Bring Me Back to Reality (on an indefinite hiatus.. xP)

01. First

I was sitting against a great oak tree, braiding my friend, Natalya's long locks of white-gold hair as she play a tune on her harp. The branches of the tree arched above with its tips dipping onto the lagoon right in front of us.

"You know you shouldn't be here," Natalya told me.

"I know, but I'm nervous."  I replied as I continued braiding her hair. 

"It might be a while before I get back here again."

"You know that wouldn't be possible, at least not that soon." Natalya's hands stopped plucking the strings of her harp and looked into the distance, through the branches of the 

"You will gradually forget, eventually yes, but it would be for the best."

"But I don't want to forget. How could you even speak of that in my presence?" I let go of the part of her hair that I was braiding, unraveling the lower part I just braided. She chuckled at me and replied,

"I know you don't, but you know you will."

"Won't that mean you won't be coming back here?"

"No, I'd still be here, it's just you that would not when your memory of this place fades."

"That's unfair, I wouldn't be able to see you."

"Indeed, life is unfair."

Then I felt my right arm get pressed against a metallic bar and another person against my left arm. I fell on my knees on the floor of the jeepney I was riding, needless to say, that woke me up, at least my huge backpack broke my fall. The nice woman next to me helped me up and got me back on my seat. I gave her my thanks then looked out of the window, wondering where I was now.

Shit.

I missed my stop. I felt my heart drop as horrible images filled my head. What if I was far from the familiar places I've been to and someone kills me, chop me to pieces maybe?

"S-stop! Para po!"

I said out loud, in a disappointingly stereotypical pronunciation of the r part by non-native speakers of Filipino. Well that certainly turned heads, and I don't like attention, I don't like people. I took off as quick as I can and as the jeepney zoomed ahead behind me, I craned my neck around, looking for a landmark.

I didn't see a landmark, but I saw another person wearing the same uniform as I am so I ran to catch up with her. I forgot I was crossing the street but I have successfully evaded three cars at full speed. I'm the unluckiest person I've ever met so I guess that meant I wasn't meant to die today.

I felt uncomfortable as I ran, my backpack bounced along with me and I hated it when it bounced down, the bag was loaded with my colour-coded workbooks and notebooks, what was I in grade school? It was heavy as fuck! We better have lockers in our homeroom. My uniform didn't help much either, I felt like the sleeve was too short; it only stretches midway of my upper arm, and I don't like how the wind was hitting my arms right now. My skirt was a couple of inches below my knees, and the hem kept hitting my knee so I had to lift it up a little, last time I checked I wasn't attending catholic school, no way in hell would anyone force me into it. What's worse is I don't like the color blue. Natalya was right, life is unfair.

Finally I caught up to my new schoolmate and placed my hand over her shoulder without her knowledge. Just imagine her fright, but I was tired and I needed to catch my breath.

"Hi?" she squeaked. She was shorter than I was, she was as tall as where my neck was. I was still catching my breath and I couldn't speak, my shoulder-length hair suffocating me by covering most of my head wasn't any help either.