A blue bus leisurely followed the fiddly town roads in its pass. A blue glow of the driver's magic illuminated the front in contrast to the dim weather outside. Even for autumn, the season school started, the day was drab.
The hum of the engine and the clanging of the rickety seats created a horrendous noise, though, Silence ignored it completely by using her ability. But in contrast to her usual poker-face, her eyebrows today made an arrow pointing to her nose, and her breaths turned to deeper puffs with every passing second.
This was because, after a series of unlucky coincidences, it was her that had to waste some of her precious weekend to shop, not her maid who usually did it. And, although some would relish in such a predicament, Silence abhorred it in every fathomable way.
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The bus threw its passenger's slightly backward as it reached a halt. Two parallel rows of tall building spread to the horizon as people casually got off. With the exception of Silence, who in a daze, let her rage out with every movement she made.
'Whilst I could be playing games right now, I have to do this instead! I mean, training is one thing, but how the hell does an entire pack of new pens all run out over the span of two days!? Stupid essay...' her memories coinciding with her evermore violent stomping as she reached the shopping district.
There, she saw a joyous crowd of children overlap with the despair-ridden adults being pulled around by former in countless directions simultaneously. Pavements fifty meters wide were littered by the overwhelming weekend rush, as the obnoxiously bright stores were all swamped with younger adults who were on their own break. The crowds made her frustration grow because even if silenced, they still made a massive block in her path.
The sheer scale of the crowds was made apparent just by looking at the restaurants that were dotted around. Queues from inside them spread way out into the streets, some managed to completely block off neighboring shops with people waiting to get in. Also engulfed by the large mobs were the cafes, the sports shops and, unfortunately for Silence, the stationary shop.
Yes, 'shop'. Her school was in the middle of a countryside, with the only stationary shop in the nearest fifty miles being in a small town twenty miles away. Without prior knowledge of the area and an hour bus ride to get to the town, it took Silence a further hour just to find it with a map. Her lack of orientation talent and growing impatience obviously didn't help her already aggressive mood.
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It turned out to be a small, bland shop on the corner of a street, with a queue that just escaped it's four walls. Getting gradually further into it, she looked around the dull stands and grabbed out a packet of pens at random. Realizing she had maths next week instead of science, she also added a calculator before joining yet another queue in order to actually buy them.
This queue was thankfully shorter, so Silence got to the front in a matter of seconds compared to the full hour she wasted in the previous one.
The till was the usual, a person standing on the other side of a counter, barely glimpsing at all the items she had before giving her the exact price. She sighed as she paid the outrageous cost and darted through numerous groups as she exited.
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Her watch beeped as her alarm went off, indicating she had to rush to the bus stop immediately. Getting her orientation correct, she dashed off with all the might of her flimsy legs. Catching it just in time, she caught her breath as she paid a pittance to board the bus, sat down and watch the town shrink into the distance.
The music booming from the stereo in her pocket had subsided Silence's initial rage, and she was too tired to reignite such bothersome issues. So she slumped in her chair and relaxed on the long way home.
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Three stops later and Silence was home. She entered the dorm calmly but broke into a sprint when no one was around. Speeding down the corridors with barely any balance remaining. Her growing fatigue tried it's best to deny it, and when steps were finally brought into the equation she faltered.
"... Um... I... Can do this? Maybe? Argh!" she told herself, making a last ditch effort to make it to her room before crashing.
Making it to the first floor, the ecstasy from her exercise was in full effect by dismissing the fatigue. But by the second this had shifted completely. Dragging her blistering feet up individual steps, she grit her teeth as she forced herself to continue.
Eventually made it to her desired floor, Silence practically tumbled to her room.
She entered her room but got three steps in before her legs collapsed beneath her. Her consciousness followed soon after.
-
Hundreds of texts and missed phone calls instigated pings and rings that constantly bombarded the sleeping girl until it finally woke her. She groggily picked it up, almost going asleep before answering the call.
"Mel? How can you do this to you dear sister twice in a row!? I'm getting worried..." Helen cried.
Silence, still in her own world, replied very slowly as she tried to kick-start her suddenly awoken mind, "Uh... I just went shopping and..."
Her sister, clearly annoyed, cut her off, "And!? Couldn't you have done that tomorrow. or do you really not like talking with me?"
Silence, unable to counter her sister's logic, woke up enough to kick herself for being so stupid.
The wait also seemed to annoy Helen as she aggressively prompted a response, "Well!? Are you still awake, or what?"
Yelling at herself for her idiocy, she meekly reasoned herself with, "I-I'm sorry... All my pens ran out and I spent all day trying to get more. The closest shop was about an hour away, so yeah... I'm not trying to ignore you, I just had training, then this so became very tired."
"Couldn't you have just borrowed some off a classmate? Wait... training for what?" Helen changed her scolding tone to enthusiastically ask.