The bus is a depressing sight at seven o'clock in the morning. It gets even sadder when you go in. Picture this: fifty some odd teenagers tired and crabby all on their way to a version of Hell. Sad, I know.

I took a seat toward the back and turned the volume in my earbuds up. Not many people actually talk on the bus in the morning. If they do talk they're either complaining about school or telling someone that they went to bed at three in the morning.

The music does a good job of drowning out my constant thoughts about last night. I gazed out the dirty widow and watched the sun come up. The beautiful blend of fiery colors brighten my morning a little bit more.

The sunrise would be more beautiful if I wasn't on my way to school.

My thoughts brightened just a bit more when I saw Winnie seated on a bench in front of several buses. I got off of that hunk of yellow metal in attempt to get to my friend.

"Hey, Mace! How's it going?"

"I think I'm okay. My head hurts a bit, but not nearly as much as last night."

"Did you have a migraine again?"

"Yeah—"

"Well you should've called me!" Winnie interrupted dramatically, flailing her arms around. "I would've picked up in a heartbeat."

"I'm sorry, Win. I didn't wanna wake you up."

"I'll let it slide Mace. Next time just tell me," Winnie replied with a gentler tone.

"I promise," I whispered while grinning.

Winnie soon draped her arm over my shoulder and led me into the hormone filled building. I took a step through the doorway and already felt exhausted.

Today is gonna be a long day.

Winnie and I parted ways to get to homeroom, a class we unfortunately didn't share. Since I have Ms. Lanski for homeroom and Winnie has Mrs. Warner, our lockers were on separate ends of the hall.

Hey George! What's the haps?

I plugged in the numbers eighteen, thirty-seven, and twelve. The lock jammed up and I grunted with frustration. I was futile against George's wishes to give me a bad day. He never got jammed or changed combinations on me. It's always funny to watch people struggle with their locker. However, I don't think it's funny when it happens to me instead. George was putting up a fight; and a good one at that.

I knew today was gonna stink!

***

My day seemed to be pretty average leading up to sixth period, English. After some coaxing, George finally opened up to me and we were on our way. I barely made it to homeroom on time, but everything turned out okay.

English is one of the few classes that I share with Winnie. That automatically makes English one of my favorite classes. Mrs. Warner is sweet and you can tell she's passionate about teaching literature to children. She's a great teacher, but Winnie and I can have an entire conversation in the back of the classroom and she won't notice. I love hearing about what she misses during homeroom from Win.

As usual, I go to a seat in the middle of the last row. That's how we can talk in class without her knowing. She doesn't care about the students in the back. Winnie was already there and gave me a bright smile. I slid into the seat next to her and returned her shining smile.

I turned to Winnie and decided to ask,"Is it just me or is today a bad day?"

"Today seems pretty normal to me," Winnie answered in a speculative tone.

"Well George was jammed this morning."

Winnie gave me a blank look. I could tell that she wasn't following.

"George never gets stuck. That has to mean something," I explained further.

"It just seems like an average day to me. George jamming is just a coincidence."

"When zombies descend during your bus ride home, don't come crawling back to me asking for brains."

"Who says I'm not already a zombie? I could just be throwing you off about the normal thing."

"But do you want to eat me?"

"Aha! Now to the important question," Winnie replied to build up suspense before saying,"Nah. You're not my blood type."

I chuckled as I turned to the white board. My hand moved fast to catch up with my other classmates who had been writing down notes for a while now. Eventually, I caught up to everyone and took some time to relax. I glanced in Winnie's direction and saw that she was still copying what was on the board. Winnie always wrote slower than me.

That's when I heard a disoriented voice. I couldn't tell where it was coming from or who it was coming from. I couldn't even make out what it was saying.

"Hey, Win. Did you say something?"

Winnie put a finger to my lips. I knew this meant that she was almost done her notes and wouldn't tolerate my questions until she was done. Her finger soon lowered and her ocean eyes met mine.

"Did you say something?" I repeated.

"No, I was just writing down notes."

"Who did I hear then?"

"Probably Chris and Sean. They never shut up," Winnie pointed to the desks to the left of me.

Winnie had a point there. The annoying boys to the left of me were always talking each other's ears off about something—mostly girls or sports.

When I peered in their direction, I heard their distinct voices. Each was dropping and cracking because they weren't done puberty yet. I could tell almost immediately that those weren't the whispers that reached out to me.

Not wanting to sound like a lunatic, I replied with,"Yeah, I guess."

The distinct whisper came back to me. I tried to focus on what it was trying to articulate to me. The voice was airy and light, but very focused on what was being said. It sounded almost like a teacher—an adult for sure. Forgetting about the lesson Mrs. Warner was trying to teach, I shut my eyes and focused on the distant voice. Trying to determine what it was saying was like reaching for the clouds, nearly impossible. After putting all my attention on the garbled mess that is the voice, I started to understand blips of phrases and sentence fragments.

....just wish....would stop talking...pay attention...for one second...hard to listen to...don't get paid enough....

I reopened my eyes and tried to comprehend what I just heard. I was immediately met with the bright lights of the English classroom. My temples felt immense pressure and I knew another headache was in store. This headache felt different than the others. I felt the pain not just in my head but everywhere. My body felt like it was on fire. I could hear the pounding of my heart in my chest and I began to sweat profusely. Holding back my screams, I gripped my pencil with force. My vision started to disappear and the classroom went blurry despite my perfect vision. I could only see blurbs of color and shapes and outlines. My body was drained of energy and I was feeling faint and dizzy.

In my last attempt at relief, I turned to Winnie. I could hardly make out her face and tried to look near where, I believed, her eyes were. She was facing me, but I had no idea what facial expression she wore. My head felt heavier and heavier on my shoulders. I mouthed "help" to Winnie but didn't think that it would do anything.

"Are you okay?"

My brain went fuzzy and my hearing gave out after that. Only a faint ringing could be heard.

My head hurts too much...

I couldn't hold up my head any longer and my eyelids dropped. Soon enough I was met with the cold tile of Mrs. Warner's classroom floor. My body made a thump as I fell. I could only imagine the looks I was getting from my peers.

The dark consumed my being and I lost consciousness.

***

I slowly but surely opened my sensitive eyes. I pushed on my forearms until I sat up and I looked around the room.

I awoke on a bed in the nurse's office. The room was small, but very organized. Medicines and band-aids were neatly lined up on a countertop across the room. My eyes darted to the corner of the room where the nurse's desk was. Her chestnut eyes were locked on the computer monitor in front of her. She slightly turned her head to find that I was awake.

"How are you feeling sweetheart?" She cooed while making her way over to the bed I was on.

I began to think about her question. My head was still groggy but the migraine went away.

"Better," I managed to choke out.

"I called your dad but he can't come get you,"

No surprise there.

"Instead you'll go home on the bus. Do you feel up to that honey?" I nodded my head and she continued,"You sure took a spell! I'm gonna get you some water while you lay back and rest."

She seemed kind and gentle, the woman my mom was not. She seemed like what a mother should be—what my mom should've been. I felt so bad because I couldn't for the life of me remember her name. I never needed to go to the nurse's office before so I never bothered to learn her name. I seem pretty stupid now.

I looked at the clock above the door. There was only twenty minutes left in the school day; That's one good thing that came out of today.

The nurse quickly came back with my water. The short, middle aged woman smiled a genuine smile and went back to her office work.

I sipped from the small paper cup until the bell rung. I jumped off of the bed and walked by the kind lady's desk.

"Have a good day sweetie. I hope you feel better."

"Thank you! Have a goodnight," I replied as quickly as possible, eager to get out of the cough syrup smelling room.

After making a pit stop at George, I was on my way to bus 137. Leaving out the front doors, I saw Winnie waiting for me. She immediately crushed me in a warm hug.

"Are you okay?" She spoke into my neck.

"I feel a lot better now."

"Good. Now tell me what happened!" Winnie demanded after breaking up our embrace.

"I got another migraine, but this one was way worse than the others. It wasn't just my head that hurt; it was my whole body. I kept hearing this voice—crazy, I know. Then, the next thing I knew I was on the ground."

"Oh my God! Are you a schizophrenic?"

"I don't know! What happened after I fell, Win?" I cautiously asked, afraid of the answer.

"It was insane! Everyone stopped talking and looked back at you, even Chris and Sean. Mrs. Warner almost had a mental breakdown. You should've heard her freaking out! Anyway, she eventually called the nurse and you went to her office. Everyone was a bit shaken up after that and now the exam is pushed back to Tuesday."

"Wow," I uttered, stunned.

"I gotta go. Take it easy, Mace!"

And in the blink of an eye, Winnie was gone. I straightened up and headed over to my bus.

What the hell was that voice and why did I pass out?