Sunflower

Part 1 (Harper) Happy days

I looked at my alarm clock, stretching, the time read two minutes past seven, I'd woken up just before my alarm, genuinely perfect. My legs swung off the edge of the bed, bare feet touching the cool wooden floor. Light shone through the window, a slight breeze disturbing the silk curtains. I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, coming back to my senses after my rollercoaster of dreams, at least they kept sleep interesting. After a couple more breathes and squints, I found the strength to get up from my bed and get changed for school, a white shirt that was long sleeved, I un cuffed them and shoved them up to my elbows. Then I grabbed my checkered skirt, red and black like my tie which I did loosely around my neck. I had to run around a bit to find my belt to keep my skirt up, then there was the hard decision of what socks I should wear, I debated between red or yellow, I decided yellow. Then I chucked on my school shoes and headed downstairs for breakfast, a smile on my face. The captivating smell of pancakes drew me faster down the spiral stairs until I reached the kitchen.

"Morning darling." My mum chimed.

"Morning." I said.

She was flipping a pancake, presumably the last one as there was three already on the round table, I sat on one of the wooden chairs, rubbing my hands together excitedly and licking my lips, I picked up two of the pancakes and put them on my plate, then I took a spoonful of cream, dumped some berries on, smothered it in sirup and dug in. My mum laughed as she sat down too, helping herself to the last two pancakes.

"What?" I asked my mouth still full of pancake.

"Just you." She giggled.

"Says the woman in the flower-patterned dress." I said jokingly looking her up and down.

"Oi!" She put her hands on her hips faking being offended.

We left for school soon after, I grabbed my satchel and my oversized grey jumper, I usually walked but since it was raining and she was the head teacher it easier if she drove me. I let my head rest on the glass window, looking up at the big red sign that read 'Spark Nomads academy' a fairer name would've been 'away from civilisation' as rural Nottingham was where I lived. My mum parked in the head teacher's parking spot, and we got out the chunky Jeep, waving goodbye to each other. A tall girl waved to me, she had beautiful black curly hair and clear, dark skin.

"Hey! Bestie!" She yelled running towards me.

I picked her up in a hug, as tall as she was, I was taller. When I put her down she grabbed my hand and we started walking to our form room.

"How is Harper today?" She asked.

"I'm better now, how about you Allie?" I giggled.

"Good, I have P.E today though." She groaned.

"I love P.E." I said giddily.

"Yeah, well you're weird." Allie rolled her eyes, squeezing my hand.

Walking into form I chucked my bag down beside my seat and Allie sat next to me. Most of the classrooms in the school looked the same; white brick at the base of the walls meeting above it auburn planks of wood and the ceiling following suit. Most floors were tiled with brick and the desks were always laid out in three rows with five desks in each of them going from the front of the classroom to the back. All the desks had room for two students which worked out with me and Allie in form as it meant we had our own private table to gossip at. 

After form my first lesson was maths, first thing in the morning. Great. At least it was a substitute teacher. I took my seat by the window, a girl laughing to her friends as they walked to their seats placed herself next to me. Amy was alright, I smiled when she turned to me to say hi. The gossip queen of the school Amy was but she was still nice. Luckily the lesson passed quickly as did history and English, soon enough it was lunch, my second favourite part of the day. I picked up a sandwich from the canteen and sat down at me and Allie's bench outside the canteen under a tree, we preferred nature to noise. It wasn't really our bench, our names weren't engraved on it or anything. We just found it in year seven when we first met and had lunch here together and have been since. There were larger groups of people we were friends with that we could have lunch with but this had become a tradition, and who were we to break tradition?

"How was P.E?" I asked.

"Really?" Allie raised her eyebrows, eating her cold cheese toastie.

I laughed, almost choking on my sandwich, she had to pat my back a few times until I spat it out. It was incredible how many times that had happened. As we discussed our days so far, since we had so few classes together that day, a lean boy walked past us his hands shoved in his pockets but a charming smile on his face. His hair was short and black and had a sweet looking face; from a further distance you could mistake him for a year eight due to that and the combination of his height. His skin was a light brown that seemed to glow even in the grey weather although he always appeared to have very cool undertones making him look somehow pale but in a slightly "I'm deficient in every vitamin" way.

"Alright ladies." He grinned, failing to do so flirtatiously.

"Drake." I nodded.

He sat down on the grass, crossing his legs,.

"So, what are you up to?" He asked slowly, trying to start convocation.

"No offence mate, but that's pathetic." Allie chuckled.

Drake rolled his eyes. He was a close friend of mine and Allie's but didn't seem to have many others, he mostly kept to himself. I'd met him when he joined the school in year eight, he was the owner of the schools son, they had moved in at that time. I showed Drake around and introduced him to Allie, he joins us for lunch occasionally though he never ate anything but it wasn't really my business to question.

"How's homeless club going?" I asked.

"For the last time it's not called homeless club." Drake sighed annoyed.

"What's it called then?" Allie taunted.

"Um, re-education life skill thingy..." Drake flinched at his own words.

I broke into hysterics of laughter and so did Allie as I grabbed her arm to steady myself on the bench. Drake waited patiently for us to calm down.

"It's nice that you're doing it though." Allie said approvingly, taking the last bite or her cold toastie.

"Yeah, that doesn't excuse a stupid name though." I folded my arms seriously as I said it.

Drake shook his head letting out a chuckle. I started convocation on favourite music genre which eventually led to an intense debate between Allie and Drake between if Jazz or Blues was better, I sided with Allie for Jazz but didn't say anything, it was much more entertaining to watch the fight than take part.

The rest of the day went by with breeze, and I had minimal homework. I arrived home and changed quickly into a baggy shirt and jeans, I grabbed my skateboard and plugged in my earphones.

"Just heading out!" I called out to my mum as I shut the door behind me.

I rolled down the road. The sun had already started it's decent beyond the horizon causing the sky to bleed orange. A light breeze whistled past me, and I drifted along the road humming the calming tune I listened too unwinding after my boringly average day. I stopped occasionally sniffing flowers and picking snails up to carry them to safety until I got to my destination; a giant field of dandelions. At least it was in the summer, in the autumn the surrounding trees will turn into fiery colours and shed the leaves turning into a blanket over the field so I can make giant piles and jump in them. I loved autumn. There was always one odd thing about this field though, a sunflower, it never died or closed it was always open. Facing the sun, unless I walked toward it then it slowly faced me, but the oddest thing was it happened to many other people in my life, my mum, Allie, but not Drake, odd. Maybe it only did to to girls? Something to do with the chromosomes I guessed. I picked up my skateboard and ran into the field, some of the bloomed dandelions releasing their seeds into the air as I ran past them, I turned and let myself fall into the flowers to watch the magnificent sunset. Life was perfect.