Walk to School:

I walked out the front door off to school. Just as I thought, Momma and Daddy started fighting again. Lucky for me, I manage to get away just in time. The long walks to school help me calm down some. Each step helps me to forget about the yelling that always rings in my ears. It gets better when I am farther away from them. I pushed myself to keep walking along the long dirt path to the road. My tiny feet always leave a trailing coming and going from Firefly House. I like to count the steps it takes me until I am completely away from my parents screaming. I decided to do that now. One… two… three…four… five… I begin to walk faster. My breath gets heavier and heavier. The more I count, the faster I go. Soon, I am almost running.

I look up ahead of me. I see our mailbox just up the road. I become overjoyed. I’m almost free again. I stop counting and begin running now. In a few seconds, I make it to the mailbox. I lean against it panting. I looked behind me. Firefly House can still be seen from our mailbox, but I can’t hear the shouting anymore. I felt myself smile for the first time today. I got away just in time. I continued on my way to school.

I walked through a small and tangled wooded path in the woods. This was a tricky path to navigate. There at many hanging branches, brush, fallen trees, and false paths that could throw you off. It took me a while to learn the little tricks in this forest maze. Even then, I still manage to get lost. Though given how Momma and Daddy are at my house, that’s not really a bad thing. Usually when they fight badly, I run to the forest for safety. I just love to get lost among the trees. I don’t need today though. Today is the first day of school. This is my last year of elementary school. I am in the sixth grade this year. I need school to get over the fight I accidently caused my parents to have this morning. I grimaced as I thought about this morning again. Do they always have to yell at each other every morning?

I shook my head quickly. No, I can’t think about them now. I need to get to school. Right, to school I go. In order to do that, I need to get out of the forest. That’s going to take all of my concentration. I began my walk out of the maze. My battle goes like this: step over the brush carefully, push aside the branches, walk through more brush, crawl over the fallen logs and trees, and keep on the small dirt path in the center. I had no trouble following those instructions. I have walked through this maze so many times that I can do it if I was sleepwalking. I still have one problem, however. My clothes are always a mess when I crawl over the fallen logs and trees. I’m still trying to work that one out.

I came out to the road. I looked around for a bit. No cars were coming so far. I stepped out onto the road and walked alongside of it. I held my little red backpack to my back. I’ve had that thing since kindergarten. Daddy bought it for me when things were quieter then. I still couldn’t figure out what went wrong between my parents. I pushed them out of my head and walked down the road.

I met up with my friend, Ashleen Roberts, near the entry into town. She looked up and gave me an uncertain wave. I hurried over to her. Ashleen and I were sort of friends. We had known each other since we were four years old. I kept her around, because she was the only person my age that I felt like I could ever talk to at all. At first glance, we looked just alike. However in reality, we didn’t have much in common. Ashleen and I were complete opposites of each other. She was more social than I was and made friends more easier while I just hid in the background. Many boys liked her as well. She lived a different life than I did. Her parents lived all the way in Nebraska. So, she lived with her grandmother. Her grandmother was a strict woman, but she really did care. I wish my parents would put in more effort like Ashleen’s grandmother did. Maybe my life would be much better. But, I have Ashleen to talk to for now.

“Hey!” I said happily. Ashleen took one look at me up and down.

“Faye, you have leaves all over your dress!” she pointed out.

‘Huh?” I asked as I looked down at myself. My sometimes friend was right. I still had some wet leaves clinging to my deep green and blue plaid skirt. Drat! I thought I had gotten them all off of me before I got out of the forest. I quickly brushed them off of me. Only a small sum of them fell to the ground.

“Here,” Ashleen told me. She helped me brush the leaves off of my clothes. Once I was all cleaned up, my sometimes friend gave me a little smile.

“There,” she told me. “You look much better now.” I began to smile a little bit again.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Are you ready to good?” Ashleen asked. I perked up right away.

“Yes, I am!” I said all too eagerly. My sometimes friend raised an eyebrow at me.

“That bad this morning?” she asked.

“Yes!” I replied before she could finish the question. Ashleen closed her mouth for a tight second.

“Want to talk about?” she offered.

“Later!” I cut her off right away. “Let’s just get to school.” Ashleen slowly drew back.

“Okay then…” she said. “We’ll just go.”

“Thank you,” I said as I bowed my head. Ashleen and I did talk and headed off to school. We remained silent for the whole trip. This is another reason why Ashleen is sometimes my friend. She doesn’t try to pry into my life at all. She knows my limits and doesn’t try to step over them to get the truth out of me. Trust me, it’s much better that way.