The Sign of the Koru

Chapter 1 - These Croissants Came From Heaven-(according to my friend)

Raeleigh POV:

I push through the crowded hallway, trying to get to my locker, which is, of course, at the other end of the wing. I push past people as fast as I can, weaving my way through the crowd of high school kids who are either trying to get to their next class or just messing around and hanging out. I'm doing pretty well considering that everyone in this school feels like its their "mission" to walk as slow as they possibly can.

As I look past the crowd of students towards the direction of my locker, I catch a glimpse of Asher laughing with his rugby friends as he heads to his next class. He sees me at the same time and I think I see a hint of sorrow pass over his hazel eyes before he looks away and resumes talking to his teammates. One of them nudges him and sends a questioning look in my direction before he asks him something, Ash looks over one more time before he shakes his head at the tall blonde, who seems like a pretty close friend, and walks away.

I keep walking, hurriedly brushing past people. As I reach my locker, I spot my best friend, Annika, a tall pretty blonde with startling blue eyes, coming towards me.

"Hey Leigh, what did you do in Maths*?" She asks as she reaches me, and pulls out a compact mirror checking her face and wiping a minuscule thing off of her cheek, and brushing some of her hair forward with a hand adorned with about ten rings, before putting it away and looking up at me.

"Well hello to you too," I laugh a little at the greeting, and shut my locker before continuing," we had a vocab quiz and listened to Mr. Olea talk for like half an hour straight."

"Ugh," she groans, "thanks, wait for me after school, by the way I have a surprise."

"When do I not," I joke. She just rolls her eyes.

"Kay, see you later Nika(n-ee-ka)!" I call after her as we head off for our different classes. I walk as fast as I can and I step in the door of my art class just as the bell rings, signaling the start of class.

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"Wait up Leigh," I hear behind me as I walk out of the school. I turn around and see Annika, running towards me, her short, blonde hair bouncing along in rhythm to her steps. I laugh as she reaches me, coming to a sudden stop, "I'm not going anywhere Nika, chill out."

"Okay," she responds, flipping her hair out of her face and trying to look perfectly calm and not like she's gasping for air, "what do you want to do this afternoon?"

"Go somewhere," I answer, feigning seriousness. I adjust the black backpack holding all my school things on my shoulder and internally groan at the weight. Unfortunately, my school insists on still using textbooks in all of our subjects instead of online books. I mean what was the point of inventing all this technology stuff if were not even allowed to use it.

"Well no dip Sherlock," she says, grinning at my response and showing her perfectly white teeth, "but you remember how I told you I had a surprise?"

"Oh, no," I say, thinking of all the possible thing she could have come up with to do this time. I mean last time she told me this we had ended up in our togs* covered in whipped cream..... long story. Then there was this other time when we had gone camping and the battery from one of our torches* manage to get stuck up her nose...... another long story, don't ask.

"No its a good thing," she insists, reading what I was thinking based on the hesitant expression present on my face, "I found a new place to hang out." She fidgets with her phone and tries to pull something up.

"Really?" I ask, I, am honestly surprised because new places hardly ever open in our small city. It's kind of an older place and most of the storefronts, cafés, and random tourist hangout spots are pretty run down, not to mention about fifty years old.