Burning Sky

Chapter 3

After Professor Scid dismissed them for the day, Sora couldn't exit the class fast enough. She left the classroom with everyone else and headed down the stairs. She paused on the first floor when she realized the door to Katie's classroom was still closed. We are probably the only ones leaving early, she thought, and she immediately felt sorry for her friend.

"I heard the Hell Hound is in charge of their classroom," she heard a murmur behind her. Sora turned and saw a petite girl with blonde pigtails.

The Hell Hound was their science professor last year and the title was well earned and right to the point. Sora smiled at the girl. "We are so lucky to have Scid," she commented as they trudged down the rest of the stairs.

"Will you wait for Katie?" the other girl asked as she peered at Sora with big eyes behind even bigger glasses.

Every girl in her class literally looked up to Sora. She was the tallest girl in the school, and she was still growing. The irony that the tiniest girl in the entire school ended up being her best friend was not lost on her.

Sora shook her head. "I am going to practice for a little while. Will you be in the newspaper room?"

"Yes, Mo has us working our butts off."

Sora forced a smile at the comment and turned to the exit, but before she left she yelled, "Alicia, can you give these to Katie?" Before the other girl could even nod, Sora tossed something to her.

Alicia's hand reflexively shot up and caught a key, when she turned to reply, Sora was already gone.

***

After her training, which consisted of some laps around the field and a few frustrated kicks of the ball, Sora took a quick shower and left the school. It was almost noon by the time she found her feet trudging on the familiar road she had walked every day during her summer vacations.

She was headed to the center of her little town, where most of the shops and restaurants were, far away from the hill where the Academy was situated at. The day was warm but a few clouds were dashed across the sky. It wouldn't be long before the next rain.

Sora stopped in front of a store with a Shōji, a Japanese sliding door, that had glass instead of paper framed in the little screens. She pushed it open and entered her grandparents' restaurant. Stepping inside was like stepping into another era.

"Ohayō," she shouted the word with excitement.

The small head of an old Asian woman popped out from behind the kitchen door. Seeing Sora brought a wide smile to her small face, scrunching her tiny eyes behind laugh lines and care worn wrinkles.

"Good morning to you, too," she said, still smiling.

An elderly Asian man carrying a paper origami crane in his hand, hurried to greet Sora. He gently dropped the paper bird onto the wooden counter and then threw his arms around his granddaughter. She smiled and hugged him back. "Hey, Ojīsan," she said when he let her go.

Sora turned and glanced at the paper crane on the counter. "Another one for my collection," her grandfather said following her gaze. "This is number 946."

Sora could see the number written on one of the crane's paper wings. She shrugged and sighed. Ever since she started living with her grandparents, her mother's adoptive parents, she had been completely immersed in Japanese culture. Sora felt a strong connection with everything Japanese, especially the two kindly elderly people who had taken her in and loved her as their own, and Sora loved them back with every fiber of her being.

"You are getting closer," she said, and her grandfather nodded while a proud smile lit up his face.

There was an ancient Japanese legend that stated: whoever made a thousand paper cranes would be granted one wish from a crane. Her grandfather had been diligently and patiently folding paper cranes for years, hoping to finally reach one thousand.