A week had passed since everybody got to know about the school trip. The school was taking them to Fu hills which is an 8-hours drive North from school. They were going to leave by 8 am on Saturday and were supposed to come back by Sunday evening.

Everybody was excited for the trip and there was an extreme buzz around the campus. Wherever you went, students were talking about camping and their previous experiences or about what they're packing for the trip.

The previous week had just flown past without notice. It felt as if just a few moments ago Alex, Violet and the others were staring at the printout pasted on the noticeboard, all of them excited and chirpy about it. Everyone immediately agreed to come but Violet was reluctant. It took her a few days to confirm her presence for that trip.

"Mom is sick! I need to be with her." She had tried to reason.

"It's just a day Violet. You could ask someone else to take care of her for a day. Just this time, please." Alex argued.

"Yeah! And now you're part've our lot y'know. Either all've us go, or no one does. It's a simple rule ov'friendship." Edward added.

Everyone had tried to persuade her until she finally agreed to ask for permission. It took her a couple of days to confirm, but confirm she did, and the trip just became a whole lot more important for Alex.

Violet had jelled well into the group. Although the group was short on the number of girls, yet she didn't feel uncomfortable with them. Alex was always there to take her side in arguments and Edward entertained them with his timely humor. And with passing time, she became closer to her new group and was pulled away from Elizabeth and Taylor.

A fire burned inside Elizabeth. A fire of redemption. Her plan had failed. She had tried to become closer with Alex through Violet as his attraction for the girl seemed obvious enough to her. Yet it had simply back-fired. Not only had she lost Violet, but Alex now seemed too busy in talking to that girl that he didn't even notice her around at times.

"But during this trip," she had thought. "I'll use my plan to good effect."

******************************

Finally, now came the moment that everybody had been waiting for. On Saturday morning, students poured in the school with their backpacks filled with spare clothes and cheap junk food. Everybody gathered in the hall and teachers asked them to stand in order of their classes. Just as you'd think that the confusion was too much and that the havoc was getting out of control, Sir Shafiq came up on the stage and quietened everybody down.

"I want pin drop silence in this hall!" He exclaimed.

And the crowd froze in its place.

"Good! Now Mr. Ray, could you hand the list over to me?"

A paper was handed over to Mr. Shafiq who squinted his eyes in concentration and tried reading out. He called out classes which were lead out by their respective class teachers towards the numerous school buses standing outside, waiting for their passengers to board.

Almost the whole school had left but Alex's class was still waiting. A couple of lines on either side of him stood with exhaustion evident on their miserable faces. Finally Mr. Shafiq called out their class and they were lead outside by Mr. Ray.

Alex stood somewhere in the middle with Edward and Max, while Violet stood at the front with Elizabeth and Taylor. She hadn't talked to them much in the last few weeks, but today Elizabeth seemed to be overly attached with her. She had been holding Violet's arm almost since forever and was not letting go of her. Violet had a fake smile on her face which clearly showed her unease.

She had enjoyed the last few weeks with her new friends. They were actually friends in the correct meaning. They didn't give to take. They gave their everything for each other just on the name of friendship. Violet truly believed that they were 'One for all, and all for one.'

But she couldn't just pull away from Elizabeth and Taylor. It felt too rude to leave old friends for the new ones. So she didn't resist Elizabeth's newly found compassion towards her.

All of them boarded the school bus. It was white and had a capacity of almost 25. The seats were lined on both sides in pairs while a long adjacent one was placed at the back. 20 students, one school guard and one teacher filled 22 seats while one seat beside Mr. Ray and two at his back were left vacant. It seemed as if nobody was willing to learn more about personification or alliteration in the next 8 hours.

As soon as Elizabeth entered the bus, she dashed for the back seats. She was aware that Alex and his friends would sit at the back and wanted to be as close to them as possible. She reached the back and sat on the last pair on the left. Violet began to sit beside her when she was stopped by Elizabeth.

"Violet dear, I've got my things over here." She placed a tiny bag on the seat beside her. "Could you sit at the back please?"

And Violet, as her usual polite self, agreed to it. Taylor sat beside Violet. When Violet's new group entered, they made their way towards the back. All of them sat at the long back-seat, which was already half-filled by Violet and Taylor, but there was no space left for Alex. He stood there, looking in a state of confusion.

Elizabeth sneered.

Just according to plan.

"You can sit with me Alex, I've got this seat vacant." She said in her usual high-pitch voice while she picked up her bag that she had placed on the seat beside her. Alex looked around some more but had to agree. In the end he unwillingly sat with Elizabeth.

Edward sat right behind Alex. He knew something like this was coming the moment he had saw Elizabeth and Violet sitting together at the basket ball match. He began thinking of what to do.

Meanwhile, the bus shuddered, vibrated violently and coughed like an old man as it's engine sprang to life. They had started their journey.

For the next hour or so, Elizabeth made fail attempts to initiate a conversation with Alex. Whatever she said, Alex would just nod or jerk his head. The best that she could do up till now, was to get an answer from him. She had asked if Alex had ever camped before and he had simply replied with yes. Further attempts to continue the conversation had failed because now he seemed to be thinking about something else. He was staring at the front seat with a blank expression.

"Alex? I am asking you something." Elizabeth sounded offended.

"Oh! Sorry. I was just thinking."

"It's okay. So I was asking if blue suits me better or white. I can't really choose what to wear tomorrow so I just brought both dresses with me."

"You could wear both y'know. Change after half a day so you get to wear both."

Elizabeth suddenly became full of life now that she had got a little of Alex's attention. Truth be told, Alex only answered her so she won't feel bad. He couldn't knowingly break one's heart. Besides, he hadn't been ignoring her at all. His mind was just occupied with Violet and thoughts related to her.

He rested his head on the back of his seat and stretched his legs which bumped into the front seat. Edward seized the opportunity.

"Hey bro! You could come and sit at the back y'know. Gotta stretch them long legs. Got more space back here." He said cunningly.

Alex looked relieved. It felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off of him. Without further due, he stood up and exchanged seats with Edward. Elizabeth looked utterly distraught. How could Edward have done something like that to her? He always seemed to understand her intentions and had a counter-attack for all of her plans. She became furious, but couldn't express it. Alex sat now at Edward's place and ended up with Violet on his left. In front of them, Elizabeth had now turned away from Edward and was looking out of her window.

Alex's heart began to beat faster. They had never sat so close to each other before and this made their hearts pound. Alex faced Violet and smiled.

"Didn't see you since this morning. I see that you were busy with your old friends." He teased her.

Violet blushed and looked down at her lap. Rock music played on the speaker above their heads. Alex hated it. It didn't sound like music, it was noise. Drums banging and singers screaming. For him, music was all about the lyrics, the melody and the emotions.

They chatted a little about the weather. Then Alex asked Violet about her mother and whether she was feeling better now. Finally Alex had had enough of it. He opened his black backpack and took out his mobile phone. Violet looked at him curiously. He opened the small front-zipper and pulled out a pair of white earphones.

"I hate this music." Alex stated.

Violet laughed lightly and then began staring at his hands plugging the earphones in the mobile. Alex noticed this.

"Do you wanna listen too?"

"Yes please. I think my ears are gonna explode." She made an innocent face.

Alex smiled at her cuteness and handed her an earphone. He asked her what she wanted to listen

"Anything soft would be great!" She replied.

Alex played Mariah Carey's songs for her. They both sat together with one of the earphones plugged into either of their ears as they listened to the songs of their choice. Alex couldn't remember if he'd listened to songs for this long ever in his whole life, but all of these songs had become special to him.

Once or twice Alex handed his mobile over to Violet to play a song herself and the next five to six hours flew past without notice. The only thing they did other than listening to songs in all this time was to wear the sweaters or jackets that they had brought with them because it became cooler and cooler as they drove towards North.

Finally after almost 8 and a half hours (half an hour delay for latrine purposes) they reached Fu hills. Alex and Violet stood up in the bus as it came to a halt. The driver killed the engine and Mr. Ray called out for everyone to form lines.

Edward made sure this time that he was in between of Alex and Elizabeth and so Alex and Violet ended up together. When they reached the bus door, both of them stopped and motioned for the other to go first.

"Go." Alex motioned outwards.

"No. You go." Violet retaliated.

"Ladies first."

"GO"

Everyone including Mr. Ray eyed them with weird expressions before Alex finally gave in. He stepped outside and for the first time realized how beautiful a place he had reached.

The fresh air of the vale struck his nostrils as he inhaled deeply, filling all the purity into his lungs. In front of him, numerous hills rose skywards and were embedded with lush-green grass much like Alex's garden. Maybe even better. It was around 4:30 and the sun was on the verge of setting. An hour or so, and Alex knew that they were up for an unforgettable scene.

Alex looked towards Violet and she, too was smiling at nature's beauty. Everybody assembled at the foot of the hill before them. Mr. Ray appeared out of the bus, and without considering the beauty around him for even a second, made his way to some height on the hill so he was visible to all of them.

"All right students, these are the Fu hills. We will be trekking upwards until we reach a clearing. In the clearing, is a centuries old Buddhist monument of Buddha. We will be camping over there tonight. Now as this is the school trip and the school has a policy of letting you brats enjoy at this day, so I won't take much of your time. Just trek upwards from here. I've heard the monument is some fifteen minutes' distance."

With a last few instructions, Mr. Hazel allowed them to start their journey. The group of Alex, Violet, Edward, Jess and Max started trekking together. It took about a minute before Elizabeth and Taylor joined.

"This girl simply won't understan' like this." Edward thought.

They climbed for another five minutes before Max put forward his proposition.

"Let's all race uptil the clearing. What say guys?"

Everyone looked positive but Alex seemed to be in denial.

"I don't know..."

"Come on man! You know you won't lose." Max reasoned.

Alex looked towards Violet who seemed to be struggling to keep up.

"Oh come on champ. Stop bein' a chicken." Edward tried to light up a fire inside Alex but he won't budge. He wasn't going to race because it was clear that Violet would lose. He just couldn't make her feel bad. But what if...

"Okay. Let's do this." He said and all of them made a run for it, leaving behind Alex and Violet. They were all so busy in trying to win that no one really saw that Alex wasn't even trying to keep up.

Violet breathed heavily. Her cheeks puffed up with every breath and she felt dizzy.

"You-can-go.......too-tired." She spoke with a wavering breath.

"I know, that's why I won't. Come on, let's sit down for a while."

This time Alex needn't convince her. As soon as he said it, Violet collapsed down on the grass and Alex sat beside her.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked. He looked worried for Violet.

"Yeah I am! Just... not the physical type as you can see." She laughed but stopped soon to gain her breath back. It was getting darker with every passing second and slowly the sun began to set.

"Violet?"

"Hmm?"

"You know how the story ends? After Violet and Alex sit down on the grass to look at the sun set?"

"Nope. But I hope you'll explain."

The sky had turned that same shade of purple as was explained in Alex's story. They were sitting on that same soft-green grass with the same cool wind blowing across. Alex sat on his knees and faced Violet.

"Violet doesn't stop wishing for the purple. She doesn't lose hope. She fights, because she's a fighter. No matter what people say or what she thinks, she knows she can do it." Alex stood up and offered a hand.

"She stands up and continues forward." He finished.

Something about that amazing place or about the emotions that Alex had just filled her with, wanted her to stand up and do just that. She wanted to continue and reach the top like the rest. She didn't want to continue to prove it to Alex. She wanted to prove it to herself. So she held Alex's hand as he pulled her up to her feet.

They continued their journey upwards. Alex set a regular pace so Violet could keep up and just as dark had almost taken over, Violet and Alex saw the clearing in the distance. They marched on, now Violet in front while Alex followed her. Just a few steps away from the top of the hill from where the clearing started, Violet looked back at Alex.

"You should go first. You'll lose this way, Alex."

"It'd be an honor," He smiled warmly back at her.

"besides, you've won from your inner-self today. You deserve it."

Violet smiled back at him and then looked towards the clearing. She took the last few steps as Alex stopped back and enjoyed the moment.

He lost the race that day, but won something far more important. He won Violet's trust. And that mattered most. 

-So what do you guys think about these ALEX-VIOLET sparks? :D oh and Fu hills is no particular place. Fu is just my best friend's nickname :P so Fu, if you're reading this, then thank you for always being there for me :') You're the best <3 

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