Chapter 22 - The Past at School

I grinned and looked straight at her. “Lucky shot.”

“I don’t think so. You really think there’s a lucky shot in basketball?” she questioned.

“Well… If we were talking about my shot, then I think there’s such a thing as a lucky shot. The fact that I was lucky enough to be able to make it, then that’s the only explanation for it.”

“Oh… You’re really convinced about that, don’t you?”

I chuckled softly. “Even if you ask me that, I still couldn’t believe that I was able to make that shot.”

She sighed and started floating towards the door. “I can’t let you ruin my memory of you. It was not a lucky shot, and you can’t change my mind.”

I scratched my head, watching her as she floated. “I got it, it was not a lucky shot. I was just in denial of it.”

Amara didn’t respond and continued approaching the door.

“Hey, where are you going?” I called, following her behind. “You know we can’t go inside at this hour right?”

“I know…” she whispered, pulling me towards her. “Someone’s inside…”

“Really?” I whispered back and listened to the sound inside. I leaned my ear against the door intently, and it didn’t take a long time for me to hear the sound of someone dribbling a ball.

—THUMP THUMP THUMP

“What do you think?” she asked.

I turned to her. “What do I think? What do you mean? It looked like someone’s playing inside.”

“I know that.” she replied.

“Then why are you asking me something obvious?”

“That’s not it! Don’t you want to try and sneak inside?” she suggested.

I stood away from the door. “Are you serious about that?”

“Kind of?” she replied hesitantly.

I can’t believe this person…

“We’re risking things if we head inside at this hour, and I know you’re aware of it.” I said.

“Yeah… I know that…” she whispered.

“Besides, we already did sneak inside the school today. If something were to happen, I’m afraid you might get in trouble.” I explained.

She sighed. “Hah… I got it. We’ll do it next time.” she replied.

“Next time!?” I exclaimed.

“You’re a student, right? You’re bound to go to the school.”

“But I’m already dead!!!”

“You. Are. Wearing. A. School. Uniform. Right. Now.”

“I know that! But you know we can’t keep on doing this! I can’t have you skipping your class just because of me!” I snapped, feeling frustrated.

“Do you hate this place?” she said.

“Do I hate this place?” I repeated, immediately calming down as I processed her question. As I tried to slowly process it, I was not able to respond to her, leaving her unanswered.

“Sorry…” she said, holding my hand. “Let’s not head inside after all.”

“No! I was just…” I replied, trying to take back what I said.

“No no no.” she chuckled softly, and continued, “I know that I was forcing you to go to the school today, and it’s perfectly fine that you’re hesitant to do something like this.”

“Let’s head inside…” I replied.

“No.” she said, her fire is swaying intensely.

“Oh, okay…” I answered, surprised.

She then released her hand from my hand. “It’s getting a bit hot… I think we should head inside the building first.” she suggested.

The school building huh… I guess it would be safe for now since the class is still ongoing, so the hallway has fewer students than usual.

“What do you think?” she asked.

I nodded in response. “It should be fine. As long as we don’t head inside the classrooms.”

“I’m not that crazy you know!?”

I laughed and shrugged. “Who knows?”

—CREAAAAK

“!!!”

I froze at the sudden noise behind us and immediately recognized what the sound was. It was the noise of the door of the school gym slowly opening.

“The both of you should join me inside.” a girl called us.

I frowned upon hearing her, her voice reminded me of someone.

Who’s that? I asked myself before slowly turning around. As I turned around, I was surprised to see that there was a black fire floating behind the door, peeking at us from behind.

“Mira?” Amara called.

“Amara? What are you doing here?” she asked back.

“Mira?” I repeated, looking at Amara.

There’s no way that’s her… Right? I shook my head and turned back to Amara.

“Yeah, she’s my classmate. I haven’t seen her for a while.” she answered.

“Oh… is that so…” I muttered and turned back to the floating black fire.

A black fire…

Is it possible for this many coincidences?

I took a deep sigh and whispered to Amara. “Does she have a long black hair?” I asked.

“Yeah… How did you know?” she whispered back.

I can’t believe it’s really her…

I blinked and took a deep sigh. “She was one of my classmates before I died.” I answered.

“Oh… that explains it.” she murmured.

“Yeah…” I nodded before turning back to the black fire.

“Actually, I heard a noise outside and decided to approach to hear it. I didn’t think I would hear Amara’s voice, so I immediately opened the door and I was right.”

Amara chuckled. “Guess I was caught…”

“Hahaha… Since it’s getting a bit hot outside, why not head inside in the meantime?” Mira suggested.

“What do you think?” Amara asked.

I raised an eyebrow. “Me? What about you?”

“It should be fine… We will head outside before the class ends.” she answered.

I nodded in response. “I guess we could do that…”

“Head inside fast, we might get caught.” Mira said.

“Oh right!” Amara exclaimed, and then both of us hurried inside the school gym where Mira closed the door behind us.

“…” I looked around the school gym. Although it looked the same, me being color blind made a huge difference on the way it looked. The same as I saw everything, the school gym looked lifeless, totally different from the past.

Then as I continued looking around, I saw one basketball lying on the floor. It was the only ball I could see inside the gym.

Mira floated beside us. “I was just practicing my shooting, but I can’t seem to shoot properly.”

“You’re doing basketball? I thought you didn’t have any clubs?” Amara asked.

“I didn’t join any clubs… I was just practicing shooting…” she answered.

“Oh really. I thought you stopped going to school anymore. I never thought I would see you here playing basketball all by yourself.”

“Yeah!” she said, floating towards the ball. She then held it, making the ball look like it was floating too. “It’s fun but tiring to play…” she continued, dribbling the ball.

“I don’t do sports so I can’t tell if it’s fun or not.” Amara commented.

“I get you.” Mira answered, shooting from the 3-point line, and missing it. “See… It’s really hard to be able to shoot from this far.”

“It’s pretty awesome that someone can shoot that far because I can’t do that at all.”

Mira floated and grabbed the ball again. “Much more at this position.” she said, floating towards the corner of the court. She held the ball and dribbled it once before taking another shot.

She missed the shot missed again.

“Hah…. I missed again…” she muttered, heading toward the ball again.

“I never thought that you were playing basketball. Much more a person like you.” Amara said.

“What do you mean by a person like me?” she said, grabbing the ball again.

“I think you said back in the class that you don’t play any sports.”

“Oh… I did say that one.” she answered, floating towards us. “But it was true, I don’t play any sports. I just started doing basketball recently.”

“Like you just started it?”

“Yeah… Because it’s my boyfriend’s favorite sport…” she revealed.

I gulped.

“WHAT!? Your boyfriend!?” Amara exclaimed in surprise.

“An ex-boyfriend to be exact. But it’s been 2 years already, so yeah…”

“I didn’t know about that… Considering that you were popular, I’m surprised that I never heard about your boyfriend.”

“It’s because our relationship was hidden and I was the reason for that.”Mira revealed.

“Oh, who would’ve thought of that… Then what happened to him? You can’t just be saying that you're playing the sports your ex was playing, right?” she asked.

“It was a year ago… He died in a truck accident…”

“He… died…? And it was... a year ago?” she asked.

“It was so sudden...”

“Are you talking about the student who died last year?”

“Yeah, that’s him…”

Suddenly, she held my left hand. “That was… Shade, right?”

“You knew about him?” Mira asked, surprised.

Her fire started shaking. “Y-yeah… I knew him very well…” she answered, her voice was shaky.