Snowflakes

December 3rd

3rd

"Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we are curious... and curiousity keeps leading us down new paths. Keep moving forward." - Walt Disney.

"But oh, oh I love her because,
she moves in her own way.
But oh, oh she came to my show
just to-"

With a groan, I pick up my mobile thats buzzing against the table as it blares out my ringtone. It's the fourth time in a row that it has rung; each time The Kooks have been increasing in volume.

A quick, squinted glance at the screen that is far too bright for my sleepy eyes tells me who's calling.

"What?" I grumble in a voice groggy from just waking up.

"That is no way to be speaking to your best friend," Imogen's voice says through the phone speaker in a tone that's so formal I have to stifle a giggle.

"Sorry," I mutter. "But why are you calling me? It's ten past seven for christ's sake. You should know I'm not a morning person, so don't be expecting any form of intellectual conversation."

"Yeah, because using the word 'intellectual' is completely normal when you've just woken up," Immy replies. I'm about to respond with a comment that I hope would be witty, when she continues. "But anyway, I'm ringing because you never explained what that present was yesterday on the bus. I'm curious, you know me."

Sighing, I sit up right in my bed, a floral pillow propping me up. "Oh."

"So go on - what was it? Who from?" Immy asks and I can detect the excitement in her voice. It makes me feel bad at the pathetic explanation I'm about to offer her.

"Well...uh, you see, basically the little present was, um, it was from my Godmother." Even I'm appalled at my horrendous, stammered attempt at lying.

However, before Imogen can protest - as I know she will - I'm saved by the sound the sound of music blasting from my phone.

I wince, holding it out at arms' length just in time to see the words CALL ENDED flash up on the screen before they're replaced by my alarm screen.

A message tells me to WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!!!!! as an upbeat electro-pop song pulses from the speakers. I quickly dismiss the alarm, amused by the fact that for possibly the first time ever, I'm actually grateful for the sound of my alarm. If it hadn't come on and automatically cut off the call, who knows where our conversation could have ended up.

❄

A series of text messages with Imogen as I travel to school (this time on the bus; Jay has vowed to never give me a lift again) inform me that she's going on a History trip today. When, of course, I protested that she could have waited until she got back to talk to me, she simply replied that she couldn't. Personally, I reckon she just wanted to wake me up obscenely early.

School is uneventful, as usual. I keep my head down and focus on my work. At lunch, I eat my sandwich at a table with other quiet, unpopular people like myself. I sit next to a girl I vaguely know, with huge saucer-like eyes and a thick fringe. We attempt small talk, but both of us know it's pointless, so it fades out pretty quickly.

The low point of my day is when I find that the corridor containing my locker is blocked off, some burst pipe or something. Seeing my less than subtle disappointed reaction, the teacher on patrol tells me my teachers won't mind if I don't have my books. I nod, not wanting to admit the real reason I want to access my locker.

So, feeling defeated, I have to forget about the present that is sure to be awaiting me.

❄

"Okay, class dismissed," Mr Bright, my Physics teacher, says at the end of the lesson. He mops his sweaty brow with a hanky from his pocket, his frown causing deep creases in his forehead. The poor man can't even control my small class of Advanced GCSE Physics, so who knows how he copes with the rowdy, immature and seemingly untameable year seven's. Then again, he probably doesn't cope, judging by how exhausted he looks after one day.

I'm almost out of the door when I hear my name being called.

"Scarlett! Wait a second!" Mr Bright calls weakly. I turn around and walk back to his desk as my peers file out.

"Yeah?"

"Could you please take these sheets to the science office?" he asks, dumping what must be at least a hundred sheets of paper in my hands, leaving me with no choice but to accept.

"But the science office is in the blocked off corridor, Sir," I reply, mind already whirring with possiblities.

"Oh, okay, that's fine. If someone stops you just leave them in the staff corridor. Thank you, Scarlett."

I grin, because something far more exciting than a science office is also situated in the corridor I'm headed for.

"Mr Bright asked me to put these in the science office. Said it was very urgent." A little white lie can't hurt, can it?

"Very well. Be careful, no running," the same patrolling teacher from earlier says coldly. I nod, but honestly, how dangerous can a leaky pipe be? It's hardly a battlefield.

Discarding the stack of papers on the closest desk to the door in the office, I then make a dash for the block of blue lockers a few metres down.

Sure enough, placed atop my school books is another gift. It's wrapped in the same garish paper, cheesy as yesterday, although today the parcel is a slim rectangle.

It's like routine as I slip the gift into my blazer pocket. After shutting my locker, I turn and walk down the corridor.

This time, the anticipation is too much and I don't wait until I get home to open the present. Instead, I pull it out of my pocket as I travel home on the nearly deserted bus. An elderly lady glances briefly at me but other than that I receive no attention, which I'm glad of.

My hasty fingers make a mess of tearing off the wrapping paper as I try to get to what's inside. In my hands I find a slim notebook with lined pages, the midnight blue cover embellished with tiny flecks of gold, as if mimicking a starry nights sky.

I smile as I open the notebook, noticing writing on the first page.

In the same delicate and precise handwriting as the previous two days, is a short but sweet message.

Write about me sometime - your secret santa X

hellooo, I hope you liked chapter three! I'd love to hear what you're thinking of the story so far :)
- Ella ♡