"Come on Colfield! Move them legs you still have 2 more laps!" 

My lungs felt like they were on fire. My breathing became ragged and my throat was dry. All I could taste was the bitterness of the flem forming in my mouth and sweat as my lungs fought to function. My legs were weak and achy I could hardly maintain good posture while sweat, like little droplets of rain water, rolled down my forehead and off my face like a waterfall. 

I was keeping up, but just barely.

To my right, Axel was looking just as tired as me as were the rest of the boys but I guess that's to be expected when you have a 10 lap non-stop jog to power through. That was our coach for you, always pushing us to our limits to reach the best of our abilities or as I like to put it, straight up torture. 

My fingers were slowly turning numb with frostbite and I couldn't feel my legs anymore as we turned the bend. Approaching the last lap I mentally middle fingered our so called coach as I passed by him. He was sitting on a chair, whistle in hand shouting at anyone who happened to fall even a little behind. Yet there he was snug as a bug in his winter coat and coffee trying to shout at us for not working hard enough under the horrible winter conditions and sub-zero temperatures. 

"That's it! Move it Move it, this is your last lap boys make it count!"

"Oh, Fuck off, you and you're bloody whistle." I don't know which one of us said it, but someone muttered under their breath causing a small amount of laughter between us. 

A minute later I crossed the finish line practically throwing myself on the gravel. Axel followed me seconds later with a small grunt of triumph. 

"W-we... made... it..?" he huffed. 

"I can't... believe... it either," I replied. "I thought I was gonna die!"

"Alright! Good work kids, that's it for the day go wash up!" Coached barked. 

I don't think such sweeter words have ever been spoken in a P.E lesson. 

On my way back I could see the girls just about rounding up their lesson too so I told Axel to go on ahead. Looking down over the hill I could just about make out a small black girl in shorts and t-shirt. She was carrying a piece of equipment with her and making her way up the hill. I walked down. 

When I reached her her chest was rising and falling rapidly while she tried dragging a bag full of balls up the hill. She was struggling I could tell and who could blame her, the bags probably weighed more than her. 

 "Need a hand?" I panted, still slightly out of breath from the whole running thing. Then I reached my hand out to her.

She looked up at me as if considering if trusting me was a good idea before responding with "Yeah, that would be great, thanks," and grabbing my hand as I helped her up the rest of the way.

"No problem," I said picking one of the huge bags and slinging it over my shoulder when we finally got to the top. I glanced over at Aria and noticed her hair was in a different style from the day before. It suited her. But I kept my opinion to myself.

We made our way to the equipment cupboard handing the bags over to the teacher waiting there. "I saw you guys out on the track. It looked rough." She said suddenly as we entered inside. "You ok?"

"Yeah, it wasn't as bad as it looked, trust me." I shrugged it off acting as cool about it as I could "Coach has made us do worse."

"You can get worse than that?" she frowned.

"Summer. Last year. 1500 metres. It was boiling there was no wind. No breaks either, just non-stop jogging for the whole lesson."

Aria's breath had returned to her now and wiping any remaining sweat from her forehead she exhaled. "Wow... You coach sounds like-"

"A bastard? A tyrant? Satanic? An evil son of a bitch?" I spat. I wasn't lying, He was all of those things and more.

"Not the words I was going for but something like that yeah." We both laughed.

Talking like we just had, we both entered through the automatic doors leading from the outside back to the changing rooms. Well, I say automatic, but in reality, the worn out looking twin doors had been faulty for as long as I could remember and took forever to actually open.

Smiling as we left both of us went into our sperate changing rooms which was where I met up with Axel again shirtless and looking very pale. Slumping myself down next to him I sluggishly started to undress too. 

"Where'd you run off to then?" he said immediately I sat down. 

"To help, some of the girls needed help carrying stuff to the cupboard," I replied taking off my Adidas shorts. Half of me wanted to tell him I was with Aria, but after yesterday's episode, I didn't want to in case he started all the crap he did on the way home. Knowing him and his loud mouth the other kids would hear. Not good, especially since James was in our class, and I really wasn't in the mood to be dealing with him, not after the hell I was just put through on the track. 

"So you were with Aria then?"

Welp, so much for concealing it. 

"Maybe," I replied. 

"Thought so. You can tell me you know, I won't embarrass you while the rest of the guys are here. Man, if I don't up my game she might end up taking you from me." That made me laugh.

"Don't worry your pretty little head Axel she's only a friend," I drew emphasis on the friend part. "She was struggling out there. The bag she was carrying looked like it weighed more than her I was only doing what any other person would have done." I finished changing by now and ran my fingers through my hair to fix it up a little before grabbing the rest of my stuff. 

"OK, Cassanova," Axel, while picking up the rest of his stuff, gave me a hard slap on the back which pretty much knocked the wind out of me. 

***

A bell ring later and I was walking down the student reception hallway. It was packed tightly like a can of sardines but it was nothing I wasn't used to. The school corridors weren't at all that thick, especially near the English department which I was steadily approaching. It wasn't uncommon to have huge blockages in the halls.

I'd already told Axel, in the best apologetic tone I could muster, that he was gonna need to go to lunch on his own since I was going to find Aria again. I had an sudden idea for our project and wanted to get her opinion. The problem was finding her.

But if there was one thing I knew about Aria Furthermal it was that she practically lived inside our school library. If I ever did see her it was when she was on her way to, leaving or in the library.

I rarely ever went to the library so I almost forgot where it was, but it wasn't long before I found it next to the English department. Our library wasn't that big compared to other secondary schools, but it was big enough, with it being the size of a classroom give or take.

As I came in I was greeted by the reception desk which had the librarian clicking away at the computer and the Aula the dog gently napping over in the corner. Yes, Aula the dog. The school library was probably the very few libraries that had its very own mascot. The librarian, Miss Baker, had some sort of problem with her eyes which made it that she couldn't see very well, and though she never went into much detail about it, it was serious enough for her to have her own guide dog. People didn't really seem to mind the furry addition to the library staff, I'm pretty sure people started to go to the library more because of it, seeing as Miss Baker didn't mind if people stroked her dog.

Over in the far corner of the room I saw her, sitting at a small table near a row of books. She was reading, what looked like an old book - just like I'd predicted.

I made my way over stopping a few feet away just to see if she'd notice me coming. She didn't. Whatever she was reading seemed to have really gripped her.

I sat down. She still didn't notice me.  Now that I was a little closer I could see the book she was so lost in. Dork Diaries?

"I didn't know you liked those types of books." I blurted out causing her to jump a little in her seat which made me laugh, though I tried to hide it.

"Oh, it's just you," she replied somewhat relieved.

"Yeah, just me." I parroted plonking myself down next to her. "Were you hoping for someone else?" 

"Oh, no. I mean who would  I be expecting anyway." She sighed while her hand went to her lap. "I'm glad you're here." She half smiled, if such a thing was possible, and we both sort of sat in silence, which for some reason didn't feel awkward, more like we were both thinking. Regarding each other.

"So, Dork Diaries?" I eventually pipped up. "I didn't peg you for the stereotypical high school drama novel type of girl." Pointing to the small hardback in her right hand I rested my chin on my knuckles. 

Her eyes followed mine to the book in her hand and she kind of jumped a little, like the book had just magically appeared there. "Oh, this? I just read these for fun, I don't actually really like them. Well, I do but it's sorta embarrassing admitting I like these."

"No. Embarrassing is having read the whole series and being actually able to recite every word of every book plus the spin-off movie." I grimaced , half wishing I could take that back. 

"No... You?"

"No, correction, my sister. She's obsessed with them too. Made me read them to her as bedtime stories when she was little and for her birthday, we watched the movie based off of it. 90 agonising minutes." Raising my head I looked Aria dead in the face. "It's Ok you have permission to laugh."

Just like that, it was like a switch had been flicked, Aria started snickering really loudly, so much so she had to cover her mouth to contain it since we were still in the library. She had dimples which made her look a lot like a baby when she laughed though they were half covered by her hand. Once she'd calmed down enough to speak to again she wiped her eyes and gave me an apologetic look. 

"I'm sorry," she said still giggling slightly. "It probably wasn't that funny. But your sister sure sounds like a handful." 

Groaning inwardly I half smiled at the memory ."She is, trust me on that. See, if anyone around here should be ashamed it's me."

"Well, you're not wrong. Anyway, what brings you here, I mean, apart from your clear love of cliche romances." She questioned.

"I was waiting for you to ask me that. It's about our art project. I know we only got it assigned yesterday but I thought we could start it now if you want." I said rubbing the back of my neck

"What, you mean now, now?"

"Mmm hmm." 

"I guess so... though I'm not sure what could get done in the time left..."

"Oh, I wasn't planning on doing any actual work," I said. Looking outside I could see it had started to snow. Perfect. 

"I'm confused..." Aria said tilting her head to the side a little.

I grinned, "Follow me, Aria," I said and then, without thinking, I grabbed her hand. 

***

A/N - If you're reading this, thank you for sticking with this book so far. I know it's not exactly amazing and my uploads are all over the place but I do enjoy what I do and it makes me happy knowing other people enjoy it too

Xoxo - Olux75