Motion

The summer heat arrived early again.

By noon, the track field shimmered beneath waves of distorted air while crickets screamed endlessly from the trees surrounding the school grounds.

Students moved lazily between buildings with loosened ties and water bottles pressed against their foreheads, their conversations blending into the constant noise of whistles, bouncing basketballs, and shoes scraping against concrete courts nearby.

Starr sat cross-legged beneath the shade of the sports pavilion with a towel draped around her shoulders while Kevin flipped through one of her notebooks beside her.

Around them, athletes continued running laps beneath the relentless sun while the athletics coach barked instructions loud enough for half the school to hear.

Kevin adjusted his glasses slightly before circling something inside her notebook.

“You keep losing marks here because you skip steps.”

Starr frowned immediately.

“I don’t skip steps.”

“You do skip steps.”

“I mentally solve them.”

“That’s another way of saying you skipped them.”

Starr clicked her tongue before leaning sideways slightly, trying to peek at what he wrote.

Kevin immediately moved the notebook further away from her.

“Stop cheating!”

Starr stared at him flatly for half a second before grabbing the pencil resting behind his ear.

Kevin blinked once.

“…Did you just steal my pencil?”

“How could you tell?”

Kevin sighed tiredly while Starr smirked to herself and started absentmindedly spinning the pencil between her fingers.

 Somewhere nearby, students cheered loudly after someone nearly collapsed during sprint practice.

For a while, neither of them spoke again—and strangely, the silence felt easy.

Kevin leaned forward and grabbed the water bottle beside her foot before holding it out toward her.

“Drink up.”

“I already did.”

Kevin continued holding the bottle toward her anyway.

Starr stared at him for a moment before finally taking it with a quiet sigh.

“You’re annoying.”

“It’s called being responsible.”

“You once tried microwaving a metal spoon.”

Kevin looked genuinely offended.

“That happened one time.”

“You almost burned down the kitchen.”

“It was an accident.”

A laugh escaped Starr before she could stop it.

The sound came naturally now.

Too naturally.

Somewhere along the way, existing beside Kevin had stopped feeling difficult; and that was what unsettled her most.

The sound of approaching footsteps eventually pulled her from her thoughts.

Luna appeared beneath the pavilion carrying a small cooler bag against her side while shielding her eyes from the sunlight with one hand.

“You two look half-dead.” she said immediately.

“We are dying,” Starr replied.

Kevin glanced toward the cooler bag.

“…Did you bring food?”

Luna looked offended instantly.

“Wow. Not even a hello?”

“You brought food?” Starr asked.

“I hate both of you.”

Luna sat down beside Starr before opening the cooler bag carefully. Inside were neatly packed fruit slices, frozen juice pouches, and homemade energy bars wrapped individually in paper.

Starr stared at her quietly.

“Someone’s showing off wifey material energy.”

Luna immediately threw a juice pouch at her face.

“Shut up.”

Kevin looked far too entertained by this.

Starr laughed softly while grabbing one of the energy bars from the cooler.

“How are these actually good?” she asked after taking a bite.

Luna shrugged lightly.

“My mom helped.”

“That explains everything.”

Kevin reached for one next.

Luna slapped his hand away immediately.

“These are for athletes only.”

“But I tutor this athlete.”

“You also tend to harass this athlete.”

“That’s not—.”

The three of them dissolved into easy conversation after that—about nationals, about final exams, about university applications waiting for them at the end of the year.

Life suddenly felt like it was moving now.

Graduation.

Adulthood.

Leaving.

Life would continue whether they were ready for it or not.

Kevin stood up after checking the time on his phone.

“I need to go help Mr. Beukes move equipment before he starts threatening to fail me again.”

“He likes you too much to fail you,” Luna replied.

“He threw chalk at me yesterday.”

“You deserved it.”

“I didn’t even do anything.”

“It’s your existence.” Starr added.

Kevin looked genuinely hurt by that before grabbing his bag from the floor.

“Whatever.”

Starr waved lazily without looking up.

“Try not to die in the heat.”

“No promises.”

Luna watched him disappear toward the sports building before letting out a quiet laugh beneath her breath.

Then Starr leaned back beside Luna.

“You know,” she said casually,

“Seven months ago I genuinely thought you hated me.”

Starr snorted softly.

“You thought that?”

Luna rested her chin lightly against her knee before glancing sideways toward her.

“Back then…I honestly thought you and Kevin had something going on back then.”

The words slipped out so naturally that Luna herself seemed to realize the mistake a second too late.

Silence settled between them almost immediately.

Starr looked down at the half-finished energy bar in her hands.

Then she smiled faintly.

“Yeah,” she said quietly.

“A lot of people thought that… back then.”

Luna opened her mouth slightly like she wanted to say something else. But whatever words she almost chose disappeared before they reached the surface.

She stood up from the bench and brushed loose strands of dark hair behind her ear.

“I should probably go find Remy before she gets banned from the music room again.”

“That already happened twice.”

“Exactly.”

Starr smiled as Luna started walking away beneath the burning summer sunlight.

Then the smile slowly faded.

Above the field, the sky stretched endlessly blue and cloudless.

Starr found herself thinking about winter again.

Seven months ago

Winter had settled heavily across the city.

The wind slipped through the edges of Starr’s bedroom window in uneven whistles while tree branches outside thumped softly against the glass whenever the Cape winds grew stronger.

The cold carried that familiar sharpness winter nights always seemed to have near the mountain. Somewhere outside, rainwater still dripped steadily from rooftops after an earlier storm.

The orange glow of the streetlight outside reflected faintly across her window. Starr stared at her own reflection through it, her face softened by the blur of glass and darkness beyond it.

Every now and then, headlights passed somewhere down the road below, briefly stretching shadows across her room before disappearing again.

She sat beneath three thick blankets with her knees pulled close to her chest, her chin resting lightly against them while the wind rattled the nearby branches outside. The tree beside her window swayed violently whenever the gusts hit harder, its movements uneven and desperate against the grey winter sky.

Her mind drifted back to the day before.

Kevin had come to find her after school, confused in a way he rarely allowed himself to be.

“What is essential?” he had asked.

Starr remembered looking at him for a long moment before answering.

“What’s essential is invisible to the eye.”

The words had sounded simple then.

But she remembered the way Kevin stared at the ground afterward, like something inside him had shifted slightly.

And then she added—

“People take action when it comes to what’s essential, Kevin.”

 

“You don’t.”

Starr tightened her grip on the blanket resting around her shoulders until her fingertips started numbing beneath the fabric.

Because those words had struck something she didn’t want to admit was already there.

Like something that had been quietly playing beneath everything— longer than she realised.

Her phone suddenly vibrated beside her.

The sound cut through the room sharply enough to pull her out of her thoughts.

Starr reached for it slowly.

Kevin: I told her I love her.

She stared at the screen.

Her thumb brushed lightly over the message once. Then again, like smudging the words might somehow soften them.

Outside, another gust of wind rattled the windowpane.

Starr pushed the blankets away from herself before standing from the bed. The cold hit her almost immediately. She grabbed the oversized green hoodie lying near the edge of the mattress and pulled it over herself before walking slowly toward the window.

When she placed her hand against the glass, the cold spread instantly into her palm, sharp enough to send goosebumps across her skin.

“It must be real then.” she murmured quietly to herself.

Her eyes lowered toward her phone again.

After a moment, she typed back.

Starr: It took you long enough.
Starr: So… are you guys an item now?

She locked her phone immediately after sending it and slid it into the pocket of her hoodie before throwing herself backward onto the bed.

The ceiling stared back at her blankly.

A few seconds later—her phone vibrated again.

Starr pulled it back out.

Kevin: No

The typing bubble appeared beneath it.

Then disappeared.

Then appeared again.

Kevin: But I’d like us to try 😏😏

Starr blinked once.

“…What?” she muttered aloud.

Another vibration.

Kevin: Was that the right emoji to use in this context?

The laugh escaped her before she could stop it.

She covered her face as the laughter kept spilling out of her, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes while the wind continued rattling the window beside her.

And somewhere beneath the laughter—she  wasn’t sure whether she was laughing because Kevin sounded ridiculous…

or because the words hurt more than she expected them to.

Eventually, she wiped at her eyes and typed back.

Starr: You’re such an idiot.

Then, the sound of crickets slowly pulled her back into the present, and the heat returned again.

Starr blinked slowly beneath the sports pavilion as the summer sunlight settled back across the field around her.

Above Table Mountain, thin cirrus clouds drifted slowly through the bright blue sky, brushing gently against the mountain peaks before continuing onward with the wind.

Towards it.

Then away again.

Something tightened unexpectedly inside her chest.

Her fingers rose instinctively toward her throat. Her breathing felt strange suddenly—too shallow, too deliberate—like her body had forgotten how to do it naturally for a second.

“Starr?”

She turned and saw Remy standing a few steps away holding two sports drinks beneath one arm, her expression shifting immediately once she noticed Starr’s face.

“…You okay?”

Starr blinked once before lowering her hand quickly.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“I’m fine.”

Remy studied her for another second before nodding slowly.

Starr grabbed her bag from the ground and followed beside her as they started walking back toward the school building together.

But before stepping inside—she looked back toward the sky one last time.

And watched the clouds move toward the mountain again—

only to drift away from it.