Chasing the Stars

Beautiful Imperfections

"I love climbing" Carmilla beamed, after I'd cautiously followed her up. My hair was damp against my head and I was panting. "You can see everything happening below you. Everyone is carrying on their lives normally, and we're up here; a barrier of leaves and branches away. It makes me feel so free and powerful to sit up here with the wind blowing through my hair, and the way I can look down on everyone as if I was some kind of God." she marvelled. Her eyes had this childish glint in them, and that reminded me she was only young, like me and like everyone else. We'd all matured too quickly, hardened by pain and death. This wasn't fair.

But what she said was true. You did feel so free and powerful up here. It was if all your problems had been collected by the leaves and blown away by the wind. We were as high up the tree as humanly possible, and despite the strain in my arms and the frantic beating of my heart, this was the most amazing thing I have ever done.

"You okay?" Carmilla said, slipping her hand into mine, wiping away the tears and sweat that had accumulated on my cheeks without my knowledge.

"Yeah." I said softly, rocking our hands back and forth, "it's just that this is just so amazing." I looked up at her and her eyes shone with the radiance that seemed so rare, and mine shone back; arms waving with the wind.

"Hey, lovebirds, come down, we've going to get ice cream!" came a loud voice from the park, Evan. Carmilla gave me a quick glance, as if to ask if I could make it down myself, before swinging down the tree like a monkey, hair flapping behind her. I sat here for a few more seconds breathing in the smell of freedom: trees and the lingering smell of her perfume, before I made my way down carefully.

The noise of chatter and laughter was all I could hear, as it echoed through the park.

"So you're telling me you believed unicorns existed until you were 13?" Evan teased Susan.

"Yeah! I literally just thought they were a different breed of horse." She answered back.

"That's crazy. Even I know that unicorns don't exist, and I'm six." Luke giggled, using his ice lolly to imitate being a unicorn and galloping around the benches. When he passed Evan, Evan snatched the ice lolly out his hand and bit a chunk off the top.

"Oh. Look who has less ice cream now..." he stated, before giving Luke his unopened ice cream, biting another massive chunk out of Luke's.

"How the hell do you do that? You're teeth are going to enter the Arctic soon." I said, knowing the familiar pain of biting into ice.

"What? Like it's difficult, princess." He answered mockingly.

"Yes, it is, you crazy polar bear."

"Well I'm sorry I come from the arctic depths of Scotland."

"Wait! You guys come from Scotland?" I said, confusedly glancing at Evan and Carmilla, "why'd you come here?"

"Oh, boring business reasons; nothing of any interest." Carmilla butted in, grabbing at the bottom of the bench.

"Cool! I've been living in Berlin my entire life. What's Scotland like?" I answered; interested in how the world is like outside Berlin and the little village in Switzerland I'm heading too.

"I don't remember that much, except that it rained the entire time and there where hills everywhere." Evan replied, shaking his head.

"Moving on from this boring discussion, how about we go swimming? Autumn seems to have gotten 500 degrees warmer." Lizzy suggested, throwing her arms up in the air. Everyone seemed delighted by this idea, as Luke jumped up and ran to the river, closely followed by Evan and Lizzy.