The Art of Finding Jasmine Rose Peters

21

'Maybe one day you'll look back, and smile at this moment.'
~JRP

Just like the past few days, Hayden awoke with a dizzy head and a fatigue-filled body. She thought Dr. Francis had said it would eventually stop when she rested and she had taken a whole day off. She no longer understood why she still felt tired; it wasn't normal.

Popping the pain relievers she couldn't survive without in her mouth, she felt some of the fatigue reducing. She heaved a sigh of relief and went to brush her teeth.

As if telling her it was too early to celebrate, blood started running down from her nose.

What the hell? She thought to herself.

Remembering a trick that said to raise your head up whenever blood was coming down from your nose, she closed the toilet seat and sat down, raising her head up. The blood stopped coming, and she used the toilet paper to clean the one that had stained her hands.

She proceeded to take a short shower and got dressed before grabbing her bag and leaving for the kitchen. Lyra was there when she stepped in. She didn't have any classes until mid-noon that day and was chewing gum leisurely while she played with her phone.

"Morning, kiddo," Lyra said, pouring her a cup of tea.

Hayden collected it and took a large sip before responding, "Morning." Hayden quickly gulped it down and wished Lyra goodbye before getting ready to leave.

"Say hi to your friends for me," Lyra said, smiling. "Tell Mason I'm going to need a tour of his house and tell Wren we still have a lot to discuss. Give Calvin a kiss from me." She winked at the end.

Last night, Lyra had gotten a free tour of Calvin's house. She was so excited. She seemed to relate very well with Mason who had offered to show her round. After the tour, she and Wren chatted more about Korea and China while Mason scrolled through his phone and the two partners watched the movie. They discussed it in hushed voices.

"It's only Wren that's my friend. Calvin's my partner and Mason doesn't seem to like me."

"Are you sure about Calvin? You guys seemed to hit it off really well last night. Maybe--" The rest of Lyra's words were gone with the wind as Hayden grabbed her jacket and went out, not wanting to hear Lyra's teasing. It was the coldest day so far, and Hayden clutched her jacket. She had got to go get some clothes. It was the last day of school, and Hayden was hoping to get some winter shopping done with school work reduced.

She knew she still had to study for her last exams. The ones that would determine whether she gets to go to college or not, and she was desperately hoping for a scholarship as she had gotten to Winston Royal Academy. But at that moment, warm, fuzzy clothes were the only things she could think of.

Hayden had to jog to enter the bus. She was breathing heavily as she used her bus card. Finding a seat in the far front of the bus, she sat down. It was her first bus, and if she had missed it, she would never be able to get to her second bus on time; talk less of even going to school early.

And she didn't want to be late on the last day of school.

Hayden's head was staring out the window as she looked at everything around her. Most of the places, she was used to seeing them. There were Cakes & Coffees, the shop she worked at; then there was Ramsay's minimart, the place she had gotten Calvin his noodles; and past that were the little girl and her mommy she always saw.

She often wondered what their life was, and how they ended up homeless on the streets. There had to be some backstory, and the writer in Hayden was itching to know everything. Why were they on the streets? Where did they use to live? And maybe the question that burned Hayden the most was where was the girl's father?