It was 8:46 A.M., and she was rushing to school. The walk to the bus stop took five minutes, seven if she was slow, three if she ran. Another twenty minutes to reach her stop, if traffic was good. Even if she had the heavens in her favor, she would still be late for school.
As the bus’ doors closed behind her, sealing her in with what seemed like a hundred other people, she checked her watch. 8:50. Please, let the bus ride be smooth. Please don’t let there be some accident today, out of all the 365 days in a year.
However, as the girl tried to catch her breath, other thoughts swam around in her head. What if she just skipped school for today? She could just call the school, fake sick, and go somewhere, hopefully without her mother finding out. Ever since the term started, she hadn’t taken a single day off, so why not?
She shook her head. What a ludicrous thought.
As the bus’ doors closed behind her, she checked her watch. 9:13. She decided to take her time walking to school. She was already late anyways; why not just miss first period altogether? Plugging in her headphones and looking at the little shops on the street, she slowly made her way to school, making sure to avoid areas lighted by the sun, for fear that some teacher would see her dawdling around.
Meticulously and daintily, as if doing embroidery, the girl made her away around town. She took roundabout ways and stopped to look at every flower. She stopped to talk to every toddler on the street. When she reached the street in front of her school, she checked her watch. 9:30. Alas, it seemed as if she couldn’t avoid first period.
As she waited for the red light to turn red, the girl noticed someone running out towards the charging cars. She tried to cry out for the girl to stop, but her voice was lodged in her throat. By the time a large truck passed, clearing her line of vision, a girl – wearing a backpack ¬– was sprawled across the road. Her limbs were splayed at impossible angles, but her eyes were still open, staring into the schoolgirl’s soul. ‘Why didn’t you tell me to stop?’ it seemed to be asking. It was mocking her. The schoolgirl glanced around. No one else seemed to be affected by the large pool of blood and a corpse in the middle of the road. Quickly dialing the police and ambulance, the girl ran over to where the corpse was. Maybe she was still alive. As she leaned down to see if there was a pulse, the sound of a horn blared. Her head whipped up to see a truck coming at her.
Her limbs were splayed at impossible angles. Her eyes were still wide open in fright. Her watch read 9:32 when her body was hauled onto a stretcher.