Britney:
As we quietly make our way to school, taking in the world around us, my brother's small fingers softly intertwine with mine.
Gigantic sweet maple trees on both sides of the pathway arch beautifully over our heads, ready to embrace fall. The leaves painted in hues of amber and crimson slowly drift below, decking the ground as their own form of farewell to the warmth of their trees. The crisp, cool air blows and brings with it the signature smell of autumn. Earthy with a dash of sweetness.
Benny, along with me, is lost in this beautiful painting-like scenery.
"Isn't it beautiful?" I say, smiling down at him. He stands no taller than the elbow of my arm.
"Not more than your painting, Britty," He replies.
I freeze in my place, not able to move, not able to speak.
He drops his bag and rummages through it, pulling out a sketchbook.
My sketchbook.
"I don't know why you stopped, but I miss when you used to draw and paint." He says, handing the book to me. "It used to make both of us happy."
"Your school is here," I finally speak. Not a proper response, but at least something is better than nothing. Right?
"I will go, but please don't be sad anymore. It hurts me."
Managing to find a smile, I say, "Okay, Benny, I won't be sad. Now go, you will be late."
"Promise me," He says, lifting his pinky.
"Promise," I say, linking my pinky with his.
I watch him as he runs off into the gate of his school.
I'm not sure if I can keep my promise, Benny. I will try my best to be happy, but I can't go back to how I was before. Not to my drawings. Your safety comes first before everything else.
As I stare at the sketchbook in my hand, something hard slams into me. The book slips from my grasp, landing open on the last drawing I made-a side profile of Benny, sitting on a picnic mat, gazing up at the sun. We had gone during the summer holidays, right before everything changed.
"I am so sorry." A voice calls from behind. I turn around to see a girl wearing the same uniform as me. A white shirt, a maroon plaid skirt and tie, and a beige blazer. Her silky, black hair grazes her shoulders, catching the light as she speaks.
"Oh. Em. Gee!" she exclaims, her eyes wide with excitement.
It shouldn't be that shocking that we go to the same school-it's just down the lane, after all.
"Hashtag 4E3E41," she says with a grin.
"Sorry, what?" I blink, confused.
"Our eyes," she squeals. "They're the exact same color!"
Of all the things she could have noticed first-our matching uniforms, maybe?-she observes our eye color? And she even knows the hexadecimal code for it?
That. Is. Awesome.
"Oh, and we go to the same school too," she adds, gesturing between us with a playful smirk. "This has to be fate."
I manage a small, nervous laugh.
"I'm so sorry, by the way," she says suddenly, bending down to pick my fallen sketchbook. "You dropped this because of me."
She grabs it, and her eyes light up as she looks at the drawing.
"Wow, this is beautiful. Did you draw these?"
"Uh, yeah," I stammer, finally finding the chance to speak. "I did."
"You are literally blowing my mind right now," she says, shaking her head in disbelief.
"I completely forgot to introduce myself. I'm Raya." She says as we walk towards the school. "I'm in class 11, in the art special classes. What about you?"
"I'm Britney," I say as I tuck a loose strand of hair from my ponytail behind my ear. "Class 12, non-art."
"So, I'm the younger one then," Raya grins, looping her arm through mine like we've been friends forever. "I've always wished I had an older sister."
I smiled, feeling an unexpected warmth from Raya's gesture. "Well, I guess that makes me your honorary older sister now," I reply with a soft laugh. "And don't worry, I'll do my best to live up to the role. Maybe I can even help you dodge a few of the senior-year headaches before you get there."
"You are so cool," she smiles, giving me a thumbs up.
"So, Britney, how are you NOT in the arts classes?" She says, watching me from the corner of her eye. "With that talent of yours, I mean," she later adds.
"I used to be, until last year," I say. "I got bored, so I shifted to non-arts." The lie practically rolled off my tongue.
"Wow," She says as though she is genuinely impressed.
Is that what impresses her? I'm beginning to think figuring her out is like understanding 'Ophelia' by John Everett. Beautiful, but, extremely confusing.
"That is the carefree attitude that I need to adopt in life," she says, almost to herself.
"I'm sorry, what?" I say, totally astonished by her take on my words. There's a slight, okay, maybe more than slight, chance that I'm leading her down a misguided path.
"Here we are," she says, stopping in her tracks.
"I go this way," she says, pointing in the right direction towards the ancient building. Despite having classes there for as long as I can remember, its timeless beauty never faded. I find myself gazing at the honey-colored stones of the buildings and it's towers, which were tall enough to reach the sky. The clock, with it's Roman numerals and golden hands, stood out against the archway of the towers. A sense of nostalgia and sadness washes over me even though it hasn't been that long since I left the classes there. It feels as though I have left something precious behind in those walls.
"See you later," I murmur absently, my eyes fixed on the building.
I needed to figure out that 'something'. I have to uncover that missing piece. If I can pinpoint what's been lost, maybe, just maybe I'll finally be able to bridge the emptiness that has crept into my life.
I enter the classroom, and unwillingly, my gaze lands on the redhead seated beside my desk. He was..... in a chokehold?
I slowly walk towards my seat and stand there as I see a jet-black-haired guy, slightly tousled, that falls just above his eyes, has Aiden in a firm grip. The maroon varsity jacket stood out against his light-tanned skin. A large, capital "R" is stitched in white on the back-probably his initial. Now, that was a sight to see.
He releases Aiden from his chokehold and steps back as he notices me.
"If you're done drooling over Rowan, you can sit down," Aiden remarks dryly, gesturing toward my seat.
I narrow my eyes at him. "I wasn't drooling-I was observing."
"Sure, just like you weren't practically drooling over me yesterday," he says. "Same thing."
"Me? Drooling over you?" I scoff, folding my arms. "I'd rather sit through a 48-hour marathon of dolphin shows than drool over you."
"Since it doesn't seem like either of you plans to stop bickering anytime soon, let me jump in," the guy interjects. "I'm Rowan. Same class, different section." He turns to me with a friendly smile. "You must be the new girl."
"Britney," I respond, returning the smile.
"That's a lovely name, Britney," he says warmly.
An awkward silence settles over us, so I force another smile, but it only seems to make things more uncomfortable.
"So," Rowan breaks the silence, thankfully, "how's the new class treating you so far? Our grumpy redhead has been good to you?" He gestures toward Aiden.
I shrug. "It's only my second day, but as for him? Let's just say he's been a charmingly annoying rep."
He chuckles as the bell rings.
"I'll take that as my cue to leave," Rowan says with a grin, "and it was nice meeting someone who knows how to get under Aiden's skin." He walks away, leaving me to drop into my seat.
Beside me, Aiden says, narrowing his eyes, "You must be ecstatic to become friends with him when you just developed a crush on him."
"You must be ecstatic to be extremely Dracula-ish all the time."
He snickers, and I reply with a snicker of my own, we keep going until I stop laughing with a sigh just as our math teacher, Ms. Elizabeth strides into the room. She quickly scribbles two problems on either side of the board, placing the chalk down and folding her arms as she leans against the desk.
"Today, we will be revising the problems of the previous class. Any volunteers?" She says, scanning the room.
"Bet you can't solve this, art girl," Aiden whispers, his tone challenging.
"Really?" I whisper back. "How much?"
"You two at the back," our teacher suddenly calls out, catching us off guard. "Why don't you show us how it's done?"
I shoot a confident glance at Aiden as I stand. "Keep the money ready."
"How about I bet on who solves it faster?" He replies, rising to his feet with a smirk.
"You've got yourself a deal. Get ready to lose, Brown," I whisper as we walk towards the board.
We start scribbling furiously, racing against each other to finish first. Just as I finish and slam the chalk down, I notice Aiden doing the same-almost simultaneously. Almost. I was clearly quicker, which means I won the bet. Victory is mine, Redhead.
I turn to gloat, expecting to see defeat on his face, but instead, he's smirking. He narrows his eyes and mouths, "You lose, darling."
"What?!" I gasp. I'm pretty sure that I won.
"That was actually quite impressive, both of you," Ms. Elizabeth says, clearly impressed. "You can go back to your seats."
"Ms. Elizabeth, if you don't mind, could you tell us who finished first?" I ask eagerly to prove my victory to Aiden.
"I'm not sure, dear. You were both very quick," she replies, glancing between us.
"It's alright, ma'am," Aiden says with a sly smile, tugging at my blazer sleeve to guide me back to our seats as I absentmindedly follow him in disbelief.
As soon as we sit, I lean closer and hiss, "I was clearly faster."
"You were clearly not," he retorts, the smirk still on his face.
"Well, then you need to get your eyes checked," I snap, glaring at him until I realize how close we are to each other. It must have hit him too, because he suddenly moved back, like the air between us had turned too sharp to breathe.
I've known for a while that he has it out for me, but why? Why does he go out of his way to get under my skin? One more stunt like this, and I swear, Aiden Brown, I'll make sure your school life becomes a living hell.