"So what exactly are we looking for here? Laya said as we took our second lap around the running ground.
"I am not really sure," I said. The ground is concrete, so you cannot make patterns using the soil.
What is that supposed to mean? I am hungry. When will we get out of here? Laya whined.
"Fine, let's go. There is nothing over here anyway."
"What were you even expecting to see?" Laya said as we walked towards the exit.
"I'll tell you when we reach the cafe," I said and dragged her out.
The place Laya was talking about was more of a stand than a cafe. Only the main store was under a shed. A small number of chairs were arranged around it. We went to the "cafe" and placed our order. It was not long, but the scorching sun made it feel like an eternity. The "cafe guy" Gave us our order, and we sat down in front of the stand.
"So this is what I was talking about," I said, after taking a sip of my drink. I reached into my bag and took my notebook out, where I scribbled the patterns. I took the page out and handed it over to Laya. She looked at the patterns while sipping her drink.
"What is this supposed to be? A new code language for us?" She said.
"No, these are the patterns that I saw forming on the running grounds," I said, whispering.
"Huh, I knew your imagination was strong, but to see the things you made up...Tell me honestly, do you need a specialist?" She said as a joke.
"I am telling the truth. I saw them with my own eyes. The odd thing is no one was making those marks, they appeared on their own, then disappeared and then reappeared again," I said while lowering my voice as a couple passed by us.
Laya looked at me with bewilderment. She does not believe me. No one would. It sounds like a daydream even to me.
"I am not sure whether you are for real or not. Maybe we can come back to that afterwards. Maybe go back to school and check out the grounds again, to put your mind at ease." Laya said with concern in her voice.
"Look, you have to believe me. I don't have proof, but I can narrate the whole incident in great detail to you." I said.
Laya again looked at the notebook. Her expression says that random Patterns do not appear just out of nowhere.
"Then again, they don't look like anything I have seen before. Well, how about we look it up in the library?" She said while looking at me, waiting for an answer.
"I don't think we will find anything there, but we can give it a try," I said while taking another sip of my drink. I took the notebook from her and put it back in my bag. "You know, maybe it was wind carrying twigs and leaves, and a bored brain made something out of it," I said while zipping my bag.
Laya snorted at this. "Who are you trying to fool? I know you. When that brain of yours is bored, it makes things like Yaan or debate papers. Look, it is hard to believe something like that. But I will take your words over logic. I don't know what those patterns mean, and probably nobody on our humble planet does. But I will tell you something that might interest you more than those patterns." She leaned towards me, and so did I. "Last night, Dad came home very late, and Mom asked for an explanation. She was angry at him because she thought he had gone drinking again with his buddies. So to de-escalate the situation, he let out the truth that he was not supposed to say to anyone. A delegation of highly important people is coming from outer space. A very important meeting for our planet's position in the alliance." She said with excitement and even a fainter voice than mine.
"Alliance? What kind of?" I asked, taking an interest in her gossip.
"That I don't know, but I can tell you that it is not with ones that came before," She said. "Anyways, I'd better keep going or my mother would kill me for being late. We will talk about the patterns later," She patted my back, swung her bag over her shoulder and threw her empty glass in the bin and made a run for it.
I kept looking at her with a confused face. Just a minute ago, she was so relaxed and behaved as if she had all the time in the world.
What happened to her so suddenly that she had to leave? I might not know about her mother so much, but she never scolds her for being late.
Then I remembered something, and it suddenly dawned on me. That witch Laya. She was waiting for the perfect time to run away so she didn't have to pay the bill, that's why, in the first place, she suggested it.
I gave an awkward smile to the owner, put the money on the counter with a heavy heart. Laya, you witch, you are not going to be alive for long. I gritted my teeth.
Soon after that unforgetful incident I reached home, went straight to my room, put my bag down and just as I was going to lie down on the bed, I heard a voice, a voice that every being is afraid of, a voice that fills every single being with the sense of danger that to protect themselves they come in a defensive position, no matter how tired they were just a second ago.
"CLOOOOOVYYYYYYY, come down right this instant."
It was my mother's voice. This tone of hers means just one thing: danger. With a lot of courage, I replied. "C-Cooomming Mm-Mom." "Clovy Claws, what did you do this time?" I murmured to myself.
"Maybe you didn't do anything, that's why." A robotic voice came.
I turned around and narrowed my eyes, and saw Yaan smirking. "I will deal with you later," I said in an annoyed and low voice so that Mum couldn't hear what I said.
Taking a deep breath, I started going down the stairs and started calculating all the possibilities. Maybe Ms. Maki called and told Mum everything that happened today, but why would she call for such a trivial thing? Then again, we are talking about Maki; she can do anything to put me into trouble.
I cautiously entered the room and saw Mum sitting on the dining table with her palm on her forehead, which was a sign of a bigger danger. There were three small packets in front of her, and by the looks of them, they contained seeds of different plants.
" YU--You called Mom," I said in a bit frightened voice.
She looked at me with a face that clearly showed that she was annoyed. "What took you so long?" Then she started inspecting me from top to bottom. "Why are you still in your school uniform?" She said in a pissed voice. I looked down at myself and closed my eyes with an expression that said I MESSED UP BIG TIME. "I was about..."
"OOH! Stop this, I know you. You were going to sleep right away after coming from school. Well, after all, what else do you have to do? You think your mother is your servant and she will do whatever you say, even changing your clothes for you, right?" She said in an angry voice. "It's not like....."
"Anyway, go back to your room this instant and change into another pair of clothes and help in the garden for a change." She said in a cold voice.
"O-OK," I said in a low voice and started going back to my room.
The way there were seeds on the dining table and the way she mentioned the garden, you see, I think I have a brief idea of why my mother is so angry.
MUM loves gardening, and before the start of the LIZ month, she asks my father to make arrangements, so her precious plants don't die when she won't be with them, and I think my father forgot to do that.
Now she had to finish all the arrangements on her own while stockpiling everything we needed in two days before the first rain hit, which also meant there was going to be a war in our house today. And dad has to sleep on the couch tonight.
I didn't expect my holidays to start like this.
To be continued-