Tick…tick…tick…tick.
It's all she focused on right now, the sounds of the clock ticking. Usually she would always pay attention, but right now, she didn't know why but she just couldn't bring herself to muster the will to focus on the history teacher who was explaining something about a war. But she didn't really care, no one in the class really focused in History anyway, unless they wanted to be a Historian or something.
Her eyes suddenly found her history textbook quite amusing. Oh how she hated to be in this class right now. Her school uniform; which consisted of a white button up shirt, a black blazer with a red tie around her collar with a black skirt to top it all, felt uncomfortable against her slender body, despite it's size that fit perfectly against it.
No it wasn't the uniform that made it uncomfortable, it was the fact that she was here in the school right now was what made it dreadful. To think that she had to endure this for another two years was just exhausting for her.
Her eyes darted to the clock that hung above the whiteboard in the classroom, the shorter hand was already halfway between 2 and 3 while the longer hand was almost reaching the 6. And finally, the minute had stuck 6 and the school bell started to ring, catching everyone's attention.
"Huh?" the history teacher looked up from the book he was reading to the class. "Oh, class is over," he said as the sounds of chairs grinding against the ground filled the classroom. The girl reached her bag from the floor and pulled it up. After stuffing her book into her bag, she slung her bag over her shoulder and joined the line of students were itching to get out of the classroom.
"Don't forget about the essay you're supposed to hand in next week," the teacher blankly reminded which no one reacted, just a couple of nods and that was it. The hallways of Radiant High started to fill with chatting and greetings of students that were entering out of classroom and down into the large corridors and hallways. The girl had her head slightly down, her long blonde hair covering her eyes, ignoring glares and comments from other students.
"Well, she's quiet as always,"
"Does she ever speak?"
"Sheesh she's just so…. weird,"
"At this rate she shouldn't been given a mouth,"
That last comment was followed by laughter from a group of females who were staring at her discreetly. Her lips trembled as she started to walk faster. Why did they all have to talk? All she wanted was to just to go to her locker to put some books away. She held her books tighter as she increased her pace. Unfortunately she was walking so fast that she didn't notice the girl who had just walked out of a room in the hallway.
The blonde girl stumbled backwards a bit, hearing a small "Woah" from the person she bumped into, dropping her books in the process. The girl took a split second to see who she accidentally bumped into, short black hair with bangs parting on either side with a few strands that hung in front of her deep blue eyes.
"Oh I'm sorry, here let me- " the girl was cut off as blonde girl immediately ducked down and grabbed her books at a fast speed. She quickly bowed to the girl as way of apologizing before walking away with her usual fast pace.
"You good Xion?" the black haired girl turned behind her to see taller guy with spiky red hair walking up to her.
"I'm fine," she replied as she stared in the direction of the blonde. "Just bumped into someone that's all,"
"C'mon let's hurry and head to the burger joint to finish up homework before Roxas gets here," the redhead said as Xion laughed.
"You're just saying that because you just want to try the Melt Your Belly challenge again,"
"Hey! If I finish that I get free burgers for a month! Now THAT's worth it," he exclaimed.
"Then start praying that Melt Your Belly doesn't turn into your staycation in your bathroom," Xion grinned.
It's as if she was walking faster and faster. How could her locker be so far from her classroom today? It was almost torturing to walk down the long hallway filled with murmurs from other students. Her lips trembled with each step until her eyes finally landed on one of the many metal cabinets on the wall, her locker, er stop and her sweet haven.
She stopped in front of her locker and started to turn the knob, putting in her code and pulled on the handle, only to find out that it was stuck. By then, she realised that there was pink gum on the edges of the locker door, followed by snickering from behind, she turned her head to the side and out of the corner of her eye, saw another girl with longer blonde hair in a deeper shade, snickering with two other girls.
Paying no attention to them, she pulled harder on the locker door and finally opened it, but with a trail of pink bubblegum oozing downwards like slime. She grabbed some rough sheets that were sitting in her locker and started wiping the locker door down, trying to get the gum off.
"I think you're supposed to keep your books in there, not your chewed gum," Larxene remarked. The girl ignored her as she continued to wipe down gum until it was all gone.
"Wow guess little Naminé here is just a girl of a few words," one of Larxene's goons commented.
"More like girl of no words," she laughed as her two goons started laughing in the most annoying noise ever. Naminé didn't say anything as she threw the paper into a nearby trash can and put some books into her locker.
"So you're not going to say anything?" Larxene said as she put her arm on the locker next to Naminé's and leaned on it. Still no reply as she closed the locker. She avoided eye contact with Larxene as she walked away, but was stopped when another girl stepped right in front of her.
"Hey don't go ignoring Larxene!" another goon shouted at her.
"What's wrong?" Larxene asked loudly in a sarcastic tone, "Why didn't you just call for help?" she called out as she started laughing loudly with them again, "Oh wait… you can't"
This time nearby students who were spectating joined in on the laughter, Naminé kept her head down, trying her best to not hear any of the laughing that was directed at her. She pulled her bag closer to her, maybe as some way to comfort her but at this point, there was nothing that would do the trick. Larxene raised and eyebrow.
"Hey now, wonder what's in the bag huh?," she said as she brought her arm forward and grabbed onto the bag. Despite Naminé holding onto it, Larxene roughly pulled the bag back, some of it's contents spilling out, including a white book. Naminé eyes widened when she saw it land by Larxene's feet.
"My… what do we have here?" she said as she bent down to grab it when something had hit her from the front, causing her to fall to the ground.
"Ok who the heck just…" her voice trailed off when she saw Naminé grabbing the white book and holding it close to her chest. Her face switched from a look of worried to a look of relief when she saw that the book wasn't damaged. However, she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine, she slowly looked up to see the very angry face that belonged to Larxene.
"Why you little…how dare you push me like that-"
"SORA YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!" an angry yell that sounded like it belonged to a girl boomed down the hallway.
"I SAID I'M SORRY!" followed by a cry.
Everyone turned their heads to where footsteps were coming from. "Scuse me!" a voice spoke loudly, but his tone sounded as if he was in a hurry.
Then, another student came into view. His spiky brown hair bounced at the speed he was running, down the hallway, passing by Naminé and Larxene, his blue eyes filled with fear. After him, another student came into view, this time a girl with red hair. Well…. Wet red hair. The top part of her uniform was damp, darker in colour which was probably thanks to the water that was dripping from her red strands.
"Get back here!" she yelled angrily as she chased after the boy named Sora.
"Kairi I said I'm sorry!" he yelled back but his voice sounded so distant since he was already out of the school with the girl named Kairi hot on her trail. Not wasting anytime, Naminé quickly grabbed her bag, slung it over her shoulders and dashed down the remaining area of the hallways.
"Get back here you mute bitch!" Larxene yelled but it was too latte as Naminé was already out of the door.
"Ahem," a deep voice caught Larxene's attention. She turned around to see the black trousers of a man. She looked up to see the angry face of the disciplinary teacher.
"I was wondering what commotion was happening in the hallway," he started as his stare alone was more than enough to cause a few students to disperse. "But instead I come here and hear you say that, you do know that kind of language is inappropriate on school grounds don't you?" he raised an eyebrow.
Larxene gulped in fear.
Naminé sighed in exhaustion during the walk home from school. But she shouldn't be surprised. Another day at school meant another day to deal with Larxene and her friends. The same routine kept repeating itself for who knows how long already, maybe ever since she attended Daybreak High? She couldn't remember the one time that she actually enjoyed school.
Well, maybe only once, but that was because Larxene was absent. But that was it.
"So, you're not going to say anything?"
"Oh wait… you can't."
Her words stung her, serving her a reminder that she already knew. But why did it even sting in the first place? After all, she had dealt with this for years already. Her hand unconsciously went up to her neck to touch it, but not by the skin but her collar that was covering the bottom part of her neck.
Get over it. She thought to herself.
She continued her journey home from school. Her neighbourhood wasn't really near to the school, but it wasn't too far either, just a suitable walking distance. It was then the sound of children laughing caught her attention, her head turned to the side to Radiant Garden, probably one of the hotspots for tourists. She saw a small girl laughing out loud with her mother and father, both of her hands were being held by her mother's and father's as they swung back and forth. Naminé couldn't help but admire the sight when another view caught her eye.
The lake that was at the side of the park. The sun was still up and its light was still too bright to see but it was definitely lower than where it was few hours ago. She could already imagine it, once the sun set, the orange hue would fill the sky and the reflection of the sun would be painted along the surface of the gentle waters. Light coming out from between trees with its rays shining down.
It would be a perfect piece. Naminé pulled out her phone and checked the time. 3.20pm. It was still early, she would just go back later. That was the plan. Go home, change, waste time by either sleeping or trying to muster up the energy to do her homework. The engine of a plane was heard and she looked up, seeing a small black figure of a plane, indicating that it was still far away. Paying no attention to it, she continued her walk home.
After a few more minutes of walking, she stopped in front of a small house in her neighbourhood. It was just the three of them so a big house wasn't really necessary. She opened the door, took off her shoes and walked into the dining room where she saw her mother chopping up some carrots. She turned around the moment she heard her daughter's footsteps.
"Welcome home Naminé," she greeted as Naminé gave a peck on her cheeks. "How was school?" she asked as Naminé hesitated, her brains crambling trying to think of an answer to give. She brought her hands up and started moving her fingers in a certain manner.
"Same old same old huh?" her mother raised an eyebrow as Naminé nodded. She pointed to upstairs as she turned back and started to go up the stairs into her room. Swiging the door open, she was greeted by the sight of her wall that had her old drawings hung up and the soft bed that was almost emitting a hypnotizing spell that made her drowsy at just the sight of it. She opened her closer door and took out a few clothes before taking off her black blazer. She unbuttoned her white collar, revealing a small scar that was decorated at the bottom part of her neck. Paying no mind to it, she started to change out of her extremely uncomfortable uniform into her very comfortable T-shirt and shorts. She took a glance at her bedside clock, 3.35pm. Dammit why couldn't time just go faster. Knowing that it was still too early to head to the park, she reached into her bag and took out god forsaken, very thick, math textbook.
With a slam of the Maths textbook shut, Naminé immediately stood up, slowly turned to her bed, and jumped on it, face planting herself onto the pillow. She moved her head to side and stared at the book. She had been working on her homework for almost a good two hours. Two hours of self given torture finally over. She took a tired glance at the clock, 5.30pm. The park!
She jolted out of bed as fast as she could, rummaging through her bag to get her color markers, pencil and white sketchbook. After stuffing all of her art stuff into a separate bag, she quickly opened her wardrobe, simply changing her red house shorts to denim jeans. Turning her lights off, she left her room and walked downstairs to see her father who had just gotten home from a long day of work, sitting down on the sofa reading a newspaper.
"Naminé what's the hurry?" he asked as he watched the girl putting on some shoes with a bag slung over her shoulder. The look of confusion was plastered on his face, but he soon understood why when he saw the excited look on her face. She made more signs and gestures with her hands as she opened the door.
"Don't stay out too late! Be home for dinner!" her father reminded, her wave was an answer for him as she quickly set off.
She ran as fast as she could, especially when she saw the orange rays already making their way to the streets of Radiant City.
C'mon…c'mon… She tried to pep herself to not miss the view. She knew that even if she didn't get to do it today, she could still do it tomorrow. But that would mean she wouldn't stop thinking about until then, she wouldn't be able to rest properly knowing that she skipped a scenery that was perfect to draw.
This, after all, was how she was. The only thing that made her happy more than anything was art.
She got her answers and her heart fluttered with excitement when she saw that she had just arrived at the park entrance. Quickly scanning the area around the lake, she saw an empty bench that was visible from the entrance. She walked over to the wooden lake and with only quick look at the sun to make sure she got the view right, she smiled proudly.
Perfect.
She made herself comfortable on the bench and took out her favourite sketchbook. Flipping the pages open, dozens of artwork she made beforehand flashed right before her until she landed on an empty, clean page. Examining the view one more time, she decided a horizontal sketch would be put suitable. Taking out her pencil, she got to work.
With some light strokes, she started working on the smaller details, the trees in the background, the shading on the 'lake' to make it look more realistic, the flowers in the bushes. It had got to be her favourite, the pink and purplish colors of the petals was a great blend to the already orange sunlight.
Her head kept switching places, from her sketchbook, to the view, then back to the book, then back to the view and vice versa. Her short strokes turned into longer strokes. After drawing the base, she took out her trusty coloured markers and took out the perfect ones. She wanted to make sure she could try and get even the smallest detail correct. Her view would be her inspiration for her empty canvas.
The sun set further and further down as she drew, creating a deeper orange colour for her inspiration. She never even bothered checking the time or how long she had been sitting alone in the park with no one around, the only thing that mattered was her art.
*TA DING*
Her phone notification brought her back. She knew who had just messaged her since she used custom notifications. Setting her pencil down, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone to see a message from her mother.
MOM : It's getting late, are you on your way home?
Only then she realised it was almost 6.30pm. Oh well, guess time does fly fast when you're doing what you love. Her fingers typed on the keyboard.
Just finished, I'm about to head home now
Packing up her stuff, she stood up from the wooden bench. Stretching her arms and legs a bit since she was sitting for so long. A gentle gust of wind came blowing by, causing her long blonde hair to dance beautifully in the breeze. She couldn't help but be entranced by the orange light of the sun. It definitely was beautiful.
"Umm… excuse me," a male voice broke her out of her spell. She quickly turned around…. and she almost forgot what she was just about to do. Standing a good few feet away from her, was a boy who looked like he was around her age. He had golden blonde spiky hair with the front part styled downwards while the back one was more feathered upwards. But what caught her attention, was his deep blue eyes. The wind blew in the sunset, causing the boy's bangs to fly up for a second. But that second seemed as the wind was just helping Naminé to give her a better view of his eyes.
Great, first she was entranced by the sunset light and now she fell under the same spell, except this time, it was coming from the boy.
Was entranced the word? No, charmed.
That was more like it.
