On Ancient Ground

Just a girl in the world

Anna woke up to the sound of her iPhone alarm at 8 am sharp. She didn't need long to get up in the morning for school. She valued her sleep too much to waste time on makeup and other things. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Patted her cat named Hobbie and then set off to start a new day of hell.

Every day was fairly the same for her. Get up at 8 am, brush teeth, feed pets, shower, try to pull a brush through her long red matted hair, put on whatever clothes were clean, and then grab a granola bar on her way out the door. Her school bag was heavy because she was always doing extra school work and when she got to the bus stop her best friend Dawna would be sitting there waiting.

"Hey!" Dawna said happily. She was a morning person. She was likely up since 6 am, already figured out how to cure cancer, and put together a matching outfit with her specially built app. She held out a smoothy like she did every morning. She made those too.

Anna smiled a sleepy smile and took the smoothy. She would drink it. Even though it tasted like a pop tart blew up in her mouth. Did I mention she hated pop tarts? "Thanks" She said as they got on the bus straight away when it pulled up.

"Are you going to the job fair today?" Dawna asked, full of pep. Anna just shrugged. At 16 she didn't even want to wake up somedays let alone go to a job fair.

"There are going to be a lot of people there. You know I don't like crowds" Anna took a sip of the smoothy and then looked out the window at the shiny happy people in their city. Everyone was so happy in the morning. It made her feel off. She liked evenings and nights, she liked to do her homework and read her books. Simple.

"Yeah, but it will be worth going. We have to think of our futures." Dawna said quickly while flipping through a job fair magazine.

"I guess." Anna looked back at her.

"Look, this is one of those things you should go to. It will help you figure out what you want to do with your life. I know we are crazy smart and that is going to get us far, but if you want to do some stellar job you have to push yourself, right?"

"Probably. But right now I just need to push myself off the bus." The bus came to a halt and the doors opened. They were at school. Everyone got off and as Anna got off someone pushed her shoulder, knocking the smoothy out of her hand and bag off her shoulder.

"Watch it nerd" A tall blonde said as she walked on, not even stopping to see if Anna was alright.

Dawna picked up the cup and threw it out. "Some people are jerks. But we won't hurt the environment with all that jazz. "

Anna sighed and picked up her bag. Just as she put it over her shoulder a guy put a hand on her arm. "Are you okay?" He asked. Anna was a little taken back and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, fine. Happens all the time." Why did she say that? She cringed her eyes closed as it escaped her mouth.

The guy was Jackson Grey. It was tall, handsome, had killer green eyes, was on the football team and ... and... okay, basically never talked to girls like Anna.

Dawna wasted no time. "Okay, move along. Us nerds just want to get to school and do what we do while the rest of you procreate and continue social diseases."

Anna's eyes opened wide and she turned to Dawna. "Dawna!" She gasped.

Jackson laughed and removed his hand, walking away. "Don't worry, happens all the time."

Anna blushed and looked at Dawna. "What the hell?!"

Dawna sighed. "Guys like that only worry about girls like us because they want something. Likely a term paper written. Just ignore him."

Anna shook her head and they headed into school. What a morning to say the least.