Trauma

Four.

     Morning came quickly, and I woke up at sunrise. I got up and watched the pink and gold painted sky turn into a light blue, and the sun rise above the houses. I repeated the same thing I do every day and get to school. I got there a bit later than usual, because of traffic. When I walked up to the gates, I saw a figure standing there. Who's that? Nobody else normally comes here when I'm here. Then, my thoughts strayed to what I was planning to do today. I'm going to tell her. Yeah, I mean, we tell each other everything, right? And she wouldn't be disgusted by me, or de-friend me. Not like the others when they found out. Because she's different. I came out of my thoughts as I came up to the gates. The figure turned around, revealing that it was Ember. Oh, should I tell her now? No, it would be better later. Should I even tell her at all? Yes, yes I should. She's not like the others. While I was at war with myself, I didn't notice that I was pacing in front of the entrance to school. "Dan!"

I snapped out of it, and looked at Ember. "Yes?" She looked as if she was going to start strangling me.

"I have been calling your name ten times!" She said, exasperated.

"Oh." She rolled her eyes at me and I hoped that she didn't sense my inner turmoil. But she's Ember and my luck is horrible.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Concern filled her eyes as she grabbed my shoulder to turn me so that I was facing her.

This is the perfect time to tell her, I thought but instead I just said, "Nothing." I shifted my eyes so that I wasn't looking into hers, and she released me.

"Okay." She didn't look convinced. Together, we put our backpacks down and leaned on the fence, the fence creaking as we did. We watched the clouds pass by and the trees sway. I checked my watch, a habit I never dropped. 7:50. We stayed like that for a bit longer, then I broke the serenity.

"Why are you here so early anyways?" She turned to face me.

"My mom's shift changed so now I'm going to get here earlier." I nodded my head. That's nice. Now I'm not going to be alone in the mornings. Hey, I can even introduce her to Bob. Again, I stole a glance at my watch. 7:58. I showed her the time.

"The school opens at eight. Let's go." We got into a standing position, put our backpacks on, and walked in front of the gates. "The janitor Bob normally opens the gates and lets us in. You'll probably like him. He's like Bob the titan from the HOO series." She nodded. "I'll introduce you to him if you want." Again, she nodded. Not a minute later, I saw Bob walking down the steps and pointed him out to Ember.

"Wow, so far, he actually looks like him." He reached the gates, pulled out his keys, and unlocked the gates. I waved at him.

"Hello, Daniel. Who is this?"

"This," I gestured at Ember, "is Ember. My friend." Bob's eyes brightened at the word 'friend'. I looked to the side and saw Ember saluting him.

"Hello, sir." Bob laughed.

"Hello, Ember. Call me Bob." She gave a quick nod then turned to me.

"You're right," she whispered. "He is like him."

"Like who?" he asked, his head tilted a bit. Ember mouthed at me, 'Even more so.' I nodded and smiled at her. She smiled back and Bob outright grinned at us. "It was nice to meet you. I have to go clean now. Goodbye." He walked away and Ember yelled bye after him.

We walked to the steps and sat down. Now's the perfect time to tell her. No, not yet. If not now, when? Later. Later. I shook my head, and Ember looked at me in concern. I waved her off, but the look never left her face. We took out our books and began to read. Later on, I looked up and was surprised. Students walked around, talking to each other. I stole a look at my watch. 8:20. I nudged Ember. She looked up and at me pointedly, then noticed all the people around.

"Oh, what time is it? I didn't realize we were here so long." Me neither, I thought.

"8:20." She nodded and we put our books away. The talking of things going on in our lives commenced. I learned that Ember's dad works in Daly City, but her mom works here in San Francisco. Her mother usually works at nine, but it changed to eight so now Ember gets to school early. Ember knows that my mom died, but not how she died. She also knows the secret that my father is an actor but promised to keep it a secret. It soon reached 8:30 and we gathered our things and went up to class.

 We basically shared the same schedule, except for a few classes. Those were Language, Math, and Social Studies. While I go to Greek and Italian, Ember goes to Spanish and French. Also, our Math and Social Studies are switched. But besides that, we had identical schedules. That means that we could rant and complain about the same teacher and the other would understand. That happens when we're at the library, we rant there. Not all of the time, but most times.

The school day passed quickly and time soon found us outside, eating lunch. The bullies haven't messed with me much since the first day Ember sat and ate lunch with me. It was funny, seeing the people who tormented me for so long, getting a taste of their own medicine. So, we were peacefully eating lunch while talking.

Again, now's the perfect time to tell her. She was animatedly talking about One Punch Man, an anime I have not been able to watch since it either shows at 9pm and 12am on Saturday. I am either reading or sleeping at that time, and I'm not allowed out of my room by 8:45. Sooo.. That's that. "Saitama is so awesome! He is the strongest man on earth, and he's bald. He has a disciple who's a cyborg named Genos. He's cool." I nodded along, half listening. The show sounded cool, but my thoughts warring against each other was distracting. I knew she could tell that something was on my mind, but she didn't do anything yet and I was thankful for that. Tell her, tell her. No, don't she won't care. All the more reason to do it then. The other side of my thoughts fell silent. I had come to an agreement. I've got to tell her.

"Hey Em, I gotta tell you something."