Moon Song

Chapter 4 - Jasmine

The next morning, Jasmine woke up at 7am. A smile spread across her face as the previous nights' introduction to her neighbor replayed in her mind. Despite her being so dry towards the girl, something about Claire just made her so... curious. She had only been so harsh because she had been so exhausted.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes, mentally preparing herself for the first day back at school after the recent holidays. It took her awhile to adjust to the brightness of her curtainless room, but once she had, she pulled on her hoodie and went downstairs for breakfast.

About half an hour later, Jasmine was pretty much ready for school, all that she was missing was her school blazer. She opened up her wardrobe to grab it, but when she checked the coat hangers, it wasn't there.

'MUMMMMM? HAVE YOU SEEN MY BLAZER?' she yelled down the stairs.

'Have you checked the music room? I dumped a whole bunch of winter clothes in there to sort later,' her mum replied in a quieter tone.

'I'll have a look.'

Jasmine crossed the hallway, into the soon-to-be-music room. Much to her relief, her blazer was hanging over a stool in the back corner. She quickly grabbed it and went to head back out the door. However, right as she passed the window, she noticed a certain red-haired girl sitting outside her own house.

She watched Claire as she sat at the outdoor picnic table with some sort of notebook spread out on the table. She was smiling at a small toddler, as she bounce him on her knee. Jasmine watched her giggling along with her little sibling, and imagined it sounding like the most delicate of laughs she had ever heard. She remembered how Claire had told her the night earlier about how her dad had nicknamed her after the moon. Right in this moment, Jasmine couldn't think of a better way to describe her. It was something about her vibe.

'Did you find it?,' her mum appeared at the door, snapping her out of her trance.

'Yup,' Jasmine replied, holding up the blazer. 'Let's go.'

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'So, how's the moving going?'

Jasmine and her best friends, Katie and Neve sat on concrete around the back of the music block at school. It was first break, and this was the first time she had seen either of her friends today.

'Uh. Don't even ask.'

Jasmine's friends knew that she hadn't wanted to move, but they didn't know quite how much she had been struggling because of it.

'You should totally invite us over for a housewarming party or something,' said Neve.

'Yes! And we can see all the cats!' Added Katie.

Jasmine just smiled at this. She wasn't ready to have friends over, not yet. It would only make the whole ordeal feel more real. She wasn't going to let this house feel like home yet.

Just then, Jasmine let out a huge yawn.

'Tired?' asked Neve.

'You could say that. I haven't been sleeping very well, but I'm probably just getting used to the new room,' she replied.

She noticed how it felt like she was lying to her friends. She realized that she kind of was. She was tired for more reasons than just not getting enough sleep. Then she remembered her neighbor. But she wasn't going to tell her friends about her, especially Neve, who was known to judge a lot of things that were said within their friend group. Plus, what was there to tell?

'Anyway, how were your guys holidays?' Jasmine was good at changing the subject. She wasn't sure if it was necessarily a good thing, but she didn't care.

'So good! Marco stayed over last night and then we went....' Neve voice blurred into the background as Jasmine thought about Claire.

Why couldn't she stop thinking about her? She was literally just her annoying new neighbor, who intruded on her peace last night. She had seemed to have no common sense, just barging over to her as if they were old friends. But then again she did ask her to stay when she went to leave. She wasn't sure why that was, either. Still, she'd barely even looked at the girl, let alone spoken to her. So why was she still on her mind?

'Jasmine.' Jasmine once again was snapped out of her little Claire themed trance.

'Huh?' She looked up to met Katie's eyes, a concerned look on her face.

'Are you okay?'

'Yeah, like I said, just tired.' She lied.