Close Encounters

[Fenrir]

SARAH LILLIAN WHITLOCK CONTINUED FROM Note to Self

Sarah had had a long day.

She meant that in both the literal and metaphorical senses of the word.

It had been a long day metaphorically because she had caused a big scene during her lunch period and had been kind of stressing out about it ever since. It was a tendency of hers to hyper-focus on any mistakes she made in public and begin to worry too much about the people around her and how they viewed her, something that she’d been doing all day ever since. It was a habit she’d tried to cure herself of, but that didn’t always stop it from happening.

Nothing had happened since then at least, but it was a tiring mental exercise nonetheless being on edge for so long.

It had been a long day literally because this was a day where she had club activities after school and also because it was her turn to stay behind and clean up when they were finished. Because of that she was leaving school almost two hours later than she normally did. She was just thankful that at least it wasn’t one of the days when they stayed after sunset, so the astronomy club could do astronomy things, or else it would have been even longer.

Sarah didn’t think she could take this day being any longer than it already had been.

As it was, by the time Sarah stepped out the front doors of Mangrove Garden’s main building the sky was already starting to turn a deeper shade of orange. The sun was just starting to set it would seem and while it wasn’t dark yet it most likely would be by the time she’d walked home.

It was times like this that she wondered if joining a club was the best idea, when some days she felt like she didn’t have the energy to deal with people more than necessary. Those thoughts never last longer however and she almost always felt better after spending time with the other members of the club than she did before.

She was immensely glad that she had joined the astronomy club when she did. It had been something of a leap of faith for herself, her first big step back into being sociable again after more than a year of being a loner. It could have gone so horribly wrong, but not taking that chance probably would have been worse for her. In the end it had worked out favourably, even if it inconvenienced her at time.

With a sign Sarah began to walk away from the school, but instead of turning the way she usually did she went the other way instead, towards the bus stop. Today was not a day to walk home, she decided. She would catch the bus instead and walk the rest of the way once she was in the right area. You never knew what kind of creeps you might run into after dark, after all.