Vibrant Eyes

Chapter 3 - Hello Again

I walked to the cafeteria, seeing Zach on one of the benches. He waved me over, to which I sighed, walking over to him and sitting down. "Hey," He said to me. "Yo," I responded. I looked down at my food. "Not gonna eat?" He asked. I put my food aside. "Nope. I'm not that hungry." He looked at me and smiled.

"Don't worry about it. We all have those days." Zach looked around and saw Dakota with Bailey walking toward us. "I'm gonna go," I said, standing up before Zach grabbed my hand. "Don't leave. I'm sure everything will work out." I looked down at him and sat back down, pulling my hand away from him. "Hey," Dakota said to me. "Look, I'm sorry..." I cut her off. "No. you did nothing wrong. Don't apologize," I said to her. She smiled. "Alrighty! So, we're good?" She held out her hand. I sighed, grabbing it. "Fine. Whatever." We all sat next to each other and talked.

The bell rang. "What class you guys got next?" Zach asked us. "Humanities," Said Bailey with a groan. "I've got English with my bestie!" she said, smiling at me. I sighed. We all waved goodbye as we walked to our classes.

'English, my favorite class' I thought to myself. English was the only class I was good at. Me and Dakota sat next to each other.

"Alright, everyone. Today we'll continue on our creative writing response." The teacher informed. Everyone sighed, which made me chuckle slightly. We started writing, I almost finished one page before I heard a knock on the classroom door, turning my head towards the noise. My eyes widened. "Oh, Hello! May I help you?" The teacher asked. "Uh, yes actually. Is Alana Aiko in this class?" I lowered my head. 'What is he doing here?' The teacher smiled.

"Yes! She's right over there. Are you picking her up early?"

Aether smiled. "Yup!" Dakota turned to me. "Who's that?" She laughed slightly as she saw me covering my face in embarrassment. "Come on Alana," He waved me over. "Yeah, yeah," I said under my breath. I said bye to Dakota and walked out of the classroom. We walked down the hall towards the exit.

"It's creepy that you know where I go to school ya know?" He laughed.

"Yeah, well how else did you expect me to pick you up?" I glared at him.

"That's the thing, I wasn't expecting you to pick me up." We walked out of the school. "So, where's the car?" He burst out laughing. I sighed.

"That's not the response I was hoping for..." I said, kicking a stone.

"Now now, don't be so grouchy. I thought you hated school?" He looked over at me with a cheeky grin. I couldn't help but laugh slightly at his face.

"You took me out of my favorite class," I said with a sigh. We walked out of the school, heading down the road. "Wait, why did you pick me up anyway?" I asked, looking up at him. "And why do you have to be so tall?" I said in frustration. He just smiled and patted my head. "All will be revealed in due time, my dear," He said, walking in front of me. "Someone's death is gonna be revealed in a second," I muttered under my breath. "What was that!?" He called behind him to me.

"Shut up!" I called back. "I-I'm sorry! I can't hear you over your stupidness!" I sighed, catching up to him and slapping him in the back of the head.

We walked for what felt like hours before we reached a cave entrance atop a cliff. "Don't tell me we have to climb up this thing," I said with a sigh. Aether bent down to my level. "We have to climb up this thing," He said with a soft smile. I glared at him. "I hate that I'm not mad," I said, walking past him and starting to climb up the cliff. "Groovy," He said, following me. We climbed up the cliff and finally reached the entrance. "Now, we walk inside," He said, grabbing my shaking hand.

"You're fine," He said, smiling down at me. I looked up at him a nodded, being led into the dark cave.

Torches were lit in the hallway as me and Aether walked down the hallway.