Chapter 1: A Day No Different From The Other

Why is she so close yet so far away?

Sitting from afar, Oliver asked himself a rhetorical question.

Every day after the lunch bell rang, one can find Oliver sitting by the window of his empty classroom surveying the perimeter below him. The crisp morning air, the many students chatting and playing about on the school premises. Nothing was any different from what Oliver would see on any other day.

Just like the next guy, Oliver had a fairly average composition. He wore black glasses on his slightly tanned face and was tall for his age. With his wide brown eyes and his usual off-putting demeanor, he would style the school's uniform with a jacket over his shoulders.

With his hand on his face, his shoulder supporting the weight of his head, he tilted his head to see another view.

On the side away from all the normalcy, away from all chaos, is his friend Summer. Sitting ever so nonchalantly and unaware of time, she turned another page from the book she was reading.

Summer was a daint girl. She would keep a straight posture with her shoulder-length and scantily ruffled hair. With her skin's Caucasian complexion and her glistening green eyes, Summer's beauty was as magnificent as her remarkable academics, or at least it was to Oliver's distinction.

Oliver had known Summer since the early days of his elementary years. Ever since then, the two would be seen together doing all sorts of things. Only recently, however, the two had become slightly distant since the beginning of their 10th year.

"Hey, you coming?" Oliver's friend called out from the classroom door.

"Il be there in a moment."

---Moments Later---

The school's designated eating area was filled with its usual smells and disorder.

The appetizing aromas, the unintelligible conversations roaring in the background. From the stalls selling all sorts of foods ranging from the simplest of fruit to the most extravagant and expensive meal combos.

"What should we get?"

"I think I'm craving a pizza."

"Out of all the options here you go for pizza?" Oliver's friend, Miguel, scratched his head while he laughed.

Miguel was an old friend of Oliver. It wasn't uncommon for him to wear his uniform with a couple of buttons undone and would tend to carry himself in a gaily fashion. His skin was quite dark due to the many hours he would invest in sport. Known in the school to be carefree and golly, he would regularly wear a smile throughout the day.

Ever since Oliver got into the school, Miguel was the first to become acquainted with him.

"Yeah, why?"

As Oliver opened his mouth to add more to his question, his vision suddenly blurred as he now found himself falling backward onto the concrete floor.

---Later---

Underwater in darkness, Oliver slowly sank.

Fazed and disorganized, confused and disconcerted. The light above the surface was weak but present.

Opening his eyes further, Oliver noticed a glass window by his right side.

Inside he saw Summer avidly chatting with her entourage of friends surrounding her. It was silent but loud. His head made nonexistent sounds from the movement of Summer's mouth.

Soon enough, everything around Oliver turned monochrome. The once green and already gloomy and murky waters around him had been stained in black and white.

As he took note of the new changes, he turned his head once more to take a peek at the window.

Summer was no longer seated. Instead, she was now slowly approaching the glass window.

A bizarre sensation filled Oliver's spine. From his head to the tip of his toes, he began to regain color.

The blackness of his leather shoes, the brown shade of his khakis, and the pink tone of his fingernails.

As Summer was now just a few centimeters from the glass, the two looked at each other.

Their eyes meeting, Oliver's heartbeat quickening.

After a brief moment, Summer began to bang on the window; cracking slightly on every hit.

Each hit brought a wave of force, Oliver's body was now back to full color.

On Summer's 10th strike, the glass shattered as water rushed into the cafeteria.

---A Few Moments Later---

Oliver reopened his eyes again; this time, instead of the water, he now felt the softness of a bed and the warm touch of someone's hand.

"Hey, you okay?" A familiar voice worryingly asked.

The sounds of clamor attack Oliver's currently sensitive ears. The ringing of a telephone, the volume of the afternoon programming, people working. Oliver was inside the school clinic.

"Summer?"

As Oliver attempted to stand, he mistakenly grabbed Summer's hand. His vertigo still existent, he pulled Summer close to his face without realizing it.

Her full red lips immensely close, her eyes and the complexity of her face one would only see at this range of proximity displayed right in front of him. His mind was still out of place.

"Alright you two, that's enough flirting for today." Miguel entered the area.

Summer pulled away. "I wasn't doing anything!"

Without speaking or any further movement, Oliver fell asleep.

---After Class---

As the final bell rang, we find Oliver and Summer casually walking down the loud and energetic hallways of a recently dismissed Angelo Laurel High School. Just as they were about to exit the campus, Oliver offered to carry Summer's bag.

Why is he so close yet so far away?

Summer questioned herself as she is caught inattentively gazing at our male protagonist.

The dusty pavement, the lukewarm afternoon air. Confined in the present circumstance, the atmosphere relaxes.

Each step she took, the less she processed her movement. As her mind wandered away, the world began to change. While the two might be in the same world, Summer set about into a different reality.

Unexplainably, the terrain around her began to crumble, leaving no trace of the old world but the two of our characters in a room of nothing but bright clean white.

The air shifted to a chilly breeze, the ground turned into a neutral colorless floor.

Before any words of confusion or panic could leave the mouth of our heroine, Oliver turned around and swiftly grabbed her hand with the same force he used at the clinic.

White rosy petals began to fall out of the sky. Light coming from a sun that wasn't present, highlighting the falling floral leaves. Summer's cheeks heated up as quick as her heartbeat paced. Vivid flashbacks raced through her mind as if it were instinct.

---9 Years Ago---

Head down, crouched in the backroom stage, Summer wept.

To much of her dismay, she had been assigned a speaking role in a school event.

As the lights flashed from the stage, her eyes sparkled as more tears of anxiety fled her face.

More and more people entered and left the stage, the voices of cheer and applause blaring in the background. It was apparent that Summer was not ready.

In all her fear and unease, she re-read her paper as she prepared herself for battle.

A mysterious figure reached his hand out. "Hey, you must be my partner. Let's go?"

As expected from much prior briefing, Summer had a partner. From the looks of things, that person seemed to be the one standing in front of her.

Standing on stage, the person raised his voice as Summer stood back.

The flashing cameras and the mesmerized audience, all made the figure look even grander as he relayed his lines.

Not long after, he had spoken the last word to his part.

"After this, let's talk at lunch. Good luck." He whispered to Summer's ear.

With that, she stepped forward.

---Present---

As the flashback abruptly ends, she now found herself feeling the same thing she did all those years ago.

The lights, the speeding of her heartbeat.

With a sense of determination in Oliver's eyes, he gently raised her chin to the height of his lips.