Valerie Bunch hadn't seen the pretty blonde girl or her orange headphones for three days. Strangely enough, that was the first thought that popped into her head as she walked home on Thursday afternoon, ugly brown school shoes clicking against the pavement.
She usually reserved her walks home for thoughts she didn't have time to consider at school, although until relatively recently, she hadn't needed to walk. Her mum was supposed to message her a few hours before the end of school if her dad couldn't pick her up, but she hadn't gotten a text that day. After waiting outside the school gates for twenty minutes though, she figured her father wasn't going to come. He was probably working another one of his late shifts.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, plugging in her headphones and tapping on the first playlist she saw. The intro to "Fireflies" transported her deep into the little world inside her head- one she'd been visiting much more often since her father picked up all those extra hours at work. She closed her eyes for a moment, hearing nothing but music and feeling nothing but nostalgia for the countless times the song had come onto the radio when she was younger. Her fingers tapped rhythmically against the side of her leg until the final few notes played softy in her ears.

A sudden gust of cold wind blew against her face, and she squeezed her eyes shut, cheeks and ears going pink from the cold. She stopped and dropped her bag on the pavement, unzipping it to pull out her blue school scarf. The cold seemed a little less bitter as she wrapped it around her neck, picking her bag back up and throwing it over her shoulder again before continuing to walk. Tiny sprinkles of rain poured down from the grey sky above her, droplets that dusted her clothes; too small to actually soak though.
She took down the messy bun that her hair had been in all day, combing her fingers though curly dark brown strands that another sharp blast of wind soon blew behind her shoulders.

A silver BMW drove past her a little to quickly, in a blur of grey and white and muddy water that splashed against her knees. She glanced down at them in all their damp, dirt-stained glory, and then back up in the direction the car was driving in, and cursed quietly.

"You'd think people would take a little more care, wouldn't you?" Someone crossed the street to walk next to her. She glanced up, and saw the expressive chocolate brown eyes and neat blonde ponytail of the girl her thoughts had wandered over to earlier. Her voice was completely different to the angry one Valerie had been subject to in the canteen, much softer and more melodic, but it still carried traces of the same cold winter fury. Her headphones were loosely hugging her neck, and she wasn't in school uniform; she clearly hadn't shown up that day. Instead, she half-drowned in a grey sweater. A pair of faded blue jeans clung to her legs, and her sneakers were an old, dusty white.

"I- yeah," Valerie agreed, tripping over her words and taking a moment to try and form an apology. "I'm really sorry by the way, for spilling the coffee on you.

"You can make it up to me by buying me hot chocolate tomorrow," the girl replied easily, "I only accept apologies if they come in the form of free food. Or drinks in this case."

Valerie glanced over at her, and her amber-gold eyes met the pretty girl's expectant ones. "Sure," she replied, feigning nonchalance.

"Neat." The girl shoved her hands in her pockets and pulled her hood up as the rain grew heavier. Thunder rumbled calmly overhead, and Valerie shivered a little with cold. She'd left her blazer in her locker as she usually did, and was regretting it more than ever. "Cold?" the girl asked, and Valerie nodded, a grin wrapping its way around her frozen lips.

"Just a little," she said, goosebumps pricking up along her bare arms. The girl stopped to pull something out of her bag, but Valerie trudged slowly on, legs moving robotically, staring silently at the ground. Fat drops of water fell from the angry grey sky, soaking most of her shirt in a matter of seconds. She looked behind her when she heard the scuff of sneakers against wet pavement, and suddenly the girl was beside her, and the rain was gone.

Valerie huddled a little closer under the battered red umbrella that the girl held above them both, and murmured a quiet "thank you."

"No problem," the girl's free hand rose to fiddle with the chord on her headphones, "I can't have you getting sick and not showing up at school tomorrow when you still owe me a drink."

Valerie rolled her eyes. "How am I supposed to know whether or not you decide to show up," she retorted, "you haven't been here for the past three days!" She shut her mouth when she realised what she'd said, waiting embarrassedly for the girl to ask why she'd noticed, but the question never came.

"I always show up when someone's buying me something I can eat," she brushed a strand of stray blonde hair behind her ear, "but in the off chance that I don't, I'll text you." The girl pulled a silver sharpie out of her pocket, grabbing Valerie's wrist and turning it over. She hastily scribbled her number on Valerie's bare arm, and dropped it when she was done.

Valerie glanced down at the permanent marker on her skin as the girl turned left onto another street with a wave, and said, "this is literally never going to come off."

"Well neither is the coffee on my shirt, so I guess were even now." The girl kept walking.

"Hey! You have to swear never to bring that up again after I buy you that hot chocolate, or the deal's off!" Valerie called after her, and the girl gave her a thumbs up, and Valerie waited until she was out of sight before continuing to walk, and it was only after Valerie was almost home that she realised she had forgotten to ask for the pretty girl's name.

Hey guys, sorry it's been a week since I've updated. School has been giving us a lot of test since it's the end of term and all, but I only have four more days of classes and then I can write all holidays! This chapter was a bit rushed, as I wrote most of it today, so if you find any errors please do correct me!

This chapter is dedicated to Tweeter109 for giving me the most amazing review on my book Carry On! Her writing is really, really good (and if you want a review on your story, her book is definitely one to go)!

What do you think of this "pretty girl" so far?

If you liked this chapter, don't hesitate to leave a vote or a comment, and to share it with your friends!

- Kaitlin