Nuff said.

Enjoy and review :D

THE SENIOR YEAR

E. Aster Bunnymund was having the dream of his life when the alarm clock decided to pull him back into reality. The beeping noise was too much for his sleepy mind to take so he got up from his bed quite abruptly, and squinted at the gadget as if seriously considering throwing it through the window and go back to his dream. He turned off the clock with a grunt and forced himself to get out of bed and get himself ready.

The face in the mirror wasn't really a welcoming sight; his hair was messy and had slight dark circles under his green eyes. He promised himself no more sketching in the middle of the night, even if he knew he would do it again. He always ended up surrendering to the impulse.

Even after washing his face to dispel sleep and brushing his teeth, he was still not fully awake. He found a pair of jeans and a dark green t-shirt; he was running late so it would have to do.

Searching around the room, he hastily put a pair of notebooks, his sketchpad, and the things he had left on his desk the night before so he wouldn't forget. He should have unpacked as soon as he had returned to his home, but hours cramped on a plane seat begging for the thing not to crash, left him exhausted. Flying was definitely not his piece of cake.

He looked at the wooden boomerangs on his bedside table, and after considering it a bit he putted those in his backpack too, no real reason, he just felt like having them around.

When he came down the stair the house was silent, he didn't have much time for a decent breakfast so he fixed himself some juice and a toast. There was a small note on the fridge held with a magnet: 'Both off to work, will be back at 6. Love, Mom'.

He left the house, locking behind him, and hurried to the bus stop. Just in time to chase after it for a block and a half, before the driver took pity on him and let him in. The fifteen minute trip passed without any more difficulties.

Usually he would just walk, but arriving late on the first day of coming back to classes after summer vacations was not his thing to do. He wanted to meet up with his friends and catch up on what they did on summer while he had gone to Australia with his parents to visit his family.

High School was just as he had left it, an old but stable building that swarmed with activity. As he made his way to his locker, his mind still lingered over the low plateaus and the rugged mountain ranges he had seen, the beaches and how his cousin Matt scoffed at his failed attempt of trying wind-surfing. Aster could now add that to his list of things he was not trying again.

Nevertheless, the trip was amazing. It had been years since he last saw his family and his homeland, barely being a 6 year old when he and his parents moved to America. To go back there, felt like a long reencounter with things he had left behind. The sketchpad he took with him was full of those infinite desert-like landscapes of the dry Outback and the coastal side, where the beaches, the forests and lakes met, so he would be able to keep them close to his memory this time.

A pat on his back and a jolly laughter brought him back to Planet Earth, and he turned around to see the blue eyes and big smile of his friend Nicholas. "Hey, Bunny! You made it on time this year"

"Here we go…" he rolled his eyes and said hi to the dark-haired teen.

They entered to class just as the bell ringed and the hallways dissipated from students. Aster took seat near a blond short guy who waved at seeing him.

"Hi, Sandy."

Before they could get to talk more the teacher entered and called his class to order. The man had no mercy of the young minds that were still hovering over the summer that had just gone away, and after explaining that this was their senior year and that he expected them to work hard to pass his subject, he started the Algebra class at once.

'Crickey, what the hell is that?' thought Aster as he saw the increasing amount of numbers and Xsand Ys scattered on the blackboard. How had he let Sandy to convince him that Algebra was a good idea? He tried to follow as much as he could, but around hour and a half, his hand slipped and he ended up drawing things in his sketchpad.

Suddenly, something small hit his head and a paper ball landed in front of him. Inside there was a short message written with a neat calligraphy and golden ink: 'Hope you show that to Tooth'.

Aster looked at what he sketched paper; he had absently drawn a petite girl with deep eyes, a bright smile, and long straight hair. Covering his drawing, he blushed intensely and gave his friend a dirty look. The blond just smiled smugly as he raised an eyebrow.

Sandy knew more than he expressed and, of course, had noticed the way his friend saw the girl when she was around. The boy was definitely smitten, and Aster knew that Sandy wasn't blind, so the Aussie made him promise that he wouldn't say a thing about it.

Naturally, the blond kept his promise but he didn't find less amusing that his usually calm and tough friend had a goofy smile across his face when he thought of her.

Thanks God that Jack, Tooth and North were always focused on something else or Aster's secret would have been found out long time ago. If they didn't already knew.

When the bell rang announcing lunch time, all the students sighed in relief.

As the three boys made their way to the cafeteria, they found a tall brunette boy in a blue hoodie who instantly joined them. Jack was on his junior year but used to hang around them.

Aster and Jack didn't start off well. Jack never missed an opportunity to tease him, he still did. At the beginning, they bickered at each other like little kids, but after a while both learnt that the other wasn't that bad. Aster finally welcomed Jack into the group and although they kept on with their competitive attitude and occasionally clashed, they were actually good friends.

They sat at their usual spot on a table outdoors since the weather was still warm. They started to small-talk about their schedules, teachers, and classes, as did other students in their respective tables. To Aster, the morning had seemed eternal and he barely paid attention to Jack's complaining about teachers giving homework already. He was looking for someone.

"Tooth! Over here!" Jack raised a hand to catch someone's attention.

Aster felt his whole body tense; he wasn't ready to see her again without doing something that would embarrass him. His heart skip a beat when he felt a small hand on his shoulder and a sweet voice saying hi to the gathered group. Sandy moved a little so Tooth could sit next to the Aussie, who squinted at his friend's indirect attempts to do the match-maker. But his expression changed when he glanced at the girl and noticed something that was different from the last time before he left to Australia.

Toothiana's dark brown hair that used to reach her waist was now gone, and next to him was a petite girl with an unruly pixie cut and a few bangs in shades of green, blue, and yellow.

She must have felt someone's eyes on her because she stopped talking to North and looked at him with those big mauve eyes in which he could get lost. "Is it that bad?"

Her voice had a hint he had never heard before. Why did she seem so nervous about his opinion?

He gulped, telling himself to snap out of it and answer the girl. "I-it looks pretty."

Her expression, that at first seemed insecure, slowly dissipated when she noticed that he blushed fiercely and started to unconsciously fidget a little with his hands.

'He looks cute when he's like that' said her little inner voice that seemed to appear more often than ever when Aster was around. Such thought her eyes casted down and she muttered a thank you, a shy smile tugging on her lips.

Suddenly, North asked about vacations, diverting the group's attention to a safer topic. Jack had been out of town with his mother and sister to visit some relatives and escape the oppressive heat wave that came every year when summer time arrived to Burgess. North had spent most of his time working in God knows what at what he liked to call "his workshop".

Sandy took permanent residence on the public pool the whole summer, as did everyone else who didn't have the facility of air-conditioning to at least bare the high temperatures. He also added 'flirting with hot babes' that definitely caused some amusement as the blond fist bumped with Jack. As for Tooth, she basically spent time taking care of her little sister (Baby Tooth as Jack had nicknamed her), doing some outdoors activities, and reading.

When it was Aster's turn, everyone got instantly hooked up with the travel's anecdotes he had: camping in the open with his uncle and cousins, visiting the forest with the huge eucalyptus trees and ferny gullies, re-learning how to surf.

"At least you didn't end up as shark bait." Teased Jack.

"Takes more than that to bring down a bloke like me, nerves of steel, master of Tai Chi…"

"And really annoying and really full of yourself" ended Jack.

"Rack off, show pony."

The laughter was interrupted when Aster threw a small package at North, who caught it in mid-air. The boy raised an eyebrow, not sure what to do with it.

"Open it; it's not that hard North."

The gift was a wooden toy with a small mechanical device in its interior that made the doll move on its own without needing batteries or to pull any strings. The owner of the antique shop was an old acquaintance of his father so Aster took his word that trying to figure out how the toy worked would leave his friend puzzled for a long time. Sandy, who had asked for all kind of strange seashells Aster could find so the blond could add to his collection, smiled delighted at the contents of his package.

Jack looked skeptically at the key chain whit a small stuffed koala he had received. "This is for me?"

"That's for Emma, you blockhead. This one is for you." He slid the package across the table. The gift wrap gave way to a small yellow road sign, like the ones he saw a million time on the roads on his way to his uncle's farm, with black letter that read: WANKER.

The brunette frowned a little. "Very funny, kangaroo."

Before Jack and Aster could start to get at each other's nerves the bell rang again and lunch time was over. The group got up and North, Sandy and Jack left immediately to their respective classes. Aster had to wait till the next period to go to his art class, which meant spending one hour on his own in the library or the study hall to fill time.

He was heading there when he suddenly halted and grunted, remembering something important. He turned around and spotted Tooth's figure walking down the dessert hall to her next class.

It was now or never. He walked as fast as he could, getting a reproving look of a teacher when he passed by, but he paid no attention to it.

"Tooth!" he called.

The girl turned to look back, and he felt overwhelmed by the way the sunlight played around her and made it as if she was surrounded by golden dust. And as she looked into him with those beautiful eyes he felt the ground disappearing under his feet and gravity no longer holding him to earth.

"Um, I…this is for you." He handed her a blue box.

"Thanks. You didn't have to buy me anything." She smiled shyly at him.

As the girl opened the box, Aster felt his stomach in knots as he waited for her reaction.

When Toothiana saw what was in the box she became speechless, her expression completely unreadable. In there, under the white tissue paper, was a wavy teardrop-shaped opal pendant in sterling silver with a delicate silver chain. The fiery blue and emerald green gleamed fiercely into the sunlight.

The boy watched as she covered her mouth and…wait…why were her eyes getting teary? Ah, damn, he had screwed it up. He knew he shouldn't have listened to Ombric when he suggested this would be a good present for a girl. 'It's believed that the opal is an ancient token of love and that brings great luck to its owner' How could he have been such a numbskull? That blasted old Englishman just wanted to get rid of the necklace that had been accumulating dust on the shelf of his antique shop for years. He would give him a piece of his mind when he saw him again.

"It's so beautiful, Aster." the girl's voice interrupted his mental diatribe. Her eyes were not sad but sparkling with sheer joy. "I love it!"

He would have had enough with her happy smile and her gratitude, but he wasn't at all prepared to have her arms wrapped around him, hugging him tightly. At first, he stiffened because he was taken by surprise, but then he permitted himself the liberty of hugging her back. He didn't imagine her sigh or her heartfelt smile as her eyelids hid her purple irises.

Scratch that; he would thank the old man when he saw him again.

His eyes closed and he remained silent, reveling on her soft contact and on the bubble that seemed to be around them, isolating them from the whole universe.

Time seemed to have stopped, and everything around them faded. Was this what people called magic?

He realized how much he had missed Toothiana the whole summer, and even when he had enjoyed seeing the red earth that stretched for miles, the immensity of the forests, and the crystal clear sea, he had wished he could share all that with her. Show her where he came from, and how breath-taking his home could be.

Unfortunately, the magic ended when a small cough brought them back to reality. A teacher with a vexed expression was there, tapping her toe, and eyes squinting. "You two back to class, immediately."

Tooth released him and stepped back, her cheeks flushed. A small smile formed on her pink lips as she said goodbye. "See you later."

Aster's mind was too much above the clouds to even notice the scowling teacher as he headed to spend the remaining time on the library, most probably, to daydream.

As for Toothiana, she didn't really realize the reproving tone on the voice of her Foreign Language teacher when she arrived at the classroom. She quickly apologized, hoping not many people would notice her burning face.

She flopped backward on the chair, her heart about to burst out of her chest. Her initial intention had been to thank him, hugging him wasn't in her plans. She just let herself go with the flow and before she could stop herself from making something embarrassing she had her arms around him. And he hugged her back. She still couldn't truly believe it.

Although she had kept herself as busy as possible, summer vacations without him hadn't been the same.

They said that the distance makes the heart grow fonder. Tooth had never realized how true that could be; she often wondered what he could be doing now and if he would miss her as much as she missed him.

She was ashamed to admit that her greatest fear had been that he would meet someone on his trip. The idea of him with a tall, blond, beautiful Australian girl turned her self-esteem into nothing. For days she couldn't really get close to a mirror without secretly feeling short and unattractive.

But she didn't felt like that when he hugged her, she felt really beautiful, special, cherished in a way she never knew she wanted.

Toothiana leaned on her desk, running her hands through her hair and suddenly stopping. When she first raised the possibility of cutting it, she wasn't completely sure if it would be a good choice. She had been nervous about him not liking what she did with it, because even she tried to deny it, she wanted him to notice that she was trying to catch his eye.

Now she wasn't afraid of it, and a faint half-smile appeared across her face.

About a year ago, she realized she had fallen for him, and on the first four months she waited those feelings to fade as result of a simple temporary infatuation. But when they didn't, she spent another three months not trying to stop those feelings to take root in her. And only after that she was certain that this was not a simple crush, she decided that if she could find the right moment, she would tell him.

She looked at the necklace in her hand, and without anyone noticing, she putted it on, smiling quietly.

The chirping of a bird on a nearby tree distracted her lost gaze from the whiteboard; she looked thought the window at the open blue skies and felt uncontrollably happy.

This senior year indeed promised to be full of surprised.

This was one of he first pieces I wrote xD

Please, don't kill me. I was but a child incursioning on writing fanfiction