Take the bus to school (M)

You close the door behind you and start to walk to the bus stop: the same you've taken since elementary school. As you approach the familiar street corner, you see a beautiful redhead wave to you casually.

"Hey John, you're going to be late if you don't hurry up!" the girl calls out to you, her voice booming through the morning air. It would make sense, she was a cheerleader after all. And most importantly, she's your childhood friend, Anna. Or at least, she was until she hit an early puberty and joined the popular crowd. Ever since then, she's been too cool to play video games with you or run around playing tag. Ah yes, the bittersweet reality of change as time passes on.

"Don't worry, Anna," you call back. "I won't miss the bus. It's too cold out to bike."

You stand beside Anna, and for a moment, you think about how things could have been if she and you had stayed close friends. There was a high chance of the two of you holding hands right now, embracing each other for warmth from the cool autumn breeze. If she was still that present in your life story though, that would definitely have meant she was God reincarnated. Who else would stay by your side since diapers?

"Maybe if you biked, you wouldn't be so unfit," she laughed as she stuck her tongue out playfully. "Joking, joking"

She definitely has been hanging out too much with Kyle, her boyfriend and your long-time bully. Honestly, you wouldn't be surprised if he started dating Anna as just another way to torment you. Before you have time to respond to her jest, the bus pulls up, its brakes squealing as it comes to a halt in front of you two.

"After you, princess," you say mockingly, gesturing to the door. Ever since the two of you were little, you always called her princess, and she would call you her knight. Of course, that has devolved into white knight jokes whenever she is around her friends at school. You walk behind her, watching her perky ass sway side to side as she walks up the steps of the bus. God, if only Anna had stayed your friend, you might have lost your virginity ages ago.

You sit down right at the front of the bus, while Anna continues walking to the back before finally sitting with one of her cheerleader friends. You think her name is Brittany, but you don't remember. Not that it matters anyways, you won't interact with most of these people after high school.

As the bus moves along its usual route, you stare out the window, counting the cars as they drive by. Another day, another birthday, and nothing changes. Maybe you should have asked for some magic power, instead of something petty like taking God down to your level. As you get lost in your thoughts, a wave of blonde and red hair zooms by your peripheral vision as the bus stops at a stop sign. You look down and see a short girl riding her bike, pedaling at much too energetic a pace for early morning. You don't remember a girl like that ever taking this route in all your years of riding the bus, so you assume she must go to a different school or is in a lower grade.

Eventually, the bus reaches the school, and you're the first one to leave and enter the school. Inside, the sea of students flows through the hallway. You join it, following the flow like you do every day. And like every other day, you eventually reach the locker pods where a brown-haired nerd who looks just as virgin as you stands waving.

"Yo John, how's it going man?" your friend Nate calls out to you.

"Oh not much, same boring ride to school," you laugh a bit, fist-bumping your friend.

Unlike your past life, you've made a concerted effort to make friends. Even then, you've only really able to become friends with Nate and a girl named Jenna. Nate has been by your side ever since he moved here in third grade. If it weren't for him, his tough military dad, and Anna; you would have never survived the "harsh" bullying of elementary school. And without Nate, you probably wouldn't have survived the first day of middle school, when Anna walked past your lunch table to instead sit with her new cheerleading friends she met over the summer.