Me at 5's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

After the hockey arena I thought things would go back to how they were before. But the next Monday morning my sister and I wait by the front door with our coats on. My grandparents tell us a car is coming to take us somewhere new. The yellow cab pulls up outside. The driver honks once. My sister carries her own bag but mine feels heavy even though there's nothing inside except a notebook I don't use. In the back seat I press against the door and my sister sits in the middle. The vinyl is cold through my coat. The driver doesn't talk to us. He just drives and the streets go by in a blur of gray buildings and I don't know where we're going. My face starts to get hot just thinking about arriving somewhere with people who will look at me. The school is smaller than I thought it would be. Inside there are only a few other children and they don't stare. Nobody makes me talk. A woman shows me a desk near a window and leaves me alone. I sit very still and wait for someone to need something from me but nobody does. An hour passes. Then another. My face stays cool. At one point my sister walks past my door with a different woman and she doesn't wave. I don't wave either. We both just keep going. When the cab comes back at the end of the day I get in without my legs feeling strange. My sister climbs in beside me. We ride home in silence while the city scrolls past the window. When we turn onto my grandparents' street I can see the pear tree in the front yard with its yellow fruit hanging down. The cab stops and we get out. My grandparents ask how it was. I say okay. And I mean it. Because today nobody chose me and nobody looked at me and I sat somewhere quiet doing nothing and that felt exactly like being normal. Tomorrow the cab will come again and I won't be afraid of it.