Hearts Disguised

Chapter 13

A Free Day

Note: I've managed to get ahead of the writing on this story and I've noticed that this story is going to go longer than I first anticipated so I'm going to add Friday to the update day. I hope this pleases everyone and I hope you are all enjoying the story.

Yang's first actual day living in Cinder's house was really great. The work wasn't bad at all and it just felt comfortable being there… Anything was better than sleeping on that couch under a bridge. With that said, Yang had another peaceful night of sleep and woke up bright and early to bid farewell to Cinder on her way to work. Once she left, she walked over to the table that has her work load for the day. However, there was nothing there for her. That's when she noticed that Cinder didn't say anything about the list on the table. Even though that was true, she felt that she had to confirm this, but everyone who walked by her seemed a little too scary so she just decided to leave it at that.

She walked back upstairs to get ready and returned to her room. When she did, she immediately realized that there wasn't really anything for her to do. She looked over at her desk and saw that there was still some money left over from her shopping trip yesterday so she decided to head into town. Although it was a week day and she was obvious a girl who looked like a student, she wasn't concerned at all. She could just get away with the whole home school idea.

In the beginning, Yang didn't really have a set point on where she wanted to go so she just wandered around aimlessly. As she did, no one questioned her about being out here during the day which made her feel even better. She didn't want to affiliate with anyone and things were just going by too easily for her. As she continued to wander aimlessly, she spotted some street performers doing a little show in the square so she decided to check it out. When she got there, she saw that it was a group of girls and guys doing some drumming with random objects. They were all smiling and looking like they were having a great time. Right as she made contact with one of the girls, she walked over to Yang and grabbed her by the hand.

"Come and join us."

"Haha, no thank you. I'm no good at playing music."

"Don't worry about. Drumming is all about freedom. All you have to do is play what you feel on the inside." The girl sat Yang down in front of an upside-down bucket and insisted on her playing. At first, Yang didn't know what to do, but as she looked around and saw the others doing whatever they wanted, that quickly got her motivated.

"How's this?" She wasn't doing anything special, but she was pounded on the bucket.

"Perfect. See, you're getting it," the girl said with a smile. Her smile was so contagious that Yang eventually caught and started to let herself go.

"Woooaaaahhhh!" The lead guy started to do some chants which only made the drumming seem even cooler. When he did that, Yang started to go crazy do some interesting things. She smacked the sides of the bucket as well as hitting it against the ground to provide different sounds.

"Yeah, keep it up girl!" Yang smiled again and continued her thing. The crowd around the little street show got bigger with all of their attention slowly going towards Yang. However, she was unaware of this since she was too into drumming. After some time, everyone coordinated a simultaneous drum roll which Yang eventually picked up on. As that happened, they all started to yell and this time, Yang followed them too. After a few more seconds, they nodded at each other and stopped drumming, leaving Yang to be the only one playing. It took her a few seconds to realize it, but when she stopped, everyone cheered as if they witnessed some kind of miracle.

"Woooo!" At that moment, Yang's face went red as kicked the bucket to the side and tried to run, but that girl from before grabbed her before she could.

"Hey, that was great."

"What? I totally played when it was over."

"There's no rule that says we can't play when everyone else isn't. You did great." Yang turned her head in embarrassment.

"Really?"

"Of course. Everyone we try to get play with us is just too shy to do something random. I can tell you got a free soul." That last comment stuck with Yang for a while. It wasn't true at all. Deep down, she was still thinking about her parents, but she knew that she had to keep moving forward and that's why she was living with Cinder. That woman could give her a future where she didn't have to dwell on her past. "If you're ever available, we're always out here so you should come by."

"Okay. I'll try." The girl patted her on the back and walked back to her group where they started to do another song. Yang looked at them one last time and then turned to do something else. When she did, a familiar voice called out her name which caused her to freeze where she was.

"Yang, is that you?" Yang's eyes widened for it was a voice she hasn't heard in a long time. She turned slowly and saw Blake with her hands against her chest. "W-What are you doing here?"

"Me? W-What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?"

"I could ask you the exact same thing." At that moment, Yang was being trapped in a corner. She didn't really know what to say. She was in kind of a bad situation here so she had to be quick on her feet. What was the best thing she could do? Run? Stay and talk? She didn't really know this girl so running would be the best decision for her.

"Sorry, but I got to go." Right as Yang attempted to flee, Blake grabbed her by the wrist.

"Yang, you're not trying to avoid me, are you?" Yang was slow at turning around. It wasn't entirely true, but at this certain moment in time, that's what she was doing.

"N-No. Why would you think that?"

"I don't know. It's just that I haven't seen you in school for a long time and then out of nowhere, you show up here. So, what's going on?" Blake wanted to know what was happening with her. "Are you okay? I, um, I actually saw you when…" Yang immediately cut her off.

"I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me." At that moment, Blake let go of her wrist and Yang brought it back to lessen the pain. Surprisingly, her grip was pretty tough.

"But I…" She wanted to say it. She really did. She wanted to tell her that she missed that smile she gave her every morning. She wanted to tell her that she missed hearing her voice tell her good morning every day as school started. She missed being able to see Yang at school. She missed it all… She just couldn't bring herself to say it to her face. "Never mind. I'm sorry for bothering you." She turned around to hide her tears. "Goodbye." She started to walk off in shame. She missed her chance to speak her heart.

"Hey Blake." But at the sound of her voice, her face started to light up again.

"If you're ever in town, we can hang out." She turned around and tried her best to conceal her pure enjoyment from that comment.

"Really?"

"Of course. I haven't really hung out with any friends recently so I've been kind of bored." Blake smiled. She suddenly reached in her bag and rummaged through her things as quickly as she could.

"Ah, found it. Whenever you're free, you call me and I promise I'll be there to meet up with you." She walked up to Yang handed her a piece of paper. "I gotta go. Bye." Before Yang could respond, Blake was already gone. She then looked down and saw that it was a number. Yang couldn't help but wonder if she already had this planned.

"Hm." She folded it back up and placed it in her pocket. After that, she had no desire to do anything else so she headed home for the day with only one thing in her head: Blake.

End of Chapter 13