Advanterz 2

Chapter 3
The Tram

In Brittany’s dream she awoke to sounds of the tram rumbling closer and closer. Lights flashed through her glass windows, stirring her. Immediately she got up and thrust her book into her carry-on bag, rummaged for her white vest jacket, and grabbed her bags and ran down the steep green stairs.

She fell down the steps, and hit the mirror at the bottom of them, but since it was a dream it didn’t matter. The dream rewinded itself and Brittany instead grasped the railing and swung herself around and ran into the living room, shouting goodbye to her father in the basement, yelled up at Jenna, and practically ran into her grandpa as she flew out the door.

“Love ya!” she said, not even turning to glance back even once at him. The tram was hazy in her dream, just a white block with a curved nose floating in midair. Someone was framed in the doorway, with light spilling behind them, causing them to look even better than usual. It was James smiling back at her.

Brittany boarded the tram, all of it blurry in the background. The tram didn’t matter. James’s face was plexi crystal clear, a light shining around him like he was an angel of some kind. He probably would have been an angel if religion mattered anymore. But right now he was her ride home.

A whistle sounded through the night and the tram began to move, shaking her hard. The whistle kept sounding, getting louder and louder as the tram picked up speed, dodging in between the trees of the Woods. The shaking got worse as well. Then she could hear a voice, James’s voice calling her name…

“Silver…Silver…wake up….Silver…” Brittany heard the whistle get even louder, so loud it pierced her ears. Shaking, name, tram whistle…must wake up…

Brittany’s eyes flicked open. Her mother Lisa was hovered over her, the long blonde hair tickling her face, her mouth moving slowly forming words Brittany didn’t really comprehend.

Then, as if someone had turned the mute button off, sound came again.

“Silver, the tram is almost here! You need to get up.”

Slowly, Brittany managed to raise herself up and off of the bulky chair, gathered her bags, threw on her white vested jacket, and made her way down the steep stairs. At the bottom she noticed her reflection. Her wavy blonde hair was riled up on one side, bits and pieces sticking up from being rubbed against the chair in her sleep. Her white pants were lopsided on her hips, showing a slim color of tan skin. Her socks were wound around her feet, the sewn lines woppyjawed, and the ends hanging far off the ends of her toes. Her bags were slung gracefully over her shoulder, with her jacket slightly crinkled from being thrown into a ball on the floor.

She looked horrible, as usual.

Brittany would have down something else about her appearance if she hadn’t heard the rumbling of the tram, and felt the air stirring as it flew through the sky.

Clumsily she put her shoes on. The were white tennis shoes, with no laces. Brittany hurried outside and watched in awe as the tram landed on her grandparents lot.

It was even better in person than in dream. The lines were much more clarified now, with a hard sharpness that hurt the eyes. Strangely, it was rounded, with the nose of an airplane , with a rounded aerodynamic body, slick and sleek, and a blinding white. The tram ran down her grandparents long driveway, and far beyond the cover of the trees. Lights gleamed from inside the windows. There was no captain, conductor or passengers. Just a rugged looking boy holding onto a rail running down the middle of the tram.

James.

Brittany didn’t turn around to wave goodbye to her family as she boarded the tram. She glanced back once when she was inside and the tram had begun to move again. All were there. Her grandparents, old, but beautiful, and her parents, all of them short. Only Jenna was missing form the scene. Which made it all the better.

The tram began to slowly rise from the ground, but you wouldn’t have noticed unless you were looking outside. The accent was smooth, and when the tram began to streak forward, leaving the House and the Woods in the dust, Brittany didn’t feel anything. She just kept staring at the boy standing in front of her. He was facing the other way. The wrong way. He hadn’t even noticed her.

Brittany could see her reflection in the transparent metal glass. She could see James’s reflection as well. His was staring hungrily at hers, as if by staring at her, he could take her all in before she noticed.

His gold eyes finally saw that Brittany’s reflection was staring at him as well, her expression bleak. Brittany had been looking forward to this trip, and now that she was here and hadn’t been greeted properly by her friend, disappoint had to showing on her face.

“Brittany…” James whispered as he turned to face her. Brittany took it all in. His face was the same as on the TV, just much more tired. His eyes bored into hers, showing no emotion what so ever. James’s shirt hung from his frame, baggy enough to be stylish, but small enough to not be hideous. His black pants were baggy as well. He was the only one who wore baggy clothes anymore. Everyone else wore skin tight clothes, except Brittany, who wore sometimes baggy, sometimes skin-tight and in-between. He looked great.

Brittany gingerly let her bag slide down her arms, and land softly on the white metal floor. She didn’t say anything, just peered at James, her eyes blank.

That’s when James ran to hug her. His bare arms wrapped around her thin body, and brad shoulders. He was smiling and talking fast.

“Oh, Brittany isn’t this great?! You get to spend the entire month with me. Just with me. At my house. With no adults! How rad is that?” He laughed and drew Brittany back to see her properly. Her face remained impassive.

James’s smile faltered. “Brittany, are you okay?” She didn’t answer. “Look I know I didn’t talk to you when you first got on,” he said defending himself incase Brittany was mad at him, “But I, well I don’t know guess I wanted to surprise you was all, um Brittany? Answer me…please?”

Still no answer.

Brittany turned and grabbed onto a pole and faced the other way. James came up behind her. His arms wrapped around her, his face just a few inches above hers. “Brittany…”

She cut him off by turning around and giving him a hug too. Brittany smiled and buried her face in his chest, and held him tighter. “James, it’s so good to see you again.”

“You look great too…”James’s said dreamily.

“What?” Brittany asked, raising her head questioningly.

“Nice to see you too.” James recovered, and held her closer.