“I... I mean, sure?”

I stuttered, and un-sure what gate of hell I unlocked for myself. Never mind me going to the library, I had a whole bunch of things to worry about now. I mean for someone like me who has never had any social interactions like this before and to suddenly be surrounded by three girls.

“So, what's your name?”

The girl on the left of amber with short blonde hair and a ribbon tied it up at the back.

“Mars... and yours?”

I said trying to carry on the conversation with any social skills I still had after confining myself in my room for the past few years. And I genuinely didn’t know if I was stuttering or not since I was so concentrated on my choice of words.

“Mars, hmm I like the name is has a sort of nice ring to it.”

The girl on the left of Amber said, ignoring my question I didn’t feel like talking after that and wanted to retrieve back into my shell of isolation and comfort.

“Stop flirting, geez you only met him a second ago!”

Those couple of words put devastation into my eyes yet laughter in the others, we went through a shortcut leading to the playground and I opened the door for the rest of them and then lastly closed it after exiting myself. The weather brushed into me and a warm, yet cool breeze entered through my shirt. I felt like I could sleep right there, standing up or even on the concrete ground below me but in reality, the floor was like sleeping on spikes. The playground itself was surprising large, it was a rectangular area covered in benches and a small area leading to a large football field used for sporting events and for PE lessons to take place in. Luckily today was not the day to suffer the humiliation of a PE lesson.

Amber and the rest proceeded to place all their bags onto the large white wall of the building and took their blazers off. I was somewhat flustered at the site and tried to change the subject of my mind to something less, well less lewd. I couldn’t handle it in all honestly, how could I? I mean come on I’m trying, aren’t I? That’s all there was to it. They started to run around and that didn’t help me any better. Sounds of laughter made me ponder, what was I actually doing with my life I mean I had never gotten into any relationships, never was at any point popular in the slightest and my friend count has always consisted at around an average of one, and at most ever – two. I stared in amazement, how could you have so much fun by simply running around like that – it didn’t make sense.

“You just going to sit there and watch?”

Amber looked over at me and teased me to join in.

“Aren’t we a bit too old to be doing stuff like this though?”

She started at me puzzled, she squeezed her eyes and her face contracted.

“You can never be too old to have fun, right!? So come play with us while you still can.”

My dignity was at stake, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do entirely; I didn’t want to ruin it in any way by not participating, I mean after all she did go through the effort of inviting someone like me. Yet still I was mentally conflicted I was un-sure of what to do, or even – what to say. Just like that I spent my time thinking deeply, leaning against the wall watching the trees in the distance, all the greenery was relaxing and made me forget of my current situation. Just like that I spent my entire break pondering which finally amounted to nothing as the bells rang. I got my bag and walked off to my next lesson.

The rest of the day was an exact repeat of every other lesson so far, silence and peace. No interruptions at all. The only thing that really did happen was me getting a slice of pizza during lunch but that was all the excitement gone out of school for the next week. Before I knew it the final alarms were deafening me as I was half asleep with one eye shut.

I slowly ambled as if a hunched zombie and as if instinct towards the direction of my sweat, humble den, also known as my room.

“Are you okay?”

A high-pitched voice lingered and echoed in my head it repeated.

“Hellooo?”

That annoying voice sounded oddly familiar, but I couldn’t tell why. I looked around me only to my sudden realization – Amber was right next to me the whole time. I hadn’t even noticed; I was that tired. I couldn’t grasp exactly what she was saying to me, it was gibberish – trying to make sense of it tangled me further in confusion and I felt like every time I opened my eyes I teleported a few steps forward. I was un-consciously acting but I couldn’t do anything about it I felt as if I was in auto pilot. The last thing I fully remember was saying “bye” to Amber before entering my house then shortly falling right asleep in my uniform.