Saria walked through the halls of her school, clenching her fists tight around her backpack straps. Everything had gone so wrong, all in a week. Holiday break had already passed. And to top it off, it was raining! At this point, she was glad it was Friday- maybe she could rest. Just maybe.
“Just maybe…” She hadn’t even realized she had been talking to herself. Mumbling under her breath.
“Saria, hey-” Lucy suddenly jogged up to her, frowning as Saria walked past her. “Saria!” She grabbed the left strap of her friend’s backpack, lightly yanking her back.
Saria jolted back as she felt something, or someone yanking her back. She turned around, only to see- “Lucy. Hi.” It was just Lucy. She looked rather nice today, with her blonde hair up and her school blazer tied loosely around her waist. More casual than usual. The two were acquaintances, but they did share a few classes, and they had worked together numerous times during Model UN.
Saria’s face flushed with embarrassment. Jeez, was she that distracted this morning? “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“No, ah- it’s no trouble at all. My bad for scaring you.” Lucy fidgeted with her left hand, tapping the pinky and thumb together. “You were absent yesterday, right?”
Saria nodded. “Yes.”
“Here’s the coursework that you missed,” Lucy dug through her back before pulling out a small folder, holding it out to Saria. “I was gonna give it to you during Model UN, but since I saw ya out here… uhm…” She trailed off.
“Yeah, uh... no problem.” Something seemed a little… off to Saria about the way Lucy was talking. Everything had seemed off lately. Why was that? “Well, see ya later.” Saria dashed off to her homeroom class. Looking back over her shoulder, Lucy seemed almost… disappointed?
“Yeah!” Lucy called out, though by now, Saria was out of her hearing range. “See ya.” Lucy kicked a rock, walking glumly to her homeroom.
Saria grumbled as she got out her gym bag, drying off her hair with her towel- sure, it was cropped short, so more of it got on her neck rather than her uniform, but the color had faded a bit more then she wanted it to, especially since she had dyed it less than a week ago. Permanent? As if! What a rip off.
“Hey, Tucker!” She called over to the boy across the room. The teacher wasn’t in the classroom yet despite it being more than a few minutes after bell. The kids didn’t think much of it, just hanging around in their little cliques, talking to each other about the football game and test scores, Christmas presents and whatnot. “What’s the date today?”
“It’s Wednesday, you ditz.” He sneered, glaring down at her from his spot on top of the table. His position in the room likened him to a benevolent king on his throne, though his personality didn’t match at all.
‘Isn’t it Friday?’
“I meant the DATE.” The chortles of the boys grew slightly louder, jeering remarks pointed at Tucker. He took them in stride, rolling his eyes as his ears turned pink. “Oh. It’s the 24th.”
‘24th? What the hell?’“The 24th?” Saria repeated, raising an eyebrow.
Tucker raised his eyebrow right back of her. The two students dared not make a move, the staring contest initiated. “The 24th.”
“Sure…”
Just then, the teacher took the opportunity to walk in directly in front of them, the staring contest thus broken. Mr. Haynes set his coat on his desk chair, leaning back as he watched the class scramble to their assigned seats. “Alright, alright! Settle down there. I’m going to be taking attendance in 10, get your planners out…”
‘Planners? This is wrong, since when did we have planners… that’s a wrong grade…’ Saria thought to herself. ‘Everything is wrong… where am I?’
“Earth to Saria Moore?”
Saria finally looked up, only to see Mr. Haynes and half of the class staring directly at her.
So many eyes.
Why did she only notice that now?
“Saria Moore. Where’s your planner?”
“I… I don’t have one, sir.” That was a bad excuse. “I forgot it at home.”
Mr. Haynes sighed. Saria was grateful that it was only homeroom, and he didn’t have the energy to lecture. “Head down to the office.”
That gave her some time to figure out what was going on. Though there wasn’t that much to work off of. Lucy was acting genuinely alarming, her first-year teacher was subbing for her homeroom, and now suddenly they needed planners of all things. PLANNERS. It probably wasn’t anything to worry about. Probably.
“Yeah, sure.” Her enthusiasm was overwhelming to Saria, who glanced away, then back to Lucy, who was still grinning like a madman. “Do you have one of those… planner thingies?” Wow. Real eloquent, girl.
“Oh, yeah, of course.” Saria watched in confusion as Lucy seemingly whipped the small planner out of thin air, holding it out to her. “Here ya go.”
“Thanks.” Saria finally took the planner out of Lucy’s hand. She couldn’t help but notice the rough feel of the cover.
‘What is going on?’
“Lucy…” The words blurted out of Saria’s mouth automatically, a random thought she wished she could’ve kept to herself. Her hands balled into fists. “haven’t you noticed something recently?”
“Like what?” The girl tilted her head, birdlike in nature.
“I... I don’t know. Things seem off. It all does.” Saria mumbled, trying to find the correct words to explain her discomfort. “Everything.”
“What do you mean by that?” Why did she have to be so open-ended? Why does she keep asking? Does Lucy really see what Saria means? Or was she just patronizing her? Saria knew it was irrational, really, it all was- but it still pissed her off nonetheless.
“Everything!” She burst out the door, running. Running, and running, and running, without stop and without end. She just ran. Like she always does.
But the pain caught up. Not metaphorically, maybe emotionally, definitely physically. “Why?!”
Stupid charley horse. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She had been running in all ways all her life and NOW she got a charley horse. Her ticket was punched. 3 warnings over. Hello, Curley.
“What is wrong with me?!” Saria lamented, clutching her leg as she toppled to the ground. She was too far gone to really see what was wrong with her environment. “What is wrong with everyone?!”
The earth was still. “Can anyone tell me what’s going on?! Hello?”
Saria was right. Things were off today. Looking up at the sky now, she could see the world a little clearer.
Ink blots. Everywhere. Dark reds and purples, even greens, spread out through the watercolor sky. Ugly bruises mottled all over the spine.
It was all wrong, slightly off by a millisecond- as if they had taken school and put it in some kind of one-off cheesy horror film.
Saria’s throat was hoarse. She just realized she had forgotten her water bottle at home. It didn’t seem like it mattered earlier, but it took a toll now. “What happened?”
Where’s Lucy?
“What happened.”
This time, the question- or a statement, who knows, was directed at Saria herself.
What happened, Jumpy?
How’d you get here?
You’re not supposed to be here.
The click-clack of Lucy’s wedge heels snuck up behind her. Her voice was pitiful. More than usual. It was setting Saria off, though nearly everything set Saria off right now. She was right. She was right, and everything was wrong today.
“I was waiting for you to see it.”
“See what?” Saria mumbled, looking up at Lucy like she was the second coming of Christ. "See what..?"
Did Lucy do this?
Did it matter?
Her goddess, and her universe, were all tumbling apart at the seams.
Lucy didn’t answer.
“What the hell do you mean, Lucy?” Saria stared at her, waiting for an answer.
“Y’know, I’ll… I’ll just show you.”
Lucy placed a hand over Saria’s eyes.
And Saria saw light.
(Honestly, I have no idea where I was going here. I knew Saria and Lucy were doomed from the start though. I sort of like how I did it … an ambiguous ending works sometimes, though IDK if it was good in this setting. Feels more like a cutoff. This was fun! I’m gonna put it on my Neocities :) – M’s note to self)