A week ter, and I was proven wrong in my assumption about me and her ever meeting again.

  I was at school, this time to check if I had passed or not.

  The school was going through renovation as a result of a government decision to modernise every school building nationwide. Since my school was built in the eighteen hundreds, it meant only the interior would be rebuild while the exterior would simply be restored.

  All of this matters because instead of having the scores posted on the billboard outside, they had been moved to the inside, close to the teachers room, that section being left for st as they still needed to work there. I was deep inside the building.

  I hadn’t had a wink of sleep again, so my head was hurting once more, the sound of working men and machines echoing in my skull, and my vision was a bit blurry even with my gsses on.

  “We were only six, couldn’t they have used a bigger font?” I grumbled once I finally got there and had to locate the particur sheet with my name on it amidst the other sheets of paper.

  “Oh, it’s miss sleepyhead after all! Hi there!”

  I gave a tiny jump, startled by her sudden appearance behind me. Embarrassment rushed blood to my head as I wondered if she had heard me talking alone under my breath like some crazy person while I walked down the corridors. I hadn’t even heard her approach or follow me, but then again, with the construction going on, that wasn’t unexpected.

  She was looking at me with her head slightly canted and smiling, so if she had heard me, she wasn’t showing.

  Is this the way she greets anyone?

  I wasn’t annoyed or anything, at least for now and in comparison to the school board. I just found it weird.

  She looked practically the same, except her shoes seemed more battered somehow, and her shirt was a light blue and had the words “FUN!” printed on it with big cartoonish letters.

  I greeted her with a very coarse and tired sounding hello. I had only muttered to myself until that point, so I was surprised by the way I was sounding out loud.

  “Hmm… not a morning person, are you? Or did you not sleep again?”

  “Erm, both.”

  Between commenting about she looking the opposite or keeping quiet, I chose the tter.

  I was in a bad mood, so attempting a conversation was even less of an attractive prospect than usual. I just wanted to go home and sleep. Or cry. It depended on the result of the exam.

  Now that I think about it, the result was irrelevant to me crying or not. The reason behind my tears would be the only difference.

  “Pfft, hehe. Sorry, I just realised we haven’t introduced ourselves yet.”

  She extended me a small hand for a handshake, but by the way she had to look up for us to meet eye to eye, it looked more like a dog extending a paw.

  I shook her hand, growing very self-conscious once our skins made contact and I realised my hand was sweaty.

  “I’m Abbigail. Abbigail Gardener, but you can just call me Abby.”

  “H-hi… Erm, Violet… Evergreen…”

  “Oh, you have such a pretty name!” she cmoured, shaking my hand enthusiastically. “Violet Evergreen, huh? I’ll make sure to remember it!”

  I nodded, but I doubt she saw that. She had let go the moment she finished her remark to stand by my side, staring at the board.

  “Ah-ha! There!” she said, pointing at the board with a gleeful smile. “Congrats! You passed with a score of thirteen point five!”

  I squinted and followed her finger. With her help I had finally managed to locate my name, and like she had told me, I had passed. I passed, and I had somehow performed better than I had expected.

  “Hmm, I need to go. I hope we meet again,” she suddenly told me before scampering off to somewhere else.

  “Seriously, such a weird girl,” I thought as I watched her disappear around the corner.

  I looked back to the board. Watching that thirteen and the five with the dot in the middle in front of my name was making me feel stupid for having worried so much. That day, when I had to give back the question-and-answer sheet, I felt like I had done ok, so what need did I have to put me through so much stress this past week? Utter foolishness.

  “Wait… did she check her score?”

  Something told me she hadn’t.

  Abbigail Gardener was it?

  The names were organized in alphabetic order according to our st names, so hers was below mine.

  “Nineteen!?”

  You meant to tell me, that girl, who looked like a sixth grader and couldn’t stand still, almost had a perfect score in that exam?

  It was mindboggling, but it was the reality.

  My astonishment aside, I was feeling a moral dilemma.

  I was arguing in my mind whether I should go after her or let her be. On one hand, she had helped me twice, even if her helping me calm down before the exam was completely just her being… her.

  On the other hand, we didn’t know each other, so why should I rush after her in this heat?

  “No, but… what if she lives far?”

  I had to take a twenty-minute ride by bus to get there, not exactly a long ride, but more than I’d enjoy. For all I knew, she could live at the opposite side of town in retion to where the school was.

  “What if… I try get to her until I reach the school gate?”

  If I caught up to her, it was all fine and dandy, but if I didn’t, well, at least I couldn’t guilt myself for not trying.

  I ran. At least, it was what I called running.

  I wasn’t athletic at all, so it was more of a filing of my body to propel it faster forward. At least in these cases it helped my legs being so freakishly long compared with my body. They made up for my ck of skill, even if just for a very little bit.

  Still, I was unsuccessful in finding her. Regarding almost coughing up a lung, in that I’d say I was successful.

  “I saw you run past me as I was leaving the toilets. Are you ok?” a worried voice sounded from behind. Once again, she stood behind me and I had no idea how or when she got there.

  So that’s what she meant when she said she needed to go?

  That was too much information, but still not enough for me to not embarrass myself.

  She took us to a bench under the shade by the school gate.

  I sat there, huffing and puffing while she fiddled with a vending machine.

  “Here, to help you cool off,” she told me as she offered a can of soda. “My treat, so don’t worry about the money.”

  I still couldn’t form a sentence, so I just gave her a nod as I received her gesture of kindness.

  The juice wasn’t exactly cold, but it still felt refreshing enough.

  “Why were you even running like that?”

  “You… your grade… did you… check?” I panted.

  She cocked her head and widened her eyes.

  “You came running because of that!?”

  “I thought… you forgot.”

  “I mean… yeah, kinda. But I remembered while I was in the toilet.”

  “Also… that you might live far.”

  “Nope,” she told me in a very matter of fact tone, pointing to a very nice three-story house. It was old, probably as old as the school, but it showed clear signs of having been renovated. “I live there.”

  And how am I supposed to know that?!

  She studied my face, her feet filing about as she sat there.

  “Not very athletic, huh?”

  “Gee, what gave it away?”

  “Are you perhaps one of those kids who look like they are exempry, but smoke in secret?”

  “Are you an idiot!?” I barked. “I just suck at sports, ok?”

  “Pfft, haha! Come one, you don’t need to get that mad. I’m just joking around.”

  I took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

  I was aware she was only pying around. I guess what was getting me in a foul mood was the heat, me having run without any need of that, and how I had once again fussed over something which I didn’t need to. And quite frankly, what made me feel worse was the hint of sadness in her voice when she told me she was only joking.

  “…Sorry. I know I can be super annoying, so… yeah, sorry.”

  “No, erm… sorry for getting mad…”

  She wasn’t moving as much. Normally, that would be a good thing for me, but the way she was looking down… for some reason, it was upsetting.

  But then, she shook her head and went back to staring at me with her annoying smile.

  “If it makes you feel any better, I used to be a lot worse.”

  “How’s that…” I chuckled.

  “Hehe, at least it got that frown you’ve had for a while to lighten up.”

  “Oh… Sorry about that.”

  I massaged my forehead, feeling my muscles loosen up as my fingers rubbed them.

  She’s so weird. Ah, that’s right!

  “Erm… you got a nineteen in your exam.”

  “Oh… yeah, that was about what I had expected. Thanks for running after me for that.”

  We got quiet all over again.

  Having her acting so quiet and reserved was a bit weird though.

  I mean, I obviously didn’t know her, but… Every time I had seen her up to that point, she was positively buzzing with energy. In a way, she was still, but nothing compared to any of the other previous times. Maybe she was just deep in thought?

  There wasn’t a hint of wind and the cicadas where buzzing just as loud as the construction inside the school, so I was finding that unlikely. I concluded she was merely holding back so not to disturb me until we finished our drinks and went our separate ways.

  Why don’t you try talking to her?

  That… that would be hard. What did people who didn’t know each other should talk about anyway?

  “Erm… can I ask you a question?”

  “Technically, you already did. But I’ll allow that. And another one.”

  She looked so proud of her… joke? Would that even qualify as such, or is my humour too grumpy?

  I moved along that thought to pose her the question I had come up with as a conversation starter.

  “Erm… if you took that grade, you must be pretty smart, so—”

  “Aww, thanks, but I’m telling you, it’s just a lot of practice.”

  “…So, how come… you failed the first time?”

  “Oh! That?”

  She looked around as if checking if somebody was around and leaned closer. I wasn’t ok with us being that close, but I got intrigued by all her unneeded secrecy. We were the only ones there, and with so much noise going around, it was already hard enough to hear our talk even if you merely stood two steps away.

  “You see, I completely forgot we had an exam that day and skipped css to go fishing,” she hushed to my ear.

  I backed away from her, sure she was again messing with me, but the look on her face told me otherwise.

  How could someone forget something so important? And it’s not to say I never forgot important stuff, but something like this?! It was her life we were talking about!

  “I’m not messing with you. Well, not about skipping css. The fishing part was a lie. I find it really boring.”

  “How did you manage to forget about the exam!?”

  “Oh, come on! As if you’ve never forgotten something important,” she argued back in fake annoyance.

  That argument reminded me I had left my housekeys at home, something I mentioned to her as an example, but I still argued they were orders of magnitude apart.

  Without skipping a beat, she covered her mouth in make believe shock, offering me to use her phone so I could call someone.

  “I don’t need it!”

  “Pfft, ah-haha! Anyway, are you done?”

  This girl was messing with me in such a way, I was getting whipsh. I absolutely couldn’t see myself put up with her any longer.

  She got up with both cans in hand and, with tiny hops, threw one after the other inside the bin that was a short distance away.

  “Thanks for putting up with me. If we don’t meet again, have a nice summer.”

  “Hmm, t-thanks. Same thing to…”

  I didn’t finish because she again sped away, skipping like a complete nutcase.

  “Haah… I should do the same.”

  Go home, that is.

  I needed a shower, an aspirin, and a nap.

  That had been my pn until I knocked at my front door, half an hour ter. There was no response, so I knocked a few times more while calling out to my dad.

  Maybe he’s not home?

  I reached out to my jeans right side pocket. Then the left.

  “Haah, really!?”

  I attributed it to not being used to having to carry it around, but I forgot my cell phone too, so there was no way to call dad to ask him about where he was or when he’d be back.

  The only thing I could do was sit down on the doorstep and wait for him to get back.

  Not exactly how I would have liked to start my holydays. Not even one bit.

  “Haah… if only I had noticed when she offered…”

  Assuming I’d have the courage to admit my forgetfulness. Hmm, I don’t think I would, no.

  I wouldn’t have accepted her offer because I’d have to admit my mistake and that I had never had a cell phone before, hence me leaving it behind. I saw her house, and her clothes too, she obviously came from a family with money. I couldn’t possibly say something which could hint about me being poor. And that was also assuming she didn’t realise it from my own pin, boring clothes.

  Dad, please, hurry home.

  He eventually came, but that was two hours after I sat there.

  Really, an awful start for my summer holidays.