Perfect (Watty Awards 2013)

Chapter 9.25: Pencils

Chapter 9.25: Pencils

        Everyday, life reminds us of who we are, who we are yesterday, who we are today yet not who we will be tomorrow. We write our dreams with a simple pencil we see under our desks. Our dreams fade from time to time. We forget where it was written or why it was even written. Dreams aren’t supposed to be like that. Dreams are needed more of it; more than a fading hue of ashen and lead on a tip of a wooden bar with paint all over.

              …

              “Ethan!” Enid rushed inside the room of the Writer’s Club. “You are the candidate for the top student this year!” She clapped like a little child, holding her books with her underarms.

              “And?” Ethan turned around, amused as well. “Who is the other two?”

              “Me!” Enid showed no competition. “I know you will be it, Ethan. My grades are far from you!”

              “And?”

              “Rachelle,” Enid sighed. “She’s the other one. I know I’ll be in third place, Ethan. Our grades have great gaps. Like great gaps,” she emphasized.

              “Oh don’t be so humble, Miss Smart-girl,” Ethan rolled his eyes that cannot show his flattered cheeks. “Don’t tell me there’s a new number between 1 and 1.1” He hugged her dearly.

              “Ummmm…” Enid hated to sound smart. “1.01-1.099?” Enid pushed Ethan slightly to catch a glimpse of his face, trying to see a soft line cross his identity.

              She wasn’t wrong. It crosses his face and hugged her tighter than before. “You’re not good at jokes are you, Enid?” he chuckled.

              She joined the short-lived laughter. She giggled as they recalled the first laughter they shared between the bisque halls of Walter High. It wasn’t long enough to let those sepia hues cover that beauty above those auburn tiles; the tiles that squeak with every step a rubber shoes Ethan never wore can take.

              “Thank you, Ethan. Now we’re on the last two months. I will miss you…” she stopped to let her lips express a flat grin with her eyebrows’ tips raise to meet. She paused and stood poignant. “…very very much,” she emphasized.

              Ethan pursed a smirk yet no luck. It came out and broke on its arsenal.

“How come? We’ll be going at the same school!” Ethan exclaimed, raising the neatest paper stapled on the bulletin board beside him. “You got accepted at NYAAS!” He returned the puerile clap given by his subject. He couldn’t been able to give suspense. Ooops.

              Blow. The wind did so. Enid stood still, astounded as she stared at the man wearing a brown knitted vest with a chocolate scarf wrapped around his neck.

              “But I… did not send an application,” Enid replied coldly opposite of Ethan’s warm jolliness.

              “I did. I wrote you an application and had your mom forge your signature,” Ethan calmly smiles. “Plus, I mentioned you in my essay that I sent them. Too bad your mom is good at forgery,” he teased.

              Enid did not know what words she could revive from her recently died vocabulary. Her purple turtleneck lost its grip and realized the fact of burying herself in disbelief.