The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round. Round and round...


-:-

Zara leaned slouchily against the bus seat, her cheek pressed up against the window. She strained to remember what happened the day before—she had blacked after her morning shower and everything that happened after that was a blank page. Her memory was filled with holes, places filled with nothing but darkness. Everything surrounding those holes was mundane; it mostly consisted of her going to school and doing homework.

Sometimes, she felt like she had been absent for days, for weeks even, only to wake up with new scars, new questions. Zara didn't try asking her friends for information—they never spoke of anything unusual when she was present, and she was too afraid to come across as crazy. It was like she was living two separate lives: this one, where everything was ordinary and in a shade of grey, and another one, darker and unbeknownst to her. She felt herself fading away—the stretches of time between her wakings was slowly expanding, while the time she spent conscious was shortening.

A shrill cry jerked her out of her thoughts, and Zara remembered that she was amidst the chaos.

She absolutely detested riding the bus to school. There wasn't a day when the vehicle didn't resemble a zoo on wheels and, in fact, it was in times like these that Zara questioned the validity of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Most of the teenagers surrounding her appeared to have forgotten the transition stage from pre-human, their behaviour, therefore, mimicking a rabid ape's.

Scratch that, an ape had better etiquette than these morons.

Her head thumped with a pain that was just shy of excruciating while every muscle in her body ached. If she had an iPod, then, at least, she could temporarily forget their existence, like Aurora, was with her death metal blasting into her ears.

Alas, a girl can dream.

"Gawdon Bennet! If yew don't qui' makin' noise back there, I'm gon'a stop da bus right now an' yew lot can all walk da next ten miles ter school! OK?" the driver roared, his British accent massacring the words— making his rage appear comical rather than intimidating. A few people, particularly those sitting at the front, fell silent.The noise coming from the last three rows, however, grew impossibly louder.

Zara let out a frustrated breath, closing her eyes as she sunk deeper into her seat.

Please make this torture end.

She felt a soft nudge against her rib, but ignored it, tuning out the pandemonium to focus on her thoughts.

Another nudge, a little more forceful this time. Zara slowly opened her eyes and fractionally turned her head towards the nuisance, poison dripping from her gaze.

Aurora's eyeliner-rimmed eyes stared back while pink lips moved in synchronisation with the gibberish that was spewing out of her mouth. "—Are you even listening to me? Hello, Earth to Zara!" Aurora nagged, grabbing her friend with both hands and shaking her. Zara shoved her away, her hand then flying up to her face to reposition the glasses that were now hanging loosely onto the top of her nose.

"Yes Aurora, yes! What is it? I'm listening!" she spat, adjusting her no-shoulder white top.

It was the single most revealing piece of clothing she owned, and that day she had dared to wear it. Zara usually wore a sweater over shirts anyway, but the heat in the bus was stifling, and after battling against it for twenty minutes she just had to peel off her layers.

Aurora pulled a compact mirror out of her black Gucci bag and flipped it open, passing a hand through her hair and pouting. "You obviously weren't, since I had to call your name like, a million times." She wrapped her earphones around her rhinestone-studded iPhone and slipped it into her bag along with the mirror, zipping the entirety closed and placing it at her feet.

Zara just watched the entire charade with an eyebrow raised, marvelled as to why Aurora had blessed her with her friendship. The girl could be so vainglorious sometimes, it was a wonder she hadn't drowned in her reflection like the infamous Narcissus. "As I was saying," Aurora began, a pearly smile decorating her face as she turned towards Zara, "I have some gossip for you, girl! I wanted to tell you yesterday, but you ditched me! Where the hell were you?"

"I wasn't feeling too well... massive headache," Zara attempted. Did Aurora know about her condition? Probably not, she decided, watching Aurora nod at her like a bobble head.

"Well, anyway," Aurora continued, "Mrs Boxer was so pissed in Math yesterday—"

"That's not what you had to tell me. Just get on with it."

"Don't interrupt me! But yeah, guess what?"

Zara just leant forwards in response. But when Aurora kept smiling like an idiot, she sighed and tilted her head to one side, defeated, "What?"

"Chase and Barbara are back together! Isn't that crazy? I knew what they were going through was just a phase!" Aurora clapped her hands together, a lovestruck look on her face.

"Really? That's all you had to tell me? You spammed my phone all day, just for this. As if I cared!" Zara swivelled her body so that she could look out the window again.

There really was no end to her friend's shallowness.

"Yep!" Aurora exclaimed in her sing-song voice. When Zara didn't reply, Aurora fell silent, fiddling with the sleeve of her leather jacket. "Okay, I'm sorry. That's not what I wanted to talk about—"

"What do you want to talk about, Aurora? The cute pair of Louboutin spiked heels you wanted, but couldn't afford because your parents won't add more money to your credit card?" Zara snapped, without turning around. She bit her lip, sounding harsher than expected, but was too caught up in her own frustration to give a damn about her friend's first world problems.

Aurora couldn't add a thousand dollar pair of heels to her overflowing shoe collection. Big. Fucking. Deal.

"No, it's not about that," Aurora said, in a voice that was small even by her own standards. Zara inhaled through her nostrils and turned around, judgemental eyes landing on her friend.

"Then, what is it?"

Aurora's long eyelashes fluttered and she looked away, sniffling.

Zara, bit her lip, chastising herself for being so hard on her friend. She was on the verge of tears from something that was deeply concerning for her, considering that Aurora was the last person who would ever get emotional.

I shouldn't have been such a bitch to her. It could be serious...

She placed a hand on Aurora's shoulder and rubbed it comfortingly, "What is it?" Zara asked again, more delicately this time. She felt a strange connection to this girl as if she had known her since forever; wait, she had, Zara just couldn't remember most of it.

"It's... it's my parents."

Danger zone.

"What about them?" Zara probed, using the tone of voice a mother would use with a small child.

"They....they....I don't know where to start—Everything is just so confusing for me right now, I—"

Suddenly, a cap sailed across the bus, hitting Zara against the side of her head before falling onto their seat.

She yelped in response, her mouth opening and closing as she strove to come to terms with what had just happened. Zara rubbed the back of her head.

What just happened?

"Oh my God! Zara, are you okay? What the hell was that!" Aurora's previously grief-stricken face contorted into one of concern. Her hands flew up and down in an attempt to be of any help. Zara just swatted her away, bringing her hand in front of her face to check for blood.

"I'm fine, Aurora, I'm fine. Don't worry about it. Goddamn, it hurts! What did they throw, a rock?" Zara's eyes darted about as she searched for the cause of her discomfort. They landed on something besides her.

A varsity baseball cap.

It could've belonged to anyone, but it just had to be from one of the idiots on the varsity team. Why God, why?

Zara was about to throw it back at them when Aurora's hand wrapped around her forearm, a look of determination on her face.

"No, don't just give it back to them!" She grabbed it from Zara, then tossed her hair over her shoulder, kneeling in her seat and twisting her body to face the back. A few people threw curious looks in her direction, but Aurora, being the glamorous queen she was, ignored them, instead dipping her head to whisper in Zara's ear, "Watch this."

"Aurora please, you don't have to do this—"

"Which one of you boys threw this cap?" Aurora announced, her head fearlessly held high. Zara wished the floor would just open up beneath the seat and swallow her whole. "Are you guys deaf? Who does this belong to? It has a number ten on it."

Zara heard some snickering, then muttering.

This can't be good.

"That would be mine," a low voice said.

Zara, overtaken by curiosity, decided to take a peek at its owner, looking above her seat.

The school's star pitcher, Robert—Bob— Waters, rose from his seat at the back of the bus, stretching out to his 6'3 height. He scanned Aurora's body with his grey eyes, and after smirking in approval, he strode confidently up to her, stopping until he was just a few inches away. "I'll take that back now." He brought his hand out with the palm up, expecting Aurora to oblige immediately.

"Did you know that your cap hit my friend over here?"

"So?" he retorted, without giving Zara a second glance.

"Tell her you're sorry, Bob," Aurora said firmly, defiantly crossing her arms over her chest. Robert turned towards his friends with an is-this-bitch-for-real laugh, and then the rest of the bus laughed along, more out of fear than from actual amusement.

"Listen, babe. I'm not going to apologise to anyone, especially not to that loser."

Zara's cheeks flared with shame, and she inched closer to the window, wishing she could just jump out and get run over.

"Why should I?" he continued, leaning in to shove Zara against the wall with a hand, "Look at her, she's pathetic!"

"Apologise right now, Waters or this cap is going out the window!" Aurora warned.

She was about to make her way towards a window when the driver braked suddenly, concentrating on the traffic. He sent Aurora tumbling onto the floor, her arms flailing in front of her, and the cap flying to the ground.

The whole bus broke into a chorus of laughter.

When Bob recovered, he asked, "What happened Aurora?" He then bent over to pick up his cap, brushing it off before fitting it over his head, his mouth set in a thin line, "You used to be so cool. Now you're just a washed-up bitch who still thinks she gets to boss people around."

He laughed again as he returned to his seat, bro-fisting his friends and hooting.

Zara scrambled to help her friend, who ashamedly returned to her seat. Aurora wore a mixture of resentment and compunction on her face, and she ripped her hand away from Zara's after she had recomposed herself.

It was as if a glass dome had lowered itself over the two girls, shielding them from the judgemental scoffing and jeering of the world around them. Zara observed Aurora in silence, unsure of a way to express gratitude for her friend's dauntlessness. There was something unusual yet familiar about Aurora's behaviour—she sat with her shoulders partially slumped forwards, her ebony hair tumbling over a shoulder into a curtain, hiding her emotions.

A silent tear rolled down Aurora's cheek, and she briskly wiped it away, hoping that the gesture would have passed unnoticed. But it didn't. Something inside Zara snapped.

All emotion suddenly drained away from her, leaving behind a blank expression on her face. For the entirety of a minute, her blue eyes stared impassively at the back of the seat before her—she sat with her back ruler-straight while her hands gripped the sides of her chair.

Inside, a battle raged.

You're not allowed to be here. That voice again.

What are you doing to me? Who are you?

You don't belong here, there is no place for someone like you. Stop fighting me.

Zara robotically stood up and pulled her glasses off. "Hold these," she instructed to Aurora, dropping them in her lap.

Stop it! What do you think you're doing?

Zara slipped past Aurora without a second glance and stomped towards the back of the bus, the comments from the other students inaudible to her.

You don't know Aurora like I do.

When she reached Robert's spot in the third-last row, she reached out, grabbed his shirt and dragged him towards her.

Her hand curled into a fist—and she punched him in the face.

A cryptic silence ensued.

I won't let you control me like this. Get. Out!

Zara took a strangled breath, and her blurry gaze landed on Robert.

Look what you made me do! Zara screamed in her mind, but there was no response. She had vanished.

Robert's hand trembled as he brought it up to the side of his face, hesitant to touch the bruising around his eye which seemed to worsen exponentially with every passing second.

Zara paled.

"Are you for fucking real?" The guy sitting next to him spat. He made a move to lunge at her, but Robert pushed him back down into his seat with his forearm, his head swivelling towards her with the most hate- filled glare he could muster.

"You just gave me a black-eye," Robert said slowly, as if he was just coming to terms with what had happened, "I'm going to kill you, you fucking bitch."

He jumped up and tried to swipe at her, but she instinctively moved out of the way. He stumbled into another row of seats, like a giraffe on rollerblades.

Everyone cheered—the circus was in town.

Zara took a few steps backwards, throwing Aurora a pleading glance. It was the voice! Zara wanted to say, I didn't want to do it, the voice made me!

Aurora seemed just as shocked as Zara.

Robert was about to charge at her again, but the driver's booming voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Blimey! What's goin' on back there?!"

Robert recomposed himself, returning to his seat while he kept his good eye on Zara. "Nothing, sir! Everything's under control."

He mouthed, You're dead.

Zara shuddered, then she scuttled back into her seat to snatch her glasses from Aurora's hands. She put them back on, her vision crystal clear once again.

The bus erupted with exuberance as everyone began to clap, and a few wolf-whistles were tossed at Zara, along with "Good job!" and "You showed him!"

"Oh my God Zara—" Aurora blinked several times and then smiled, "That was amazing!" Aurora then did something Zara had deemed impossible.

She wrapped her arms around Zara and whispered, "Thank-you."

As Zara slowly returned the embrace, the voice crawled back into her head.

This is just the beginning, Zara. 

-:-