UNISION

Sweet old memories

I wake up at 6.00 a.m. in the morning from every Monday to Friday just to go to school. And I hate school. Today though.. it has got to be the worst day ever. Today I just so happened to be 10 minutes late and the teachers who were on duty began scolding me and giving lectures about how I should be more responsible. As a punishment, I had to pick up trash until there was not a single piece of paper on the ground.

"If you finish it quickly we'll let you go early." said one of the teachers, in her annoying, high-pitched voice.

I stayed silent as I started to pick up trash, wanting to retort back but restraining myself from doing so to stay out of more trouble than I was already in. Much to my pleasure, a few minutes later, a friend of mine who was a prefect, approached me.

"Emilie, You good?"

"Hey Sha, yeah.. it's just annoying that I have to do this shit just because I'm 10 minutes late. It isn't really that big of a difference."

"I understand.." she said as she kept silent for a few seconds, which felt like hours, her brown, almost black eyes looking at the surrounding area. All I could do was stand there waving my hand infront of her face and hope she'd say something.

And finally she did.

 "Hey, you remember the cottage that we built with Nilam a year ago? The magic one?" she asked abruptly.

"Yeah, what about it?" I replied, still picking up a few stray pieces of paper, trying to speed things up.

"Last time I checked.. I think someone or something is living there."

My stomach started doing flips. Who could've been in that cottage? It was completely off the grid, away from any civilization. People couldn't possibly have found it, it was enchanted to be covered from any non-magic human being.

"Huh...weird. When were you last there?" I asked, trying to seem unbothered.

"Like, two days ago."

"Weird..." 

There was another silence, both of us thinking deeply. Suddenly, Sha spoke.

"I think we should go and check..right after school."

"Oh, yeah, sure." 

After that encounter, we both plainly waved goodbye to each other, as I went back to picking up the few remaining pieces of trash around the area.

By the time I had finished, it was already 10.30 a.m. Keep in mind, people love to throw trash anywhere they can, at anytime they want. When I finally picked up the last can of soda and threw it into the nearest trashcan to me, I went to the school canteen to sit with my friends who were having breakfast. I had always hated the school food. Hence, me never eating, but simply grimacing at the sight of people stuffing their faces. I was pulled out of my thoughts by one of my classmates waving at my face.

"Em, where have you been?" 

"Oh, I was late so I had to pick up trash until there was none left." I said with a submissive wave of my hand.

"Wow. That sucks.. by the way, have you finished your math homework?" he asked as he scooted over to give me some space to sit.

"Oh god, no."

"Me either."

"You know how our teacher gets, we should probably finish it before her class.." he said, stuffing a spoonful of rice into his mouth.

"No. No, thanks. I have to find Sha." I said, barely listening to what he was saying.

I quickly left and searched for Sha who I was sure hadn't done her homework either. After running around the school, I saw her guarding the stairs near the toilet like always.