The Arms of Angels
Kim walked through the cramped hallway of Wilmington High School trying to keep to her business and not make herself noticeable. Her head was down, books in her hand. As she was walking, she stumbled on a felled book bag and tripped forward. She braced herself to hit the floor. The impact never came. She opened her eyes, to reveal a brown-haired boy with stunning brown eyes. He had his one arm wrapped under her elbow, his left arm placed on her waist. Jack looked around at everyone. They all stopped and stared, they were laughing too. The girl quickly steadied herself and picked up her books, speed walking away. The brown-eyed boy didn't see her the rest of the week.
"Hey Jacky! Jacky wait up!" Jack heard his younger brother Austin yell from the playground. Jonathan turned to see Austin walking towards him.
"Hey buddy, what's up?" Jack asked his brother.
"I caught this little toad! See?" Austin held out his hand to reveal a green little blob. Austin's eyes lit up from behind his big glasses. Jack chuckled.
"That's so cool lil' bro! But don't you think you should put him back though?" He questioned.
"Oh yeah I should probably do that." Austin simply flicked the toad out of his hands and onto the sidewalk, "he's gone now." He smiled up at his older brother.
"Alright well now that's done, let's get home. Mom I think is making Mac N' Cheese."
"MAC N' CHEESEEE! YESS! LET'S GO JACKY!" Austin started running in the direction their house was. Jack rolled his eyes and ran after him.
Walking home, Jack decided to take the long way with Austin to show him what the creek looked like. He made sure Austin wouldn't be able to remember exactly how to get there just in case he decided he wanted to go swimming. Walking along the path, Jack saw a short in stature, blonde girl. He looked over at her to reveal that she was the mysterious girl who he had caught a week before.
"Whoa," Jack muttered under his breath. He stopped and stared at the girl from a distance, watching as she unlocked the door to her house.
"What are you staring at Jackyyyy?" Austin tugged on Jack's arm.
"Uh, nothing. Come on let's go get that Mac N' Cheese"
"MAC N' CHEESE!" Austin shouted before taking off.
The next day while walking to school, Jack decided to take the long way. He rounded the corner of the path, keeping an eye out for the mysterious blonde girl. He saw her leaving her house, book bag in hand. She was wearing worn-out black converse, some black leggings, and a long-sleeve white shirt complete with a light denim jacket. She seemed tired, her arms looking so weak as they moved forward and back to the beat of her feet. Jack thought maybe her shoes were too small, the girl was barely lifting her feet off the ground and walked so carefully she could've had glass in her foot.
Jack decided to stay the distance behind her. He put in his ear buds and began to listen to his music, trying to look nonchalant. The whole time he was studying her, racking his brain for answers about her. Had he seen her before he caught her? Maybe she was new? Why was she so fascinating to him? He busied himself with those questions for the majority of the walk.
Just three minutes way from school, he began to feel some sort of tingling feeling where the skin on his hipbones was. It wasn't a tingling that happened when you didn't lift your leg for a long time and it fell asleep and became all fuzzy, it was a tingling that felt rusty- stinging maybe. He kept walking, ignoring the weird sensation on his sides.
He stopped right at the yard of his school, watching the sea of students enter the doors. Behind, a straggler- the blonde beauty- was just walking up the steps to the school. She stopped at the top, took a deep breath, and opened the doors. Jack watched as her straight hair fell straight down her back as she flicked it with her frail hand.
Jack ran up the stairs as soon as she was out of sight. He pushed open the green doors, and looked around to see if he could find the girl. He didn't see her. He walked into the big ocean of students are tried to search for her. He still couldn't find her. He began to walk to his locker, but then suddenly out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a streak of blonde to his right. It was moving away. He took off, running in her general direction.
His eyes were scanning the crowd for blonde hair, or black converse, or a short stature, or hazel eyes. All he saw was the sneakers of a jock- running his way. He didn't see Jack. Before Jack could step aside, the jock stepped on his foot and tripped a little. Blocking Jack's sight for just a second. He lost her. The two boys steadied themselves, and before exchanging quick "sorry bro's" walked their separate ways. The warning bell rang and Jack went back to his locker. He looked for her between classes every day but couldn't see even a glimpse of her.