A New Flame

Burning a River

At first Sara's honest opinion of Zaria was that she was a complete nutter but the things she said made sense. After spending the rest of the day in most of Zaria's classes - being watched closely and each movement analyzed as if she were a newly discovered species - Sara found her laptop and began her research. She hunted through so many things related to witchcraft. Sara realised she never once thought... she googled "Am I a witch?" Just out of curiosity. As she had expected, most of the results were yahoo answers with stupid questions like "am I a witch cos I dream I can fly on brooms!?" and all other types of nonsense. She got frantic... Advanced searching. She had to find something relating herself to a witch. She felt her ring burn through her finger whilst having no luck. Finding things like the Salem witch trials and hangings from 1692 was depressing her. It was hurting her head. She wanted to scream! 

She stopped; having no idea what was happening to her head. She closed the tabs and had one small check on Facebook. "Zaria Gomez wants to be friends on facebook." She clicked her laptop shut and climbed into bed. She ran her fingers along her ring and slipped it off. After placing it on the bedside stand, Sara rolled over and closed her eyes.

For weeks it was pretty much the same routine every morning. This morning felt different for Sara though, she felt different. She batted my eyes open to the sound of her dad's screaming voice as he announced she would be late. She looked around the unfamiliar - pink - room. Why on earth was it pink? Sara rolled off the bed remembering that her bed was just a mattress for the time being. She grabbed jeans and a plain blue tee then threw her long, ginger hair into a messy pony tail. She flicked some mascara on, grabbed her glasses and ran down. 

"Oh, you're looking very fancy today! Is it a boy?" Sara looked at her dad and glared at him, he just laughed and Sara shoved on her shoes. "Have a good day at school, sweetheart!" 

"I will." She smiled at him sarcastically. "See you later dad."  

With him shouting bye behind me, I went out the door and made my way to school myself via a big yellow bus.

Zaria said she'd meet Sara at the canteen and there she was. Her hair had been brushed and straightened before school and she was wearing a tight, low-cut top and a denim skirt that just reached her knees. She looked like she tried really hard to look like this. 

"Ooh you meeting someone nice?" Sara winked playfully at her. 

"Nope, why?" She looked puzzled. 

"Because you look beautiful." Sara smiled at her and her face went through several shades of red. Sara always had a thing about complimenting people if they genuinely look good as it could make someone's day. She caught herself staring at Zaria and abruptly looked around the canteen. "Why are we here in the canteen?" 

She held up some toast with a smile as Sara sat down. "Breakfast!" 

Sara stared at her locker, which had been assigned to her earlier that week. She rummaged through her bag and took some books out that she didn't really need the rest of the day. All of the sudden there was shouting and fighting along the corridor. Sara turned around only to be slammed into her locker. She was now face to face with a cliche American queen bee. 

"So you're the Scottish Newbie?" The girl asked Sara.

Sara thought for a second and, with a puzzled look on her face said, "I guess so..?"

"Don't talk to me like that! Anyway, I thought I should let you know that I am going to be the queen bee at Prom this year and that's that!" 

Sara had to contain a giggle. "Do you think I would run for Queen Bee?"

Sara began to feel a strange, warm feeling come over her and the girl abruptedly frees her from her grasp. "Just don't!" she shouted at Sara and walked off to class leaving Sara beside the lockers wondering what the Hell just happened.

Sara's first classes went by in a blur mixed with the smell of chalk and sweat. She let her mind wander over all those thoughts that built up since she got here. She thought about her home, her friends, her mum.. Her mum passed away on the 29th of December 2004. Cancer stole her life. Yes, just after Christmas so as you can imagine, Christmas is certainly not a joyful holiday. Sara focused on the fact that she is in school. She has plenty of time to mourn and cry in the privacy of her own room. So until then she can just paint a smile on to get her through until she can focus on anything else.

"Sara? Keep focused." The English teacher; Miss Richardson said dryly as she waved her ridiculous-looking, fluffy pink pen at Sara. It's as if she has a pink fetish... Almost all of her stationary and her clothes are pink. It's surprising that she hasn't dyed her hair and painted the walls pink! Far, far too girly for Sara's liking. 

"Hey what's up?" Zaria elbowed my side.

"Nothing" Sara whispered back to her as the rest of the class were writing in silence. "Why?"

" 'Cause you looked like you were about to assassinate Miss Richardson with your eyes." Zaria said as she giggled quietly.

"Girls! Be quiet!" At the sound of the woman in pink the girls returned to copying her board of exceedingly long quotes and explanations. God, if she wrote any more on there it'd be a bloody essay. Zaria touched Sara's arm as if to comfort her. She clearly noticed the unpleasent look on Sara's face. The touch made Zaria take her hand away.

"You're all hot." Zaria said quietly. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah I think so." Sara replies and runs her hand along her arm.

The air was pierced by the sound of an extremely loud ringing that seemed to whine as it rang. Sara stood up and followed the loud screaming sea of people flooding the corridors and stairs. It was a fire alarm.

As Sara had spent the whole day indoors, once the doors opened, the heat and the light that followed paralysed her sight for a short while and the screams came louder. Sara followed the screams onto the damp grass. She turned around sharply to see everyone running from a bright orange glow. The screams got louder and it began to drizzle with rain. A strong wind was attacking the fire, not helping calm it. Sara's damp, curly hair clung to her face and the wind battered it so much her face stung. She looked in every direction she could, her eyes scanned everywhere possible.

Without breathing and without thinking; she searched for Zaria.