October 25, 1999 — Outskirts of Eva — Zone 47
The light and continuous wind that sways the treetops brings with it dark clouds, indicating that today the king star will not take its stage.
Sarah is leaving home wearing an entirely gray shirt.
Already at the gate of the house, she hears her mother calling her.
"Hey! Aren't you going to take an umbrella? Also, don't you want me or your father to take you?"
"No, he needs to sleep. He stayed up late happy about the match."
"Ahhh... just remembering what that man played last night..."
After a moment of sighing, Leila resumes.
"Then let me take you!"
"Aren't you going to travel? You can't be late! Just grab the umbrella, I'll walk." Sarah finishes her line looking at the cloudy sky.
Leila watches her with admiration. "Just a moment!" She runs inside.
In the meantime that she goes in, Sarah sits on the sidewalk and closes her eyes to cease all visual stimuli. The wind that surrounds the place has increased in intensity since she opened the balcony door earlier.
Something hitting her head interrupts the moment.
Looking above her head and back, her mother with a silly smile appears.
"The biggest one? Seriously?" Sarah grumbles lightly, takes the umbrella and gives her mother a kiss on the cheek.
At that moment Leila rests her forehead against Sarah's and closes her eyes.
"Daughter, never forget! It does not matter who you are..."
"...but who you want to be!" Sarah completes the sentence. "I will not forget." A closed-mouth smile appears naturally. "Have a good trip, mom!"
"Take care at school, okay?"
"You can count on it." Sarah is already on the sidewalk walking. She turns and makes a quick teasing face while sticking out her tongue. She turns again and continues on her way.
Leila is caught off guard and is left without reaction, but soon smiles again and goes back inside.
On the way to school, the wind intensifies. Above, the clouds begin to darken the sky more and more. Everything seems about to collapse. Sarah quickens her steps and prepares to cross a street.
When she steps on the asphalt.
A black butterfly with red glowing spots almost collides with her face. In a movement of pure reaction, she manages to dodge to the side.
At that moment she stops and watches the butterfly continue its path. More being carried by the wind than actually flying freely.
The butterfly appears to fly slowly from Sarah's perspective, until it disappears behind a gray wall.
Not that the butterfly was not fast. But in that small bubble of time that Sarah entered for a brief moment, the butterfly was flapping its wings as if it were in slow motion.
As it disappears, everything returns to normal, and the first drops of water fall, colliding against the asphalt.
The school gate is right there, one block away. Sarah notices that Marcela has just arrived and is getting out of a car.
Quickening her steps, she manages to approach the car window before it leaves. With two quick knocks on the glass, she is noticed.
"Hi Sarah, how are you?"
He gives a slight smile while finishing lowering the window.
"I'm good. Did my mom call you?"
"She did, if it's raining a lot I'll give you a ride. You can relax."
"Thank you, see you!"
She speeds up her pace again, as she begins to feel the rain getting heavier. When she reaches Marcela in the courtyard, she already arrives poking the side of her stomach with the umbrella. Marcela jumps to the side placing her hand where she was hit, looking startled to the side.
She quickly drops the tense expression and lets out a sigh.
"Of course it could only be you. I don't even know why I still get scared, ugh." She suddenly makes a face of pain.
"Oh, come on! It didn't even hurt!" Sarah minimizes Marcela's reaction.
"Oh really? Come here!" Then Marcela dashes after Sarah who runs toward the cafeteria.
"Ouch ouch ouch, protect me, she wants to hit me!" Sarah hides behind Bernardo who is sitting on a bench, eating a piece of bread and drinking chocolate milk.
Silence.
Bernardo looks at Marcela and then at Sarah.
"The one who least needs protection here is you!" He tries to hide his laughter.
Sarah gives him a shove on the back of the head and sits on the bench beside him.
"Not funny." She mutters quietly.
Marcela sits on a bench in front of Bernardo while catching her breath.
"Let me tell you… if it's raining when class ends, your dad will give me a ride home, then I'll ask for you to stay there with me. Because my dad will be working, and my mom will travel at noon. Just so I won't be alone, you know."
Sarah explains her elaborate plan to Marcela. Bernardo just listens.
"But you always stay alone. I think he won't allow it." Marcela shows concern about the plan.
"Wait, I'm not done... then in the afternoon, around two, Bernardo goes to my house." Sarah furrows her brow and silently makes a slight pout while casting looks at Bernardo and then at Marcela.
"Interesting... I like it. What time does your dad come back?" Bernardo speaks after giving a last look at the now empty mug.
"He only comes back at night, but her dad comes to pick her up in the afternoon I think." Sarah answers while turning her eyes to Marcela.
"But I can ask him to let me sleep at your house, what do you think?"
"Perfect! Then you can try to sneak out at night, you know." Sarah throws these words at Bernardo and gives him a light poke with her finger on his stomach, which makes him shrink to the side in a failed attempt to dodge.
"Ouch! Wait! I have to check with my mom, I'm already going to be out all afternoon, if she doesn't mind. By the way, what time does your dad usually go to sleep?"
"He gets home tired around nine. Always at the same time. Takes a shower, has dinner and goes to bed usually around ten."
"Look, my mom wakes up early to clean the streets, so she sleeps very early. She'll already be snoring by then. I think we can sneak out."
"Deal then! Now let's go to class, because there is a Hunters' Guild test and I didn't study anything thinking I was free from the theory." Sarah gets lost looking at the floor as she speaks.
"Yeah right... I know. You never study and always do well on tests." Marcela accuses her.
"As a future Shadow Hunter, this test will be easy!" Bernardo boasts while remaining calm.
"I already told you, didn't I? The secret is to pay attention in class. Teachers rarely charge homework content. I always say that."
Sarah is already getting up and pulling the two forward toward the classroom.
A black cloak as dense as darkness itself is the first thing everyone notices when the guild woman arrives with the tests.
Sarah is the first to finish.
Another teacher comes, and then another. And so the morning quickly passes. Meanwhile, the rain continues pouring outside.