Blast from the past

It was a beautiful day at Westbridge High. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping happily in their nests, the flowers were in full bloom and were raising their tiny colorful heads to the sky.

The day was even made more beautiful by the fact that the first period was absolutely free!

For the first time in a very, very, excruciatingly long time, Mr. Wentz had called in sick, so there was absolutely no one to supervise homeroom at all. Which was very, very good news, especially for latecomers.

Alex, along with the rest of the class, hadn't stopped jumping around like a monkey on ecstasy for five whole minutes. It was an amazing feeling. For once, he didn't have to see the stupid little man sneer at him for being late or to listen to his stupid patronizing voice when he gave his stupid little lectures.

"Dude, calm down," said Brian, amused at Alex's hyperactivity "You might hurt yourself."

"Dude," said Alex in reply, still bouncing about "You've been here for like five days already. Aren't you glad you don't have to put up with him today?"

Brian thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, you're right." He then jumped up and began to assume Alex's monkey-like state. He didn't suppress a hoot. Mr. Wentz was gone!

Unfortunately, a teacher barged in and told everyone to stop jumping around at once or she'll inform the principal. Everyone sank down on their seats and remained quiet, still thrilled about the fact that the devil himself was absent.

"I feel like crying," said Alex, pretending to dab at his eyes "I can't believe this is really happening to me."

Brian gave him a look. "Seriously?"

Alex snorted with laughter and whacked Brian on the arm. "Course I won't cry, silly boy. I'm not a sap."

Brian had to agree. At first glance, Alex didn't even look like the type to break down helplessly.

Brian then noticed something. Wrapped around Alex's left wrist was a faded pink ponytail, obviously much too small for his thick curly hair and much too girly for his personality.

"Is that yours?" he asked, pointing to the ponytail.

Alex looked at it. "Nope."

"Why do you have it then?"

Alex smiled, not taking his eyes off of it. "It's a long story."

"I've got time. A whole freaking period, in fact."

Alex chuckled. "Fine, I'll tell you." He looked at it again, like it was a piece of treasure "It belonged to my best friend in the entire world."

"Sierra?" guessed Brian. Obviously, it couldn't have been Christofer's. Unless, Christofer happened to like wearing pink ponytails.

Alex laughed. "No, no. She goes way, way back. Even before Chris and Sierra." His eyes became distant as he remembered. "It was ten years ago. I was six years old. My dad was just starting his career as a musician so he traveled all over town to play gigs and stuff. We finally settled in a town and my mom got a job at a café where my dad used to play a lot. I remember I was all alone. I didn't know any of the kids in the neighborhood, so I had absolutely no one to play with. And when you're six and you have no one to play with, it was depressing."

"One day, when I was playing in the sandbox at a playground, I saw this girl crying. She looked just as alone as I was. And at a young age, I had that Good Samaritan nature in me. So I went over to her and asked her what was wrong. She told me her friends left her and that she had no one to play with. So, being a loner as well, I offered to play with her. She told me her name was Cassadee. From that point onward, we became fast friends. Best friends in fact. There was never a time when I didn't do anything with her. We went to the playground and to each others houses everyday, I celebrated her birthday with her, we watched my dad play a show in my mom's café, we made each other feel better when we get hurt, like scrape our knee or something. It was the best year of my entire life."

"Then one day, my dad finally got signed to a label and he was starting to tour states. He told me it was hard if he went by himself, so he decided to bring us along. Which meant that I had to leave Cassadee. After being with my best friend for a year, it tore me apart to hear that I had to suddenly leave her. I told her the news and, well…we both cried."

Brian stifled a laugh. "So much for not being a sap."

"Hey come on, I was six," said Alex "Anyway, I told her that she was my best friend and I never ever wanted to leave her. She then asked me what would happen if we forget each other. I then gave her the bracelet my mom made for me when I was two and told her to keep wearing it on her wrist so she wouldn't forget me. She gave me her favorite pink ponytail, the one that always kept her hair up the way I liked it, and told me to do the same." He held up his wrist. "I haven't taken it off ever since."

"So you had that thing on you for ten years?"

"Yep. Pretty much."

Brian shook his head in amazement. "That's a really strong friendship you've got there."

"Yeah," said Alex "And we haven't stopped communicating with each other. I mean, the first few years, we were on the phone non-stop. Then my mom kinda got mad at me 'cause the phone bill was going nuts. So we were reduced to emails. We'd always write so many things to one another. I'd tell her about Sierra and Chris and the other stuff at school and she'd tell me her side. Recently though, I haven't been getting stuff from her. It was strange, but I wasn't too affected by it. At least it gave me a chance to spend time with my two other best friends."

"Do Sierra and Chris know about her?"

Alex laughed. "Yeah. I told them our story about a billion times. I think they're sick of it."

"So," said Brian "Do you know what she looks like now? I mean,she's still a human being. She changes over time."

Alex looked thoughtful for a moment. "Actually…no. No I don't."

~~/~~

Coming out of Biology was a relief. Today's topic was about the circulatory system and the sight of blood and a real human heart on the projector screen almost made Alex hurl. Medicine was obviously out of his top college courses.

Next period was world history. Excellent. For some strange reason, it was his favorite subject. Something about ancient artifacts, the origin of things and historical events interested him. Whenever he expressed this interest to his friends, Sierra would always give him that look that clearly said weirdo. Well, Sierra never cared for school anyway. Christofer, on the other hand, being the strange guy that he is, would go and make some lengthy comparison of the history lesson to this totally unrelated video game or comic, then suddenly shift to a different topic.

He slipped into the back seat nearest to the window and relaxed. A brunette with blonde streaks took the seat in front of him. He didn't pay attention. He never really paid attention to the other kids in the class.

The rest of the period, he was listening intently as the teacher described the different strategies of the different European countries during Word War I. He pictured the war scenes: fighter jets zooming across the sky, bombs exploding everywhere, the sound of machine guns…

The sound of a pen dropping distracted him for a while. The girl in front of him was already bending to pick it up, but he was way ahead of her.

"Hey, I think this is yours," he said, lifting the pen.

"Thanks," she said, taking it.

Then he saw it. His eyes widened until they were as big as saucers. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He blinked a few times then looked at it again. It was still there.

On the girl's wrist was his mother's bracelet.

His heart began thumping hard in his chest. It can't be…can it? He swallowed hard. "Cassadee?" he whispered.

The girl froze. Both their hands were still on the pen. They lifted their heads at the same time. Their eyes met. Hers grew big.

"A-Alex?" she whispered. His heart began to race. It was her! He nodded.

"Oh my—!" she cried out. Dozens of heads turned to them in surprise. Soon, the whole class was staring at them. Both Alex and Cassadee felt mortified.

"What is going back there?" demanded the teacher.

"Nothing sir," said Alex "Just returning her pen."

The teacher narrowed his eyes. "Well, back to your seat, Mr. DeLeon. You've just wasted two minutes of my time."

Alex quietly returned to his seat. Cassadee looked back at him one last time and beamed discreetly. No one could understand the immense joy they felt at that moment.

~~/~~

Alex and Cassadee were the last to leave the room. They couldn't exactly celebrate once class ended because it would cause another commotion and could possibly lead to detention. The teacher was already pissed enough. Pissing him off more would just end badly.

Once they were sure that the teacher was out sight, they finally let out the joy that they had been containing the entire period. And believe me, that was a really, really long time for someone in the grips of total excitement.

"Oh god," said Alex, repeatedly running his hands through his hair "Oh god. Oh god. Pinch me, I must be dreaming." Cassadee, in her excitement, accidentally pinched him hard on the arm.

Alex drew his arm back sharply. "Ow!" He felt the pain. That must mean… "I'm not dreaming!"

They embraced each other long and hard. They didn't care if they died there and then from suffocation. The fact that they were tangible to each other was enough for them.

After what seemed like an eternity, they broke apart. Their faces were so bright, it was almost blinding to look at. No words can express the happiness they felt just holding each other.

"How…how are you even here?" asked Alex breathlessly

"Well my mom and her sister changed jobs, and they happened to find some here. So we all decided to move. I just…I didn't know that you were here too!"

"Why didn't you warn me about this earlier? I mean you could've emailed me or something."

Cassadee shrugged. "My mom cut off the internet. She wants us to learn to live without it. And, being a teenager, its totally impossible for me. I am like dying without it." She looked over at Alex's wrist and laughed. "Oh my god, you're still wearing it!"

"Well yeah," he said "You told me to keep wearing it. I never took it off." He held up his wrist to show her.

She held up her own wrist as well, showing him the bracelet. "Same here."

For a while they stood in comfortable silence. Thank goodness it was recess, or they would've been so late for their next class. But it didn't matter. Nothing did now.

"You look…different," said Cassadee, pulling his face closer to see better "I mean, you still look the same as you did ten years ago. It's just…there's something different."

Alex shrugged. "I've grown up, I guess?"

Cassadee laughed. "Haven't we both?"

"Oh my god, I have to introduce you to Sierra and Chris," said Alex excitedly

Cassadee looked surprised. "They're here too?"

"Yeah! I bet they're just dying to see you."