My Recycled Soul (A Sample)

I get out of bed, with the sun flooding into my room.

I rush over to the window and looking out, the skies are clear and the blue is so far above me, high up in the sky. This is going to be a beautiful day, I think elated.

It is indescribable how just this one little thing - a clear, sunny day - can lift a person's mood and soul. Somehow the clear blue sky makes my heart rejoice, my bones tingle. I suddenly have an excited expectation that life is great and there is a larger meaning to everything after all.

When I get to school, Jane is waiting for me at the gate, and I wonder why it took her so long to find me. She could have saved me from weeks of misery and smelly toilets, trying to hide from the cleaners.

I conveniently forget that I distanced myself from all human interaction, and I was the one who managed to avoid her on more than one occasion. Even if she did discover my lunch-break hiding place, she would have only found my body, not me. I did not want anybody to speak to me then. I did not want to be here, until that afternoon in my sanctuary when that warm bit of sun glowed over me.

While walking beside her down the pavement to the school building, she leans toward me, saying with a hint of conspiracy in her voice, "Aaron likes you."

I look at her quizzically. "Me? How could he, we only met yesterday?"

" Aaron, who sits in front of you in Science," she explains.

" I know which Aaron," I reply evasively.

" He has liked you since your arrival, looking at you with those puppy-dog eyes. I am surprised you never noticed."

" I never paid attention."

" Well, we all met at Siobhan's house during the mid-term break one day, and I have to admit, we did discuss you."

I look at her astounded. "Discussed me?"

Jane laughs embarrassed. "Don't worry, it was all nice things - honestly."

" I don't understand why you all met to discuss me?"

" We didn't meet to only discuss you." She giggles embarrassed. "But, to be honest, we have been discussing you on and off over the last few weeks." She looks at me, with a serious look on her face. "If I could have found you during breaks or had the guts to approach you during class, we wouldn't have been so intrigued by you." She continues hesitantly, "You always looked so distant and stuck-up, but then after the mid-term break you seemed different, more open and accepting, so I took my chance and spoke to you."