The Water Woman

Our Run

I walked Cooper to school. That little bugger had some spring in his step. He was really excited. I hope he's still as happy after school. After I dropped him off, I ran to school. I still came in late but the teacher was merciful and didn't count me tardy. When, I burst in I was panting and sweaty and their were a pair of blue eyes watching me. I apologized for being late and sat down... in the only available seat... next to the pair of blue eyes that were watching me and had only looked away after I sat down and put my stuff down. She had her hood up so I didn't really see many other features other than her blue eyes. She had fair white skin. I didn't really see anything else. Occasionally, when she had finished or got ahead on her English notes, she would survey the room and outside with her blue eyes.

"Ma'am, take your hood off please," Mr. Evans said.

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry I forgot to take it off before I came into class," she said in a soft voice. The teacher smiled and the class giggled at this. Was I the only one who noticed that she payed much more attention to her surroundings than she did her appearance? It wasn't a bad thing yet even the teacher had to hold back a few chuckles. She put her hood down. She had a long, elegant neck and an oval-shaped face. She had freckles and light brown hair with strands that looked blonde and other strands that looked auburn. Her eyes flashed in my direction. She had caught me staring. I wasn't too concerned though. Her gaze just made me snap my attention back on the task at hand. She had taken her time observing me, why couldn't I do the same thing?

As I looked down at my paper, the girl in front of me turned around and handed me a slip of paper. This slip of paper had her number on it. Great, I thought, first day of high school here and I get stuck with some weirdo's number. Looking back, I realize I didn't tell you I just moved here. Well, um, I just moved here over the summer. My mom got a better job opportunity so she took it. I stuffed the number in my backpack, letting it fall to the bottom. I didn't care much for any one who threw themselves at me. Especially on the first day of school without either of us knowing each other. I was disgusted at her. I didn't let it show though. There might be a reason why she's this way. I got back to writing my notes.

An eternity later, the bell rang. I'm not gonna lie I was happy to get out of there. That girl kinda creeped me out. She was always watching. Not just me either, she was surveying everyone. There were times in class when she would stare at one place in the room without blinking until someone moved or obstructed her view.

I went to my next class. Luckily, she wasn't there but the girl who gave me her number was. I sat far away from her. I was in world history. The late bell rang.

A guy leaned across the aisle and said, "Hey, can you settle a bet for us?" He gestured to another guy.

"Depends. What's the bet?" I asked.

"There's two. First, who's hotter? Luke Skywalker or Han Solo? Second, are you gay or straight?"

I was a bit taken back by the questions but I answered them truthfully. "Han Solo, in looks, maturity, and humor, and unfortunately I'm straight." (Author's note: Loss of cool points for ChaolypticCriticism because the character is straight. She's probably like, yeah, you're damn right that shit's unfortunate asshole.)

They both said, aw, at the same time and exchanged dollars. The teacher then caught the attention of his class and told us when we were going to go get our world history books. The class was pretty uneventful and time went by even slower in this class than it had in English. At least this time I didn't have a pair of blue eyes on me every few minutes.

After an even longer eternity, the bell rang and we were dismissed to lunch. (Author's note: It was then that I had the stupidest question enter my head. If I mention myself in my own book, will I get a notification that I mentioned myself in my own book? So this is me mentioning myself in my own book. CatofStealth is a butthole for not updating frequently and constantly changing stories. Oh, the things I think. I'll comment and tell you the answer.) The two guys who asked me two settle their bet, asked me if I wanted to eat lunch with them. I said no. It wasn't that I didn't want to eat with them, it was that I was certain that they wouldn't want to eat at the other campus. You see, this school, in its infinite wisdom, decided it would be good to have two campuses to walk in between. Granted I did get a workout but I also risked being late, even if I ran.

I walked over to the other campus and saw something hanging from the tree outside the entrance. It was a pair of human legs. I looked up and saw that pair of blue eyes.

I sat against a nearby wall and watched her. What did she climb a tree for? Whenever someone walked past they would shoot her a funny look but she wouldn't return it. She just focused on what she wanted to focus on. Sometimes her phone and other times her food. Sometimes, she'd stare off at something I couldn't see in the distance. She would survey the people below but only when she wanted to.

I left my spot on the wall and went to go eat. The food wasn't that bad and no food fights erupted so I guess that's an improvement on my last school. I had the blue-eyed girl in my next period too. She did the same thing she did in English. The rest of the day was pretty normal until the time came to go home. I saw Ms. Blue-Eyes again. It was the first time I had seen her socializing with anyone. Even then, she was quiet and taking in every part of the conversation. She still smiled with her friends but was silent as if she didn't want to say anything. Her mouth opened only to smile. No words came from her mouth. Apparently, this was unusual.

One of her friends asked, "Are you okay? You've been really quiet today."

"I'm fine," she said.

"That wasn't very convincing."

She smiled and said, "I'm fine."

She was an odd one alright. I walked quickly so I could pick up Cooper. A few minutes had passed when I heard footsteps behind me. I glanced behind me and there she was. Ms. Blue-Eyes. I turned back around. She started to pass me. I quickened my pace. She matched and surpassed it. Again I quickened my pace. She matched  and surpassed it. This continued until we were in a full on running race. We took off sprinting as fast as we could. She started to giggle as she pulled in front of me. I sped up and started to laugh too. So there we were sprinting like our lives depended on it and laughing like madmen. It was perfect. No other problems existed when we ran. We didn't even know each other's names and it was still perfect. No problems. No abusive mother. No dead father. No crazy aunt. No drunkard uncle. Just me and her, running. Wild and free yet composed and disciplined. We both stopped at the crosswalk and tried to catch our breath while laughing. We had to go different ways so I said bye and she just smiled and nodded in return.