Writing dump

Echo (green monkey dreams rewrite)

 I don't think I ever ended up posting this... it's the same as the third part of this work but fully edited. (aka: this is what I submitted for my assignment)

Jilia sits underneath a tree, watching as children play in the park.

She watches one child in particular, who looks strikingly familiar, although she's confident that she'd never seen him before. He looked no older than 13.

The boy was playing with another younger child who Jilia assumed to be his sister. She was throwing her head back in laughter as the older boy made fictitious noises, dragging a toy spaceship through the sand and then into the air.

He waves the toy around the younger girl, and she makes grabby hands towards it as it flies over her head.

Jilia tries to remember how she got here, sitting under an oak tree in the park, and why she doesn't seem to remember the names of anyone else sitting around her. Did she come here herself? She thinks, picking up a leaf from beside her and looking around the noisy park.

The kids in the sand-pit are packing up their toys, and Jilia locks eyes with the young boy who gives her a questioning look and a slight smile before redirecting his attention to the girl who has trouble lifting her legs through the slightly damp sand.

Jilia keeps her eyes on the pair even when they walk down the path. The boy looks over at her and smiles kindly before getting into a car.

✦✦✦ 

"-ia, Jilia!" Random says, finally freeing Jilia from her dazed trance with the addition of curious glances from students at their lockers, swapping books and packing bags.

"Huh? Sorry," she apologises, looking around the new environment and trying to understand how she got here and why she isn't underneath a park tree watching the siblings.

Random chuckles, distracting Jilia from her previous thoughts. She feels a warm sensation in her chest, although she isn't sure how to connect the feeling to an emotion.

There's an unfamiliar weight clasped in Jilia's hand, and she attempts to move her fingers. Looking down, she discovers that her hand is intertwined within Randoms'.

She hangs her head in embarrassment as a blush heats most of her face, making her look more like a tomato than a teenager.

Jilia looks up at the boy holding her hand through the tendrils of her hair. She tries to find a definition of their relationship that may fit.

Was this platonic or romantic hand holding?

She lifts her head, looking straight-on at Random, her face practically burning at this stage if it was even possible to exceed the level of redness.

He looks down at Jilia, offering a charming smile and reassuring squeeze of their intertwined hands. He looks back towards the doors, although he can still feel the heat from Jilias' persistent stare.