Colors

I still wasn't very stable when school started up, again. The only consolation my father ever gave me was "He wasn't your color, anyway." He sounded so bitter, but I still didn't know what that meant.

Three days before school started, I finally opened my schedule.

1. Biology - Karen Graham

2. Choir - Brian VanderStoffe

3. Sculpture - Brianne Brunswick

4. Yellow

Lunch (12:15 - 12:45)

5. English - Cyndie Mason

6. Geometry - Erica Staff

7. World History - Michelle Grayde

I strained a smile. The colors didn't mean a thing to me, anymore. Not much did, these days. It had been nearly a year since Timothy’s death, but I was still sorely hung up on it.
A slip fell out of my hand, onto the floor. I bent to pick it up, and scanned it over...

* * * *

> Attention!<
All freshman students must report to
the auxiliary gym for a brief assembly.

* * * *

"Whatever." I mumbled. I crumpled the little paper into a ball, threw it in the trash, and crawled back into bed. The second my head hit the pillow, I was out.

My mother came in and woke me up, around 5:30. Sam had called me.

I snatched the phone from my mother, and waited for her to leave before talking. "Sam?"

"Hey, Bay~" She sang, " Have you opened it yet?" For weeks, Sam had been bugging me about opening my schedule. I'd just never felt the urge to do it.

"Yeah, I opened it this morning, and I-"

"You didn't call me?!" She exclaimed, " I've been on your butt about this, for Jesus knows how long, and when you finally open it, you don't call? Are you insane?"

"Slightly," I giggled.

We exchanged classes, and discovered we would have first, second, lunch, and sixth hour together. We talked for a good twenty minutes, but then she had to go. Her mother was calling her for dinner.

Food.

I hadn't eaten anything in days. Suddenly, I was starving.

I climbed upstairs, to the kitchen, and gazed into the refrigerator. What did Orange Juice taste like? Carrots, apples, hot dogs? I couldn't recall. I’d taken it upon myself to fast so that the aching from hunger would get my mind off of my loss.

I took a carton of yogurt, and orange juice, and sat them on the dining room table. I dipped my finger into the yogurt. It was freezing, and there were chunks of fruit in it.

I licked the mush off of my finger, and I could feel the cold ooze down my throat. It was delicious. I like food.

It felt good to feel alive again.

Freshman year, I decided then, this could be my new beginning...