Starlight, Star Bright

By: dontwaitupxx

Chapter Two- Age Seven

-Friday-

"Betcha can't catch me!"

"You wanna bet?"

"Your girly legs can't keep up with me; I'm a natural at running!"

"Oh, we'll see about that!"

Clara Edwards took off running after Elijah Goldsworthy. It was 11:30, meaning that the grade two classes got their half an hour recess. It also meant that Clara and Elijah could actually see each other during the school day, since the school decided to move them into separate classrooms after grade one. Couldn't the school realize that Clara and Elijah were best friends? They were literally joined at the hip. Ever since Clara and Elijah had become best friends, they had been doing everything together. Their moms would always be at one house or the other, and the two were left alone, free to do whatever they wanted, whether it be playing on Clara's trampoline or playing in Elijah's sandbox. Their moms also made it an excuse to take them places with them. They went to Chuckie Cheese's together, they went to the park together, they even made their first Build-A-Bear's together! It would be the start of many things that they would do together.

As Clara was running after Elijah, she did come to the realization that he was running just a tad faster than she. It was probably the soccer games that he had every fall and spring that had made him faster than she. But that didn't stop her little legs from running as quickly as she could behind him.

As he ran across the blacktop, he swerved in and out around other children who were playing; the girls playing jump rope, the boys playing four square, and the weird kids who were rolling around on the cement. Clara had a little trouble moving around the kids, but managed to make her way around the children rolling on the hot cement, getting their faces all black and dirty.

As he ran over to the playground, he practically flew up the ladder and faced her from the top, "You can't touch me here; I'm in the safety zone!"

"No fair!" Clara pouted, "I'll never be able to catch you then if you don't move!"

"That's the whole idea!" Eli smirked, resting his arms against the playground walls.

"Hey Clara," a voice from behind her squealed, "Do you want to play jump rope with us?"

Clara turned around and saw her friend Allison skipping up to her in her pink boots and long denim skirt (despite the seventy degree spring time weather).

"Sorry, Allison, but I'm playing a game with Elijah."

"What are you playing? Maybe I can play?" Allison inquired, a small smile on her face.

"Sorry, Allison, but I think it's only supposed to be a two person game." Clara said, truly wanting to play with Elijah and only Elijah. She liked Allison a lot, but there was a time and place for playing games with her, and when she can't see Elijah all day except for during recess, then that time isn't then.

Allison pouted and skipped off, though her skipping seemed forced and tiresome. Clara turned back towards the playground and the smile on her face instantly vanished. The place where Elijah had been standing now stood empty, and he was nowhere to be seen. She quickly inspected the playground, looking around on each side to see if he was there. After being satisfied that she couldn't find him, she started to walk over to where Allison was playing, when all of a sudden, she heard a "Boo!" from behind her and she felt two hands push her over onto the blacktop. Looking up, she saw Elijah standing over her, looking quite pleased with himself, but Clara wasn't going to have any of that.

"Oh, I'll get you for that, Elijah Goldsworthy!" Clara said, getting up on her feet and chasing after him, though he had already gotten a decently significant head start. Again, he dodged through all of the children playing on the blacktop, but this time, she was ready for it, and managed to save a few seconds running through them. She was a lot closer to Elijah than she was before, and now he was only about four feet in front of her. She willed her legs to go as fast as they would let her go, and when he was almost in her grasp:

He veered a sharp left.

At first, she was left clueless as to where he had gone. But then she felt two all familiar hands push her from behind and yell, "Boo!" in her ear. Again, she fell down on the blacktop, but this time, scraping the tops of her hands. But the adrenaline pumping through her veins allowed her to forget about the pain on her hands and chase after him again. He ran back to the playground and started to run around it. However, everyone knows that, especially at this age, girls are generally far smarter than boys are. So simply knowing that Elijah would run around the playground, Clara headed in the opposite direction, chasing around the other side of the playground. Looking behind her to make sure that he hadn't gone back towards the blacktop, Clara didn't see the figure running her way that also wasn't looking her way. She collided with Elijah and they both went sprawling to the ground, the wind knocked out of both of their lungs. They both sat up on the woodchips surrounding the playground, gasping for breath and looking at each other, both of their cheeks red from running and sweat dribbling down the sides of their faces from the heat outside.

Clara was about to put her arm out to grab him and officially catch him, when she started to feel the pain erupting from her hands. She looked down and saw her scratched up hands, now with woodchips sticking to them. She looked at them and then to Elijah, trying to keep in the tears but failing to do so. She tried to stand up, wobbling as she did so and started walking away over to the teachers standing by the door. In half a heartbeat, Elijah was by her side, with one of her palms in his hands. While he was looking at her hand, she was half expecting him to say something along the lines of, "oh did I do this?", or "Oh, this looks painful" or even in the least, "I'm sorry, Clara."

What came out of his mouth was nothing that she would have ever expected.

"Wow! This looks so cool!"

Surprised, she yanked her hand out of his hands, one of his fingers catching on of the woodchips. Pain instantly erupted from her hand and she held her palm in her other fingers, trying to keep from both her hands throbbing in pain. She began walking over to the teachers and one of them perked up when she saw her and bent down to her level.

"Clara, what's wrong? Did you hurt your hands?" One of the lady teachers asked.

Clara nodded and showed the teacher her hands, both a pale pink and having woodchips stuck to them. The teacher sympathetically 'tsk'ed and said, "Clara, how did this happen?"

Elijah, standing a few feet away from the teachers and Clara, overhearing the conversation, half expected for her to say, "Elijah did it!" or "Elijah pushed me down onto the concrete" or even in the least, "We ran into each other and I scrapped my hands."

What came out of her mouth was nothing that he would have ever expected.

"I… I tripped over a rock… and I… I fell." Clara said, sobbing as she did so.

The teacher, wanting to be comforting but not wanting to touch her hands, put her hand on young Clara's back and led her into the school to the school nurse.

Overall, it wasn't necessarily the pain of the scratches that hurt Clara the most. And no, Clara wasn't mad at Elijah at all. It was only an accident and they were only playing. No, the one thing that hurt the most was that in the one time of the day that she was able to see Elijah, she was only able to see him for about half of the recess break.

And that, besides the monster in the closet, is a child's worst nightmare.

"Alright, Clara, your mother is going to be here in about fifteen minutes, so you can just sit in here and wait until she arrives, okay sweetie?"

Clara nodded, hugging her knees to her chest. She was sitting in the nurses office after the incident at recess, and after being put through the tortures of having to get the woodchips taken out of her hand, having to go through the burning sensation of hydrogen peroxide, and having to endure having the nurse bandage her hands for her, the nurse decided that she had had a long enough day and that it was time for her to go home.

As Clara sat there, the nurse went into the school office, which was connected to the nurse's office. Clara was all alone in the nurse's office, sniffling, lonely, and just wanting her mother. As Clara sat there, she saw the hallway door begin to jiggle, and for half a second, Clara thought that it was her mother. The door then opened, and she saw two green eyes staring back and her. Immediately, she didn't know what to make of the situation. He was being extremely out of context.

"Elijah!" Clara whispered, "You're supposed to be in class! How did you get your teacher to let you down here?"

Elijah stepped in all the way and smirked, flashing the bathroom pass in front of her face. Clara immediately gasped and said, "Elijah, you lied to a teacher?"

"I didn't lie to him about anything, Clara! I will go to the bathroom. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay." Elijah said.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Clara said, rolling onto her side and then with her face towards the wall, away from him. She huffed and thought that she heard him step out of the room. Truth is, he had actually stepped farther into the room.

"Clara… I had also… you know… I just wanted… well…" he turned a flushed red, and this time it wasn't from running or from the weather, "I just wanted to say… that I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kept pushing you down, and I shouldn't have run into you at the playground."

"That is not what I'm mad about, Elijah," Clara said, still facing the wall, "Why did you say that the scrapes on my hands looked cool?"

"What? …I dunno. I just did. Though there wasn't a lot of blood, I thought that the blood looked cool." Elijah confessed.

"Yeah, well, it didn't feel too cool."

"Yeah… well I'm sorry…" Elijah said, then he looked up when he saw that Clara had turned around to face him. She had a small smile on her face.

"Elijah? Do you wanna have a sleepover at my house tonight?" Clara asked, not just because she accepted his apology, but because she only saw him for fifteen minutes during recess.

Elijah's face instantly perked up at this and said, "That'd be awesome! I'd just have to ask my mom to make sure that it's alright."

"Yeah, it would probably be a good idea if I asked my mom about it too…"

"So, a truce?" Elijah asked, holding out his hand.

Clara stared at it, "What's a truce?"

Elijah stared, wide eyed, "You don't know what a truce is? God, you are such a dork!"

"Hey!" Clara pouted.

"What, I'm friends with you, right? You're a cool dork!" Elijah grinned, and Clara did also. He sat down next to her, "A truce is where we agree to stop our fighting and stay friends no matter what… It also means that I get to chase you every single day during recess."

"No way!" Clara looked away from him, a small grin on her face.

"But Clara, isn't it worth it if we stop fighting and stay friends forever as long as I get to chase you at recess?" Elijah asked, smirking.

"I… I guess so…" Clara said, giving him her pinky finger since she had her bandage on her hand. He gave his pinky finger in return and they shook on it.

"It's a truce then!" Elijah said, grinning. They then heard the nurse's voice from behind the office door and Elijah sprinted out of the room, into the hallway, forgetting to close the door behind him. The nurse failed to notice however, as she was talking with another older adult.

"Mommy!" Clara squealed and jumped into her mother's arms, hugging her and kissing her cheek. She was just tall enough to the point where if she stood on her tippy toes (and if her mother bent down a little – but Clara didn't have to know that!), she could reach her mother's cheek and kiss her.

"Hi there sweetie!" her mother said, kissing her daughter's cheek, "Are your hands feeling better?" Clara nodded yes in return, "Alright well, let's get you home so that way you can take a nap and forget this ever happened.

"Mommy, can Elijah sleep over?"

That night, Clara and Elijah sat on the couch in Clara's living room, watching Harry Potter and eating from a large bowl of popcorn in between them. The movie was almost over, and both of them were getting sleepy. Clara's mother could sense this and had already set out two sleeping bags with pillows on the ground in front of the TV. Both of the children were in their pajamas, so all they had to do once the movie was over was brush their teeth and go to bed.

"Elijah?" Clara said, yawning, "I don't want to go to sleep yet… do you want to watch another movie?"

Elijah yawned too, yawns being contagious, but before he could answer, Clara's mother perked up from the kitchen, "No more movies tonight! You two are going to bed soon, you've both got things going on in the morning."

"Like what?" Clara asked her mother from the couch, yawning again.

"Elijah's got a soccer game in the morning at ten, and he needs to be home at nine." Clara's mother explained.

"Oh okay." Clara said, but then remembered something, "Mommy, where's daddy?"

"Oh…" her mother was quiet for a moment, "Your father's out for the night. He'll be back by tomorrow morning sweetie, don't worry."

"Oh, okay… mommy, what do I have going on tomorrow morning?"

"You… ah… well, you're going to see Elijah's soccer game tomorrow!"

"I am?" Clara said, instantly excited, "Elijah, did you hear that?"

But Elijah didn't say anything. Clara looked over and saw that Elijah was fast asleep on the couch, his head resting on the arm rest.

A child is as innocent as they sleep. Any misdemeanors are stripped away as they sleep and all you see is the angelic face. As they sleep, there isn't any sin in their lives. So what you see is something as pure as an angel themselves. The movie credits were showing then, and nobody ever watched those unless they had clips of the movie in them, so Clara took the opportunity to go over to the window and pray. That night, the stars were out, and she picked out her favorite star of them all, which was shining the brightest amongst them all.

"Starlight, Star Bright,
The shiniest star I see tonight:
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight."

She prayed that Elijah would do well in his soccer game tomorrow and that they would win. She also prayed that their truce would stay true for the rest of their lives, and that she wouldn't grow tired of him chasing her around the playground. She also wondered what these new feelings she had for him were. She still saw him as her best friend, but she was starting to see him the way that Hermione was looking at Ron in the movie. She knew that was an awful comparison, but she knew that those feelings weren't going to go away any time soon.

-End of Chapter Two-