The Calm Before the Storm

“You can help me cure my color blindness! And in return, I can help you cure your breathing problem!” that scene once again playing out in Lawrence’s head. He sat down the almost worn pencil that had been working overtime throughout the night. “This is taking longer than it should.” he grumbled. Lawrence dropped his shoulders into more of a relaxed position and reached for his glass of water. He picked it up with ease seeing as it was near empty, the largest source of water in his room now being the ring it left on his wooden desk. “You can help me cur-” Lawrence furiously banged his head onto the nearest surface that could withstand it.

Ever since meeting Chio at the junkyard he has been unable to make any outstanding development with re-writing his notes. His mind insists on replaying the same conversation over and over instead of pursuing the work before him. At this point, Lawrence could probably recite her words of conviction better than he could the answers to his last science exam. Getting frustrated at the lack of progress, Lawrence decided he should rely on taking a breather to clear his mind. Although now with the lack of an inhaler that was harder to accomplish. With the empty water glass leading the way, he stepped out of his room and made his way towards the kitchen.

“You’re up early aren’t you.” a voice came from beside him. Standing adjacent to the door was a tall man wearing a bright orange vest that typically only construction workers would have. His hair was wavy and unkempt, the opposite of Lawrence, although the brownish blonde color was an exact copy and paste. The man rubbed the small amount of stubble attached to his chin. “I heard a bang come from your room a couple of seconds ago, everything alright?”

Lawrence slightly lifted up his arm holding the glass. “I dropped this is all.” Seeing his dad dressed in his work attire this late into the night was unusual. He was more accustomed to exchanging greetings right before school, or him not being there at all due to an early shift.

“Well, I got called into an early shift so I'm going to head out first. Don’t be late for school, but if you are, make sure to have a cool excuse.” his dad opened the door he was standing by and embarked on another day at work.

Lawrence was drowsy so it took him a minute, but eventually he mumbled the words "up early." and "late for school." In attempts to rewrite what he had lost due to Chio, Lawrence had unintentionally pulled an all-nighter, and it was now morning only an hour before school would start. "You can help me c-" Lawrence let out a painful scream "I don't have time for this!" He quickly refilled his glass with tap water and rushed back to his room letting droplets fall as he went. He sat down, took a large swig, and began to write furiously. He swiftly scribbled a good two pages until his pencil snapped due to stress. "Tsk" he let out. "I think I have some more in my bag." He reached down below him, in the place he would normally set his bookbag. Coming into contact with just air, and recalling the whole reason he was re-writing his notes in the first place, Lawrence gave up hope and very sloppily got ready for school.

After an hour had passed Lawrence made his way toward school, using his dad's old backpack as a temporary replacement. Sadly only one strap was still attached but it was better than nothing.

“Morning Lawrence!” Brett called out to him. The red bridge was a halfway mark to the school, it also served as a meeting point for the two of them. “Wow,” Brett said, seeing him up close. “You look rough bud, stay up all night playing video games or something?”

“You know I don’t have anything like that.” he said sleepily.

Brett’s eyes lingered down from Lawrence’s face to his bookbag. “Oh, you got a new backpack, awesome!” He walked over to take a better look. It was torn from all sides like someone thought it was a candy bar wrapper. Only half of the zippers remained but the rest didn’t seem like they could hold out much longer.

“It’s um, very…..uh.” Brett was trying to find the right words to describe the bag. After fiddling around with the loose strap hanging from the side he slammed his fist into the open palm of his left hand. “It matches your personality!”

“Don’t ever say that again.” Lawrence threatened just seconds before the second strap broke.

The two started to make their way to the school. In the meantime, Lawrence found it suitable to explain the reason he felt so lethargic. Although he made sure to leave out the stray cat imitation.

“Are you sure that wasn't all a dream?” Brett asked.

"It was very painfully real.”

“What about your Inhaler? You're dad think he can get his hands on a new one soon?”

“I'm planning on just doing without one for now"

Brett looked confused. ”What do you mean?"

“I haven’t told him about my inhaler.”

“Huh? What for?” Brett said, stopping in his tracks.

Lawrence signaled for Brett to keep walking. “He’s already swamped with bills and trying to take care of me, I can’t put any unnecessary expenses on him. Plus,” Lawrence shrugged his shoulders. “I rarely end up doing anything active so I shouldn’t need it honestly.”

The two continued their walk with idle chit-chat until eventually reaching the school. Brett led the way into the two-storied building and Lawrence followed. Soon after entering Brett was summoned by a teacher for physical help, most likely moving desks or something of the sort. Brett was glad to help. Lawrence, by himself, walked over to the staircase that would lead him to where homeroom would be held. Once the set of winding stairs came into view, so did one of his classmates. Resting most of her weight onto the wall behind her, and holding her school bag out in front, was Chio. Her head was tilted upwards propped against the wall and lost in thought. Lawrence, hoping he could sneak past her, attempted to quietly make his way towards the stair..

“Lawrence, good morning! Chio said, after he only took three steps. She was still propped against the wall with her head now tilted down to the right facing Lawrence, part of her bangs concealing her eyes, but her smile was out in the open. Lawrence instinctively held his bookbag tight as if Chio was ready for round two. “I’m glad I caught you before homeroom, I was starting to think I missed you.” she said, opening up her own bag and searching inside of it. It was dark purple and relatively small compared to Lawrence's old one. In fact, the beaten and bruised one he had now was probably slightly bigger as well.

Chio seemed like she found what she was looking for. “Here I have something for you.” She pulled out a modest sum of papers, all held together by a single staple. “I know this still doesn’t cover for the inhaler and other things, but I hope it would at least show that I do feel bad about it.” she said, holding the stack of papers in front of him.

Lawrence dropped his guard not expecting something like this and accepted the papers from her hands.

“They may not be as good as yours, but they’re the notes from this week and a few from last week too.” Chio said actually feeling bad about the earlier situation. Lawrence was taken aback by the kindness. He felt grateful, but at the same time also bad. He himself had accidentally pulled an all-nighter re-writing his and Chio spent all this effort and time just for nothing. That feeling of guilt quickly washed away as he looked down onto the papers and without effort counted six misspelled words and a sea of terrible handwriting surrounded by islands of childlike doodles. “How long did this take you?” Lawrence said with a monotone voice.

“Around twenty minutes! I'm actually a fast writer just so you know.” Chio said with a smug look.

Lawrence pushed the notes back into her hands. “I finished re-writing all of my notes last night so I don’t need them.”

Chio clumsy took back her notes and made a puzzled face. “Hold on, how did you rewrite them without the original notes? ”

“I just did them by memory.”

“You re-wrote all of this week's lessons by memory!” Chio said, astonished.

Lawrence chuckled under his breath. He easily opened his bookbag, since nothing was keeping it closed in the first place, and pulled out an enormous binder stuffed to the brim with papers. “Behold! The entirety of this semester's notes all re-written in less than a day!” Lawrence said, puffing out his chest and waiting for a reaction similar to, “Wow that's amazing Lawrence!” or “What! There's no way!” but his fantasy didn’t align with reality. Instead of Chio being impressed, she was fake sobbing.

“Lawrence, you really are lonely aren’t you? I’m sorry I didn’t notice sooner.”

Lawrence quickly shoved his binder back into his dad's old book bag and headed up the staircase flustered.

“Hold on, I was only joking!” Chio said with a slight grin on her face following after Lawrence.
After being pestered by Chio for another thirty seconds the two of them arrived at homeroom and walked inside.

“What! No way!.” a girl said coming their way. It was the same girl that sits beside Chio. She had large puffy hair tied into a side tail and dyed a sunset orange. Har nails were painted a bright blue and were nicely kept. “There’s totes no way the two of you are dating, right? She questioned.

Chio was caught off guard, but answered her question“It’s nothing like that Maple, we just ran into each other in the hallway.” she said

“Phew, that gave me a good shock.” Maple said, fanning her face with her nails. “I totes believed that for a second as well.”

Lawrence tried to slip past Maple and move towards his seat.

“Mornin’ Lawrence!” she said, waving as he passed by.

“Goodmorning Maple.” he responded quickly trying to avoid a conversation and reached his seat.

Lawrence pulled his binder out of what was left of his book bag and tried to finally get some studying done. Once Chio sat down Maple still pressed her about the situation. Now with her close friend Zoe, who Lawrence just viewed as a flunky since she would only ever do whatever Maple did.

Maple leaned in close to Chio. “Now that I think about it there's no way you would have been going out with Lawrence”

“Right! No way!” Zoe added.

The two of them continued to make comments similar to this as Chio just slightly laughed it off with them. But this was normal, just like every day nothing was out of the ordinary. They were bland comments that had little emotion behind them anyways, and Chio never really showed any signs of being uncomfortable. So the best thing to do was to let it pass. That was Lawrence’s thinking.
“Hey Chio,” Lawrence said, turning towards them. “Actually I'm not certain about this week's notes, do you mind if I check with the ones you made?”

Chio’s face lit up. “Sure!” She took the few papers she had and headed over.

“Huh they sure are close for just running into each other.” Maple said to Zoe somewhat frustrated.

“Right…”

Homeroom flew by and soon approached gym class.

“Lawrence, today we’re playing an intense game of kickball! I can talk my team into letting you be the pitcher so you won’t have to move around as much!” Brett suggested proudly. “Wait wouldn’t it be called a roller instead?”

“I’ll pass, I wasn’t able to study as much last night anyways.”

Like every day, Brett accepted his response and headed out to carry his team to victory. Lawrence sat down in his familiar spot, once again having the entire gym just to himself. He gave a tug on his vest as he grabbed the binder with his free hand. Finally, Lawrence was going to indulge in some quality study time without anything or any thought to disturb him. He flipped it open and before his eyes could even grasp the first sentence, it was jerked out of his hand.

“You know gym class is supposed to be spent doing some kind of activity.” Chio said a few feet away from Lawrence. She had changed from her school uniform to the same gym clothes Brett wore. A simple gray t-shirt with red gym shorts. Lawrence had the same outfit, only fitted for a male. But he would always leave it in his closet knowing he would never put it to use.

“What is it with you and my school notes!” Lawrence said frustrated. He quickly got up and attempted to get back what was his. After chasing Chio around for four seconds, he decided his objective was near impossible. Lawrence fell to the ground on all fours breathing rapidly trying to get some sort of air into his system. He grasped onto the collar of his vest. “Chio,” another breath broke the sentence. “Is this some type of bullying?”

“I think it hurts me more to watch.” she said not knowing Lawrence would hit his limit so soon.

He was finally able to get off of all fours and rest in a kneeling position. “Just give me my notes back so I can get back to studying, I don’t have time for whatever you're after.”

Chio placed his binder on top of her head. “Then let's play a game!” she said enthusiastically.

Lawrence held his face up mixed with a slight frown and a hit of annoyance. “No, I don’t want to. Now give me my binder.” he stood up and held his hand out.

“The rules are simple.” Chio said ignoring him.

“I never agreed to play so there's no bother explaining!”

“Oh?” Chio said. “So I can keep your notes then, lucky.”

“What makes you think that! I stayed up all night and went through so much hardship for those notes, quite frankly I now think of them as my only child, I even prioritize them above Brett.” Lawrence said not wanting to waste another second.

“Wow, that's shallow. And creepy.”

“A-anyways! Those are proof of my hard work so they deserve to be in my possession.”

“Then come get them from me.” Chio said, waving his binder in front of him.

Lawrence tried that once and it ended in complete failure. All he could do was grit his teeth and pray that Chio would turn over a new leaf.

“Look here Lawrence! You have two choices in front of you!” she said, visibly extending out a peace sign facing Lawrence. “One is to chase me until you get your notes back, which let's be honest isn’t happening.”

“Hey.”

“Or two! We go head to head in a battle of wits and bronze, if you beat me, you get your notes back, and if I win!” she waited for a dramatic pause “You’ll take note for me for the rest of the semester!” Chio said, seeming really happy with herself.

“There's no upside to me is there?” Lawrence said in disbelief at the absurdity.

“Anyways let's get this match started!” she said, continuing to ignore him.

Chio rushed away, notes still in hand. She ran towards the gym’s storage room and pulled the door open. After pushing through a couple of cobwebs and wiping off what seemed like a lifetime of dust. She emerged with a blue table folded up with a set of wheels to make it more portable. As she walked back across the gym, the sound of the table's loose wheels followed.

What is she up to? Lawrence could only think.
“You can’t do anything too active, I understand that, but.” she unfolded the wooden table. “You shouldn’t have any problem with ping pong should you!”

Lawrence stared at the old table and knowing he had no other choice said. “Well, I guess I wouldn’t.”

“Great! Then let's play!” she said sliding his paddle to his side. “First to eleven points will win, I'll serve first.” Without delay, Chio got into a serving stance that could resemble a pro. Lawrence forced his paddle up and prepared for the serve. Table tennis isn’t all about physical strength. Lawrence though. It also requires mental toughness, knowing where to place the ball, how to receive it, the placement of your feet. He narrowed his eyes towards Chio. As long as I conserve my energy, I can win this and get back to studying!

Chio tossed the ball up with grace. It floated in the air for what felt like minutes as Lawrence waited for her paddle to make contact. He quickly did a split step, which may have been too much for a simple game of table tennis. But Lawrence was already at a disadvantage and needed whatever it would take to come out on top.

He could tell, by Chio’s pose, the way she tossed the ball, and how her eyes followed it. She was close to pro level, if Lawrence wanted to get his notes back and protect his last year of highschool. He had to stop this serve right here and right now. He landed the split step right as Chio made contact with the ball. I got it! He yelled in his head as the ball rammed straight into his face, never making contact with the table.

“Hehe, sorry.” chio said, looking down while giggling. “I stayed up last night and saw a cool table tennis match on the internet, I was trying to copy it…”
She's not a pro at all!

Chio allowed him to serve after what happened. Lawrence held the ball in his hand, paddle in another. Knowing Chio has little experience he knew he didn’t have to hit the ball as hard as he could. As long as he could get it in play there was a high chance she would mess up. He smirked lightly and tossed the ball up. He swung his arm very delicately in order not to throw the ball off course. The ball tapped his side of the table once. Here we go! Then rolled into the net dividing the two sides. Lawrence set his paddle down. “Table tennis is hard huh?” he said. Chio nodded in agreement.

After a painful half hour of trying to play table tennis, both of them eventually started to pick up the basics and the score was now nine to ten in Chios favor.

“Are you sure you can keep going?” she said, noticing his exhaustion.

“I’m fine, just serve the ball.” he said wiping sweat off his brow.

“Okay, this is game point.” She said looking at Lawrence seriously.

He gave her a stare of agreement and the toss was up. Lawrence blocked everything out, all his focus was on the ball in front of him, that was his opponent not Chio. She slammed the ball down athletically and bounced it over to Lawrences side, it was fair. Lawrence positioned himself in a way to properly receive it. He held his arm back waiting for it to get just a hair closer. I can see it! The ball is right there. I can hit it! I have to hit it! The ball closed in and so did he. All the hard work I put in last night, I cannot let it go to waste! I have to receive this ball!

Lawrence swung and completely missed the ball.

“Yay I won!” Chio said, full of glee.

Lawrence, let down by his lack of skills, mumbled something under his breath. “What was that?” she asked with a smug knowing he was most likely complaining.

“Best two out of three…” he said.

“That's fine with me and all, but are you even able to play another match?”

“To be honest I'm at my limit physically, but,” a small grin started to form on his drained face. “You had the upper hand in suggesting the first game, so that everything is fair and equal, I should be able to pick the next one.”

Chio thought about it for a second then realized this was in her favor, she only needed to win one more time while Lawrence needed to win twice in a row. “You’re on!” she said confidently.

“I'll go first then if that’s okay.”

“Okay over here! What exactly are we playing though?”

“I spy with my little eye something-”

“How is that fair!?” she said, almost throwing the paddle out of her hand.

“And playing against someone with an extreme case of asthma in a physical sport is?”

Chio felt slight guilt for what she had done, realized she couldn’t win this argument, and held her tongue.
Lawrence let out a sigh. “Fine, I'll give you a handicap. I won't pick anything that you haven’t been in contact with today. Also you can have three guesses instead of one, but, if you answer them all incorrectly you lose. How does that sound.”

“Fine, that works, go ahead and start.” Chio said with resolve to win.

Lawrence looked around the gym starting from the door they entered from, across the basketball court, up and down the bleachers, and finally landing on Chio. His gaze held at her for quite a few seconds before the smirk turned into a grin. “I spy with my little eye, something red.”

Chio didn’t take even a second before answering. “You’re underestimating me Lawrence. You didn’t think I knew what the color of my own gym uniform was?”

“Is that your first guess?”

“It is.”

“Wrong.”

Chio seemed embarrassed by her confidence and decided it was best to look around the room first. Even though she was completely colorblind, she would often have the people around her describe what color different objects were. She thought that being able to create a mental image of the object and color could help her cure her blindness. Because of that she actually knows most of the colors in the gym. Although nothing with the color red came into mind, especially something she touched.

“I got it!” she said finally remembering the video she had watched last night. “Most ping pong paddles have a side colored red and one side colored black!”

“So you’re going with the paddles?”

Chio took a gulp of pressure mixed with excitement. “Yeah, I am.”

Lawrence held his head high. “That was a good guess but it’s still wrong.” His grin grew wider and his eyes started to focus above hers. “One more guess left Chio.”

Taking notice of why Lawrence was staring at her head. She remembered her red hair clip that pulled a section of bangs out of her eyes. “Fine then, my last guess,” Chio was confident in her last answer. There was nothing else red in the gym that she had touched, she was sure of that. “My last guess is my hair clip!” she said thinking she had won.

“Wrong, it was my binder.” Lawrence said, dropping his false smug look.

“How was I supposed to know that!?”

“I don’t know, lucky guess or something.”

Chio was fed up with the situation, but she herself had forced him to play a game he was handicapped at as well. “Fine then, it’s one to one, and my turn to choose right?”

Lawrence prepared himself for what was to come. “It is”

“Okay then.” Chio said “I choose…”

“Nice work Brett!” A male classmate said as he gave him a high five.

“Preciate it!” Brett responded, wiping the sweat off of his face. “Man it sure is hot out today.”

“Only a few more months till summer huh.” the classmate said. The sun was once again beaming down on the earth, and the wind was giving off a slight breeze just enough to turn over a few grains of sand on the baseball field where the class was gathered. The field was occupied by nine people all in their own positions. Brett had just kicked the ball out of the park and managed to score himself and two others in, causing the game to become tied.

Brett laughed nervously “It's hard to think this is our last year isn’t it. It just doesn’t feel real.”

Before he could get a response, one of the people in the field called him out. “Brett! You ended up busting the kickball!” the class chuckled hearing this, but it wasn’t the first time it had happened. “Go get a new one!” The fielder finished off.
“I'm on it! Sorry about that!” he said getting up.

Brett made his way over to the gym so he could retrieve a new ball from the storage room. I wonder if I can get Lawrence to finish the game with us. He thought. Brett placed his hand on the door and opened it. But to his surprise he didn’t see the typical empty gym with Lawrence sitting down eagerly studying. Instead, he saw Lawrence still in his normal school uniform that was now soaked with sweat, awkwardly running across the basketball court. His arms swung at his side while his hair dripped with sweat.

“Score!” Chio yelled enthusiastically, drawing out the word. “That's twenty-one to zero! I win”

Lawrence fell to his knees. “I would have rather played ping pong…” he said, lacking in breath.

Chio ran over to him to gloat. “That's what you get for forcing me to play a game involving color.”

“But a full court basketball game? Was that really necessary…”
Brett stood there not saying a word, slowly a tear started to roll down his face. He pushed his hands onto his eyes to stop what was about to come next. But he was too late, the water works had begun.
“Brett! Wait, why are you crying?” Lawrence said, realizing he was there.

“It’s a miracle.” He said sobbing into his hands.

“What?”

“You’re walking Lawrence, it’s a miracle!” Brett said, taking his face out of his hands.

“I’m not paralysed Brett!” Lawrence said, annoyed.

After taking a few minutes to settle down Lawrence ended up reluctantly introducing Brett to Chio. “She’s the one I was telling you about this morning.” he said. Brett, still wiping off the tears he just recently shed, walked up to her. “Thank you for taking care of Lawrence.” he said like a proud mother.

“She’s doing the opposite.” Lawrence jumped in.

Chio and Brett both gave their greetings and talked for a few minutes until Brett remembered the reason he walked into the gym in the first place. He hurriedly grabbed the new ball and ran out saying he would like to talk some more some time.

Lawrence sat back down in his usual position and tried to relax, the lack of sleep and new exercise routine had him feeling exhausted.

“Here.” Chio said “Even though I won you can have your notes back. I may have gone overboard with the last match anyways, sorry.” She said, handing him back his notes.

“They were mine to begin with anyways.” Lawrence said.

Chio moved a few seats over and sat down herself, not really talking as energetically as she once did. Lawrence was sweaty and tired, but he could at least realize Chio’s kindness. From the notes she gave him that morning to picking a game where he could exercise without worrying too much about his health. He understood Chio was just trying to be nice, even if her execution was horrible. “I guess something like this every now and then isn’t that bad.” Lawrence looked in the opposite direction of where Chio was sitting to hide his redness. “Thank you…”

Chio felt happy by his words and became refilled with her endless supply of energy. “Sure thing! I promise I’ll pick something better next time!”

Lawrence’s redness faded as he heard those words. He turned back to face her with a more worried look on his face. “What do you mean, next time?”
From that point onwards Lawrence would have his times of study stripped away from him by Chio. For a whole week everyday was a repeat of the first. Lawrence's days of studying were over. Even though Lawrence despised it, at some point he started to actually change into his gym uniform for the first time this year so as to not get his regular one soaked in sweat. Along with Lawrence's gym studies being forfeited, Chio had started to meet with him and Brett at their local meet up spot before school and walk together with them. But Lawrence didn’t fight back, because he knew that soon he would have three whole days of freedom to study. Free of Chio and free of Brett. He would be left all alone and be able to study to his heart's content. Lawrence checked his calendar, it was finally the first of May. For the most part the school Lawrence went to was completely ordinary. Only one thing sets them apart from the others. That would be the month of May. The school and town alike had a tradition that every May they would celebrate “The Completion of the Year”. This was supposed to congratulate the seniors of their last year of high school. The tradition always followed one theme, to center itself around the number three. Three years of high school was what it was meant for. That is also the reason it is celebrated in the month of May, since it is the only month with three letters, and it was near the beginning of summer. During this month three major events would take place, the first being the senior field trip, the second being the senior class battles, and the third being “The Completion of the Year Festival.” enjoyed by the town and school alike. This would be Lawrence's chance to study. He had been planning this the whole year, a way to have this whole month just dedicated to reviewing material. It was his last plan before taking the entrance exam to his dream college, and he would not let it fail. The first obstacle would be the three day senior trip that was happening soon, although this didn’t pose a threat to Lawrence. Since he first enrolled into this school he had never gone on a field trip anyways. Due to his health he was never allowed to in case something would have happened. Most people would think this would be lonely, and indeed it is, but Lawrence would be able to make the most out of the loneliness. The day of deciding the trip was upon them, he sat at his desk during homeroom as normal. Knowing he would not be allowed to go on the trip like always. He supported this idea until the teacher spoke up mid discussion. “Oh by the way Lawrence, the gym teacher and two other students have been telling me how much effort you have been putting in during gym class so you could go on your senior trip. I had a talk with the principal and was able to get permission for you to go. Good work Lawrence.” The teacher then continued with the discussion on what the trip would be. But Lawrence didn’t hear anything he said after that. He looked off to his left where Brett was sitting and met with a wide innocent smile and a friendly thumbs up. He quickly turned completely around in his desk, startling the girl behind him. That didn’t bother him, what did, Was seeing the colorblind girl with silky black hair having the same innocent smile and friendly thumbs up as his best friend

When the heck did you two become so close!