By Design

The Complex Origami of Emotions

Of all the arts in the world, origami was truly in a league of elegance and simplicity of its own.

The satisfaction I felt from transforming a simple sheet of paper into a beautiful sculpture was soothing. Once you were immersed in a dreamy zone, your hands just seemed to move by themselves and when you snapped out of it, a paper lily was suddenly in your fingers.

Today, my snapping point was Henry.

'Miss Willows,' he spoke loudly and I stared at him with wide eyes, clutching my paper fish tightly.

'Hello,' I said with uncertainty. Oh no. What had I done now? Did Elliot and I finally get caught for sneaking food into the library? Did I offend anyone accidentally and they reported me and I was going to be expelled?

Did someone die?!

Henry cleared his throat, evidently aware of my pale, anxious face.

'Dr Keithly would like to see you,' he said, and after seeing how my anxiousness evolved into slight panic, he added quickly, 'you're not in trouble. I promise.'

My sigh of relief was a little too audible but Henry paid no attention to it and beckoned me to follow him. I hooked my bag on my shoulders and hurried after him, to go through the same maze of corridors to reach the glass elevator that led to Dr Keithly's floor.

It reminded of a glass box I saw yesterday at the art gallery, and I had told Elliot that when I died, I'd like my body to be in a glass coffin with paper cranes and stars bundling my lifeless form. He'd given me a strange look but promised that if I were to die before him, which he insisted that I won't, he'd try to arrange it for me.

God bless him.

'Miss Willows.' I snapped my head up to meet Henry's blank face.

'Yes?'

'...Come.' He raised an eyebrow at me and I realised that we had arrived at the headmaster's floor. How long I was just standing there in the elevator I'd rather not think about.

But what could this honestly be about? Dr Keithly said that the school hadn't had a good experience with scholarship students so far; this sudden meeting could allude to that perhaps?

Was he going to ask me to leave the school? In all honesty, two and a half weeks ago when I first came here, I would've gladly obliged with that offer but Elliot had been so good to me and I didn't want to leave our friendship hanging. My mind immediately replayed fragments of memories from two days ago from our trip to the art museum.
He'd been a good friend. From the start.

And then there was Derek and I was still trying to become accustomed to his mischievous nature.

And-

'Miss Willows, you seem to be loosely attached to this world today.' And once again, Henry's calm voice knocked me out of my thoughts.

'I'm sorry,' I muttered, looking up to him from under my eyelids. 'I...was just thinking of the reasons why Dr Keithly would like to see me.'

'If you stepped into the room right now it could have saved you a lot of thinking time,' he said, holding the door open to me. I licked my lips hastily and shuffled through.

'Thank you,' I said to him and caught a twitch of a smile before he closed the door behind me.

Déjà-vu.

I shook my head convulsively before my mind could wander off again and slowly walked to Dr Keithly's desk and sat on the chair in front of it.

'Good afternoon, Miss Willows,' he spoke without looking up from his paperwork.