Regret Story

Julian Green

Period 4

4/12/16

Regret Story - James Brown

    The alarm started beeping. It was five o’clock in the morning. James Brown, a freshman at *insert high school name here* had to get to school by 6:30 to get on the bus to Springfield for his US History field trip.

    “It’s too early!” James shouted. “I wish that I would’ve stayed at my old school! They never went on field trips at six o’clock in the morning,” He thought to himself.

    James had previously transferred from a school named Kithron Academy High School to his current school for a better education. But, he left all of his friends at his old school and felt left out and lonely at his current one. He felt as if he wanted to go back to his old school to be with his friends and have fun, but he knew that his education came first.

    It was now 5:15 and James still hadn’t gotten out of bed. So, his mother came storming upstairs to his room to wake him up.

    “Are you serious right now?” His mother shouted. “It’s fifteen minutes past when I told you to wake up! Get up and go downstairs now! You’re not the only one who has to get in that bathroom!”

    James jumped up and ran downstairs for fear of listening to anymore of his mother’s screaming. After leaving the bathroom, he headed back upstairs to get ready for his trip. He had packed his snack bag/bookbag the night before and made sure that he downloaded two or three new albums on Apple Music to listen to on the road. He then got his clothes on, picked his bummiest pair of shoes and headed back downstairs to eat breakfast.

His mother was waiting for him in the kitchen with a stern look on her face. “Did you know that we have to leave in less than twenty minutes. It’s 5:36 and you still haven’t eaten breakfast yet!”

James’ mother didn’t like the idea of waking up early to go to something that she wasn’t participating in. Especially if the person she was transporting was running a little behind schedule. So, he hurried up and ate his bowl of cereal, brushed his teeth and hair, grabbed his bag and a water bottle, and was out of the door by 5:55.

    He felt as if the car ride to school was a guilt trip. He didn’t feel as if this school was the place for him. He regretted almost event moment that he spent in school without his friends. He could recall hundreds, maybe even thousands, of times that he’d spent having fun in and out of class last year. He remembered dedicating weekends to movie nights with his friends and taking trips to the amusement park just outside of town because he was bored. Now, the only interactions he had with his friends were through direct messages on Twitter or Instagram to say hi every four to five days. He felt as if he’d left a part of him when he left his old school. He needed to start over at his new school. He needed to find a way to replicate his old friends at his new school. He had trouble finding new ways to interact with people. He regretted leaving his old school.

    It was now 6:25 and his mother was pulling up behind the yellow school bus in front of the school. Coincidentally, the song “Real Friends” by Kanye West was just ending. His mother, tired and wishing that she was in bed, turned around and said, “Have fun on your trip. Make sure you take lots of pictures.”

    “But what if my battery runs out? Or if I run out of storage on my phone?” James said to reflect his dismal attitude.

    “Find a way. You know that I have to document everything on Facebook. Bye!”

    James exited the car and walked over to the school bus. There were already a couple of people on the bus before he got on. He wanted to sit alone. He didn’t feel like speaking to anyone this early in the morning. So, he walked towards the middle of the bus where no one was currently sitting and plopped down into the cold, brown cushion. He then turned his music back on to try and zone everyone out for the three and a half hour ride to Springfield.

    He started off listening to one of the albums he downloaded a couple nights ago. The album was entitled TWENTY88. It featured the two artists Jhene Aiko and Big Sean. The album was only about thirty minutes long, so James paused the music, and started looking for other albums to listen to because the albums he downloaded were too short. While he was doing this, the bus started to pull away and begin its journey to Springfield.

    James finally found an another album to listen to thirty minutes into his bus ride. So, he unpaused TWENTY88  and tried to settle into his seat.

    James was drained. He only got about five hours of sleep last night because he stayed up late doing homework. So, while “Selfish”, the second song on the album, started playing, he fell asleep.

    Right as the eighth song on the album ended, James shot up out of his recumbent position. He had no idea where he was, and it was still fairly dark outside. James looked outside of the window to his left only to see snow hitting the sides of the bus and the tires running over grey patches of ice. He felt uncomfortable and really regretted coming on this trip. Fifteen seconds after James sat back into his seat, the bus jolted to the right. It then became very bumpy and James noticed that the bus wasn’t on the road anymore. The driver told everyone not to worry as he steered the bus back onto the icy road. James was frightened now. He had no interest in listening to any of his music. He wanted to stay awake just in case the bus decided to slide off of the road again.

    James was alert. He wanted to be prepared for any surprises that may or may not happen. His seatbelt was buckled and tightened and he sat in his seat with his hands folded, while at the same time, taking quick glances at the bus driver and his window. The bus driver seemed to be struggling with the wheel. The ride started to get really bumpy again. And before James knew what was happening, the bus started doing 360 degree flips before finally tumbling into a ditch on the side of the road.

James was barely conscious. He had hit his head on the window next to him and shattered all of the glass onto his face. There was blood everywhere. It was cold, and almost no one was moving. James could barely see a thing. His eyes started to cloud up and in less than a minute, he passed out.

James woke up to the loud sound of beeping. He felt as if the beeping was right in his ear. He slowly opened his eyes and tried to turn off the heart monitor  next to him because it was annoying him. The nurse immediately pushed his hand away and started howling at him. She shouted, “What do you think you’re doing? Do you know that if you unplug the heart monitor, I won’t know if you’re dying or not!”

“Duh. I watch Grey’s Anatomy. The beeping is just annoying me. Is there any way to turn it down?” James replied.

“No! You’re going to have to deal with it! You had a very bad brain bleed and could possibly die at any second.”

“I have a what? Wait why am I here?”

“You were in a bus crash. The paramedics found you inside of the bus with glass shattered all over your face and you were bleeding out of your ears when you got here. There was damage to the medial temporal lobe in your brain.”

“What is that? And why can’t I remember any of this.”

“I was just getting to that. That part of your brain controls memory. Damage to it may result in permanent memory loss. You might not remember anythi-”

“Wait! I do remember things! I remember Kithron Academy High School! Is that it? Is that the high school that I go to??”

“No. I’m afraid not. The bus driver from your school said that he was driving to Springfield from *insert name of school here*.”

At that point, James felt hopeless. He couldn’t remember anything from this morning, or even last week. So, the nurse called in James’ mother to help him out.

James and his mother talked for hours. She had to explain to him that he transferred from Kithron to a new school and was taking a bus to Springfield for a field trip. She told him about the vacations they took after he left Kithron and the names of all of the new friends he had made at school to try and squeeze memories out of his head. But it didn’t work.

James was distraught. He couldn’t believe anything that his mother or nurse told him. The only thing that he was thinking about was his time at Kithron. He remembered times that he’d spent having fun in and out of class last year. He remembered dedicating weekends to movie nights with his friends and taking trips to the amusement park just outside of town because he was bored. He remembered all of these things and regretted leaving them. He regretted ever leaving his friends just so he could get into a better college. He regretted signing up for the field trip to Springfield. He regretted getting on that bus at six o’clock in the morning. He regretted not telling the bus driver to stop and turn back if the roads got too slippery. He just wanted to go back and be with his friends. Because he regretted every second he spent at his new school without them.