They say a pictures worth a thousand words, but I'm not much for crowds. So allow me to share this more intimate gathering of syllables and symmetry with you. My name is Rachel Amber and if you're reading this it means I'm dead. Kidding, but seriously I wouldn't just let anyone read this so you must be pretty special to me, or especially nosy.
I'm listening to a clock now. My dad got me one of those old ticking tocking clocks that can drive anyone just nuts, but I love it. It shines when the light hits it just so and though I know it's just brass to me those moments will always be golden.
It's funny how time shapes us not just in it's passing, but how we appreciate it. Time comes in so many forms. Memories cherished and loathed, photographs held close, stories both riveting and mundane, and too often those moments crystallized and left behind in perfection only without you in them. I long for the past, but stride towards a future uncertain of my steps. I have no choice, but perhaps if I could turn back time...
A loud clunk and then another some seconds later caused Rachel to pause and then smile. Truthfully the present was a drying well to her, but there were still some things to be treasured in Arcadia Bay. One such treasure was currently traipsing up the stairs to dutifully knock on her door before disregarding it and barging in. Turning slowly Rachel beheld her ever faithless companion with a smirk, "Well do make yourself at home,"
"Sure thing, your mom makes damn good ummm it's like this hot bread thing sandwich" the girl's arms stretched out as if to grasp the wistful word just out of reach of tongue and mind. Rachel dutifully tried to aid her tongue-tied friend by offering a possibility, "Panini?"
"You mispronounced mouthgasm"
Rachel was laughing now and her friend was smiling, the sun his just right on the golden clock. Another perfect moment to leave behind.
"Oh Chloe..." she said, two words as simple and plain as they were infinitely complex and decorated with treasured emotion. A hand was offered in reply, a hand that was taken gladly. As the two walked off on yet another escapade usually involving the need to actually escape, Rachel allowed her mind to wander off to a time B.C. (Before Chloe for those of you at home).Drifting past the twisted forward march of the clock and flapping back the calendar she arrived on the footsteps of greatness, the first she had to climb to make her way to where all this everything and nothing began.
Blackwell Academy.
She held her bags tight as she ascended and while they were rather light compared to others coming in her nervous hands and twitching legs weren't in agreement. Her first steps with a blank slate in a new school to start a new life and Rachel Amber's first action was to trip spectacularly. She was quite lucky she landed on her bags though while she was relatively unscathed they both suffered mortal wounds. Slashed open widely their guts of clothes and makeup spewed onto the campus grass. Rachel might have been embarrassed by the fall, she may have been dismayed by the fate of her bags, but instead she was distraught because she lost her feather.
Just a feather. Just a feather you might say, but you couldn't be more wrong. As a feather lifts a bird so too did this feather keep Rachel's spirit aloft and alive. A gift from her grandmother and the only thing Rachel could hold onto of hers. She was promised another gift when she was very young, but as her grandmother passed it seemed that gift would never come.
Twisting in the treacherous wind another Rachel stood quickly and ran after it. Hands reaching feet shifting and slipping in the morning dew. Within twenty three seconds of coming to Blackwell Academy Rachel Amber had fallen twice. Within thirty seconds she would have been crying. That changed when she heard the clattering steps of a chaotic force that would leave her life in utter ruins. Her beautiful disastrous savior, Chloe Price.
Rushing past the fallen Rachel, Chloe booked it toward the swiftly fluttering feather. Hurdling a stone bench the young girl was unabated by the slick earth and the many obstacles in her way. Approaching a hill, Rachel saw this girls chance to save her feather slipping away as swiftly as it had initially escaped, but rather than fall or fail, Chloe jumped. Skyward she went and earthbound she returned crashing into a rolling tumble of ows.
Getting up Rachel rushed over to the fallen girl and saw her head turned away her body only moving in slight twitches. Fearing the worst Rachel pulled her over to reveal a bright smile and rumbling laughter as she held the bright blue feather high with a victorious, "Hell yeah!"
Grass stains and knee pains were the topic of conversation as Rachel accompanied Chloe to the nurse's office. What brought them to Blackwell bounced about them as they walked the halls to their next class. Excited whispers of plans together secreted their way across the aisle as they sat next to each other in class, much to the chagrin of a highly aware art teacher. So through a willful feather, a fateful fall, and a leap of faith these two distant dots along destinies path found their paths intertwined. Whether they were passing stars destined to shoot past one another or celestial bodies set to orbit together for cosmic infinity was yet to be seen, what was certain was that Rachel had found yet another crystallized moment, something more to leave behind as she wandered along down the worn path of her life.
