Whether she liked it or not, Liza had to get up and head to school. She washed her face, got dressed, and peeked into the kitchen where her mom was already bustling about.
“Good morning, sweetie!” her mom smiled at Liza, as if last night’s hurtful incident had never happened. “I’ll make you some tea right now! Want some oatmeal?”
“Sure, thanks,” Liza replied. She didn’t really like oatmeal, but that was probably for the best. It meant she wouldn’t eat much, and therefore, wouldn’t gain even more weight.
She absentmindedly stirred her spoon around the bowl, pretending to eat in front of her mom. When her mom stepped out of the kitchen for a moment, Liza quickly dumped the oatmeal into the trash can. She grabbed an apple from the table and slipped it into her bag.
After all, today she had seven classes, and she wasn’t going to buy any pastries or candy bars from the school cafeteria. Maybe just a bottle of water.
With five minutes left until the bus arrived, Liza said goodbye to her mom, threw on a denim jacket over her blouse, and rushed out of the house.
The weather in early October was still pretty warm, and if it weren’t for the first golden leaves on the trees, you might think summer was still lingering.
Liza passed by the fence of her old village school and glanced with a touch of nostalgia at the kids running around the yard. They had it so easy! No need to travel to some fancy high school, their teachers were familiar faces, and there weren’t many students in each class...
But the yellow school bus was already pulling up to the stop near the school. Liza was the only passenger from her village. The bus was still empty inside, smelling of antiseptic.
“Good morning!” she greeted the driver.
“Hey there, beautiful!” he grinned back. “Ready to hit the books?”
“Yeah,” she mumbled, taking a seat by the window and staring thoughtfully at the scenery flashing by outside.
Only one thought swirled in her head: it was Monday, and she had a whole five days of putting up with this school and her classmates ahead of her. Maybe she could fake being sick? Go to the school nurse and say her stomach hurt or she felt dizzy? But that might work at home—how would she even get back from the city? The bus wouldn’t come until after classes.
Or maybe she could skip school altogether? Hang out at the park or by the river? But then her homeroom teacher would call her mom, and Liza would be in big trouble. So, like it or not, she had to go to high school.
***
The first class of the day was English. Liza liked the subject, but at her new school, the teacher taught it differently, not the way she was used to. It wasn’t necessarily worse, but she found it hard to focus and complete tasks quickly. So, as soon as she entered the classroom, she hurried to her seat to review the new vocabulary one more time before the lesson started.
She was almost at her desk—second to last in the row by the window—when she tripped and nearly fell. Somehow, she managed to catch herself and stay on her feet.
“Watch where you’re going!” an annoyed voice called out from the opposite row.
Liza looked up and saw that the cause of her stumble was Roman—a boy who sat across the aisle from her. Whether by accident or on purpose (Liza suspected he’d done it intentionally), he’d stuck out his foot to trip her, and now he was grumbling about her clumsiness.
If something like this had happened in her old class, Liza would’ve had a sharp comeback ready, but here, she just silently sat down at her desk and buried her face in her textbook. The letters danced before her eyes like startled ants, and she felt like she might burst into tears any second.
But she couldn’t cry—she risked losing her contact lenses, and without them, she’d feel like a half-blind owl.
“Calm down,” she told herself, closing her eyes to hold back the unwanted tears. “It’s okay. A small part of this day is already over. Just seven more hours to get through, and then I can go home…”