~Emory~
Do you ever wake up and wonder,: 'Do I really have to go to school?'.
Short answer: Yes.
The dreadful part of life is that I don't get to live it freely. At least for the first 10 hours of the day, within the first 18 years of my life. Govement dictates schooling. Thusly, I have no chocie in the matter.
The demand is that I spend my precious youth, trapped within the walls of the system that has persisted long before I was even born.
But not all is bad.
I do wonder though, how life would have been if there was no school? Wouod I go to work tilling fields? Wouod I become a beggar begging for scraps?
Or would I just be increadibly bored?
Or on a diffrent note, what if I was suddnely chosen as some kind of protagonist of a novel or story?
Everyone has thsoe kinds of passing thoughts at least once in their lives right?
Would my boredom be alleviated then? Would it be fun? Would the world be diffrent? Would it be exciting and interesting like that 'edge-of-your-seat' kind of storyline?
Or would it be dull? Like a bad tooth-ache that is there but never goes away and only shows itself when your drinking cold water or eating something soft like bread before you take a bite and hear a 'crack'… like that, I don't know.
Maybe my life was the subject of some grand omnicient being who is dictating what path my life would go towards…
Or maybe… I'm just imagining something to bring substance into my otherwise, monotone life.
"Haaa… wish something exciting would happened to me." It wasn't like I was trying to get sent into a crazy Isekai adventure or even something like being Transmigrated somewhere where I end up possessing the female Villianess of some B-rated romance-drama in a manhwa.
Can't a socially-awkward girl dream?
But no. No flashing lights. No mysterious archaic portals or summoning pentagrams.
No Truck-Kun, now that one is my least favorite route to being isekai'd.
Even if it was popularized by the internet and every weeb out there, just… no.
Why would you want to get French-kissed by a hulking truck weighing a few tons? Having every bone in your body broken, having that trauma follow you into your next life.
"Hah." Yeah, the adventures won't start until the OC gets over his emotional trauma with therapy.
How weird of an anime would that be, I wonder?
But, my thoughts are cut short here. The bus I was on finally reached the stop I needed to fet off at. Stepping off, I glanced aorund at the other kids. Some were like me. Others were odler and had to go to college or… maybe a much-needed shower.
Getting of the bus, the bitter smell of exhaust and cheap perfume filled my nose. Granted, the cheap-perfume was mine and I got off at a busy intersection.
I headed toward the walkway and adjusted my earphones. Yeah, I still used the wired ones rather than the wireless. I'm too poor to afford those after breaking the first pair I bought.
Didn't want to buy them again since I can't trust myself with them. What if I lose one and am forever the 'one-airpod-girl'.
Okay, it won't be that bad but you never know. The winds at of rumors change and shift so abruplty like the wind.
It's almost impossible to know what or who the next big scandal might break out from or for whom.
That's just how high school goes I suppose.
Consdiering bullying has taken a virtual form. A lot of people are chronically online. Most don't even register the world around them and I could see most kids throwing a meltdown after losing their phone and trying to cope for the rest of the day until they can get home and either beg or demand for a new phone, ASAP.
I won't lie, I would do that too… if I knew my mom wouldn't let me have it with the belt or the slipper that is.
Hey, we may be white, but we are reformed 'trailer-trash' white.
All things considered, I don't like school. As in, I don't like other people in general.
This is like the breeding ground for drama and bad parenting.
This school, or rather, this generation was the future.
From influencers, to porn-stars, streamers(gamers or AV), and or the very few who actually go on to attend colleges like the good little nerds they are onky to fall into debt like a majority of the population.
Granted, I was also banking on being one of those nerds myself. Truly, I wanted to see where my hard work will lead me to…
*Snap*
-or maybe fate has other plans.
"Watch out!" But maybe this is fate as well?
Time slowed almost to a crawl. I stared halfway toward the shout and at the top of a ramp that doubled as a walkway for handicapped people in wheelchairs, a solid cart holding an old TV, like I'm talking really old.
Like, 1990's old-old.
It came barreling towards me and I swear whoever said 'your life flashes before your eyes before you die', yeah, I experienced none of that.
*BOOM!*
The world was all loopy. Lopsided. And fuzzy at the same time.
I don't even remember how I got on the ground. Or the blurry faces that were crowding around me as my vision blurred to darkness and lit up again before repeating the cycle.
Light, dark, repeat,
Was this the 'big-break' that I wanted? Well, considering that thing hit me at full force. I'd be worried if something didn't crack in my body.
But hey, at least this means, I don't have to go to class anymore right?
… right?
~
Now this… is trippy. You ever get that feeling like you have done something before but just aren't sure but, you can swear that everything you just experienced had happened to you before?
Yeah, it was nothing like that for me… but, I was suddenly a ghost now.
Staring at my unconcious body on a hosptial bed in what I could only assume was the hosptial.
How did I get here?
*Person-Passed-Through-Emory*
I stood frozen as that nurse just walked right through me. Like I was not even there. Surprised the gell out of me.
Was I really a ghost now? I glanced down at my hands. I was still wearing the same clothes I had on that day. And my body is right over there… was this those so-called 'out-of-body' experiences that so many people on the internet talk about?
I walked around and was surprised by how I can phase through doors but confused when I didn't slip through the floor. Even ghosts have to obey the laws of gravity it seems. As gravity seems to work the same as I can feel myself being pulled right back down when I jumped.
"Great, now I'm a ghost." I sighed and began to explore the outside of my hospital room. "It's quiet."
There was a lot of space and I wandered around for a bit. Entering other rooms and finding some empty and others occupied.
I even found I could phase my face through peoples clothing and see only darkness.
It gave me the heebe-jeeves.
"Is this my life now?" I sighed and sat down on a random chair on the hospital lounge.
"First day?" I flinched and turned my head from my hands and as I saw this very cute girl with curly blonde hair sitting with her long legs crossed. "Being a ghost isn't so bad once you get used to it that is… I'm Rebecca."
"… Emory." I said and she smiled. God, have I ever seen a more perfect smile? "Uhm… I'm sorry but. Are you… a ghost?"
"Kind of." She tilted her head and then stood up as I blinked and then followed behind her as she wanted me to follow. "We aren't ghosts. But we sort of are. I have this theory that were souls that have just been displaced from our physical bodies."
"… so, we are ghosts." I said and she turned around and suddely flicked my nose but I jumped and winced as I felt the sting. "Ouch."
"Ghosts can touch other ghosts. Remember that okay?" She said and then said something that made me feel pretty scared. "No one will come save you if you get caught up by a perverted ghost."
"…" I then felt her grab my hand and pulled me along with her as we began climbing up a staircase to the next floor and soon we arrived at one do the many rooms behind a security door.
"We're fine here. The good people keep the bad ones away." She said and I wasn't sure whether to believe her or not. "This is me."
She said as we walked into a room through a door and there in the hosptial bed was… well, Rebecca.
Only, she looked slightly more thin and frail.
"I was brought here three years ago." She said from beside me and walked closer as she tried to touch her own face but her hand phased right through. "I hit my head after diving into a pool three years ago. I'm now 17 and in a 'coma'. The doctors don't know if I will ever wake up but my parents haven't given up hope that one day, someday, I will wake up and this will all have been a bad dream."
"… I'm sorry" I felt pretty bad and she smiled before turning to me.
"Don't be. It wasn't your fault. Things happen. That just how life is sometimes." She sounded so mature but also resigned. It made me want to hug her. "But it is what it is. We adapt . We overcome. But sometimes, all we can do at the end of the day is endure. Just another day, just another moment. That's what it means to be alive, right? My mom always says that to me when she visits."
"She sounds like a strong woman." I said and walked beside her as I rested my hand over her shoudler.
"She is." Rebecca smiled. "Can we go see your body? You do have one right?"
"Uh… yeah." I said and soon went down to my room and there she found my body.
"Wow… you look adorable~." I felt slightly flustered as she then walked aorund and studied my slepeing body. "That's wierd, you have some blue light-"
She reached out her hand to touch my face and suddnely, she disspeared.
"Rebecca?" I looked around and then suddenly saw my body open her eyes… my eyes. "Wait… what?"
I watched as the monitors began rapidly beeping as opposed to that steady rythum that was constant before. It was not long after, a nurse came in and headed over to check up on.. my body
"Hey… can you hear me?" The nurse took out a flashlight and shone it over my/her eyes. "Can you tell me your name?"
I watched this all unfold and instantly froze as I heard my body speak with my voice… but respond with a diffrent name.
"R-Rebecca… My name is Rebecca Schulz." My mouth fell open and I then saw my own eyes turn to stare back at me. "Uh… o-opps?"
What… the hell was going on here?
___________