III

She was having difficulty pulling his face from her mind. That thoughtful expression, the curious one and the confused one- having been given the chance to see them made her feel lucky. Of course, she'd paid for her café visit upon return home with a huge scolding from her mother, but she decided that it had certainly been worth it. Shoving a spoonful of granola in her mouth, Ib swung her legs in her chair as a smile came to capture her visage. For the first time, she considered returning two days in a row.

"As punishment for yesterday, you'll be staying home for the remainder of the week." Her mother's sharp voice broke through her state of satisfaction. "Where did you go yesterday?"

"...Just wandered," she replied with a frown. It was only Tuesday, meaning she'd been grounded till the end of the coming Sunday. Six days was a long time to stay inside, especially after how happy the previous day had made her. Their first proper interaction was short but sweet, and she wanted to experience a longer one soon.

With a sigh, the woman placed a steaming cup of breakfast tea in front of her daughter and hurried out of the room, calling back as she departed. "Make sure to wash and put away your dishes. And dry them properly this time!"

That was her least favourite chore. Resisting the urge to groan, she slid off her seat and brought her bowl to the sink, scrubbing,rinsing and drying it, and placing it in the upper cabinet with the help of the nearest kitchen chair. The teacup, now with added milk and sugar, accompanied her upstairs as Ib returned to her room. Stuck at home for the next week... How could she possibly keep herself entertained, alone for that long?

Taking a seat at her desk, she pressed down on the power button of her computer monitor. Maybe she'd received a much-awaited reply by this time. It had been nearly four days, after all. The internet browser took her straight to her email, an elated grin emerging upon her face as three new messages rolled in, one much more valuable than either of the others.

Dear Ib,

Mummy had me help her in the garden today. We planted black currents and gooseberries and raspberries and strawberries, as well as a bunch of flowers. We even planted red roses! I wanted the yellow ones, but Mummy said we could plant those next time. Living away from the city really is strange. I want to make new friends, but there aren't any people who live near us... School starts in ten days, 13 hours and 27 minutes! See, I'm already practicing for mathematics class! Daddy has to drive me every morning on his way to work since the school is so far away. Isn't that odd? I miss you lots!

Sincerely,

Mary

She could hardly help hearing her friend's bouncy voice echo through her mind as she read through it, picturing her long blond hair swaying elegantly from side to side with every slight movement made and every warm word spoken. Ib was grateful to finally hear from her after a few days of no reply to her previous message, but even so, reading Mary's letters left a pain in her chest. It was much shorter than the ones she'd been sending shortly after the move, and now instead of writing her at least one time per day, replies seemed to come later each time, as if the friendship wasn't much of a priority to her anymore. Of course, they lived so far from one another that the bond between them could weaken with time, but what was one year in comparison to the ten years they'd spent together? Ib did not want to think of herself as possessive, but she could hardly help wondering if her friend still cared as much as she about their friendship.

Hurriedly typing up a reply, she made certain to make it twice as large as the one Mary had sent, telling her of the fight with her mother and the conversation with Garry, as well as an exciting book she'd read a couple days earlier about time travel. She was slow with the keyboard and made mistakes often, but always went back over her letters to be sure to send them without any stray errors; emails usually took Ib quite a bit of time.

- x -

The week passed by at a snail's pace, with little for her to do but sleep, daydream and draw. As long as her studies showed progress, her mother encouraged her artistic hobbies, and since summer vacation was not yet over, no concern was shown regarding the girl's constant sketching. She enjoyed working with fruit and flowers, but also loved to draw cartoons. Tiny kittens with comical expressions covered her paper, some playing a variety of instruments while others sunbathed at the beach, oversized sunglasses covering their eyes as they napped away the day. Unfortunately, that sort of art wasn't something her mother liked to see. Ib never left those pages in her sketchbook, tearing them out only to crumple and toss them into the bin beneath her desk. Keeping her hobby a secret was hard, as she regularly resisted the urge to run up to her mother and show her the progress she felt that she'd made, but the one time she'd done so, a scolding had followed. 'A waste of paper, and a waste of your talent,' was what she'd said. It always fascinated Ib as to how adults could manage to weave an insult and a compliment into the same sentence.

As school was only four days or so away now, her mother had decided to shop for additional supplies. Though, it was hard for her to see the necessity in purchasing all new notebooks and pencils when the ones she had at home worked just fine, but both parties did not share the same view. School shopping was a yearly routine, whether the items bought were truly required or not.

The two of them wandered through the isles, Ib's mind elsewhere altogether as Garry's kind expression returned to her thoughts. Would she have to wait until the start of school to go back? It wasn't that long a wait, but she couldn't deny the thought of waiting even a few days put a bit of a pout to her lips. Their conversation, as brief as it had been, made her incredibly happy. To think that he'd taken some sort of interest in her brought a smile to her face. If they interacted a bit more, maybe they could become friends. The conclusion that she'd come to pleased her greatly. With Mary so far away, it would be smart to reach out a bit more to a few interesting people, Garry being at the top of her list.

"Isabella... Isabella...!"

Her mother's calls shook the girl from her daze, crimson-stained eyes rising to meet the other's irked expression.

"Stop daydreaming. I asked if you'd be needing a graphing calculator for mathematics this year."

In all honesty, Ib wasn't quite sure what that was. How was it any different from a regular calculator? She hesitated to ask and instead shook her head. If she didn't recognize its name, she probably wouldn't be needing it in her classes, right?

A huff of breath escaped the woman's lips as she motioned her daughter toward the checkout counter. Ib didn't even have to look over the amount of items filling the cart to know they'd bought too much, but again, she kept her mouth shut as the price they'd be paying continued to rise with every item swiped by the cashier. Going above a three-digit cost for school supplies was something she swore she'd never do for her daughter when she became a mother.

The rest of the evening had been spent writing her name and home phone number on the inside cover of every notebook, as well as placing exactly two of each writing instrument into a plain black pencil case. Her bag was officially packed three days before the start of her second year of middle school.

AN; I know I promised a much longer chapter but it didn't come out that much longer than the last orz... I saw that a few people took notice of the fic so thank you for reading ; v ;