Tuesday|

My feet hit the gravel-strewn pavements lightly, lifting off as soon as they touched down, like a bird on the back of the wind, swooping low then gliding high above the trees. A bird that caught a glimpse of the army of white bullets that threatened to kill those who had never done them a wrong.

How foolish of me to throw my hurt at blameless snowflakes. After all, they were only acting upon the direction of the merciless winds. The winds that thrashed so wildly that night I couldn't even see five feet ahead of me..nor the horrors of the deadly avalanche. Dante did see, though. And he hasn't been able to erase any of it for the entirety of the month.

In some sense, he had it better than Mom and I. At the very least, he knew what happened to Dad, how the snow caressed him into its deathly embrace, swallowing him into its frosty depths..I would never have a mental frame of how Dad left. And this scared me more. In my mind, the never-ending possibilities of how Dad was taken by the storm thrust out all peace I fought so hard to garner; my flurry of emotions, the feelings of despair, longing, hatred, denial, often came flooding in, threatening to tear my mind apart. Sometimes I caught myself gasping for air in the dead middle of the night, my cheeks wet with tears I had not known were shed. All this, while tolerating the stifling, superficial, self-preserving city that I lived in. It disgusted me as much as avalanches did, and bearing with the two proved to rip up one's sanity from the inside.

Thankfully, I found someone who cared. Someone, who although fought her own battles daily, still found in herself the strength to care for others, to love.

To remember me.

In the midst of the turmoil wreaking havoc in my head, I managed a weak grin, picturing Kylar and me on my porch steps like last night, except that we would be happy together, without the weight of my grievances on both of us. It was about time I took some of her burdens upon my shoulders - I wanted to do anything in my capacity to help her feel better.

My feet continued hitting against the ground, but the gravel had cleared up here and made a slight 'click' sound each time the pavement met my shoes. As I strolled through the school gates, I caught sight of Sophie, Jason and their bunch of friends hanging out by the benches.

"Hey Alistair!" Sophie's characteristic happy-go-lucky vibe shone about her as she waved a hand at me, beckoning for me to go over.

"Hey Sophie. Hi Jason." I shook myself out of my rumination, making my way towards them.

By then, I had grown acquainted with Sophie and Jason's friends. We talked for a bit, but I didn't feel very much like I was part of them. Only Sophie and Jason felt like people I would call friends, and things were probably going to stay that way for some time.

"Yeah so as I was saying I'm probably gonna flunk my Literature Assignment," Sophie continued from where the conversation with her friends ended, probably abruptly, when she waved me over.

Lit assignment?

"Yea..?" Sophie shot me a look of surprise, mirroring my shock from realising that I had thought out loud for the second time, but more so because I completely forgot about my Lit Assignment.

"Literature starts in 20 minutes you still have time to do this! Come I'll help you!" Sophie grabbed my arm, pulling me towards the library before I could even register what was happening. I seriously doubted I'd even come close to a half completed project.

We quickly settled at the nearest table we could find, and I tugged my assignment papers out of my bag. To my surprise, she did the same, just that hers were full of ink while mine a crisp, clean slate.

For the first part, we were supposed to do a character analysis and breakdown of either the fox or prince from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This was easy, since I had practically read the book inside out. The second part, though, was a whole lot trickier. We had to draw the character we analysed, its features communicating the character traits we picked out in the first part of the assignment. It certainly didn't help that I couldn't draw to save my life. Staring at the worksheet set before me, a wave of despair flooded through me. What was I going to do?

Sophie looked at me, scrutinising my flustered face in a manner I could only describe as..concern. Then, she passed me her completed assignment, which looked like the result of a ton of research.

"Here. You can copy mine. Just, not word for word so we won't get into trouble," her voice sounded downcast, like she had just given away something too precious. She took pride in the work that she did, and it didn't feel right to just rip off her hard work, no matter how pressed for time I was.

"It's okay Sophie, thanks so much for offering. I know the book pretty well so I can do it on my own," I replied her reassuringly, before getting on with frantically scribbling characteristics of the prince.

Caring.
Understands the important things in life.
Despondent.
Upset about the way the world is.
Knows how to love.

After finishing my list, I wound up with slightly over 5 minutes to complete my sketch. I was doomed.

Exasperated, I picked up my pencil and made a feeble attempt at sketching the little prince, without even managing to infuse his characteristics into his features. It was clear I would need more than those few minutes I had if I wanted to pass this assignment.

"Come, I'll help you with it," Sophie offered, moving a few inches closer. "Okay, let's keep the hair, its tousled nature reflects his despondence and unhappiness with life which you penned down. Here, change his frown to a softer one, so he looks less severe."

Holding my hand gently yet firmly in hers, she guided my pencil across the paper, swirling and lining the little prince's features. I stared with awe as she continued with guiding my hand to form the prince's forlorn cape, clothes and weathered shoes.

"There, done! How d'you find it?" Sophie turned her head in a swift motion, her curly locks brushing against my shoulder. Up close, I saw that her eyes were blue too, just like Kylar's.

"It..it's amazing. Thank you so much Sophie, I couldn't have done it without you," I replied, suddenly growing aware of our close proximity. And my hand in hers.

"You're welcome. I'd do this for you anyday," Sophie's eyes drifted over to my lips, and I felt my eyes widen in shock. She lifted her left hand and carefully brushed a lock of fringe out of my eye. "Now you can see better."
The corners of her eyes crinkled slightly as she broke into a sweet smile, and I couldn't help but smile back. How could I, when her smile reminded me so much of Kylar's?