The sky was the brightest blue I'd seen for a long time, the light bounced off everything. It shined back at me from the smashed bottle lying on the path, from the loud cars driving ahead of me. Every one was rushed. It was 8 o'clock in the morning and people already were rushed. It was 8 o'clock in the morning and I already had tears in my eyes.I didn't want to keep walking, but my 'do what you're told' mind stopped me from turning around. My fear stopped me from stepping onto the road and into the dark. The path welcomed me like it does each morning, the driveway stared at me and the door whispered back at me "there's no turning back"

  She smiled at me, I stretched my mouth into the shape of a smile and hoped it was convincing. My eyes still felt cold and wet. I could feel the paths of the tears drying on my cheeks. They didn't notice any of this. Why would they?

  We walked back over the staring driveway and up the hill to the path. I smiled at her jokes, but I knew where we were going. We were going to the little blue pole like we do everyday. We were going to wait under the tree until the bus stopped in front of us. Then that bus would take us to school and we'd all wish that we had never waited beside that little blue pole.

  I could feel the salty tears coming to my eyes, but I couldn't let them free. I wanted to run as far as I could, but apparently running from your problems only makes them worse. I'd be solving a lot of problems if I did run, but my fear stops me every time. 

  I told her that I'd spent an hour and a half visiting gran in hospital. She didn't ask how gran was, she didn't ask how I was, she just started telling me about her afternoon. Why does she always do that? She doesn't listen, she just interrupts and makes it about her. Always. She asked me if I was ok today, she didn't care if I answered though. She just made it about her. My bad mood then turned into her bad mood and she made sure everyone knew. She asked me if I was tired and I said yes, so that was automatically the reason I was crappy. She wasn't ready to listen and I wasn't ready to talk. So she talked and I thought about overdosing on the panadol that wasn't getting rid of my head ache.