Helen Hamilton was an awkward non-socializing type when it came to school. Even if she wanted to talk to someone, she couldn't do it without feeling the agonizing sharp roots of pain from her lower abdomen, alerting her senses in a highly sensitive RED panic alarm. Claire, her bestest friend, had been there for her every step of the way whenever someone in school spread these really absurd gossips around the school via mutters and whispers, she would be there staring daggers at the person she would catch talking about it, but even so Claire's supportive acts made the throbbing guilt in her chest worsen. Ever since her 2nd high school term started in school, things have been getting worse, and by worse she meant weirder. Whenever she tries to fall asleep in the most comfiest way possible, her body still ends up throbbing and aching in pain from the constantly repeating image of the 'dry lands' from her dreamscapes.
She was standing on rocky, hilly terrain, blasted so hard by the sun that the bone-dry air wriggled and shook in streaks, as if parts of the sky were melting. The rocks were pale yellow and sharp, and here and there were angry little bushes, low to the ground and lousy with thorns. A single twisted tree grew out of the next slope. Helen was alone. And then she wasn't. Under the stunted tree's crippled limbs three figures appeared...
"Helen! Hellooo? You still in there?" Claire was shaking Helen's shoulders in such an abbreviating force that Helen even wondered how a girl as small as Claire was able to move Helen back and forth. Claire was staring up at Helen with a look of concern and confusion present in her features, her brows crinkled in confusion and tension present in her stance. The suddenly Helen remembered how worried all her friends were for her in the past week. She had been acting really really strange. Still spacing out, Helen absentmindedly hugged Claire and burrowed her face in the nape of her shoulder. This exchange would've been awkward if they hadn't been best of buds since they were children. Without even uttering a single word Helen felt Claire's tension fade away as she hugged her best friend's neck with warm expression overlooking her face. "Yes I'm here Claire. I promise not to space out again, okay?" she said with a soft warm laugh resonating from her body, hoping to lighten up the mood between them. Claire took the bait and held out a hand for Helen to reach up to. With a heavy heave from Claire, Helen was up from the floor giggling with Claire as she listened to her friend filling her in about the latest, hottest, and juciest gossip around in school (of course something that wasn't about her). Time seemed to have ceased working for her and Claire as they were so utterly immersed in their buddy-buddy moment, then their little bubble of leisure and fun seemed to have stopped when she saw him. Then the usually self resonating amity that Helen had was gone in an instant, replaced with the dangerously hot magama-like hatred that Helen had never felt before until now. Until she saw him. And almost without even realizing it she was running towards him, clenched fists ready to punch. And her eyes filled with burning pure hatred.