A New Classmate

The two weeks of winter break didn't last long. Besides doing chores, running errands, and hanging with Chasing_Faith online, I didn't do much. At least, I didn't do anything new or important. I knew it wasn't exactly the most exciting way to spend the holidays, but I was still glad to be away from school.

Once the break was officially over, I returned to class with a set schedule in mind. I prepared myself to repeat the mundane events of everyday life once again.

I found myself attending homeroom earlier than expected. I looked around a bit to find that Mr. Hopkins wasn't in the classroom yet. I took my seat and set down my bag before taking a look around. There, I saw Naomi with her usual posture and a book in front of her face. For some reason, it was refreshing to see her again.

“Hey, Naomi.” I stood up from my seat and walked a few steps towards the empty one in front of her.

“Yes?” She lowered the book away from her face and watched me take the seat in front of her.

I took a short moment to study the expression on her face. If I wasn't mistaken, her eyelids were just a little bit higher than they usually had been. Was she surprised to see me in class so early? She was always at her seat with a different book every time I came here. I never really got to make conversation with her due to time constraints. I usually only had a minute or two before our teacher would start homeroom after prepping his things.

I decided to take advantage of the extra time we had.

“How’d your break go? You get anything for Christmas?” I asked, putting on a soft and friendly smile.

“It was fine,” she responded. Gradually, she shifted her gaze towards the ceiling. Her joined thumb and index finger pressed against her lips as she continued speaking. “I received some books I've had my interest in.”

Books? Huh… Well, at least it was what she wanted.

“Did you receive anything interesting, Chase?” She turned her sight back onto me.

“Um…” I felt extreme hesitation clench my throat. Just the thought of her knowing how I spent every Christmas was embarrassing enough. It may as well have been a story to tell kids that misbehave. “I kind of didn’t get anything...”

The laugh that escaped my throat didn't come out smoothly at all. It was as if it had bumped into a whole bunch of walls on the way out. As a result of this, my hand reached the back of my head and rubbed it in a fit of embarrassment.

“I'm sorry to hear that.” She stared back at me with untouched eyes.

I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not.

“It’s fine!” I decided to move away from the subject as far as possible. “I’m just glad you had a good Christmas.”

“Good morning, students!” The voice of our instructor chimed in.

Seems like he had a good break too...

I went ahead and returned to my seat as he made his way into the classroom.

“Sorry for being a little later than usual. I think I kind of overdid it with the eggnog,” he continued with a lighthearted joke. As a result, there was calm laughter among the crowd. The joker himself joined in at the end and lightly pushed out his hands. “I’m kidding. I’m kidding. I was actually speaking with someone who’ll be joining us for the rest of the semester.”

Huh? A new student? That's a new one.

Mr. Hopkins turned his head to the side and faced the doorway leading to the classroom. With a warm smile, he waved his hand toward himself.

“Come on in, Miss Hills.”

At the door, I watched as a pair of feet took cautious steps inside the room. The motion of her legs was a bit jagged. She almost looked like she was about to trip over the flat surface of our floor. Despite this, she made her way towards Hopkin's side and then turned towards us. Her front was facing the class, but her eyes were somewhere else.

She stared at the floor with glances of hers flittering towards us now and then. Her hands met together at the front of her skirt where she held her pink bag. Taking a careful look at her face, I noticed a thin pair of pink glasses settled on top of her nose in front of sky-blue eyes. Her hair consisted of the color of an autumn brown, and it fell in a wavy motion. She had different layers to her hair, and they ended at different lengths. Her hair as a whole was fairly long. The end of her hair from the back hung over her left shoulder instead. It reached just about the bottom of her chest. What caught my attention the most was the heart-shaped hairpin she wore on the left side of her forehead. It seemed that the hairpin was what was keeping hair from getting in the way of her left eye.

“This is Faith Hills,” Mr. Hopkins announced to the class and gestured for her to greet us.

Man… I couldn't imagine how nerve-wracking that must have been for her. It was worse considering we were already halfway into the school year.

“…hello…” she managed to speak up. At the same time, her eyes darted towards the door as if she was contemplating just bolting on out of there.

With a bright smile, Mr. Hopkins turned back to the class.

“I hope that you each give her a warm welcome.”

Hah. Good luck with that.

“Why don’t you go take a seat over there, Miss Hills?” He pointed towards a seat that was about two ahead of me and one to the right. With a silent nod, she did so and sat at the appointed desk. “Alright, why don’t we get started on where we left off?” He moved over to the board, picking up a marker and removing the cap to draw out some things.

For some reason, my eyes remained on this new girl.

Her name was Faith Hills? Huh. Kind of reminds me of the "Faith" I knew from online.

I felt my eyebrows rise, but this didn't last long once my rational thinking kicked in.

Hah. Wouldn't it be crazy if this Faith and Chasing_Faith were actually the same person? Yeah, right. Only something you'd see in a movie or anime.

I tried to leave the thought there and focus my attention on what was being written on the board. But it was only a matter of time before my gaze was soon drawn back to the new girl in class. I couldn't understand why, but the thought of her being the same person stuck with me. I knew there was no way in hell that something like that would be the case, but still...

Before I could come to my senses, she turned and reached for her bag before stumbling her awkward gaze at me. The two of us held some serious direct eye contact for a second or two before I reacted with a quiet freakout. I almost had to hold a tight grasp on my desk to keep me from jumping out. Hoping it wasn't too late, I forced myself to face the board and avoid so much glancing at her for the rest of homeroom.

Despite how hard I tried, it was hard to keep my full focus on Mr. Hopkin's announcements. If it wasn't the previous thought I was having about Faith, it was our short little awkward moment that did it. Even so, I managed to convince myself that all I needed to do was get through homeroom. After that, I'd be free to concentrate on whatever else for the rest of the day.

But...it didn't help that I had her for practically every one of my classes.

I was sure I would have been just fine if she hadn't been there. But the fact that she was caused me to think even more about her. Because of this, I kept feeding the stupid fantasy in my mind that she could fit the bill. But I knew it was nothing to obsess about because it wasn't real in the first place.

Why is this bugging me?! Why can't I just go about my day?!

Lunchtime was a blessing, and it was the break I desperately needed.

I had a range of options on how to spend my lunch. I could have gone to the cafeteria, which was where students were able to buy their lunch. But that wasn't the only place that students were allowed to eat. If any of the others had packed lunches, they usually stayed in their homeroom and ate there. Of course, that didn't stop anyone from the cafeteria from coming over.

Thanks to lunch, I was able to reconvene with Naomi and distract myself for once. It wasn't a surprise at all when she stayed inside the classroom. It did seem like the kind of place she'd live in after all.

For better or for worse, I was the kind of student who needed to pack his lunch. I wasn't given any allowances or lunch money like other students had the privilege of having. I needed to save my money if there was anything I wanted to get later down the line. Considering I was a frequent gamer, it wasn't wise to even spare one day buying lunch.

Even so, I had to admit I was lazy when it came to making lunches. I performed a minimal amount of effort and threw together whatever was edible. If I had any motivation to go through the chore of making my own lunch, it was spending that time with Naomi.

Truth be told, there were some nights I'd forget to make lunch. That led to a path of tears from spending unnecessary money or starving throughout the rest of the day. I can assure that both scenarios have already happened.

As expected, Naomi remained at her desk with her eyes glued to her book. I took the liberty of taking the empty seat in front of her. Before sitting down, I turned the desk around until it was directly facing her. There, I pulled out a plastic container from my bag and reached for the sandwich within. As I searched for the small bag of chips I brought, my eyes wandered over to Naomi. I didn't see any kind of lunch spread out for her.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” I asked.

She rested her book on the table and directed her eyes to the clock on the wall.

“Oh, is it that time already?”

Did she really have no clue…?

I watched her as she placed her small book away into her schoolbag and brought out a wrapped pack of her own. I compared the appearance of her box to mine and noticed something…different. My eyebrows drew together as my head tilted in confusion.

Her packed lunches looked a lot more organized than mine. Then again, my lunches were sort of just…thrown in there.

After unwrapping the cloth around the small box in front of her, she opened the lid and set it aside. From what I was able to see inside, there were different neatly packed sections within. It looked as if she had taken the time to separate different portions of her food for some reason.

“I’m curious, Naomi,” I mentioned, stopping her from taking her first bite as she raised her set of chopsticks to her lips. “How exactly do you pack your lunches?”

“I prepare them the weekend before,” she answered with a calm tone of voice. “If there aren't any leftovers I can use, I make something new. Then, I arrange them into different boxes each arranged for a different day.”

“Oh…” Keeping my head from hanging in shame, I also admired the way she used her head. “That’s smart. You do it all on one day for the week.” I began wondering if I had the patience to sit down and do that myself. With nothing much else to say, I turned my head behind me.

Although I tried to ignore her presence for my own good, Faith Hills had actually been two seats in front of me. She didn't have her own group to eat lunch with, and that was understandable. Even so, she had a laptop out in front of her and looked pretty busy on it. Based on the custom design of it, I assumed she had brought it from home. Like her bag, her laptop was the color of light pink. At the corner, there was a group of streaks that varied between different shades of the same color.

I didn't have a clear view of what she had been doing, but I refrained from prying for obvious moral reasons. Just as I was about to turn my back to her, something shook in my right pocket.

I pulled out my phone and noticed a notification from the other Faith, Chasing_Faith. I opened it and read the message she had sent me.

Hi. :3

Before responding, I couldn't help but look back at the Faith behind me and lower my eyelids.

Nah… There’s no way.

She’s not on her phone. She's on her laptop. That should be definite proof to finally let the idea go.

I shook my head a bit and turned my attention back to my phone.

Hey. What’s up?

I texted her a reply back and continued to mess around with my lunch.

A moment later, I received another message.

Nothing really. Just a little bored. Are you having lunch right now?

I began tapping on my phone.

Yeah. I’m kind of sitting with this girl that I've been trying to get to know…

After hitting the send button, I couldn’t help but look up from my desk. I noticed Naomi eat her lunch in a silent yet somewhat graceful way. She had no idea about the kind of conversation I was having right in front of her.

Buzzzzz.

Oh? Oh?! There’s a girl you like, huh?! You should have told me as soon as you met her! What does she look like?! Tell me all about her!

Chasing_Faith’s hyper yet tolerable behavior caused the corners of my lips to stretch.

Oh…that’s just like her…

“Is everything alright, Chase?” I heard a sudden question from Naomi. It looked like she had noticed the stupid faces I had been making. She was right in front of me after all.

Maybe she did have an idea…

“Huh, what?” I answered back.

I stumbled a little with my words, considering I didn't expect her concern.

“You keep making these…odd faces.”

“Ohhh.” I laughed a little in response. Discomfort began to set in as I felt a cold bead of sweat form somewhere on my head. “I’m fine. Just read something funny, that’s all.”

Some kind of sixth sense in my head warned me about the glance of someone else shooting my way. I ceased my embarrassed smile and turned my head to the side. If I wasn't mistaken, I noticed Faith, the new student, looking my way with a side glance as well. Once realizing I had been returning the same look, she immediately froze up for a half-second. Then, she returned to her business on the laptop in front of her.

I assumed she couldn't help but overhear our discussion and find interest in it.

Obviously.

I turned back to my phone and proceeded to reply to Faith’s text.

Haha. That’s just like you. Maybe some other time. She's really pretty though.

From my peripheral vision, I continued to keep an eye on Naomi. I wanted to make sure she didn't so happen to catch a glimpse of my text messages about her.

Lunch soon came to an end, but it didn't stop me from seeing Faith Hills for the rest of my classes. She was even in the one class I appreciated the most, which was Art. Honestly, I couldn't say my appreciation for it was the intended one. I only liked the class because I had time off from paperwork. Maybe she had it too for the same reason. As long as we did anything that was remotely related to art, we were free to do whatever we wanted. Who would pass up on that?

Unfortunately, Naomi wasn’t in the same class. Remembering she was quite an intensive studybug, it was understandable. Even so, there was one thing that didn't change from my other classes, and that was not knowing anyone else. At the same time, I had a whole table to myself, so it wasn't all bad. The tables in the art rooms were usually meant for four people, but that wasn’t the case with me. In essence, I had four times the amount of space all to myself.

Classmates tended to be a lot closer when it came to this class. Aside from the freedom of studying and paperwork, some groups sat right next to each other. I felt a little weird being the odd one out, but that changed when the new girl showed up by my side out of nowhere.

I hadn't noticed her at first since I had been messing with some of the random available art supplies. There were colored pencils, yarn, paints, and different kinds of things. It was up to us to decide how to use them and turn them into something new. That was the beauty of it, I guess. No instructions to follow, so it paves the way for an easy A.

“Um…” I heard her say.

“Hm?” I turned and noticed her standing by my table.

She had been clutching her hands together as she averted her gaze away from me. Her glasses looked as if they were going to slide off. She noticed this and pushed them back further up her nose.

“Do you mind if I sit next to you…? There’s no other open seat,” she asked. Her voice was soft and quiet, but polite.

I didn't see why she needed my permission in the first place, so I left her with an open invitation. “Yeah. Go for it.”

She grabbed the seat closest to her and slid it out from underneath the desk. She then used her hands to hold the top back part of her skirt against her body and sat down. Having watched this from the corner of my eye, I turned my attention back to my work.

I continued to try to keep my focus on my work, but then I heard her mumble something out.

“Um…” she repeated, having me face her direction once more. “…could you explain what we’re doing here? The teacher was leaving the classroom as soon as I got here. She told me to ask someone in the class.”

“Oh,” I understood and proceeded to give her a simple explanation. “Well… You can do whatever you want, really. She doesn’t exactly give out assignments. Just grades you on the stuff you make on your own. You can draw, paint, or use whatever she has over there to make something.” I pointed towards the stash of materials she had available for everyone.

“Oh, really?” she responded and then released a breath of relief. I was sure she was happy to hear that the stress of classroom work was gone here.

I kept my gaze on her for just a little while longer as her eyes roamed around the classroom. I tried focusing back on my work, but I felt a sudden need to say something. The problem was that I didn't know what to say.

She was the only other person besides Naomi I sat with. She wasn't Naomi, so I couldn't just sit still in silence with her right next to me. I guess I needed to get a little more used to being around her.

As I thought about what I could come up with to break the ice, unwelcome thoughts began creeping back. For a short second, I thought about maybe coincidently asking Faith here a few questions. Maybe...asking her about certain things the Faith I know likes.

“Hey…” I brought up with an uneasy feeling in my chest.

“Huh?” She questioned as she turned back to me.

“I was wondering…” I paused for a moment to gather the right words. Just as I was about to bring up the subject of video games, I felt an unexpected vibration interrupt me. It was my phone. “Oh, hold on.” I dug my hand into my pocket to see what it was.

“Oh, sure,” she responded and continued to wander her eyes around the room.

I lifted the phone to my face and saw a message from Chasing_Faith.

Chicken.

Chicken…

She must have not seen my message or something if she was just responding now. My last message to her was asking her what she had for lunch. She was just now finally responding. I thought about sending her a reply, but I figured she was already in class, just like me. I didn’t want to bother her, so I left it for after school. I pushed the phone back into my pocket and called it.

There it is. If that isn't total proof that this girl isn't the Faith that I know, then I don't know what is.

At that point, I wanted nothing more than to get back on track.

“Were you going to ask me something?” the girl next to me asked after noticing that I wasn’t messing with my phone anymore.

“Oh. That? It was nothing.” I tried to smile back, so I didn't look like an asshole for taking back the question I was going to ask her.

“Oh,” she only replied and turned to her desk.

It wasn't a moment too soon when our art teacher, Mrs. Rivers, finally returned to the classroom. It looked like she had the help of another faculty member when it came to bringing in a large flat wooden board. It took them a while to maneuver through the door. Once they got past, they set it on an unoccupied wall of the class.

“Thank you very much for your help,” Mrs. Rivers expressed with gratitude after drawing out an exhaustive breath.

“Glad to help.” The person she had been talking to returned a smile and then took his leave.

Mrs. Rivers watched him walk off before noticing everyone else in the room. A few collective murmurs and whispers slipped on by.

“Don’t worry, everyone. This isn’t some kind of surprise project for you all.” She then lowered her eyes and the volume of her voice in a mischievous kind of manner. “Unless you want it to be…heh heh.” Despite that lurking comment, she reverted to her usual joyful yet calm tone. “Carry on, all of you!” Once she was free of their attention, she began walking towards the table Faith Hills and I had been sitting at. She planted a hand on the table and placed a fist with an acute elbow towards her hip. “So, Faith Hills?” She had her eyes on the new student.

“Yes?” She seemed a little surprised to see her standing right in front of her.

Mrs. Rivers glanced over to me for a second.

“Have you gotten to know Chase here?”

Fun fact: Mrs. Rivers and I already had a kind of casual relationship with each other. It was almost like we were friends instead of just your typical teacher and student. We got to know each other back during the fall. Apparently, I had first caught her attention since I was so quiet in the class. I wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing. Either way, she seemed to admire that. If there was anyone in class she mostly talked to, it was me. I believed it was safe to say I was her favorite if she had any.

To tell the truth, if I had to pick a favorite teacher, it’d most likely go to her. I didn’t know what to expect seeing her on the first day of class. Her burgundy brown shoulder-length hair was knotted into a ponytail, and it seemed to fit well with her also bouncy and bubbly personality. Despite wearing the same uniform you’d expect any faculty of the school to wear, all I could see was her staple apron most of the time. To see her wearing such a smeared and marked apron on top of her dressy clothes almost seemed like the kind of thing to inspire artists. You know, like how contradictory yet beautiful the world was and stuff like that.

“Oh…!” Faith Hills jumped at the previous question and took a short glance my way. “Um…yeah. I guess.”

Mrs. Rivers shared a short and joyous laugh.

“If you ask me if there’s anyone you want to get to know here, I’d recommend Chase. To be honest…” She snuck a peak at the other students actively talking to one another. “It's getting a little tiring reminding everyone to do their work every single day. Wouldn't want you following in their footsteps now, would we?” She almost made it sound as if she was trying to hook us up. As a result, I decided to ignore the idea as much as I was able to. “Besides, I just might have the perfect thing to get you two started.” She turned my way. “Chase?”

“Hm?” I picked up my head and answered.

“Would you be interested in a project?”

“What kind of project?”

“You see that wooden board over there? I was thinking you could do me a favor by having it ready in a few months.” She pointed a thumb back towards the flat object leaning on the wall, having us take a second glance at it. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard about it yet, but we’re going to be having a festival in the spring. I had the bright idea of painting that board. There's going to be a lot of clubs participating in the festival, including us. We decided we’d do the usual things like caricatures, portraits, heck even face-painting. After all, it’d be a little nice to raise money for some new equipment and supplies. I can't tell you how many times I’ve gotten after kids not washing their brushes after painting with them.” She looked ready to go on and on about the lack of students’ consideration costing the art supply. But I decided to stop her with a question of mine.

"If the Art Club is going to be in that festival, why aren't they the ones painting the board?"

"Good question. We're making some proofs for the festival. In other words, we’re putting a portfolio together for people to look through. That way, they can make sure they're getting their money's worth. I wasn't sure if we'd be able to paint the board on time, so I decided to get some help from the class instead."

“Well, I guess it's alright,” I accepted. “We’d be doing this during class, right?”

“Oh, yeah!” she informed with a flick of her hand. “You don’t have to come after school or anything. Plus, you do this for me, you don't need to worry about anything else in my class. This'll count as your work up until we need it. If you manage to finish before the spring festival, this class is all yours.”

That's good. Wouldn't want to have to stay after school for this. Not when I can just waste my life away at home instead. And, if I get it out of the way early enough, I can use the time to knock out any homework while I'm at it.

“So, what do you think about working together on it?” She turned back to the girl sitting next to me. “This would be a great opportunity to make a new friend. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?”

I last remembered Faith Hills wanting to hide inside her figurative shell earlier today. For some reason, she now looked invested in the offer that was just given to her.

“That actually sounds pretty fun! I can give it a try,” she answered with a slight shift in her attitude.

“Sounds good!” Mrs. Rivers clapped her hands and rubbed them against each other. “I need to stop by my office. I’ll come back and let you guys know what to do.” She excused herself and proceeded to walk out of the class.

Faith Hills turned towards me and managed to offer a timid yet warm smile. “Well…I guess we’ll be working together then.”

“Yeah,” I agreed and decided to offer her some friendly support. “If there’s anything you need help with, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Okay,” she said with a nod.

I didn't think I'd end up being paired with the girl I once had silly thoughts about. At any rate, it didn't hurt to make a new friend, so I wasn't against the idea of working together with her.

Mrs. Rivers brought sketches of different designs with her when she came back. They were designs the art club had come up with. To decide which one we thought was a better fit for the festival, we ended up using the rest of the class to do so. Mrs. Rivers told us we could start laying out the framework with pencil tomorrow. After finishing that, we'd move on to painting.

Aside from that project, things were a bit different with the classes following after. Faith Hills began sitting closer to me after we had been somewhat introduced in our art class. I suppose she felt more comfortable around me after the fact.

Even so, she came in halfway through the school year. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have had the chance to pick a seat right next to me. Since I usually sat at the back of the classroom, she didn't have much trouble there as it wasn't as packed.

At the end of the day, I reconvened with both Naomi and Faith for our last period. Once everyone was dismissed, I found myself lagging a bit behind. By the time I had shoved my things inside my bag, I noticed Faith had already left the room. On the other hand, Naomi was still gathering her things. She probably spent a little too much time with her book again.

I decided to head home, so I sent one last glance over to Naomi.

“See ya,” I told her.

“See you tomorrow,” she responded, allowing me to walk out of the classroom.

I stood by my bike outside of the school building and waited for the path to clear up a bit. Once there weren't as many students in the way, I hopped on and began pedaling. Just then, I realized that I had forgotten about a particular someone back in class. The last text Chasing_Faith had sent me was still about what she had eaten, and I hadn’t replied due to the both of us being busy.

Keeping my eyes on the path in front of me, I tried using my right hand to fish through my pocket for my phone. But my phone seemed to latch onto something, so I couldn’t get it out right. It wasn't that big of a deal, so I took a quick look at my pocket to try and get a better view of what was going on. As soon as I figured out the bad angle it had been in, I turned back to see something new in the field of my vision. It was something that had not been there the last time I had looked. A girl had appeared in my path without knowing it. If I didn’t do anything to stop or make some kind of an evasive maneuver, things weren't going to end pretty.

“Aah!” I yelped out of surprise, causing this girl to tear her eyes away from being glued to her phone. In the next moment, she noticed me trying to skid to a stop right in front of her. With a face filled with fright and terror, she immediately flinched and stepped backward. The momentum of her sudden movement was too fast. She ended up tripping backward and falling back.

I gripped the brakes on my handlebars with an iron grasp. I even went as far as to use my shoes to increase the friction. Once I finally came to a stop, I took a quick look around. It was a good thing she stepped back. Judging from where I ended up, I might have hit her, had she not moved. At any rate, I searched in the direction that she fell in, feeling my face warp in worry.

“Hey, are you okay?!” I jumped off my bike, allowing it to fall to the side as I raced towards this girl. Her thighs pressed against the pavement as her hands slightly stretched out behind her.

“Owwww…” she cried just a little, bringing back one of her hands to rub the area around her skirt.

In a slight panic, I knelt on the ground and reached a hand out to her. She turned her face up to me, and it was then that I recognized who she was.

“Faith?!” Guilt and embarrassment bombarded me as I witnessed the frazzled look on her face. I had almost run over the girl I was just getting to know in class.

“Ch…Chase?” It seemed like she was trying to remember my name.

Looking at her face long enough, I realized something was missing. Her glasses.

“Hey, your glasses…!” I reminded and took a swift look around. It wasn't long before I found them sitting between her legs. Without thinking, I stretched my hand to pick them up. It was then that something embarrassing and unexpected came into my view.

The skirts the girls wore with their uniforms weren’t exactly long. Faith had tripped over backward. Because of this, I made an extreme and unintentional mistake. I caught sight of something I shouldn't have had the opportunity to see underneath her skirt. I felt a plaid pattern of pink and white burn itself into my mind. It didn't help the color was a stark contrast to our light and dark blue patterned uniforms.

I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. I couldn't for the sake of keeping her from knowing what just happened. Immediately after catching a glance underneath, I swiped at the glasses sitting on the ground. At the same time, I forced myself to not look embarrassed.

“H-here.” I was about to hand over her glasses until I noticed something strange about them. “Huh?” Something was wrong with the lenses. I was about to take a careful grip of them until my fingers went through one of the holes unexpectedly.

What the?

I poked my finger through the other hole and found it to be in the same condition.

“Your glasses are missing their lenses,” I told her.

She swiped them from my hand and hugged them close to her chest. “T-The lenses must have fallen o-out!” she stuttered.

“You want me to help you look for them?” I asked her, seeing as it was my fault she fell in the first place.

“N-no! That’s okay!” she continued to respond oddly. “I… I h-have spares at home!”

Even if that was the case, she wouldn't be able to see clearly if she wasn't able to use her glasses.

“Can you…get home?”

“I’ll be fine!” Her words shot out of her mouth. “I’m getting picked up. It’s okay!”

“Alright…” Her reaction made me feel a little uncomfortable. She didn’t see me…notice her…? …did she? “Again…I’m sorry for scaring you like that.”

“It’s okay!” She turned her head away and appeared to have noticed something in the distance. “Oh! There’s my ride! Sorry, got to go! Bye!” Sparing a nervous grin, she began dashing in the opposite direction. I couldn’t help but look after her as she ran. I was afraid she'd trip and fall again…

In the end, I decided I would hold texting Chasing_Faith back and instead talk to her online when I got home. I didn't need another accident like that happening again.

As soon as I got home, I hopped on my system and scrolled through sections on my screen until I got to the social menu. The first person I looked for in my friends' list was Chasing_Faith. Yet, I didn’t find her online. She wasn't always on every day, so I didn't find it too strange. I decided to take our unfinished conversation from earlier into a call instead.

I lay on my bed and rested an arm behind my head as I heard the phone ring on the other end. After a while, it picked up.

“Hey. What’s up…?” she answered.

“Sorry,” I apologized. “I didn’t text back because I thought you were busy and then I kind of got busy and…yeah…”

“It’s okay!” she assured with a brimming voice. “How was your first day back? Was it fun?”

“Um…” I tried thinking back on the events that had occurred. “It was…interesting. What about you?”

She laughed a little in response. “Yeah… I guess I could say the same.” She sighed shortly afterward. “To be honest, I don’t think I’m ready for school again…”

“Because of how your last day before the break went…?” I brought up with a cautious tone.

“I guess you could say that…” she mentioned. “I think I've put it behind me, but, at the same time, I can’t say that what happened doesn’t still bother me.” She paused for a moment before she began speaking again on a different subject. “Oh, hey. I’m sorry to cut this short, but I was going to try to do some studying. Gonna try aiming high this time around.”

“Oh, sure, of course!” I agreed. “Don’t let me get in the way of you doing that.”

She giggled. “Heehee. Up to talk later tonight?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay then. Talk to you soon!” Afterward, she ended the call.

I placed my phone on the side of my bed and stared back at the ceiling.

Ever since I had met Chasing_Faith online, playing on my own was a thing of the past. I felt no need to turn back to those days. It was almost as if she had been a drug. I couldn't see myself getting on without her. Since she was going to be studying in the meantime, I didn’t really have a clue about what to do.

As a result, I pulled up my phone and began to mess around with it