Levity (On Hold)

Chapter Three

I woke up feeling... energized. After yesterday, I wasn't sure how the rest of the school year would go. However, I felt lighter that morning. I had even woken up early, surprising Amber when I came downstairs, ready to go. My feet nearly floated down the steps, hardly touching the ground. For once, I was prepared for the day.

"Hey, you're awake on time!" she exclaimed happily. "You can eat breakfast at home for once." She stood up from the table and grabbed her bag. "You're feeling better today I assume?"

I nodded while digging into a plain piece of corn bread. It was still nice and warm. "I don't really understand either, but I feel better. More light hearted."

"That's great!" she said, grinning wildly. "Let's get going, we can get a real early start, plus I need some help on my math homework.

We calmly entered the foyer and put on our thick outer wear. Mine felt lighter than normal. I wonder if all that crying made me stronger. More importantly, I felt energized, happy. Amber told me a joke, and I near giggled my head off. We hurried out into the dark streets and made our way to the school.

It was around the market place halfway to school that the feeling began to wear off. First it was my clothing and backpack, they grew heavy on my shoulders. Then eventually my mood faded. Every step felt heavy and laborious. I was back into the sour mood I was in yesterday.

When we took off our jackets and such in the foyer of the school Amber looked at me funny. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I felt better when I woke up, but now? I'm feeling a little down."

"Did you see something on the way here?" she asked quizzically.

I shook my head. "Anyways, you said you had math homework?" I asked as we sat down.

She pulled it out and gave it to me. It was a nice distraction from my sudden onset of depression. Mathematics always made sense, no matter what. Even when the more advanced rules came into play, it was only a matter of breaking it down into smaller parts. I quickly pointed out how to solve a problem to Amber, and had her try some more. She'd let me do the whole worksheet if I got too into it.

Eventually her friends started arriving. She didn't get up to move, so I just stayed where I was, hoping they wouldn't talk to me.

The small boy arrived first, and he didn't say anything but a simple greeting. Next was the girl with pastel pink hair, Kali. She was nice, and greeted me, but didn't say much else. When the rest of her friends got there they started a chorus of voices. They chattered back and forth and generally didn't bother me, which I was grateful for. I noticed Amber was about to leave her worksheet incomplete so I slid my hand quietly and began to work on it for her.

"Hey, who's the drone doing your work Amber?" asked the dark boy, whose name was definitely Jack.

"Don't bother him, that's my brother," she responded curtly.

"Your brother? The infamous Alek?" asked Drew, the girl with dark hair. "His hair is lighter than I imagined, and he doesn't really look like you at all," she stated.

"He looks more like our mom," she answered, saving me the trouble. Besides our coloring, there wasn't anything similar between me and Amber. Her eyes were smaller than mine, and her lips were bigger. You wouldn't even guess we were related if we didn't have the same eye and hair color.

"So why's he doing your math homework?" asked Jack again.

Amber snatched it back from me. "He wasn't supposed to, I was going to do it before you guys distracted me!"

Kali laughed at that and it started a chain of laughter through everyone. The bell chose that moment to ring, interrupting their chorus of giggling. They all got up pleasantly and said their quick farewells as we headed to class.

Our school had a strange schedule, different from the other schools. We had a four period schedule every other day, and a three period one on the off days. Today my classes were much more interesting.

First I had engineering, which was mildly interesting. We had to come up with an irrigation concept for a fake house. It wasn't much of a challenge, I'd done that sort of thing before, but it wasn't boring.

Next I had thermodynamics. It was my elective class, and while more people took a sport or a more 'fun' elective, this was something I wanted to learn about. It was a subject I hadn't researched in the past, so I learned something new nearly every day. Just thinking about it put a spring in my step, not unlike this morning. I felt lighter again, like I had infinite bounds of energy.

The class wasn't the most interesting today, but I still had fun. We learned about heat transfer through different substances, which was a subject I was familiar with. Still, I surprised myself when I raised my hand to answer a question.

"Entropy," I answered simply. It felt like the whole class turned around to look at me. I wasn't surprised, I don't think I've ever said a word in this class before.

"Correct," the teacher said before turning back around. The direction of the small class slowly turned away from me.

I felt alive, like I could go outside without being frozen, or fight someone and win. Maybe not win, but not lose either. The class flew by and I nearly leaped out of the classroom. I was feeling confident and almost amicable. I popped over to Amber's class in a very different mood from yesterday.

"Hey Alek!" she greeted me.

I smiled back at her, which surprised her.

"You're feeling better?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I even answered a question in class," I laughed.

She had a brilliant smile on her face. "Alek, that's amazing! It's been so long since I've seen you smile!"

I laughed again, smiling and walking with her.

"You're so... bubbly," she noted. "Do you maybe want to sit with me at lunch?"

I looked up at her hopeful face. There was a light in her eyes that I didn't see too often. "Sure," I replied, in a light-hearted mood.

"Really?" she asked, in a state of disbelief. "Awesome, yeah! Let's go, I'll take you to our table and introduce you properly and all that," she said.

A/N: Hello! From now on chapters will be shorter than the first two. They were kind of a special gift. This will hopefully allow me to update more often. Please vote if you enjoyed, and leave a comment! Thanks!