The Purple Beanie

After School

After all of the rest of her classes were over, Bree reminded herself that Skipper had told her in the morning that she had volleyball practice, so she was going to have to walk home alone.

    She neatly put away her books, tidied up her locker, put on her jacket, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and walked out the front door.

    A few minutes later, Bree was still walking when she spotted the strawberry blond haired boy from her English class - Conner Bailey, she remembered - walking in front of her on the sidewalk a few yards away.

    Bree didn't really like Conner Bailey. It wasn't because of anything he had said or done to her - they hadn't even interacted at all. It was just that . . . there was this really weird, strange feeling about him. Like an aura. A magical sort of aura. And Bree didn't know what it was.

    Bree was good at solving mysteries and figuring out people's secrets quickly on her own, but this one seemed impossible. And what was worse was that she didn't even know what she was looking for or investigating. It was all so . . . blurry. And unexplainable.

    After a while of being lost in thought, Bree snapped herself back to reality. By then, Conner Bailey had turned a corner and disappeared. Bree was pretty sure he hadn't noticed her.

    When Bree reached her house and opened the door, Kiara and Stacie greeted her.
    "Mom's out grocery shopping, so she told us to see if you came home safely," Stacie said matter-of-factly.

    Bree shrugged. "Okay."

    "Bree, why are you wearing that to your first day of school? It's really . . . dull, you know. And now I know the reason why you don't have many friends," Kiara commented snarkily.

    "Kiara, I don't need your fashion opinion. Why? Simply because I don't care," Bree said, rolling her eyes and walking up the stairs to her room.

    Kiara and Stacie shrugged and went back to whatever they were doing. Bree put down her backpack and took her phone out of her pocket. She plugged in her earbuds, turned on her favorite playlist, and collapsed on her bed, exhausted. Thinking a lot after summer break was harder than she had expected.

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    Conner was pretty excited to go home. The school day had been exhausting, personally, and he was looking forward to not having Alex bombard him with questions about how school went, since she was at the library and had told him to walk home alone.

    He walked quickly, but he felt a strange lingering presence behind him. He shook it off. He took things as too much of a big deal, anyway. He needed to change himself so he would look a lot more . . . appealing.

    Wait, what?! Since when had he thought about changing himself? Since . . . today?

    Conner let his mind drift off, and he found himself visualizing a cool, pretty face with calm brown eyes, a purple beanie, and pink and blue bangs . . . wait, that was Bree Campbell.

    Why was Conner thinking about Bree Campbell?

    He sighed. He really needed to see a doctor or something about this. Nothing could explain his feelings toward that one particular girl he had just noticed on the first day of school. He felt giddy, nervous, embarrassed, excited, and every other emotion he could think of when he was around her. But it was probably just because she looked different from the others. Her blonde hair and purple beanie that stood out among every other girl's, those cool brown eyes that made his stomach flutter when they made eye contact, those Converse sneakers she always seemed to wear, the dozen bracelets that seemed to fit so miraculously on her wrists . . . ugh, it was all just so confusing.