What Remains

two

Harper makes herself comfortable in Hayden's car. "Archie was being such an arsehole today."

Hayden frowns. "You and Archie will never get along, will you?"

"No." Harper mumbles. Hayden sighs and continues, "So, how was the first day of school? Make any friends?" he glances at her while driving. "Yeah... well kinda." Harper responds.

"Care to elaborate?" asks Hayden. "So, I met this weird guy after Archie THREW me into my class. He's probably a foreign exchange student named Roga or something."

"Roga?" Hayden repeats sceptically.

"Oh, and he asked for my number," Harper adds casually.

"Your number?" Hayden asks while slightly widening his eyes.

"Yeah?" She says raising her eyebrows.

"Oh um, just be careful then," Hayden says glancing at her, signs of worry plastered all over his face.

Harper notices the worried features, "Why must you be so worried, one of my three brethren?" she says jokingly, lightly chuckling.

"I'm just warning you, that's all."

After a bit of talking, they finally reach their house. Harper exits the car and stretches. She makes her way to the front door, Hayden following soon after. Harper immediately advances to her room, freshens up and puts on a pair of comfy socks, a beige woollen jumper and white shorts. 

She throws her hair in a bun and collapses into her bed, processing the whole day. Her endless buzzing of thoughts was interrupted by a notification from her phone. Grabbing her phone, she catches the sight of a text from an unknown number.

"Hey Harp, it's Ryogi."

Harper stares at the text for a while, spacing out. Finally, she replies, "Ohh hii"

"Harper! Come down for dinner!" A voice called from downstairs. It's her mother, Laila. Harper puts her phone on silent and proceeds to go downstairs. Hayden smiles and ushers to the dining table chair, signaling her to sit there. She sits down and Laila serves pasta with pesto. "Eat up now, children."

Archie sits beside Harper with his usual sour look. "So, how was your first day of high school, princess?" he says with a smirk. "It was fine, you... you... you eraser!"

"Oh my, is princess having mood swings?" He says with a sly smile. Before Harper could respond, Laila interrupts. "Enough, have your food." and sits down.

"So, Archie, I heard you got straight A's last semester," Laila says with a proud look on her face. "Your teacher always bombards me with compliments about you. I'm so proud of you." Laila announces while clapping a hand on Archie's shoulder. Archie's face is taken over by a smug look.

Hayden becomes aware of Harper's hurt expression and turns to his mother, "I also heard that Harper got all straight A's last semester." Hayden implies with a smile, glancing at Harper.

"Well..." Laila chuckles, amused. "Not quite, she got a B+ in Chemistry. Try harder, sweetie." She says the last word in a strained voice. Archie gave Harper a sarcastic smug look.

"I'm done." Harper utters, looking at the ground. She leaves the table and scurries over to her room. She buries her face in her pillow, sadness entirely consuming her.