Free! & Hope

HOPE 21- (Additional Final)

Free! & Hope

(Additional Final Chapter)

Five year old Akane visited her mother in the office where she worked as a secretary, she opened the door to find the principal talking to her.

Aka: "Mama, Mrs. Kumari wants us to go upstairs with the other teachers"

Mum: "I'll be right there, Akane" she kept talking and Akane pouted angrily, for her mother having to make her wait, she walked outside and crossed her arms sitting on a bench reading 'The Ugly Duckling' as gray clouds began to form in the sky, to her it was perfection. A few boys from her class started to make fun of her.

"Oh hey, look guys! It's the little nose picker!" The other kids laughed and Akane got up ignoring the comment and began to walk away. Two boys grabbed her arms and took away her book. Akane gasped and moved trying to get out of their grip.

Aka: "N-no... Please..."

"The ugly duckling? Sounds just like you, snot girl!" he flicks her forehead and opened the book.

"Aww boo! This is boring! What kind of book has no pictures?! Oh! I have an idea!" he grabs a pen from his blue backpack.

Aka: "No! Don't you dare!!" she was mad and managed to push the kid holding her left arm. The other boy grabbed her tight enough so she wouldn't move. Another girl with dark brown short hair, tied to a ponytail that pushed the kid holding the book with her elbow as she ran towards him. She glared at them and the kid that had the book ran away, the other kid was too afraid to fight back so he did the same.

"Oi! You okay there?"

Aka: "I-I... um, y-yeah..." she narrowed her eyes back and forth trying to avoid eye contact.

"Hey, I won't hit you or anything, I just saved you... are you afraid?" she asked worried.

Aka: "N-no..." the girl blushed a small shade of pink.

"Y-you're not? Allot of other kids are..."

Aka: "Why?"

"Well, for starters... I'm kind of a brute when it comes to hitting..."

Aka: "That's cool, I wish I was that strong..."

"You could be, all you have to do, is just do it" she shrugs. The brunette looks away.

"This is yours I guess?" she said holding her book.

Aka: "Yeah" she hands it over and smiled.

Aka: "T-thank you..." she looked away holding her book close to her chest and bowed, and ran away. The dark haired girl frowned and looked at her hands feeling bad.

"I scared her off..." she sighs and walks to class to meet her mother for a school reunion. Akane enters with her mother in class to speak about how Akane was doing in class, good as usual, she was always an A-B student, very smart. Although the teacher was bothered about how lonely she could be, always stuck with the same book. And Mrs. Miyazaki wasn't exactly a friendly teacher. She could blame her mother about how lonely Akane is, and that she was overly attached to her mother.

Miya: "Mrs. Motome, I'm noticing that ever since your daughter came to my class, she spends allot of time with herself"

Mum: "Oh, it takes a while for her to comfort herself with others..."

Miya: "Mhm, and how long has she been alone like this?" The mother frowned and and looks directly at her daughter, she noticed she often spends time alone.