“Oof.”

“Sorry for bumping into you! You’re taking the bus too?” Said a student with short red hair and the formal school uniform, probably taking the bus too.

“Hi, I am Joanna Berg, but you can call me Joanna,” said the girl with short red hair, and a black school uniform dress, not to mention glasses too.

“School, one of my least favorite places. Let’s go catch the bus.”    

“Here we are the bus. It’s the only way I can get to school and it’s kind of hard to even find a seat to sit at.” Said Joanna.

“Hi…Could I sit here by any chance..?” Joanna said quietly. 

“No sorry, this seat is taken.” Said, another student on the bus,

“See what I mean? And I found out no one ever sits in the seat that is “taken”.  I don’t understand why they would say that.” Joanna sighed.

“Are you new here? Oh yeah, it seemed like it.” Said, Joanna quickly changing the topic

“We can be friends!” Smiled, Joanna.

 ‘Ring” the bell rang.

“Hello, class.”

“That our teacher  Mrs. C” Joanna whispered quietly enough that the teacher couldn’t hear.

“In today’s class, we will be seeing the results of everyone’s test scores.” Mrs. C said looking at every single student right in the eye.

“I will hand everyone’s score, just wait at your seat.” Mrs. C said softening her voice with a smile. 

Joanna sighed. “Of course you wouldn’t get your test score on your first day but, Mrs. C handed me mine.” a worried face suddenly washed over Joanna. 

The score flipped over and the letter c- was written in red ink on the right corner. She looked around and everyone else looked pleased with their grade. She brushed the letter c- to see if that was even right, but it didn’t come off. It looked like Joanna was gonna fall out of place and cry.

It doesn’t make sense! It just isn’t fair.

Lunch break!

“Sigh… I just don’t know… My test score is so low! I took so long yesterday working on it yet..the score…” said Joanna looking away trying to hide her feelings.

After hours of long studies of things and people talking word afterword.

“school is over. I am gonna go home now you can come if you want!”

Here we are, Back at my home. Joanna slowly opened the door with a quiet creak.

When the door opened there were suddenly loud voices of anger.

   “I don’t know why you are so hard to take care of.”

“Well, I don’t know why you are so hard to deal with!”   

“Why can’t you be a normal daughter and read. not just look at your phone all day!”

“ Can’t you see? The world has grown up now! Get used to it!

“my sister and my mom are always fighting… They always have their differences.” Sighed Joanna. 

“Anyways let’s go to my room.”

“You see, I love to paint in my free time! It calms me down! Don’t you think this looks nice? I have been working on it for about a week!” Smiled, Joanna thought it didn’t always seem she was entirely okay…

Friday, April 5: Same routine, different day.  

“Hey over here.” Joanna cried. 

It seemed like she had finally found seats to sit at on the bus.

When the bus arrived students came rushing out of the bus and ran into the big school building.

“Get your books ready. I will meet you at class” Joanna quickly said.

Everyone was rushing to class with their books in their hands.

“School can be a bit boring sometimes…” Joanna sighed.

After some time of learning and writing class was over.

“Finally class is over..for now! Hmm… Which meal should I pick..?” I wondered Joanna looking left to right at all the choices.

 Ah all of them are not very good so it’s hard to choose.

“You are picking a sandwich? I will just pick that too then.” She said taking the sandwich which was covered in plastic wrap. 

“Hey weird girl what are you doing,” said, a blonde-haired boy with an overly confident smirk on his face.

  “Oh…That’s Michael my school bully” Joanna whispered. 

“It’s okay- please don’t stand up” Joanna pushed. 

   silence.

Talking won’t do anything.

“What are you gonna do? Just stand around?” Said, Michael. 

Again silent I wish he could just give up already. 

“How pathetic…That’s why you have no friends” laughed Michael.

He doesn’t even know what he is talking about!

“I do have a friend right here.” Joanna snapped back, proudly 

“Probably just another loser” Laughed Michael. 

I Can never make him stop. It’s just the way it is. I should probably just get away. 

“Come on let’s get away from this dude,” Joanna said with lots of madness coming out of her rolling eyes.

In a flash of time lunch break was over! Then it was time for class.

Then the bell rang.

“Ok, Class today we are going to learn about the history here in the United States.” Said Mrs. C.  Looking at every single student.

A few hours later…

“There goes the bell finally” Joanna smiled

“Finally the end of school” Joanna sighed with relief.

“Hey. Let me catch up with you later. I have to check something” It seemed like something must have caught Joanna’s eye. 

“Ooh,”  In the distance, you could hear Joanna scream with excitement. 

“Wow look what I found!” Joanna said excitedly

She held up a piece of construction paper with some colorful words saying “Painting contest! Enter now! The winner gets a new professional painting kit! Meet at the school gym on April 18 to submit your piece!”

“I am definitely going to enter!” Said Joanna, jumping up and down, more excited than ever. Something has changed her mood.

“Let’s go to the bus!!!” Smiled Joanna.

“Wow what a long ride that was actually short.” 

“Yay back at home!” Joanna put the poster up with 2 thumbtacks.

“Have you ever had a dream shirt you wish was real?” She Questioned.

“I like to bring my dream shirt to life by painting it” She smiled,  painting every stroke carefully 

“And. Done! This might be one of my best art pieces yet. wow I love how this turned out” 

The canvas was now shining with a beautiful fluorescent shirt. Glimmering somehow in the dark afternoon light.

Saturday, April 6: “What a great morning to wake up? Oh my gosh! What happened to my painting? It’s gone! Blank! I really thought I painted yesterday. I spent all night painting that, yet it’s blank! How! Was that all a dream or was this a dream! Crazy thoughts swirled like an illusion. Well, it is the weekend so… I guess I could just paint another painting. 

“Almost don-“

“Joanna. We are going to the mall and you are coming with us whether you like it or not” Said, my mom.

An unclean feeling flushed over. Ugh, I really don’t like going to the mall but if I have to… I guess I would go 

Me, my sister, and my mom are walking to the mall. I guess we usually walk since it’s not very far.

After a few minutes of walking… Something caught my eye…Something on display behind glass in a shop called “flowers”. A bright fluorescent shirt sat there behind the glass on a stand. I said I would go back to look at something really quick. It looked so familiar… What was that?  I finally realized!! It was what I painted. That shirt! How! That’s so weird! My mind is spinning! Was I crazy and these are just hallucinations? I was in shock the whole time thinking about how crazy that was.” Said Joanna, who had memorized that story 

“And yeah that’s what happened all weekend”  Joanna sighed 

“That is why I wanted to talk to you at the park And also..” 

Joanna pulled a bright t-shirt out of the bag.

“This is the shirt,” Joanna said, holding it out with her hands.

Joanna still looked shocked after only a day.

Sunday, April 7:

And then when I went to check my painting, I uncovered the canvas, taking off the cover, it was blank once again. Just a blank, white, canvas. It’s crazy how things can change in a day. 

Monday, April 8:

“Oh my gosh, remember that other painting I painted?” Cried, Joanna 

“It’s gone again!” Joanna screamed maybe a bit too loud.

People stared and laughed

Joanna sat down on an old yellow school bus chair looking down at the ground the whole time until the bus had reached school.

At school, Joanna didn’t seem very happy. She wasn’t raising her hand like usual. Her eyes were looking down at her untied shoelaces seeming to be thinking about something. Something that made Joanna suddenly has a dull look on her face. An expression that changed. Why do people have to laugh all the time.. can’t they just mind their own business..? I don’t even know what to do anymore. I just wanna go home.

It’s hard to know a lot about someone when they don’t talk.