| Heart Beat, Part One 'Ghost of a Chance' will eventually be getting a re-write, but in the meantime I thought up this little plot and decided I'd give it a post and see if it was worth continuing. Everything about the girl was unique in the best of ways, she didn't even try and yet she was set so far apart from the others. For starters her eyes were a dusky shade of lavender, something that often caught the attention of others. These purple orbs seemed to light up whenever she'd laugh or smile and complimented her face perfectly. Another oddity is that she would almost always be seen eating peculiar little hard candies made out of green tea and ginseng.She'd respond that they gave her energy when asked and the teacher had politely recommended she not give any out. "They're hyper enough," She'd said "They don't need help." This had caused the little girl to laugh, a sweet little sound that usually caused smiles to spread around her. An unfortunate part of the girl's life was that another part of her was irregular as well; her heart. Just listening to it was enough to tell something was wrong, the beating was so soft and irregular. Dizzy spells and passing out weren't uncommon, but try as they might the doctors could not find the source of the problems. She was certainly head and shoulders above the crowd intellect-wise, and so she'd often confide in the teacher. "You can come to me for anything, Amaranth." The educator had assured her. She often took her up on that offer, talking about friends and love and the latest trends... But she'd always have a cardiac episode if she ever got too excited. It always caused the teacher to loose sleep whenever she'd been the cause, and she always tried as hard as she could to assure that there weren't any big surprises. She was the one to receive a big surprise when Amaranth came to her that afternoon. "I-is it odd..." Amaranth began, but she bit her lip and looked down. When she gathered her courage again, she looked up. "I-is it odd that I don't like boys?" The schoolteacher let out a gentle sigh and pulled out a chair for Amaranth, giving her a gentle smile. "Well, do you think it's odd?" The poor girl explained how the other girls would speak of boyfriends (despite not being near old enough for one). and how the other girls would sigh dreamily and talk about their futures while Amaranth herself would just yawn. The schoolteacher already had an idea of what this was about, but she didn't want to scare the girl or force any opinions and so she took things slowly. "If not boys, then what does interest you?" Amaranth once again bit her lip and looked frightened to speak but found her courage moments later. "Well... I-i like to look at skirts. T-they're so cute blowing in the breeze like that..." She trailed off, watching her teacher's reactions. Her suspicions had all but been confirmed, but the teacher gently pressed on. "Is it just the skirts, then? What about the girls wearing them?" Amaranth began to get a little color to her cheeks, her lavender eyes darting here and there, anywhere but her teacher's face. "They're cute too, I mean no, I mean..." She just shyly hung her head, looking to her teacher for guidance and help. She closed her eyes, and suddenly started to get a familiar strained look on her face. The teacher immediately sent a student to fetch the nurse and gently held Amaranth's hand while she suffered. The child gripped her teacher's hand. "S-so it's not strange?" She asked, waiting for her answer as the darkness edged in on her vision. "Not at all, sweetie." Came the answer, the teacher gently gripping her hand as she felt the girl go limp. The paramedics eventually arrived and assured she would be okay, but the rest of the day a silence hung over the class as it often did in cases like these. "No homework today, class..." The students had no answer and shuffled out to their buses... ----------- She looked so much more frail, so less vibrant with her hair a mess and wearing little more than a backless gown. Her teacher would always come to visit her during these times, a lot more than her parents could say. There were several little gifts from students, little parcels of candy, a blue rose tied with a white and red ribbon, and a whole host of other things. All the teacher had to offer the girl was a smile, but this seemed to be just enough as Amaranth's smile soon joined in as well. "So, anything exciting happen?" Prompted the teacher, trying to break the silence. Amaranth simply shrugged. "That red-head from a few grades lower seems to go to the graveyard a lot." She indicated the window, which had a slight view of the graveyard a few miles off. The talk turned to other things and soon enough it was just like one of their little chats at school. "You wore a skirt here..." Amaranth noted, surprised to see this as it was typical of the teacher to wear jeans. The teacher simply nodded and flushed slightly, smiling. True to her description, Amaranth's eyes seemed to be drawn to her teacher's skirt like a magnet, though it almost seemed like she was really trying to make out the appearance of something beneath it. "Little minx..." The teacher said with slight amusement when it dawned on her what the girl was trying to do, even if she didn't seem to notice it herself. She let Amaranth get her fill of 'looking at her skirt', though the girl's courage failed as it usually did and her pink-tinged cheeks and purple eyes met those of her teacher. "I-it's a very nice skirt..." |