To shine or not to shine

Friday 23rd June 2022

It was a friday. The atmosphere within the classroom was a perfect reflection of the overcast day outside. Although the next day was a saturday, many people still wore the same glum face as they did all week. Yulia sat next to the window of year-2 class-3. Few raindrops tapped on the glass, magnifying the scenery of the school yard. The window above was ajar and her long blonde hair flowed in the gentle breeze.

' Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr'

The bell for form rang and shortly after, the door swung open. Turning around with slight panic, Yulia's eyes fell onto Mrs Gardner before wandering back to the window.

' Good Morning class!' she spoke with slight hesitation and a dreamy tone. ' For today's form assembally we will discuss our plans for the summer fair. We only have 2 more weeks until the last day of school so we need to hurry up.'

The class president, Mavis Roselle, stood up and all eyes were on her. Despite being the class president, she wore anything but the school uniform. Her skirt barely reached her knees and she wore a white blouse. If that was all, she could have come off as a normal school girl but around her waist, she wore a red cardigan with gold buttons. Her black socks were tied with a white bow above her knees and her white ankle boots stood on large heels. Mavis had long hair which she tied in a bun and her fringe was put aside with a ribbon. Around her neck was a red lace necklace and her hands wore long elbow length gloves. She looked ridiculous.

' Miss. I have an idea. Why don't we create a movie, it would be fun to show it at the end of the fair before everyone goes home for the summer.'

' Good idea. Does everyone agree?'

For a few moments the class was filled with chatter and discussions, before someone spoke up.

' I would enjoy the idea of making a movie, if it wasn't for the fact that we only have 2 weeks and no idea what to base it on in the first place .'

This started a variation of comments towards the suggestion, many of which were promoting the plan of the movie.

' Ok class, calm down please. Let's suppose we are going to make a movie, what should we base it on?'

Mrs Gardner has always been the type of teacher to speak kindly to students and be able to calm down the class with the simplest of words. If anyone in the world had a superpower, it would be Mrs Gardner.

' Mavis, please sit down, and you too. We will have a calm discussion in which everyone gets a turn at saying their ideas. Who has a suggestion?'

Mavis was still the first to say her ideas, and what followed was another argument, however this time it wasnt that easy to defuse as before. Within all this commotion, Yulia never once contributed and only watched as the rain outside poured down in the yard.

At the end of 4th period, Yulia walked towards one of the benches at the back of the school. The back of the school was a desolate area. It was a little grass area with a few benches under a hooded roof. This had been the place where Yulia had gone every day, alone. The rain still pouring, she sat down on one of the benches and pulled out a small sketchbook. Flipping through the pages, flashes of various people and items could be seen for about a second, before the next clean page was visable. She started to sketch a new picture starting with the head and body shape of a person, unaware of the figure that stood in front of her. About 5 minutes later, she looked up to see someone standing in front of her. Before she was able to process anything, Yulia let out a slight scream and slammed her sketchbook shut.

' W-w-who are you?'

She couldn't trace her mind to name the person located within her vision and all she could do was ask the most basic question.