Growing Hope

Chapter 2- Aiden Cooper

One Zero One

That was the room number Kiara was trying to find. The girls' bathroom, where she had her mild anxiety attack minutes ago, had been near room number one one two (112). Kiara was looking upwards to the head of the doors of the classrooms that she passed where the respective room no. signs hung, her bag slung over her shoulder hitting her in the back as she speed walked ahead. She had already stopped by her locker earlier, before she had allowed her nerves to consume her, and had taken the required books till her break. She walked ahead in the crowded hallway with students rushing in every direction and the noise pouring out of the now full classrooms-

One one nine

One one seven

She took a left turn as the hallway came to an end and stopped abruptly in her tracks, almost tripping on her own feet, in her haze to avoid colliding into the person in front of her. His back was to her as was the case with the rest of the students who seemed to have formed a circle around something or someone that was at their centre. From the sounds of it there seemed to be a fight going on in there and instead of stopping it, it seemed the crowd much rather would have them continue. There even seemed to be some people cheering.

Rolling her eyes Kiara looked around for a way to get to her class without having to deal with this bunch of wild kids. That was the last thing she needed. If she did not get to her class in the next five minutes, she was going to be late on her very first day back to the first class. Not at all interested in the fight, she tried to make her way around the circle to get to the other side of the now seemingly growing crowd of students, she tried to make herself flatten against the wall when she was roughly shoved in her stomach. Hurt and her anger flaring she turned to tell the person off when she was shoved forward from behind by someone saying, "Move let me see!".

And from then on Kiara couldn't tell, even if you promised to give her free supply of chicken wings for the rest of her life, as to how she managed to get herself pushed towards the centre of the circle. She managed to grab onto someone before she went tumbling into the two people fighting, which wouldn't be surprising considering her recently acquired horrible luck- 'death of 17-year-old girl who stumbled herself into a fight only to get pushed into the ground, bang her head and die instantly'. Kiara couldn't help wondering if her blood would forever stain these walls. The school may even have to re-paint it eventually though. OH NO! what if she died here and her ghost forever got stuck in the walls of this school? Eternity spent in school. Her mother would probably bring her back just to tell her about all those times she tried to get her to do Yoga and focus on her balancing and shout at her. Probably somehow also manage to link this all to her staying on her cell phone all the time, which if anyone asked her mother was the reason for all the problems in Kiara's life.

Kiara realised while she had been thinking about her impending doom and the eventual resurrection of her soul by her mother, her eyes tightly shut, she had been clinging onto the arms of a person holding on for dear life and quickly removed her hands from the guys biceps looking up to apologize only to freeze in place. There standing before her was one of her best friends from a year and a half ago. Although, he looked much different now. He was taller, had clear skin and an easy smile on his face that had always managed to make her smile in return although now that smile was slowly morphing into shock. He was nothing like the scrawny little kid with break outs over his face, that he always complained about, whom she knew back then. He was a handsome guy whose eyes, which had held a reflection of his earlier smile, were now turning huge and were soon accompanied by his mouth that had dropped open and he was looking at Kiara in shocked wonderment.

"Wha...wha.... KIARA!" Josh exclaimed. His eyes and mouth were now returning to the normal size and a hesitant smile was forming on his lips slowly, like it was unsure which way to go. Having finally decided it seemed, his smile broke out into a full-blown smile that reached his eyes and he wrapped his hands around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. His hugs still felt the same. Full of warmth and the memory of years of playing together and their mischievous adventures and nights of staying up late at each other's houses at sleepovers.