Himara checked her circular, carrot orange watch: 8:40. "Good, I can take my time!! Gee, I wonder why Auntie and Unc wanted me gone so darn badly..." she wondered absentmindedly. "I hope Airia is out already..."
Airia Parks is Himara's best friend, ever since they started grade school together. She has shoulder-length, topaz yellow hair and light, tree bark brown eyes. Airia lives down the street from Himara and they always walked to school together.
Himara sauntered down to Airia's house four houses away, a deep mahogany bricked, raised bungalow. Just as Himara foresaw, Airia was not outside, so she decided to knock on the porcelain white front door. After just a couple of seconds, the brass knob turned and the door opened.
"Hiya Himara!! I'll be with you in just a sec!!" Airia said with her normal, cheerful ring to it.
--
The regular, shining sun is enshrouded by a veil of gloomy grey, cotton like clouds. Some of it's illustrious beams of light do manage to break through, creating spots of a soft white glow on the ground, like spot lights on a stage. And yet it is still humid, as if the city was covered with an enormous thick blanket that's trapping in all the moisture. The winds were gone but some were lingering, whispering rumors of an impending rainstorm as Himara and Airia strolled down the street toward their High School.
"...and then it slowly breaks up and fades away with the light. I've been having it every night since that earthquake happened and my aunt seems to think I'm having them because of something I watched. I personally have no idea..." Himara sighed. "Do you have any suspicions, Airia?"
Airia put her left hand on her smooth, olive skin chin and thought for a moment. "Hmm... I'd have to agree with your aunt. You'd have to had watched, heard or seen something weird. Dreams like that don't come out of nowhere, ya know," she said matter-of-factly.
Himara rolled her eyes. Airia always acted like she was smarter than her. It was a bit of a smarts rivalry between them. Himara always got straight A's in school while Airia mostly got B's and sometimes A's. Airia gets so jealous that she has to act that way and point out such obvious things. And yet, they were friends. Best friends.
Airia was wearing a pair of acid-washed short-shorts and a light grape purple t-shirt that was adorned with the logo of Aeropostale. She was always one for the latest brand names.
They slowly approached Anthony Parks High School, a two-story sand brown bricked structure in the shape of a wide, rectangular prism. It was named after Airia's grandfather, who died many years ago. So Airia seems to think she rules the school.
The deafening bell screeched just as the two passed through it's immense, stone grey chain fence. Sometimes Himara feels as if she's entering a prison with the security the school has.
They bolted inside and found their assigned lockers. They were a few feet away from the translucent, glass front entrance door and rose from the smooth, emerald green and vanilla white tiled floor to a meter away from the cream colored, popcorn ceiling. Himara gingerly turned the dial according to her combination and opened the dark navy blue, metal locker door.
She carefully hung her bag inside and unzipped the front pocket. She took out the paper that listed the schedule for her classes and read the first one: Music: Room 04. She zipped the pocket up and took out the supplies she would need, stuffed the paper in her pocket and headed off for music, noticing that Airia left without saying bye.
--
At lunchtime, Himara rushed down to the cafeteria, her sky blue lunch bag clenched in her right hand, in search of Airia. When she arrived at the cafeteria, she spotted Airia already sitting with their other friend, Skye Marten and began marching over to their table.
The cafeteria was a fairly large room with traditional shaped lunch tables scattered all over with the lunch station tucked in the corner.
When Himara arrived at their table, she slowly sat down beside Skye and across from Airia. "Hey, Himara!! How was first and second period?" Skye asked happily with her bright, asparagus green eyes glowing.
Himara admired Skye's plain, egg yolk yellow polo t-shirt and light, sand brown bermuda shorts. She always loved Skye's sense of style, for it was always original.
"Alright, I guess. It's always easy the first day. By the way, I love what you did with your hair!!" Himara answered, aware of the fact that Airia was glaring at her.
Skye has shoulder blade length, light wood brown curly hair with eyebrow length bangs on her right side. She, actually didn't do anything to her hair- it was natural.
"Uhh... Thanks!" Skye replied, slightly thinking that Himara might have forgotten what her hair was like naturally.
Airia scoffed while rolling her eyes. "Hello Himara. What, will you not even notice me unless I talk to you?"
"Well, first of all, it would have been nice if you said "Bye" to me when you left the lockers!" Himara argued, anger bubbling inside her.
"Oh, can the baby not be left alone without being told? How pathetic," Airia said defiantly while crossing her arms.
"Guys, please stop it! You two are always fighting over the smallest of things..." Skye intervened wearily.
The ground shook just as Airia was about to counter talk. It lasted for just a few fierce seconds, but it felt as if a gigantic freight train was about to run over the High School. Everyone fell to their knees and crawled under the tables, just as done in drills, while shrieking as if they were about to die.
Once the tremor was finished, a fellow High School male student with short, coal black hair dashed into the cafeteria, panted for some seconds and anxiously announced, "Everybody!! There's something outside you gotta see!!"
YOU ARE READING
The Crystal Keepers Book One: Divine Fire
Fantasy(Watty Awards 2012) Fourteen year old Himara Shawā lived a normal, High School student life until she starts having the same, mysterious dream every night. And now she has the ability to control fire and must travel to another realm to find four cho...
