"I can't believe she slapped me. And she acted like she didn't even know me." Jim said holding an icepack to his face. Josh was sitting on his bed in the room they had rented out for the week in red Josh's (that's what we are going to call him) family's inn. Josh was wracking his brain with every possible answer he could come up with, but one kept sticking out. Even though it had been a couple hours since Sarah slapped him, Jim could still feel the sting.
"I can tell just by how much this hurts that she's a lot stronger than she used to be." Jim pointed out to Josh as he sat down on his own bed. Josh sighed and said "I wish I could have been there when you saw her. Even if it meant I would get slapped too. So how did she look? Okay I hope." Jim sat down his ice pack and said "She's fine. She looks totally happy, but she looks a lot different." "How so?" Josh asked, looking at him with furrowed brows.
"Well her hands are scared from when he cut them on the cliff side, her hair just barely touched her shoulders, and she was wearing my clothes." Jim replied. "Your clothes!" Josh was laughing on his back while Jim stared at him. "I could just see it. The question is though, why would she keep your clothes if she doesn't even remember you?" Josh was making a good point. "I was thinking about that too, but it couldn't be that somehow she still remembers us could it?" Jim said not wanting to give himself false hope.
"Well, it's very possible, but we can't be for sure. It could be that she is staying with a poor family and keeps those clothes so they don't have to buy new ones." Josh explained. "I guess that could be it." "By the way, you were gone for a while before coming here. What were you doing?" Josh asked pulling down the bed sheets to go to bed. Jim held up the locket that Josh had retrieved from the lake earlier that day. Sarah's locket shone like the tail of a comet.
"I took it to the jeweler's like you said. I had them replace everything except for the machine inside that held all of the recordings." Jim said, smiling broadly. "I'm hoping it will convince her that she really knows us." "We will just have to find out. Good night, Jim." Josh said turning off the lamp on the bedside table.
After Josh had fallen asleep, Jim dove under the covers and opened the golden locket. The images and events that had taken place during their last days as students passed in front of him as if they had only happened yesterday. Josh laughing, Jim working on the solar surfer that is now in pieces and Sarah's warm familiar smile were all being replayed to him. Before Jim realized it, his face was wet with tears.
"Jim. Jim, wake up. It's morning." Josh said, pulling the covers off of Jim's head. Jim grunted as he slipped out of bed and into his boots. "You look horrible. Didn't you get any sleep last night?" Josh said looking at Jim's eyes that had rings under them. Jim sighed while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and said "Not really. Um…The slap Sarah gave me still hurt and kept me up all night." "I can see why. Your face is all swollen." Josh said pointing to Jim's face.
"What?" Jim went into the bathroom and turned to the mirror. It was true; clearly showing on Jim's right cheek was a swollen mark from where Sarah had slapped him. Jim touched it lightly and it stung. "Ow!" "Maybe we should cover that up with a bandage. It's not that pretty." Josh said.
The two of them went down to get breakfast after covering Jim's swollen cheek with a padded bandage. Red haired Josh came to their table as they sat down and said "I heard what happened with Sarah. Does your face hurt?" "Just a bit." Jim said with a tired smile. "Hey…Josh, would you happen to know where Sarah is staying?"
Sarah was sleeping a dark room and sleeping peacefully. Her peaceful dreaming of the academy was disturbed when something unexpected entered her sleep. She saw rain, a solar surfer crashed against a tree, and someone reaching for her over a cliff. She was tossing and turning in her bed, crying in her sleep. Suddenly, the image of an exploding star crossed the threshold into her dreams, and she woke up with a scream.
Sarah held her breath for a moment then gave out a long sigh. She worked her way out of the maze of bed sheets that had followed her to the floor when she fell out of bed. As soon as she found an exit, she looked around and allowed her eyes to adjust to the dark. Sarah located the curtains covering the large window and danced her way over to let the light in. She stood by the window, simply soaking in the sunlight before running over to the elegant closet in the corner of her large ivory room.
Upon opening the closet, many stylish and beautiful dresses avalanched out on her. She gave a playful shriek as she dug herself out of the pile of clothes and she looked back in her closet. There hanging in the darkest reaches of her closet, were the lose-fitting boy's clothes that she had been found in. She didn't know why it was that she kept them when the person who found her provided her with such striking gowns, but she didn't care. She quickly changed into the simple garments and put on her boots before running down stairs to the dinning hall.
The dinning hall's table extended almost completely across the 50 ft. long room, and Sarah ran down to the end to join the 18 year old boy who was already sitting there. "Good Morning!" Sarah said sitting down cheerfully. "Good Morning, Sarah." said the boy, looking at her through his black hair that was covering one of his eyes. Just as Sarah started to eat the boy sighed and said, "Sarah, your wearing that outfit again? Why don't you wear one of the ones I had made for you? You know I like you to look nice."
Sarah smiled at him and said "I know, but I just like these clothes. I don't know why but I think their special. You understand right, Tristan?" (DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN!) "Of course, Sarah; you can wear whatever you like. By the way, I heard from one of the maids that you had a shocking encounter yesterday." Tristan said. Sarah put down her silver wear and began to explain.
"It was the weirdest thing. There was this boy who was about my age and he was following me down the street while I was coming back. He was calling my name so I turned around to see who it was. I was really surprised because I didn't know who he was. Anyway, as soon as he got close to me, he just hugged me. He wouldn't let me go and he was squeezing me so tight. After he let go I just stared at him. He looked really happy, but also like he was just crying."
Sarah finished her sentence sympathetically; she couldn't get Jim's sad comet blue eyes out of her head. "To continue, he took me by the hand and tried taking me to someone named Josh. He said 'it's time to go home.' I pulled away and when he looked back at me I slapped him and ran back here. That's what happened." Sarah finished, picking up her silver wear to finish her breakfast. "I know Josh, he works in the mechanics garage down town, but who was this guy? What did this he look like?" Tristan asked interested.
Sarah contemplated every feature of Jim's face as she finished the last of her eggs. "Well, to start off he had a peculiar hair cut. The bottom half of his head was shaved except for one braid. It kind of reminded me of a mouse's tail. He was a couple inches taller than me and what struck me as very odd is that he was wearing the same exact clothing as me." "That is odd." Tristan commented. "Although, what seemed to be the most intriguing thing about him were his eyes and his smile. His eyes were an incredibly pure blue and he had the most crooked smile." Sarah said completing her description.
The butler who had been taking down the details on paper left the room and Tristan said, "You seem to have his face down to a pin for someone you barely got a look at." "I know it's strange, but every little thing about him, even the way he talked and his voice, seem really familiar. I'm probably never going to see him again so it's not important. I'm going to the sparing room to train." Sarah said getting up from the table. "I'll see you later then, Sarah." Tristan said.
Just as Sarah left the room, the butler came back holding a newspaper and said "Sir, we found some information on the boy Miss Sarah described." Tristan took the newspaper from him and read the page that the butler told him to go to. "That's very interesting. It seems we've got a little criminal going after our precious guest." Tristan said.