The Eleventh Gifted (The Gifted Fanfiction)

Chapter 43

Aria lazily scrolled through her Twitter timeline. Her cheek lazily rested on her left knuckles. Her left elbow was resting on the windowsill of her father's car window in return. Her ears had earphones tucked in as a playlist of songs she liked played.

The contents were usual. It was not that they were boring. It was just none of the contents had made her react so much other than a small smile and a little chuckle.

But when she refreshed her timeline, she immediately fixed her position in the backseat. She rechecked the hashtag that was everywhere as she scrolled down.

Is that true?! Is that real?! Is the Gifted program really coming back?!

The Gifted program was taken down almost or a year ago, or more than that already; Aria couldn't remember exactly when. It was also the same span of time for how long since she left the school. After the Gifted program had come to an end, so did her purpose for the Director. That was why he let her go. And for everything that she had done to her friends-at least she considered them like that still, but she was not sure if they still thought of her like that-she could not take the guilt and decided to transfer out to her old school. It wasn't working at first. She could still get nightmares from time to time. But as the days passed, she got to live as if those few months did not happen to her.

The nightmares were horrible, especially since they involved Wave and Pang. They told her horrible words that sometimes she would just wish she never got her potential. They haunted her even in the morning. She couldn't even sleep again after waking up from those nightmares in the middle of the night.

No one stopped her when she transferred. Of course, who would stop a traitor from going away? Albeit she wished someone did, her friends did, that Wave did. But no one moved their feet, no one even bid her goodbye. Her few more months of staying were another form of nightmare. It was suffocating, another reason why she chose to transfer out.

Even though she resigned from the program, she still had her potential. She unconsciously lifted her left hand up to her ear and caressed it. Even after that horrible year, life had to go on. And so, she trained herself to improve.

She took off her earphones, and there were no excess noises anymore. She could only hear what she wanted to, within the range she wanted to.

"We're here sweetheart," her father cheered, pulling Aria back to the present.

She looked outside the window and saw the school she was going to. The same school where she used to go before transferring to Ritdha High School.

Aria exited the car and went to the side of the driver's seat to bid her father bye.

"See you later, Dad."

"Just to remind you, we'll eat out, all right? Cancel any of your plans tonight."

"Done that. Bye!"

"Mhm, take care!"

With one final smile, Aria walked inside along with the other students. And as she entered the building, her friends greeted her. Her face lit up even more, and they went to their classroom before the bell could ring. But even if her one friend filled their ears with stories about her vacation in her dad's hometown, Aria's mind was in the clouds, remembering the trending hashtag about the Gifted program coming back.

In fact, that whole day, her mind could only think of that matter and nothing else. It affected her performance that day in school. One of her teachers called her out because of it. And yet, she just couldn't stop thinking about it.

Lunch came, and she was still drowned in her thoughts. And her friends couldn't help but notice it.

"Aria!" one of her friends across her, Lily called. She managed to bring her back to the present. "You still with us?"