Fiery Girl

There was a brief pause for the girl to take a deep breath; it seemed as if she was gathering some strength. And then, with all the determination and hatred that had been building up since the day before, she said:

"It's the idiot who knocked the crates on me!"

Neo couldn't believe what he saw. The loud girl he had encountered the day before was standing before him, even more agitated than before. Nagoya's words came to his mind: "That girl is trouble. I saved you."

Now that she was standing right in front of him, screaming, he thought he might try to reason with her.

"I can't believe you're in the same room with me. I've already apologized for what I did; it was an accident," he said in an annoyed manner.

Instead of calming things down, it only added fuel to the fire.

"An accident? You didn't even care about what you were doing! I could have been hurt, and you didn't care."

"But you weren't hurt! You seem to have a lot of energy," he replied.

"Plenty of energy? Are you kidding me?"

"It looks like those boxes have affected you; you have a perception problem."

They continued to argue, escalating the fight. Neo had given up trying to smooth things over; it seemed they were about to come to blows.

Saya pulled two small bags from her purse, decorated with hearts and stars. The top of each bag was tied with a pretty colored ribbon that caught their attention.

"Look what I've got here," she said, shaking the contents in her hands. "Whoever stops fighting gets a cookie."

She giggled lightly, leaving them speechless. Her laughter was so sweet that it made Neo uncomfortable; she was just too cute.

The fire girl looked at Neo curiously, watching his reaction to Saya. Her attitude changed completely.

"Nice to meet you! My name is Sunny, and yours?"

Sunny extended her hand to him, but the boy was suspicious of what the girl might be planning. It was impossible that she was the same girl who had fought with him. Now she was friendly and smiling; something was wrong.

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Neo."

Slowly, he reached out to shake her hand, afraid of some trap she might have set for him.

Her hands were warm and soft. He had expected them to be rough from her demeanor, but he was wrong.

"You two are silly," Saya said, laughing as she watched them.

The golden-haired girl handed each of them the cookies she had promised, and Neo sighed with relief that the conflict was over. Sunny patted his arm lightly and whispered while Saya was distracted.

"I'm still mad at you, but I'll forgive you because of this sweet girl."

Neo heard this and let it go. There was no reason to prolong something that was already solved. The English teacher came into the classroom, bringing pain and despair, so Neo made the long journey to the back of the room where his desk was.

"Hey, Neo," the boy next to him called out.

"Tadashi?"

Neo was surprised.

"Let's share."

"What?"

Tadashi pointed to the bag of cookies on Neo's desk.

"I'm hungry."

Neo looked at the bag of cookies and wanted to eat them alone, since Saya had given them to him. But his conscience spoke louder.

He shared some with Tadashi while he ate one himself. They were crunchy and sweet; it seemed that she was good at cooking. Both of them secretly enjoyed the cookies since the teacher didn't seem to be in the mood for anything.

"Why are you even here?" Neo asked curiously.

"I used to sit next to you."

Neo had never noticed.

Perhaps because he was so quiet, he went unnoticed.

During the break, Neo thought about going to talk to Saya. But she was so excited talking to her best friend who had just come back from a trip that he thought it best not to bother her.

Apparently, Sunny was talking about the party with Saya.

“If there was a possibility that Saya was going to the party, maybe I should try to find a way to go.” Neo thought.

He decided to go to the south side of the city where the fancy dress stores were located. After several visits to different stores, he discovered that formalwear was very expensive and he would spend all the money Karine had given him.

Just remembering the days when he had gone hungry, running out of money was out of the question.

Another idea crossed his mind: asking for more money. But Karine had already done so much for him that it would be rude to ask for more.

He had the feeling he was being followed, he couldn't go on with this paranoia. So he decided to try and find at least some clue to his nightmare. He went to visit the future school, after all, the brown-haired girl was wearing a uniform from there.

Unfortunately, he couldn't remember any details of his dream, only that she had long brown hair.

He walked to the west of the city, full of doubts and also fear, he was paranoid as he looked from side to side, he hadn't forgotten the faceless figure.