Guardian

Chapter Three

Feather made it bravely through the school day, like every other day. The last three classes of her day weren't hard, in fact they were her favorite. I knew this because of how much attention she paid to the teachers, more so than she usually did, and by how passionately she worked on her projects. It made me smile whenever she concentrated, her hair would fall in her face making her push it away, her eyes would become hard and focused, but at the same time it was like she traveled away to a different world.

I often wondered what world it was. When she was younger we would play together. She didn't know who or what I was at that point. Everyone else thought that I was her imaginary friend and because of how young she was, they left it alone. We'd often pretend we were on different worlds, different planets. We'd sit up in her clubhouse pretending that we were in a rocket ship and we would travel to different planets and make up the cultures and people that live there. I wondered if she remembered any of it.

"Excuse me?" The boy behind her tapped Feather's shoulder. I recognized him, he was sort of new to the school, coming in at the beginning of the year along with a few others.

Feather looked up at him and smiled politely. No teeth.

"Do you understand what we're supposed to be doing? I wasn't really, you know, paying attention." The boy laughed uneasily.

Feather laughed a little bit and I felt a surge of something inside my stomach. Some people call it jealousy, other might say it's possessiveness.

"Basically we're just freestyle drawing right now. The actual assignment for the weekend is to draw two things. Something you see in your dreams and something you see everyday. What it would teach is how to draw something from a brief memory, like a dream, while the other is something you see all the time." Feather explained quietly, as to not disturb the other students who were quietly conversing.

Art class. It was probably the best class of the day. At least that's what Feather says. I do agree. It's a very laid back class, the teacher is an older gentleman who reminded me of a grandfather. He was very kind and patient. Most of the students respected him a great deal because he didn't treat them like students, he treated them like they were people and spoke to them as such.

The boy chuckled "Alright, seems easy enough. Thanks. I'm Erin by the way."

Feather smiled "I'm Fee."

"Fee?" Erin asked amused.

"It's an abbreviation of my real name. You can also call me Fee-Fee or Fuzzy."

"Fuzzy huh?" Erin laughed a little more "I think I like that one."

Erin and Feather chatted throughout class, both of them working on their pictures slowly. I was seated in the chair beside Feather, sitting on it backwards. I kept my wings tucked in tightly, as to not knock over the containers of paint around.

At the end of class, when the bell rang signaling to end of the day, Erin offered to walk Feather out of the building. When he got up, I got a good look at him. he had light colored hair and pale skin. Light hair, but not white like my own, just a shade off blond.

Feather agreed to his offer, much to my own displeasure. Horrible, I know. She was making a friend for the first time since kindergarten, I should have been happy for her.

Sighing to myself, I rubbed my arms, feeling a sudden rush of cold hit me. I looked down the halls, but found nothing. I turned back to Feather and saw her standing awkwardly while Erin spoke to her animatedly about something. Something that involved an obviously violent video game. Feather listen to him carefully, shifting from one foot the the other, and she kept glancing behind her at the clock. Whilst they had been let out of class, Toby and Greg had not, which meant that Feather had to wait for them.

I took a few steps over to them, matching my speed to theirs as they started walking again. I wrapped an arm around Feather as we walked out of the building, knowing that she would be cold.

Erin ran off, saying that he had to find his sister and Feather and I were alone again.