My Little Angel (#WattPride)

Sophia's Troubled Mind

"Alright, guys and girls, listen up. It's Monday. Nobody likes Mondays. Unfortunately life still gives them to us. Luckily, I am here to make your life a little easier. So today we are just gonna have a freestyle day. The basketballs are in that corner, volleyball net is set up over there, catch is going on in that corner, and you can walk the walls if you don't want to do any of that. That's about it, have fun," the coach said before smiling at us and motioning with one quick swoop of her arm that we could go. Everyone got off of the bleachers and ran to whichever activity they were interested in. Slowly, I got up and went to the walking station. My headache was not letting up and I decided that taking it easy was the better choice. I started making my trip back and forth along the wall, lost in my thoughts that were in debate over whether having an air bison or the ability to airbend would be better. (Air bison all the way) It wasn't until I heard a timid voice that I realized there was someone beside me.

"Hey, Asher."

I looked over to see a slightly shorter girl, wearing blue shorts and a pink shirt, her blonde hair pulled into a ponytail.

"Abigail?"

"In the flesh," she said with a small smile.

"I didn't know you were in this class," I remarked.

"Yeah, since the beginning of the year," said Abigail. Her lips were pulled into a shy smile. I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly.

"Oh, I'm sorry I never noticed. I usually just try to get through this class with my head down or still intact." As if to prove my point a large basketball hit the wall a few feet above my head. Abigail and I both flinched as the guy who threw it ran over and apologized. I tossed the ball back to him and looked back at Abigail.

"Oh, it's fine. I'm usually in the back and really quiet. I have the exact same philosophy," Abigail replied.

"Well, it's nice to finally know someone in gym class. So, what grade are you?" I asked as we turned around and walked the length of the wall back.

"Freshman. Aren't you a Junior?"

"Yeah," I answered. We walked the wall a few more times in comfortable silence, the sound of the other kids echoing around the lofty gym, before another thought occured to me. "Wait, what about Riko and Ria? They come here?" Abigail nodded in response.

"Yep. Sophomores." Her ponytail wagged as she walked. I looked down at her. I had never realized how small she was. Of course, I had never actually talked one on one with her. It dawned on me that the only people I had actually talked to in the support group were Ria, Riko, and Kai. Abigail, Rebecca, and I had never actually talked. I decided then and there to change that.

"Well, I'll be darned," I replied. The silence between us continued again, but it wasn't awkward. It was nice and relaxed. We were both generally quiet people and sometimes silence is the greatest companion between you and someone else.

The bell rang and we parted with a friendly goodbye before going to our separate locker rooms. After getting changed, I went to my fourth hour class: Geology.

The teacher lectured about minerals and elements, basaltic and granitic, and I had to force myself to stay awake. As the teacher's drawling voice drifted into background noise, my thoughts floated to the front of my head. I thought about last night and what Sophia had said this morning. Snuggling with Kai had been nice. A blush formed over my cheeks and a smile on my lips as I imagined his arms wrapped around me and my face pressed into his chest. Falling asleep like that was heavenly.

But, my head argued, snuggling with anyone like that would be heavenly. Just because it was Kai doesn't mean that that was the reason it was so nice. Logic dictates that it is too early to be thinking of liking him. There are steps to liking someone. Friends, good friends, best friends, closer in other ways friends, slight crushing, budding relationship, then a good solid relationship. That's how these things worked. At least...that how my brain wanted these things to work. It also wanted to skip all of those steps and get to the budding relationship.