Chapter Text
I stood, leaning against a rough concrete pillar. It had been raining ever since I woke up this morning. Autumn had always been quite the rainy season here in the city of Thessamont. The sky cleared up and the rain had begun to dissipate, as sunlight pierced through the darkening, gray veil of clouds.
I heard a faint ringing sound which got louder and louder with every second. I tilted my head, looking toward the distance, I spotted the train — silver with blue stripes along the carriages arriving just around the corner of the treed hill that was overlooking the train station. It seemed to be arriving at a rapid pace.
The train braked, coming to a slow halt. I stepped off the platform and onto the train, closing my umbrella and shaking all the rainwater off with a light tap on the ground as I entered through the doorway.
There didn’t seem to be much empty seats, rather the train appeared to be quite crowded today, however, that was to be expected as today was the first day of the new school year. I decided to walk down to the back of the train, where there would hopefully be less people, and perhaps a spot to sit. it took me a minute just scrambling to find a seat, but I eventually found one, right in between two other people who seemed to be newcomers to the school.
I took a deep sigh as I sat down, I rustled through my bag, grabbing a pair of tangled-up light pink headphones, my sketchbook, and a roughed up pencil from a case which had definitely seen better days.
As usual I decided to use my time on the train to work on some sketchbook art. I put on a mix of classical music I had made the previous day, which mostly consisted of Chopin, Debussy and Liszt, among other composers.
I flipped through all the pages of my sketchbook and got to a rough sketch I started way earlier in the morning. I had already traced the outline of a landscape; rolling hills and a backdrop of lightly shaded clouds. This time I was using my time on the train to texture the grass and hills a bit more in an attempt to layer the drawing further. I soon put my pencil down to rest my aching hand, all of a sudden, I heard a voice call my name, the sound seemed to be coming from somewhere in front of me.
“Hey, Marissa, can you hear me? Take off those headphones!” A familiar voice called.
I took my headphones off and looked around. After hearing the voice I instantly figured out who it was, the voice was coming from my childhood friend, Darrel, sitting on the other side just a few seats ahead.
Me and Darrel had been friends ever since we were three-years-old, in fact he was my first friend I had ever had. Our families knew each other for the longest time, partly because his mother was a fellow co-worker at my mother’s work. Partner that with the fact that he lived right across the street and it was no wonder he became my first friend, and vice versa.
During the early years of my life, my mother and father had always been quite busy with work, paying for what was our family’s newly bought house, which meant they weren’t always there to take care of me.
Whenever both my parents were too busy at work, or too busy with household chores in general, they figured they could drop me off at Darrel’s home and let his parents host playdates while mine were off at work.
At first, we didn’t really know what to do during these playdates, so we ended up playing many different games our parents taught us, like hide and seek, tag, and whatever else we seemed to find entertaining together.
But it wasn’t until we started going to school together, later that year, that we noticed our shared interest in drawing, so we decided to begin drawing together all of the time, both during our school classes and at each other’s houses, the days passed like wind, and from then on, we eventually became best friends — Though he moved out of our neighbourhood three years ago, I still regularly talk to him, both in-person and on the phone.
I saw him waving at me from a seat two seats in front, so I decided to wave back at him. The train came to yet another halt, stopping at another train station when the person sitting next to me left the train, Darrel stood up, and decided to sit beside me. And so I shuffled my bag to make some more room. He put the math textbook he was holding down, right in between us, I decided to speak,
“Oh, hey Darrel, sorry I didn’t notice you over there earlier,.”
“It’s all good, don’t worry about it too much,” Said Darrel, “Anyways, what are you drawing this time, some sort of landscape I assume?” He said, glancing over at my sketchbook and pointing towards my drawing.
“Oh, this? Just a rough outline of a landscape, I'm planning to draw it on a bigger canvas once I get to art class today.” I said back to him.
“Well I'd say it looks really pretty for a rough outline of a landscape! Did you take any art classes over the summer or something? Because your art has really seemed to improve, and I’m being honest when I say that.”
I paused for a bit, “Well, no, but I guess I did practice a lot over the summer, did my art really improve that much?” I said back to him.
“Yeah, totally! Your art looks amazing now!” He exclaimed, “Not like your art wasn’t already amazing, but you’ve seemed to make a ton of improvements since last year.”
The train came to a slow halt, and as I looked out the window, it seemed we had finally arrived at our school.
“Well… I guess it’s time to part.” Said Darrel, standing up from his seat. “If you ever need to talk to me again, just know I’ll be in art room two at the end of the day helping the after-school art club set up a few things. Just knock on the door if you need anything.”
As he departed, I noticed he forgot to bring his textbook with him, I picked it up, and read the title; The World of Trigonometry
“Hey Darrel, you forgot your math textbook!” I yelled.
I wasn’t quite sure if he had even heard my yell as the sound of students talking suppressed almost anything and everything I could possibly say, so I continued once more as the crowd began to fade away into the building.
“Darrel, where the heck are you!?” I yelled once again, this time raising my voice higher.
My throat was already sore from all the yelling, but as soon as I mustered enough power for the next yell, I felt a light tap on my shoulder.
“Hey, umm, Marissa, did you happen to be looking for Darrel too?” the soft voice said, stuttering a bit.
I looked behind, it was my other friend, Elina, patiently awaiting an answer.
“Yeah, what about him?” I responded back. “Let’s get off this train first, and then we can talk.”
We both exited the train, it appeared puddles seemed to cover the schoolground from the morning rainfall. Rows upon rows of flowerbeds and overhanging trees splashed with autumn colours lined the school entrance, a banner denoting in red bold letters: “Welcome new and returning students” hung on top above the two large wooden doors — The school was the oldest built high school in the city, and a rather prestigious one, being built in the late 1800s. The building towered over us and all the other buildings in its vicinity with its large stone clocktower casting a dark shadow over the both of us.
“So back to our conversation, what were you planning on talking about?” I asked,
“Oh! Well, I was kind of planning to talk to Darrel today, apparently from what I’ve heard, he’s running for art club president this year!” she said, “So I’ve kind of been wanting to talk to him about it, that’s all.”
“Wait, what, really!? He never told me he was running for art club president this year!”
We continued walking down the stone path leading to the entrance, Elina pushed the door open.
“Well, he told the rest of the art club, just a few days before school ended last year, correct me if I’m wrong but weren’t you sick on that day?”
“Hmm, now that I think about it, I think I remember now, I did stay home that day but I wasn’t exactly sick with anything — I guess you could say that, though.” I responded back.
We walked further down the hallway. According to my schedule I had Mr. Burwind’s history class for homeroom. I had already passed by his class a few times last year. His room number was 109, all the way at the end of the hallway.
“It’s a bit early, so I think we can talk a bit more, who did you get for your homeroom class?” I asked Elina, she paused for a moment.
“I got Mrs. Laverne’s English class,” she answered, “I’ve actually yet to have any classes with her, have you?”
“Well, I haven’t personally been in any of her classes either, but I hear Mrs. Laverne hands out a lot of work, well… At least according to Darrel that is.” I let out a soft laugh..
“Hmm, seems to be getting a bit late, it’s 8:58 now,” Elina said, pointing at a clock just above Mr. Burwind’s doorway.
“Well, I guess it was nice talking to you. Anyways, just meet me and Darrel at our regular table during lunch time, and good luck in Mrs. Laverne’s class!”
I parted with her and pushed open the door to Mr. Burwind’s class just a minute before the bell rang. — The class seemed to be completely packed with students, the scent of old chalk and oak wood filled the room as Mr. Burwind shouted his students’ names for the morning classroom attendance.
“Shannon, you’ll sit next to Randall. Mark, you’ll be sitting with Victoria… Oh! Hey! Marissa, you made it before the bell rang!” said Mr. Burwind, “Marissa, as for you, you’ll be sitting next to Hailey.” He explained, pointing towards an empty seat at the back of the class. I looked over to where he pointed, at the back of the class where a crowd had formed — Hailey seemed to be too busy to notice me as she told all her friends a story from yesterday.
I decided to join their conversation since there seemed nothing else to do before class started.
“Last night, at his concert, I managed to catch him before he went on his tour bus, and got this signed picture of him just before-”
“Hey, so, what are you all crowded around here for?” I asked.
Hailey paused her story for a moment
“Oh, Marissa, you’re here, I’m just telling everyone here how I got this sweet Oliver Lewis autograph from his concert last night!”
"Umm... And am I supposed to know who that is?"
"Have you been living under a rock for the past five years? What kind of person doesn't know him!?" She said, "He's like the best singer of all time."
“And total hottie too,” added one of Hailey’s friend’s standing right next to her, Tiffany, “I’m actually surprised you haven’t heard of him.”
“Well, I’m not a huge fan of pop so I have no idea who that person is, I mainly listen to classical, mostly composers from the Romantic era like-”
“Classical? That sounds boring,” Tiffany said, “Have you at least listened to some-”
“Hey Classical isn’t boring! It has talented musicianship, depth and-”
“So! Everyone! Flip the history textbooks provided at the back of the class to page 204, our first unit on the Napoleonic Wars will begin today.”
The whole class went silent, and Tiffany and the other people surrounding Hailey left to sit back in their original seats.
“Hey, could you grab a textbook for me too? I’m too tired to get one.” whispered Hailey to me, letting out a yawn.
.”Umm, yeah sure!” I grabbed two textbooks from the solid oak bookshelf at the back of the class, I handed one over to Hailey and put the other on my desk.
“Thanks,” said Hailey, she paused for a moment and flipped through her textbook “And ooh, Marissa I like your necklace! Where’d you get it?”
“Oh, thanks! I like yours too-”
“Do I hear talking!? focus on the lesson before I send both of you out of class!” Yelled Mr. Burwind.
I flipped to page 204, as Mr. Burwind had demanded, and we ended up not talking at all for the rest of the class while Mr. Burwind seemed to go on and on about the history lesson, which I didn’t all pay that much attention to.
“Well, that’s it everyone! Be sure to enjoy the rest of your school day and don’t forget to study the material at home!” Yelled Mr. Burwind, to the class.
I took a glance at my schedule, the next class was science and after science, well, lunch.
During science class the teacher kept on talking non-stop, and I could barely write anything in my notebook. After science class ended I headed straight to the cafeteria, navigating the endless sea of students crowding the hallways.
When I finally arrived, I noticed the lingering scent of pastries which grew stronger with every step.
Wait, isn't it the start-of-the-year bake sale!?
I started rummaging through my bag, scrounging up about five dollars, and took a look at the price list.
Hmmm. Let’s see, one doughnut would be one dollar fifty, I could get some for Darrel and Elina too with five dollars.
I scurried over to my regular lunch table, only Elina was sitting here this time.
“Hey, do you know where Darrel went?” I asked Elina, who seemed to be busy chowing on a ham and lettuce sandwich.
“Oh, you’re asking where Darrel is?” She said, “He’s gone for an art club interview to see whether or not he’s fit to run for art club president.”
“Oh, I see. Well I was planning to get doughnuts for all of us, but I guess that plan is cancelled now,” I said, “Do you still want some doughnuts? They’ve got all sorts of flavours like strawberry, chocolate and lemon to name a few!”
“I’ll have a strawberry one! But wait, are you sure you want to buy a doughnut for me?” she asked
“Of course! I mean, you are my friend after all! Why not?” I said.
She thanked me, and I walked over to the bake sale table with a handful of quarters. The line seemed to triple ever since I walked into the cafeteria earlier.
I waited five minutes, which seemed to turn into ten minutes, and soon twenty minutes, when I finally got to the table I handed Mrs. Laverne, who seemed to be running the bake sale, three dollars in coins.
“Hmm, I’ll take one chocolate, and one, strawberry doughnut,” I said while taking a look at the chalkboard, displaying all the doughnut flavours, “Wait! Actually! Umm, nevermind! I’ll take one strawberry doughnut, and one cinnamon doughnut.”
“Indecisive, aren’t ya?” Mrs. Laverne commented.
“And wait, actually,” I took four more quarters and handed them to Mrs. Laverne, “I’ll take a cherry soda too.”
“Well one strawberry doughnut, one cinnamon doughnut, and a cherry soda it is!” Said Mrs. Laverne picking the two doughnuts up from the table and tossing them into a neat paper bag, she grabbed a cherry soda and handed both the bag and soda to me.
“Thanks, for the purchase,” Mrs. Laverne said, putting the money in a register, “Now next!”
I scrambled back over to the table and saw Elina, waiting, and staring into the distance.
“Elina!” I yelled, “I am so sorry for being late, the line for the bake sale had to have had like a hundred kids back there!” I apologized to her, handing her the strawberry doughnut from the bag.
“It’s okay, I mean, I’m not the one paying,” she let out a slight chuckle. “So Marissa, what did you order?” She said, while taking the doughnut from my hands.
“Oh, just a cinnamon doughnut, and I guess a cherry soda,” I said back, “Anyways, hmm, did you do anything fun for summer break?”
“Well, not really, I mean, unless you count my little brother annoying me all summer long as something fun,” she let out another chuckle, “you’re honestly lucky to be an only child.”
“Well, I actually do have a brother,” I paused, recollecting my thoughts for a moment and took a bite of my cinnamon doughnut. “I just haven’t seen him in ten years.”
“Seriously, ten years!?” She said, astounded. “Did you at least get to call him in those past ten years?”
“No, but we sometimes receive letters from him,” I paused to take another bite of my doughnut. “He moved away into his own apartment, across the entire continent when I was only six and he was nineteen. I remembered it being a few months after my father had died. But I’m not sure if that had any correlation or if he just wanted his own place, but he always seemed to not be interested in owning a phone, I think because he said it would be a distraction to his life, or something along those lines…”
“Have you ever gone to see him, or, did he ever go to see you? Because don’t you think that sounds strange for your brother to just, well, leave… Like that?” said Elina
“I feel like it might be strange to other people, but I can agree, it totally was strange at first, seeing my brother just leave out of nowhere, and not seeing him ever again. But I’ve kind of gotten used to the fact.” I said, finishing my doughnut and moving onto the sandwich I packed.
Just as I began to eat my sandwich, the school bell rang for the next class to begin.
Dang, I didn’t even get to eat my lunch!
I said my goodbyes to Elina, and took a few last bites of my sandwich before putting it back in my lunchbox and scurrying into the hallways before I was late to gym class. I gathered my gym clothes from my backpack, and came running through the halls to the change rooms. That’s when I suddenly bumped into someone.
My vision went completely blank for a few seconds, I rubbed my eyes and I heard a voice calling my name.
“Marissa! Hey, Marissa! Are you okay!?” In front of me I saw a hand reaching out for me, it was Darrel, with a worried look on his face, holding his hand out from above.
I grasped his hand and pulled myself up. “That’s what I should be asking you! Are you alright, are you injured!? Did you drop anything!?” I asked.
He stood up, and wiped the dust off his uniform.
"No, no, I'm completely fine! I was just sort of wondering about you because you seemed to have that massive scrape on your elbow." He said.
I took a look at my elbow and in fact did notice a massive scrape on it.
Since when did this get here!? And why’s it only starting to hurt now!?
“You know what…? Can you take me to the nurse’s office? It's starting to feel way worse.” I told Darrel.
“Just stay here for a second, I’ll inform the gym teacher about your injury, so that you won’t be marked as late.” Darrel responded.
I sat against a wall just outside the gym doors for a bit less than a minute while Darrel told the gym teacher about what had happened, later, Darrel came sprinting out the door, and offered me another hand.
I stood up, and he walked me down the hallway, taking a sharp left over to the nurse’s office.
He opened the door and ushered me inside, closing the door behind as I walked in.
“Have a seat.” The school nurse said, “So, what exactly happened to you this time?”
“We accidentally bumped into each other in the hallway, and now she has a giant scrape on her elbow.” Darrel said, pointing to my injury.
“Let me see, just give me a second,” The school nurse said, “Lift your arm a bit.”
She inspected the scrape, walking away to grab some things from a cabinet under a desk and a pack of ice from a freezer behind it.
“Here,” She put a giant bandage on my injury, and handed me a bag of ice.
“Thank you,” I said, applying the bag and standing up from the chair.
“It’s what I do,” said the nurse. “Anyways, have a nice rest of your day!”
Darrel walked me back to the gym, as we arrived he pushed the door wide open. I saw my classmates playing a match of basketball.
We sat down on a bench across from the door, walking to the side to avoid disrupting the game.
“Do you think you can still play, or does it still hurt?” asked Darrel.
“It still hurts really bad, I think I’ll sit out this day and stay on the bench.” I said back to him, placing my gym clothes on the bench. “But thanks for bringing me to the nurse’s office.”
“Oh, you're welcome! but yeah, just sit out for the day and take a rest. I’ll go join the basketball game, but let me know if you need anything else.”
I watched as Darrel stood up and walked over to the gym teacher. He got placed in team two.
There was ten more minutes until class ended, team one had twenty seven points, team two, twenty one
I watched as Darrel ran past a group of people teaming up on him and shooting a three-pointer and giving the team three points. Right after, another person wearing a team two jersey scored another three-pointer, tying the game up until the bell rang several seconds later.
“Good game everyone!” Darrel said, giving everyone high fives, “And Marissa, are you okay over there?” Darrel said, walking over to me.
“Yep, I’m fine!” I yelled back to him, we walked slow and steady to the exit, Darrel gently holding my arm.
As we exited the gym, I decided to start a small conversation before the next class started.
“I have math class right now, who did you get for fourth period?”
“Oh, I have Mr. Burwind’s history class. And wait, wasn't that your homeroom, if I’m not mistaken?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?” I responded
“Well actually, I happened to have science with Elina last period and she told me about how she met you in the hallway, at the start of the day.” said Darrel, “Also thanks for keeping my Trigonometry textbook, I would’ve been defeated, for the rest of math class this year, if it weren’t for you.” he laughed.
“You’re welcome! I said back to him, smiling, and waving “Anyways, I’ll go see you at the art club, after school!”
“See you there! And don’t forget to bring my textbook!” Darrel said, smiling and waving in the distance.
I walked to the other end of my school to my math class and took my seat at the far left of the room.
The lesson wasn’t that interesting at all, as it was mostly a rehash of last year's math lessons, though my injury made it way harder to write, making me resort to using my left arm the entire class.
As the final bell rang, I sighed out of relief, I headed up two flights of stairs and went into the art room. I took my bag and Darrel’s trigonometry textbook along with me, and placed all my belongings on an empty desk.