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Chapter VII - Nostalgia

I hope y'all don't mind the title change of the story also the long wait. please do enjoy. ^_^

Ever since the locker incident, the pranks just kept on going. All included a little reminder to stay away from Hiru. It never really bothered me much after the initial shock left. Sometimes, I did become curious as to who cared enough about Hiru to keep me away, and why I was such a threat to him.

When it first started, it had only been just small frequent pranks. FFrom putting weird things in my locker, hiding my chemistry notebook somewhere in the classroom, to even super gluing all of my pens and pencils to the bottom of my pencil case, which I had to admit was really clever. After a few weeks, I finally tried to avoid Hiru as much as I could. Instead of going home with him after school, I would lie and say I had things to do after school. The first few times I stayed after school, I would just go in for tutoring, more like doing homework, and walked around taking photos. Now, I actually stayed with Out From Under Crew. Daniel had convinced me to actually join and dance with them after one day of Algebra II tutoring. It seemed more worth while than staying in a classroom full of struggling students for an hour everyday.

My first couple practices with them was frustrating. They had already had completed routines and I was the only one of the bunch who didn't know a single move. Granted, it was nice that many of the members had been willing to help me out, even during lunch whenever I wasn't eating with Jian, but I still kicked myself whenever I messed up during a practice run through of the routine. "It's okay, you'll get it soon enough," the club president, [place name hurr], would tell me when I put myself down. With three weeks, four practices a week, it finally came to me. After I learned one routine, the rest came a bit more natural.

Before I knew it, it was nearing November and the weather was already unbelievingly too cold for me. The mornings were tortortuously the twenties degrees and would only warm up to the fifties, if I was lucky. One morning as I was getting ready, my mom had greeted me in my room.

"Morning, hun. Make sure you wear bring boots today. It's snowing outside." I stopped what I was doing and stared at my mom.

"Wait... what? Snow?!" I ran to my window and slid my curtain to the side. It wasn't a lot of snow, just enough to be seen, but it was still falling. I heard my mom laughing.

"Wow, Ail. It's like you've never seen snow before. It's no big deal," she said jokingly, however I took it bit harder than it was intended to be.

"Well, you know. I've been in San Diego my entire life, unlike you and Hiru." I shut my curtain once again and went back to putting things into my backpack.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," my mom tried to walk closer into my room. I felt an emotional confrontation coming and it was way too early in the morning for me.

"I need to get ready, mom," I said stopping my mom from moving any closer to me. She just simply nodded and walked out of my room.

Once I was ready, I trotted down the stairs. I still was not used to wearing thicker clothing and layers, so moving around still seemed awkward for me. It didn't hit me until I got to the shoe rack that I realized... I didn't own any snow boots. Instead, I just grabbed some shoes I wouldn't have to worry about getting wet and ruined, my red low top converse. "I just have to be really careful where I walk..." I thought to myself. It wasn't as easy as it sounded. I had to walk home now since I stopped going home with Hiru.

When I finally tied my shoes, I walked out to the driveway to find Lani already outside playing with the tiny amounts of snow that had collected on the ground. Jian was also playing with her and Hiru was busily scraping the icy sludge off of the windshield. Just when I was about to plug in my ipod, i heard Hiru call out my name.

"Ailee! What are you doing wearing your converse in this weather?" I looked down at my feet and shuffled them a bit.

"I don't have any boots or anything," I placed the ear buds into my ears and carefully made my way to the car, trying to avoid stepping on the snow. "I'm just going to be careful about where I walk." Hiru still gave me a worried look, but brushed it off while he continued to clear the fallen snow from the car.

Before I could open the car door, Lani tugged on my sleeve. Without giving me any eye contact, she handed me a scarf that she was wearing. "What's this for?" I kneeled down to her height and touched the scarf. It felt really soft and it was knitted. "...cold..." was all she said before giving Jian a hug. Jian chuckled.

"Yeah, look at you. That's not warm enough for snowy weather," I looked down. I was wearing tights underneath my jeans, fuzzy socks, a beanie, and a hoodie. This was the warmest I could stand to wear at once. "I'll be fine." I reasoned and climbed into the car, scarf still in hand. From the outside, I saw Jian gesturing Lani to go back inside, probably to grab another scarf for herself, and also came into the car. "You sure you're going to be okay?" I buckled up my seat belt and rested my elbow on the door. "Yes, I'll be fine." He laughed, again, and focused his attention to outside of the window. "Whatever you say," was all he said before Hiru came inside and started to back out of the driveway.

I was quiet for the entire ride to school. It wasn't completely unusual, however, I did talk to Jian every morning, but there were those days when either he or I would be too tired to communicate. Things between Jian and I were nice. Most days, we would eat lunch together. From the time we've spent together, he hasn't changed all that much. He still irritates his teachers, not intentionally, of course, and still as stubborn as ever. I liked that part, though. It reminded me of me life before I moved. 

Once I got to school, I hurried to get into the building. Maybe I was wrong. I wasn't going to be fine, it was much colder than it had been at home. As I rushed passed people in the courtyard, I noticed many people wearing thick boats, and very thick snow jackets... or whatever they're called. When I got inside of the building, I noticed that a lot of people were wearing sneakers and sweaters. Yeah, maybe it would've been smart to just wear thick clothing outside and put them away in my locker while I was inside of the heated building. I took note of it for tomorrow. 

When I got to my locker, there was a huge opening around it. Which was weird. In the mornings, the hallways were usually packed, especially if it was cold outside. When I opened my locker, I heard a loud clank and ice cold water. My hair was drenched and the water rapidly seeped into my clothes. The ice cold felt bitter against my skin, but I couldn't move. I just stood there. Then I heard a group of girls' laughter. I stared at them, and they laughed even harder while taking pictures and videos from their phones. Could they be the culprits? I thought to myself. Beside them was a stool that must've been used to place to bucket up there. I lost my cool. Rage had finally built up inside of me, and before I knew it, I was punching every single one of them. There were only four of them. Nothing I couldn't manage. I pushed one girl into another, causing them all to stumble to the ground. Then I climbed on top of them and let my fists fly free. It felt good. No one had broken us up until I had at least gave them at least one scarring punch to the face. "AILEE WHAT'S GOTTEN INTO YOU?" I heard a loud scream from the person who was holding me back. It was Hiru. Then he turned me around, looking concerned. "Why are you wet?" I wasn't in the mood. I was still enraged. "Hey you student!" I saw the assistant principal come up to me. "Come with me." I was somewhat relieved. I'd rather face the third degree from a school official then my brother. I looked back at my brother, and the group of girls, then at the crowd. The all had worried and terrified looks on their faces. Great... I guess my reputation has caught back up to me. 

---flashback----

"Ailee," my dad gently said my name on the ride home. "You know this is the third time I've had to pick you up early from school." I just stared out of the window. I didn't want to explain this to my dad. He hands shifted while on the steering wheel. "You know that you can't go back to that school, right?" I smiled. "Good. I never wanted to go, anyway."

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Hey y'all! I finally updated! I'm so sorry. My summer kind of slipped away from me... this is shorter than usual but I owed you guys an update. until later!