Just Like Any Other Day

After an exhausting day at school, John is eager for the final bell to ring. Eager to be "Saved by the Bell" from daily imprisonment and forced learning. Working from 7:20 till the end of the school day, the bell never fails to go off at a regulated interval to indicate the beginning or the end of classes. And today is no different than any other day, the bell went off at 2:11 p.m. Saving John once more.


Today, like any other day, John had everything packed and ready to go. Ready to crowd the already crowed hallway with him and his overfilled backpack. His friends always jokes about how they can feel the gravity from his backpack and feeling themselves being pulled towards it. And like always, he pushes through the crowd in hopes of getting his usual spot on the school bus before someone else does.


Once again, the bus is separated into two part. One consists of kids from the low middle class in the back and one consists of kids from the middle middle class in the front. John's usual seat is the 3rd one behind the driver, located on the left side of the bus. No one on the bus minds where they are seated, but that is how it usually turns out.


Likewise, John is early enough to claim the seat that is unofficially his. After the bus is almost full, Steven stumbles onto the bus and sits next to John relieving John of his biggest fear. John always hated to not have someone to talk to on the home-bound school bus. "I feel like a dumb ass," the way he puts it.


John and Steven don't have much in common except for the way they both think. They have known each other for 4 years now, their friendship developed from the simple "hey what's up" type of friends to a now deeper and more sincere "if you die, I'll try to be sad" type of friends. There are no limits to what they bring up in their conversation, it can be anything from "you are like a triangle" to "flying school buses".


***


After hours of nothing but homework, John feels a little down. And ironically the radio station is playing Mother's Little Helper, out of all songs. Frustrated by the amount of homework, John throws his homework at the wall, disturbing the normally neat room, and lies down on his bed in a desperate attempt to calm himself down. When he does that, it usually means that when the homework is handed back, it will be shredded into fine particles of dust or burned. But something is now flickering in John mind, something that happened on the bus earlier today.


"Is my watch made in China? I bet it is."
"Taiwan."
"How do you know?"
"It said so on the back, let me point it out to you."
"Where? I don't see it."
"There!"
"STOP IT YOU PIECE OF SHIT! Stop trying to spin the stupid compass on my watch!"
"Blah blah blah blah, blah."
"Are you straight?"
"Yea? Well, what kinda"
"Well, if you are, you wouldn't be spinning things around like you are right now."


John got up and start walking out of his room, humming his favorite song.