While waiting for her ride home, Annie took a walk around the school. The winter air was lovely. It added a soothing chill to every breath she took.
On the school field, the track team was busy with their warm-up laps. Several of the school's classrooms were occupied by students attending club activity. Briefly, Annie wondered if she should join one.
Next to the school wall, there was a girl and a boy seated on a bench under a tree. That was the fourth couple Annie had spotted during her walk.
It was Valentine's Day.
It was understandable that a girl and a boy would be attracted to each other. Television, literature, even the couples seen in daily life forcefully established within her the idea that a girl and a boy belonged together. It was something that she knew yet did not feel.
Was feeling necessary for desire? It had to be true. Any boy she saw, she had not felt for and thus did not desire. She had no need to be with a boy. Thus Valentine's Day, for her, had no meaning. Perhaps in that way, she had yet to mature. There was no one that she really wanted to be with at that moment.
Annie turned round a corner and spotted a girl at the other end of the building, peeking in the opposite direction, the direction Annie knew to be where the school gate was. The girl was small with short, black hair tied into a pair of pigtails. A lavender cloth bag with a pale yellow cover hung behind her.
Saki?
Annie sneaked quietly up to the other girl. She came close enough to read the words 'Hope Blossom' sewn onto the cover of the cloth bag. It was definitely the bag that Saki always had with her. She reached out and tapped the Asian girl on her shoulder.
Saki shrieked a little-girl scream. Which was not really strange, coming from a little girl.
Annie jumped back with a surprised yelp. Another little-girl response.
"Billings," Saki gasped in between breaths.
"Are you okay?" Annie asked, a little shaken herself.
"I-I'm fine." Saki leaned back against the wall. She was still breathing heavily.
"Take a deep breath," Annie said, "Calm down."
Slowly, Saki got her breathing under control.
Annie peeked round the corner at the school gate. "What were you looking at?"
"N-Nothing."
Annie turned her attention back to the other girl. "Saki, you did well for the English exam," she complimented.
"It's nothing," Saki replied modestly without making eye contact.
Annie shifted her schoolbag in front of her. "I was hoping you can help me with English."
"I'm not sure I can."
Annie pulled her English paper out of her schoolbag. "Could you at least look through my paper, tell me what I'm doing wrong?"
"Maybe... Let me see." Saki accepted the paper and flipped through it.
Annie took her handphone out of her pink handbag and looked at the time. "Oh! It's time!" She looked to Saki. "Sorry, but I have to go."
Saki held the paper up. "Here."
"Please take it. Have a look, tell me later." Before Saki could protest, Annie ran off in the direction of the school gate where Mother should be.
But Mother was not at the school gate. Mother was late that day.
***
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