Hobby: an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure.

~~~

When he sighed, my mind came tumbling down and I trembled. My nails dug into the rough texture of my palms and my breathing became irregular again.

Dr Ravensha tutted to herself before patting my arm, "Calm breathing Ava."

I exhaled shakily, refusing to meet the consultants vigorous eyes. "What does it mean?"

I constructed the regular respiring leaps of air and sullenly met the stranger's eyes.

"It's an infection," He shortly stated, "Bloody streaks in a patient aren't uncommon, its called Hemoptysis."

I winced to myself, remeniscing the queasy vision of ragged red, "What causes it?"

"Well, a lung infection can lead to your blood vessels enlarging. It comes to a point where they become too weak and burst, thus travelling to your airway."

"They're only minor amounts?" Dr Ravensha asked.

Mum nodded, she'd been almost mute until now, "But she's been much more aware now, doing airway treatment and more scheduled exercise."

Great, now I was definitely obliged to see Davis each Saturday.

"I understand that you've adapted to the situation, but keep in mind due to this late diagnosis we can't rule anything out too soon."

Mentally slapping myself, I slipped towards my surface problems, "What can I do to make the blood subside?"

"For the next twenty-four hours, put your inhaled antibiotics on hold. If the blood streaks come to an end, give me a call and we can discuss it." The mousy haired man looked back at my doctor, questioning her next words.

She cleared her throat in response, "I'm going to prescribe you some Vitamin K, that should help with the blood clotting. For now, keep up with the airway clearance, that should keep you safe."

"If anything," The man I'd chosen to dislike interrupted, "Avoid coughing severely, keep them light and not heavy."

Mum's patronising ringtone suddenly impaled the air, and the chimed sound cast a shadow of worry across her face, "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to take this."

We were silent as her figure left the confined room, the plaster white door swinging behind her as her face penetrated with angst.

I bit my lip and internally yearned to groan, bitter tastes absorbing themselves in my body.

"Ava," Dr Ravensha placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, "How are you holding up?"

Touched at her empathy, I sent a small smile and shrugged. "Some days, it's like it barely exists, but then there are times when I can't think straight because of the distractive pain".

"Have you tried taking up a new hobby," To my surprise the man joined into the conversation, "When you start changing your routine, it's possible for your mind to adjust to sudden situations easier."

I pondered for a moment, brushing over his advice and then admitting, "I've always wanted to try out Photography."

~

"Oh wow! Now I wish I wasn't working," Dina complained as we walked towards our History room.

The usual bubble of people swarmed through the corridors and I shuddered, squishing my body to myself and quickly slipping into the designated room.

We took our seats beside Sasha, instantly hushing as our teacher tapped on the board for attention, the bell ringing to indicate the fourth class of the day.

"Alright! Now, I trust you've all got your books. If you don't, tough." Miss Hernandez scanned her eyes over the class before quickly taking attendance.

In response, I flicked open to an empty page and softly swayed to myself. My throat felt clenched tightly and I wished that using my inhaler was possible...but that chance was outweighed by my desperation to remove those horrible painted crimson marks.

As our teacher began summarising the work we should have learnt in the last lesson, I scrambled my writing to make useful notes. It was perfect to highlight the important things, because half of my class were completely lost and required the information to be repeated.

As I underlined words, Sasha smirked, "Calm down Ava, the test is in two weeks."

I sent her a grimace, "Exactly."

Dina rolled her eyes at the blonde, "Not all of us have the ability to cram and come out with A's."

The girl blushed in embarrassment and moved her gaze elsewhere as I smiled to myself, "I can do that, if we were getting tested on things like sleep."

The other two snorted at my horrible attempt to ease the accidental tension, but it worked in its own little way.

"Alright, let's test how much you all understood," She uttered the words we all despised, "Davis, when did the Vietnam War take place?"

"1955," He uncertainly replied, meeting my eye for confirmation.

I denied any information and watched Miss Hernandez tut, "Of course, but don't just give me a year."

"October?" Someone called out, triggering the rest of the imbeciles to call out hopeless months.

"Quiet!" The teacher rolled her eyes in good humoured, "Do I need to start making you go back to timelines?"

She turned her head to notice Dina's raised hand, "Yes Davina."

"November 1955." The girl beside me confidently answered.

"Good," Miss observed before snapping, "Ava."

I blushed in embarrassment and met her eyes, "Why were the US army so unsuccessful? Give me three reasons."

I bit my lip and ignored my notes, "A majority of the troops were young, thus being inexperienced without any training. Ontop of that, the troops had low morale and found the chemical warfare dehumanising."

"Nice," She nodded her head approvingly, "One more."

I pondered for a moment before it dawned on me, "Oh! The Vietcong were much more aware of their environment, allowing them to use Guerilla tactics."

"I'm glad some of my students have brain cells," She sent a glare to Davis, who reflected it back to me.

I sent him a smirk and then brought my attention back to the lesson, hearing Sasha's quiet whisper, "I'm not the only one grabbing the A."

Then, as if my body hated the idea of having a peaceful moment, it instantly retracted to cause a suffocating feeling. Once again, it felt like I had the inability to breathe; as if the air was some sort of harm.

As my usual attempt to prevent choking, I pressed my hand to my mouth and deeply coughed. It stung like hell, but I'd rather deal with that than the lack of respiring.

Dina caught on quickly, and poked my arm, "Just go, she'll understand."

I caught my teacher's eye and she gave me a swift nod, not taking a pause from speaking. Like water, I naturally slipped out of my seat and retreated out of the door; avoiding the curious glances that were consequently sent my way.

I stumbled to press myself against the wall of the corridor, making myself as invisible as possible before a realisation hit me like a bolt of lightening.

He said not to cough forcefully.

I leant the back of my head to the cold surface and clenched my fists powerless, it was like a broke see-saw.
Nothing was ever going to be right.

I inhaled deeply through my nose, holding it for a sullen five seconds before deeply exhaling, releasing the tension.

If only that one motion wasn't such a temporary solution.

"Ava?" I froze, only realising that my eyes were squeezed tightly once my teacher's face was peering into mine in confusion.

I couldn't bring myself to utter any words, in the blink of time she'd seen a complete sudden side of me. It made me feel even worse, as she was near enough a stranger.

There was only one plea that I foolishly wished for, please don't ask how I am.

"Are you okay? What's going on?"

I trembled, those questioning words were the worst thing. I could easily push my problems away and deal with them in the dark, but when others envisioned them, it was near impossible to not accept the amount of suffering.

Sensing the rainfall, I covered my face with my palms, murmuring, "Please let me be alone."

I slid my body to connect with the ground, quickly camouflaging my face into my knees and letting the tears soak into my tights. I felt like shit.

They said that with the current scientific discoveries, I shouldn't struggle too much. So why was it becoming worse? Why was I still so secretly nervous about the question of waking up each day?

"Don't be stupid, I know when someone's crumbling."

I refused to let her see my face, but the words loitered on my tongue messily. "Why is it never okay? Why is there a constant threat? They tell me that it's going to be fine, but none of them are constantly struggling to breathe, let alone live!"

Miss Hernandez wasn't one to dictate the sympathy card, so when she pried away my hands from my face I almost felt my body loosen.

Her distressed face met mine, "I don't know what's going on in your life. Yet I sure as hell can see, you are your worst enemy."

I blinked in a daze, my eyes feeling dry as she continued, "Nobody experiences what you have, but that's the exact reason they make those statements. Everyone hopes that their small advice will build into a shred of motivation, each person is cheering you on."

Biting my lip, the flesh collapsed under my teeth, "What use is hope when the tormenting pain just misplaces it?"

"That's like asking why somebody lives, when they'll die at a point eventually," She shifted her weight beside me and chuckled lightly, "That's the inevitable circle of life."

"Why do we all just live?"

I almost felt like an idiot for the question, but the depth behind it was like the bottom of an iceberg.

"To experience what it's like. Living is an astounding thing when you do what you enjoy," My teacher continued, "Things like health, love and happiness are bound to be destroyed, but that's only in order to inspire us to reconstruct them."

"But why don't I feel inspired?" My voice whispered, almost in shame.

"Because you're all burnt out Ava," Miss Hernandez murmured, "It's about time that you start making yourself happy."

My voice was empty as meagre silence embedded us, and soon she stood up, sighing to herself, "Stop surviving. Start living."

~

"Ken," I breathed out in awe, "These are beautiful."

I held the smooth printing paper in my hands, gazing over his natural pieces.

Deep hues of amber penetrate the seamless blue sky, yellow scattering it apart and pink crackling into the atmosphere. An almost black skyline had been enhanced, just about giving viewers a chance to glimpse at the irregular shaped buildings.

Another focused on a simple spider web, distributing the patterned droplets of rain that were gently scattered. They should have been elusive, but the perfect rays of light refracted off their destinations, causing the drops to glow.

"Thanks," he smiled in embarrassment, "My Mum doesn't really get the chance to go out a lot, so a lot of the time I'm bringing her the outdoors from my photographs."

I softly nodded my head understandingly, not wanting to pry into his precious information, "How do you even take them?"

Running a hand through his black hair, Ken replied, "It's getting lucky. You just need to have the right moment and chance to see something aesthetic. Most of the time, it's about looking hard enough."

I nervously held the smooth black surface of my borrowed Canon camera. I personally wasn't an expert in knowing how to differentiate models, but I could tell this was quite professional.

"Alright everyone, before you leave I've got an announcement!" Our teacher, who I had never seen in my life before cleared his throat.

He looked young, with tousled brown hair and speckled freckles that perked underneath his black framed glasses.

"Mr Trayler." Ken murmured to me, recognising my faint curiousity.

I nodded my head before we both turned our heads and brought our attention to his words, "I'm bringing a competition to light, one that I want you to all enter just for some fun." He looked around and smiled to himself, "You'll be competing against other schools, but I'm honestly just looking for a chance to get to know you all better."

"He took over our last teacher, who retired." Ken whispered to me as I tried to understand why the teacher looked so familiar.

"I want you all to take some photos on the chosen theme, which is really just about your own views. The theme for the first round is 'Passion', which is obviously vague, so it could consist of anything. Be it hobbies, love, or even a pet, I look forward to see what you come up with."

Ken's hand was the only to shoot up, among the rest of the various members who were complete strangers, "Can we work collaboratively?"

"It only requires one person to take a photo," Mr Trayler raised his eyebrows but then smiled, "But if you want to combine photos for a portfolio, it's fine."

He flashed me a soft grin, "You in?"

As the rest of the students began emptying out of the room, I slung the camera around my neck and nodded my head, "I'll be relying on instinct, so don't expect anything amazing."

We walked out of the room before sending our teacher a smile, "Instinct is usually better."

"Zombie girl!" A loud voice cut through the air as I held onto my new camera protectively.

"Here comes lover boy, bye."

Before I had time to process Ken's words, he had walked towards the exit of the school; whilst I was peering at the tall figure appearing closer.

Deciphering Jesse's face, I flinched as he approached me. Warily, my eyes hovered over his Tennis attire. It fit him well, and if it wasn't for the words he spoke I might have found him attractive.

"You called?" I rolled my eyes.

He chuckled to himself and stepped closer, "I've got a request."

"You stink, and I don't want to share my deodorant."

"Ava," He smirked, "Sash has a drama recital in two days time, everyone else is busy so could you keep me company?"

"Me?" I crinkled my eyebrows, "Why don't you just grab any other girl in the universe?"

He foolishly smiled, "Don't want any of them, they're boring. Remember?"

I shook my head and thought about it to myself, I guess it wouldn't hurt. Plus, Sasha was really supportive of us all as a group. She was like the shepherd that herded us together.

"I'm not the epitome of interesting, but sure."

He pumped his fist in the air and triumphantly lit up, "One, Jesse. Nil, Ava."

A/N: Oh god guys, please pray my exams go well. Why are they so hard?😭

Ignoring my random outburst, I hope Ava and her teacher's conversation makes sense. I really like conversations about everyone's interpretations on life.

It's kind of predictable what shape is going to come next (hehe).

Baii! X