A World's Bounty

(5) Rhea

I threw on a pair of jeans, and a button up blouse, before racing downstairs to give a wave to Elle before she headed off for work. She was in the living room, finishing the last mouthful of hot Cocoa in her mug.

As I strolled through on my way to the foyer, I couldn't help but sneak a glance across the road. But all the drapes were closed on the house, and no movement was visible outside of it. I wasn't sure why, but a disappointed sigh seeped through my lips.

Elle headed out for work. It was Saturday, and the only homework I'd been sent home with was a little bit of reading, for my grade twelve English class. But that didn't take long. And then I was bored.

My eyes drifted across the room. They lingered on the bristled broom leaned against the kitchen wall. Cleaning. I could try that.

I swept around the house, which wasted a good forty-five minutes- before I was slumped back on the couch. A thrill of excitement crackled inside of me, as I realized I'd yet to actually watch the new episode of A Midnight's Calm since Sherry was here yesterday.

I grinned, a giddy feeling bubbling in my chest as I clicked into my profile, and loaded up the new episode. Unfortunately, that thrill ended as the show did. I twisted my back up at the clock behind my head. Only just ten o'clock.

I fiddled with the case of my mobile. I could call Nisha, but she's out of town until late afternoon. That took out most of my options right there. Instead, I decided to go outside. For some reason, the clouds were a lot lighter than usual, and the early morning downpour had resigned to a light drizzle. Might as well to seize the opportunity. This would be the most decent raking weather I'd find in Marson.

I fetched the rake from the shed behind the house, dragging the metal teeth across the backyard lawn. Since we were in the forest, that's literally all our property consisted of. Trees. So, of course, thousands of leaves fell into the small amount of clear space carved out of the forest designated as our lawn.
Eventually, I'd made a few good piles out back, and using large scale paper bags, I scooped them all in, before moving to the front.

I cranked the volume my earbuds were outputting so that the scratching of the metal teeth wasn't so loud. I stayed in my concentrated zone for quite a while, the continuous quick swishes of the leaves calming me. So when I finally did glance up to wipe sweat from my brow, I almost jumped five feet into the air.

The boy from across the road, was standing outside of his house, watching me. Though he was kind of far, I could still feel the way he studied me. A chill went down my spine, and I gripped the handle of the rake, abandoning the pile out front and retreating behind the safety of my home's walls. From there, I swished down a few gulps of milk, procrastinating my trip to the living room window. But eventually, my plain curiosity broke free, and I padded into the room, gripping the edge of the navy drapes and peering around them. The car in their lane had its lights blaring in the fog.

The same platinum blonde made brisk strides towards the car, a large black coat draped over her shoulders. The door swung open smoothly, and she crawled into the front seat, giving the top of her hair one last pat.

I couldn't tell from this distance if someone else was occupying the passenger's seat, so all's I was left with was my own imagination. Speaking of, could it have been possible I'd imagined the narrowed look on his face? Either way, I was positive the shivers running down my spine wouldn't lie.

I spent the rest of my Sunday afternoon internally wishing for it to end, so that my boredom would be cured. Little did I know I should have been savoring it, because it would be the last relaxing one I'd be granted with, for quite a long time

~~~

"So, as planned, we're going to start watching the space documentary today, hopefully, we'll finish up the remainder of the film tomorrow..." Ackleshack stated, his shirt muffling his voice as he did a twisting reach to find the right plug for our projector. Which, by the way, the school only had two. Which, is why we're only watching the documentary now, when really we should have watched it three weeks ago, if you're following the course plans.

Although, I guess that wasn't entirely true. We did have other projectors, but they were the old models from the mid-twentieth century, that had long since been outdated. So, teachers typically had to fight it out over scheduling their slots for projector use.

Mr. Ackleshack reached for the remote, clicking it a single time, before dashing over to the switch by the door, engulfing the back of the room in darkness.

"Okay- guys! Quiet down, quiet down. The film's starting." To be honest, Mr. Ackleshack's attempt at taming the wild beast known as my astronomy class, was near impossible. You'd think that, with only eight of us, it would be easy. But I guess Mr. A could tell you otherwise.

I pulled out my notebook, slapping it onto the surface of the desk, before laying a couple coloured pens beside it. I was expecting some ancient philosopher of spatial science to pop up on screen, but instead, it was quite the opposite. A young blonde, with only stubble for facial hair, zoomed into existence, standing behind what looked to be space, but was really a green screen.

I glanced away as he began his speech, dating the page of my notebook with an indigo inked pen.

"The coolest thing about becoming a spatial scientist is that we know so little about space, and that one theory is proven wrong one day, while a new one arises the next. First, we'll be visiting the very person who contributed to creating some of NASA's latest space travel technologies!" A brief pause, as the video jumped to a new scene, of a young girl seated in a glass chair with the NASA logo on the wall behind her head. As the cameras focused on her face, I used it as the time to record all the information we'd received already, burrowing my head into my writing. "Would you like to introduce yourself- though I'm quite positive the world already knows your name.."

My ears remained alert, but even if they weren't, I'm still positive that I would have given the same reaction I did now.

"Hello. I'm Ersi Malva.. and I love space." My eyes zeroed in on the screen the moment that name was spoken. She grinned so genuinely into the lens of the camera, that it stirred a churn deep in my gut. Ersi Malva.. one of seventeen who died in a fiery explosion in space a few years back. But that wasn't the real reason everyone remembered her. On that NASA ship, the other sixteen might as well have been faceless compared to her. She was claimed to be the brightest engineer of her generation- before she blew up in space.

My eyes were trained on the screen, but my ears were unable to pick up any more words from the small interview. Finally, when the screen flickered back to the Blonde behind his space green screen, I was able to pull my eyes away.

I found Mr. Ackleshack, marking through papers on his desk as the movie played on. He seemed unfazed, leading me to question the rest of the class' reaction. They were no different. Sure, a few of them had quieted down, but the other few continued cluelessly on with their conversations about manicures, basketball players, and how bad school was.

Suddenly, my mind became stuck on a circling loop, even as the documentary man moved on to his next targets of the interview. Her echoing laugh into the mic had meant much more to me than it ever would to any of the kids in this class. I was beginning to think I'd never get that scene to stop replaying in my brain, but I was quickly proven wrong, as any chance for a boring Sunday skyrocketed into the atmosphere, far out of my reach.

Out of nowhere, in the calm buzz of the classroom- one noise towered over any giggles or snorts shared around the room. It was a bloodcurdling scream. It's volume filled the small classroom, richotteing into our ears, before Sienna Ross slide off the back of her seat, tumbling in a mass of brown curls to the floor.

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SO... Confused about Ersi yet? Did she die in a fiery explosion, according to Rhea, whose POV is of the present?? Guess we'll have to wait for another Ersi chapter to find out! And what about poor Sienna? What do you think is wrong with her? Sorry- but I can guarantee the next chapter will not be a Rhea chapter- I feel like we're seeing to much of her!