Chapter 3/DECLAN

"Hey," awkwardly waved a young girl around my age, her head tilted in a weird angle as she struggled to keep herself upright from the strain of falling. Exercise is what this frail woman needed. Not that I could complain.  

She shut her eyes instantly, as the word left her mouth, wincing as obvious thoughts went through her head. With a quick shake of her head, however, she stared back at me expectantly.

I hate people. I can't deal with them. Especially not this weirdo. 

I gave her a weird look and turned the other way to avoid acknowledging her presence. Who even was this person? 

When silence fell upon me for ten seconds after that, I naturally assumed she was gone and went back to staring far into the distance. Not long after, however, plopped that same weirdo right beside me. 

This time, it was my turn to want for the ground to swallow me whole. My eyes automatically shut themselves tightly to half-convince myself that this wasn't happening. When that tactic didn't work, an annoyed groan emerged from the utter depth of my soul. "What?" I frustratedly asked her and whipped my head towards her direction, finally taking a proper look at her. 

Her brown hair was tied loosely in a ponytail with a rebellious strand of hair hanging on the front as her smiling face looked on towards me. Her eyes were a deep shade of brown that could force one to stare into them for hours and she had a soft look to her that could immediately draw one towards her. 

Almost instantaneously, I regretted my harsh words. She didn't look that harmful... I guess. 

"Sorry," she started off with, as if she were the one who needed to apologize. An unsettling sense of guilt gnawed away at me again. "The whole 'hey' thing creeped me out too. I can't believe I did that." She held her head in her hands as she shook her head in embarrassment and continued.

"Did you know that I rehearsed saying hi for ages on the go? And that's how it came out. That. Worse of it all, I just wanted to come say hi and now I think I've upset you even further. I swear that wasn't my intention. All I wanted to do was, you know, introduce myself because tomorrow is my first day at this school." Well, that explained it. "I mean, technically, today is my first day, since I've come to campus. But tomorrow would be the first literal day, you know, and I just wanted to make a friend so that I wouldn't die of loneliness and so that I could actually be trying. But I scared someone away already. Already. Usually, it would take time and--"

She finally looked up at my raised eyebrow and shut up. "Uh," she laughed awkwardly and gave a tight-lipped smile. "Sorry, I tend to speak quite a lot."

"I can tell."

"You can tell me to shut up, you know? I don't mind. At all," she nervously gave me a thumbs up.

To be fair, I'd never had anyone approach me after my initial and very apparent rudeness. However, with this girl, she either didn't get the hint or she was trying. Which I appreciated. But it still wasn't my cup of tea. And this discomfort needed to go. 

"Listen, if you want friends. I'm not your guy. I don't have friends and I don't want them either. You can come in tomorrow and make your best friend list with other people who could bring your social status up and whatever. Have fun," I grumbled, hoping to end this conversation as I much as I wanted this rain to end so I could run away from here. 

"But I don't care about social status and stuff. You seem like a nice guy--"

"From what angle?" I found the need to intercept as I looked at her with the utmost incredibility. Was she in the same place as I was? Was she really hearing what I was saying? Because if so, this girl needed to change up her definitions of 'nice' as soon as possible. 

"Oh," she blinked. "You don't think you're a nice person?" she asked in confusion.

I snorted, giving her my infamous eye-roll, and focused on other things that mattered. Like my plan to get home. 

"You seem okay."

Now it was my turn to look at her in confusion. She laughed at my face in response. 

It was hard to keep away from the fact that she was breathtaking. She had a soft glow to her and hazel-brown eyes that were so difficult to look away from. Her perfectly white teeth only added more to her beauty. 

 She got up with a mischievous smile on her face, an idea blooming in her mind. "And I," she dragged the word along, "will see you tomorrow." 

"No."

Another laugh sounded and I wondered in my head what it was that made me so funny. My brain was trying to wrap itself around the fact that somebody was clearly even more insane than I was. 

"Wait, I didn't even get your name," she asked, turning back with her now widely opened umbrella, looking at me as if we'd just had the loveliest and friendliest conversation ever. 

I raised my eyebrow and tried to stress it out to her. "No." It was a clear refusal of any kind of association with the woman. 

But my answer only amused her further, and she proceeded to give me a toothy grin. 

Okay, just first off. Why was she so happy on such an awful day? Did she see the weather? And even more, did she see the person she was talking to? 

"Well, my name is Clare," she smiled at me. "Clare Jones. And it was very nice to meet you."

The feeling isn't mutual. 

"I'll see you again tomorrow, Mr. No," she saluted with her free hand and turned around her heels. 

I was just left dumbfounded. "Mr. No?" I whispered under my breath unbelievably as she disappeared out the entrance, allowing me to finally gather my thoughts again. How childish. 

She was a weird person. 

Send her to daycare. 

I got up from my place, slinging my bag back on, and realized that the rain had left me to peace quite a while ago. I kicked a stone on the way - the same way I would've if my confusion were to be an inanimate object- and left for my place. 

From the corner of my eye, the basketball practice wrapped up. My senses picked up on the growing chitter-chatter as the players proceeded to leave home too. 

The entire walk home, I could only think about the one thing that fell out of place in my boring, daily schedule. What was her name?  

Right. Clare. 

Even as I saw my house approaching, the scene replayed in my head for the gazillionth time. 

And then as if consciousness suddenly hit me, I felt the wetness on my feet again and remembered the ugly situation I was in. 

Refraining the urge to punch someone, I kicked my shoes off my feet violently and went in.

Screw this.

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