Life After Death

Chapter 1 - The Beginning is not the End

(Authors Note: Please read the description of the story! It will make heaps more sense if you read it! Thank you!)

If one life begins, another would end. At least that's what I always thought.

(Sakura's POV)

"Sakura,"
"Sakura!"

"Hm," I lazily opened my eyes but quickly shut them again, thanks to the bright rays of sunshine stirring me from my dreamland.
"Come on! You're going to be late!" From the sound of the voice I could tell it was my mother, except her tone more rough.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm up," I spoke hazily.
"Good, now get dressed! For heaven's sake!" My mother took that as the moment to leave the room, shutting the door tightly on her way out. Let's just get this day over with.
I opened the creaky door to my closet and slipped on some skinny jeans with a purple tank top and a black leather jacket. I shambled over to the dressing table and turned on the hair straightener. Once it was ready, I started straightening my hair. If I could earn a dollar for every time I burnt my finger, I would probably be a millionaire. After straightening my hair I ran down the stairs, almost tripping myself over (I am very clumsy!).
"Sorry Mum no time for breakfast goodbyeloveyou!" I said without taking a breath and ran out the front door.

"Boo!"
"EEK" The impact of the person's hand on my shoulder caused me to shudder and drop all my books on the ground.
I swear, I was so close to the school's gates! Can't there be one day where no one scares or trips me?!
"Pfft, I got you that time Yama!" Ugh I hate that nickname. I just had to have the last name Tokoyama!
"Yeah yeah, sure."
Xavier. Oh Xavier. As much as he scares me, nothing will scare me as much as his brown, fluffy, poof of a head, hair.
"Sorry, let me help you." His hand grabs one of my books and then he reaches his other hand out to me. I gripped onto his hand tight and pulled myself up.
"Thank you," I said without hesitation.
"N-no problem," For some reason he was blushing furiously, even his ears. Oh! He was still holding my hand! I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. He finally let go of my hand and mumbled an apology. We walked through the schools gate and suddenly felt different pairs of eyes scanning our figures. I really didn't like the way society judged people for what they had interest in. Sure, I could be a bit loud and exaggerating at times about the questions I like to ask but that doesn't mean I'm a bad person. Right?
"Hey, you okay?"
"Hm?" Apparently my thoughts had taken control of my body as well as my mind. I began to tremble and my hands began to shake, one hand shook the books it held. People staring obviously put a lot of pressure on someone. I mean, what if what they're wearing is out of season? Or if their hair was in a wrong position?
"Sakura," Xavier suddenly grabbed my free hand and ignored the blush that adorned his face.
"Don't worry about everyone else," Wow, maybe he is a mind-reader. To be honest, him holding my hand as we walked into school was comforting. I began to forget about all the stares. I glanced over at Xavier. Yeah, he does look kinda cute when he blushes.
"Pffft," I accidentally let out a small giggle.
"What's so funny," he spoke with an amusing voice.
"Nothing that concerns you," I said with a slight chuckle.
"Hmph," he added with some sprinkle of sass.
As we got inside the building most of the stares stopped fortunately. We had finally got to our lockers and that's when Xavier let go of my hand to put his backpack inside of his locker. I did the same and grabbed my timetable to look at my lessons. Xavier and I both compared our timetables and were surprised to see that we were with each other for most of the lessons.

Sakura's timetable Xavier's Timetable
8:50am: Lesson 1 - English 8:50am: Lesson 1 - English
9:40am: Lesson 2 - Maths 9:40am: Lesson 2 - Study Hall
10:25am: Lesson 3 - P.E 10:25am: Lesson 3 - P.E
11:10am: -Lunch break- 11:10am: -Lunch break-
11:55am: Lesson 4 - Study Hall 11:55am: Lesson 4 - Maths
12:40pm: Lesson 5 - History 12:40pm: Lesson 5 - History
1:25pm: -2nd Break- 1:25pm: -2nd Break-
2:10pm: Lesson 6 - Languages 2:10pm: Lesson 6 - Languages

"Okay, so I guess we both have English now?" Xavier questioned.
"Yep, let's head over there now," I grabbed Xavier's hand and walked side by side with him to English. It's kinda funny how easily he blushes. Heh, what a unique guy.
As we walked through the door, eyes found their ways onto our frames and, of course, stared at me until their eyes watered for not blinking.
"Hey! Take a photo it will last longer!" Xavier yelled. All of the students who were staring quickly ducked their heads back into whatever they were doing. I guess Xavier can be very intimidating sometimes. We took our seats next to each other and waited for the teacher to arrive.
"Good morning class," suddenly spoke Mr Andrews as he strutted his way into the classroom.
"Good morning Mr Andrews," we all spoke in unison.
"Great, I'm glad none of you forgot your manners like with your homework," some students chuckled with that smart comment such as Xavier and I.
"Ok everyone, to start off today's lesson for English, we will be discussing a certain topic," Mr Andrews stated.
"With all of the terrible things that's been happening in this town lately..." Mr Andrews trailed off.
"I think you all know what I'm talking about." Yes, I think everyone knows what he's talking about. The recent mysterious stabbings in our town. There had been about 8 victims so far, each of them with multiple stab wounds in their chest and stomach. The police are still trying to figure out who did these terrible crimes, but of course, no evidence. Not even a single fingerprint. Just a corpse. It's sick that people do that.
"So, I've decided to make you guys do a project about a matter of life and death," That's when my eyes lit up. This is right up my alley! I could hear Xavier chuckle beside me. Turns out, he was laughing at my enthusiasm. I smiled back and looked towards Mr Andrews once again.
"You will be assigned to look at the good aspects of life and then write them down. Once you've done at least 15, you will write for me a 900 word essay on what you think life and death is," Mr Andrews spoke with audacity.
"And yes, you can work in partners," The whole class lit up with some words of kindness towards the teacher.
"But before you go off and choose your partners, let me explain to you what your task is this lesson," Mr Andrews strictly said.
"This lesson will be the starting point of your project. I will allow you to go with your partner outside and write down what you think the great wonders of life are. You must be back at.." he stopped to look at his watch,
"9:30, just before your next class starts," Mr Andrews cautioned us.
"Now go! Look for the great wonders of the world we live in!" Everyone rushed to one another to quickly get their partner before someone else did. But Xavier and I just sat still and waited for the crowd to go.
"So, wanna be my partner?" Xavier said awkwardly.
"You really think I'm gonna say no? There's literally no one else who would ask me," I spoke with a slight emotion.
"Don't say that, but anyway, I'm the only one you would choose, hah," he stated with cockiness.
"Heh, sure, believe what you wanna believeeee," I said with a little ring to my voice. We took that as our chance to leave the classroom and head to the school's nature area.
"Your like, really good with this whole life thingy, so I think you should take the lead in this," Xavier spoke with slight confidence.
"Are you trying to bail?" I asked
"What?! No!" He said with some type of emotion.
"Ok," I responded with a softer tone. We finally made it to the school's nature area and were surprised that there weren't many people here. Probably because most of them are in the computer lab, thinking the only thing that's important in life is electronics.
"So, what do you wanna write first for the worlds biggest wonders!" He spoke with a pinch of sarcasm.
"Hehe, we could go over towards the small river over there," I pointed over to the little river that flows from the side of the gymnasium to the fence blocking the forest from the school.
"Good idea!" Xavier said energetically.
And so, we both walked over to the small river. I really liked the river. It was one of the only places that held peace.
"So, I think we should write down water. We wouldn't be alive without water," I finally spoke up.
"True, true," Xavier agreed.
I was focusing on the water until something caught my attention from the corner of my eye. There was a hole in the fence. A hole big enough for someone to fit through it. But, there was something beyond that. A pile of dirt and leaves. It looked like it was purposely shovelled there. Curiosity got the best of me, so I walked over to the hole in the fence, leaving a surprised boy to stand there.
"Sakura! Where are you going?!" Yelled Xavier. I didn't answer. I was too caught up in this mysterious hole in the fence and the pile of dirt and leaves. Just as I was in front of the fence, I realised how suspicious the pile of dirt and leaves actually were. It was like someone was trying to hide something. I ducked through the hole in the fence and ignored the concerned calls of Xavier. It felt like I didn't have control of my body. I walked over to the pile of dirt and leaves and got on my knees. Some twigs were stabbing me in my legs but it didn't matter, I needed to find out what was underneath this dirt pile. I started digging with my bare hands, I kept digging and digging and digging until my hand came in contact with something soft. I brushed the rest of the dirt and leaves off of whatever this thing is.

"AHHHH, OH MY GOD!"