KAYLA'S POV:
(childhood flashback)
I was sitting at the bus stop.
It was raining heavily.
I didn't feel anything. I had already felt so much pain in life that I had become numb. The sky looked exactly like my life, covered in darkness, as if the sun would never shine again.
I was lost in thought.
My eyes were fixed on my hands.
Then suddenly… I realized the rain wasn't falling on me anymore.
I looked up.
An innocent boy was standing there, holding an umbrella above my head. His small hands were trembling slightly from the cold, but his eyes were warm.
"You'll get sick… take this…"
He handed me the umbrella.
"You don't have another one… then how will you go without this?" I asked, expression blank.
"I'm wearing a raincoat. Don't worry."
And before I could say anything else, he ran away, covering his head with his hands.
That day, something strange happened in my heart.
It was like my cold, frozen heart started beating for the first time…
Like warmth existed for the first time in my life.
A few days later, I joined a boarding school after my orphanage got so annoyed by me and send me here.
He was in the same class as me. Grade two.
One day I was eating my lunch alone when he came and sat beside me. No one ever dared to sit with me. They all thought I was weird. Different. Scary.
But he did.
My heart started beating fast.
He stretched his hand forward to introduce himself… but I stood up and walked away without saying anything.
I didn't want friends.
Life had never given me the chance to be normal… to have friends like other kids. So now, when someone tried, it felt strange. Uncomfortable. I didn't want to accept it.
The next day, I was walking in the hallway when suddenly I felt something drop onto my hoodie cap.
I turned.
A huge spider.
My eyes widened in shock. I was about to scream when a voice came from behind me.
"Shhh… don't move."
It was him.
He stepped closer carefully, removed the spider, and threw it away.
"Are you okay…?"
I nodded… and walked away.
The next day, I was sitting on the last bench in class. No one ever sat with me.
He sat beside me.
I ignored him.
During lunch break, he suddenly ran away after placing flowers on my desk with a note.
I raised an eyebrow and picked it up.
"Can we be friends? :)"
I rolled my eyes, wrote a reply, and placed it on his side.
When he returned after lunch and opened it, it said:
"No."
His face fell slightly. He wrote something back and slid it toward me.
"Okay :("
I rolled my eyes again… but for some reason, my chest felt tight.
A few days later, I was drawing in class when the teacher noticed I wasn't paying attention.
"Kayla! What is this behavior? Why aren't you paying attention? Why can't you be like your classmates? Look at yourself! Your shoes are untied, your uniform is dirty, and your hair is messy like it's never been combed!"
I looked down.
What could I even say?
She was probably right. I didn't even care enough to wash my face in the morning.
The next day, when I opened my locker…
My eyes widened in shock.
There were clean shoes.
A clean uniform.
Even a new toothbrush… because I had lost my previous one.
Who knew that?
Who did this?