Storm clouds began to roll in as I raced toward the park. My heart was beating quickly, almost as if it were trying to escape my chest. Sweat was starting to drip down the sides of my face despite the incoming winds. And to top it off, I was beyond out of breath and wanted to collapse. The only thing on my mind that kept me going was Cocoa and if she’d be at our spot in the park or not.
My luck ran short when I got there and she was nowhere to be seen. The only things there were the flowers and the trees overhead, storm clouds looming within the center of them menacingly.

 

Looking down at the ground I saw drips of water and thought it was beginning rain. Only soon after did I realize it was my tears, and that I was crying. Not being with Cocoa was hurting me on the inside. For three years I knew exactly where she was, all day, every day. We’d talk day in and day out about the strangest of things. But now I didn’t know where she was or what she was doing. It felt like a part of me was missing… An important part that I took for granted.

With nothing else to do, I walked toward the center of the field and decided to sit down, knees pulled to my chest, arms wrapped around them.

 

“Mom… Dad… Where could she be?” I whisper, sobbing as rain started to pour down from above me.

 

After sitting and crying in the rain for several minutes, I decided it was time to give up and head back home. If she wasn’t here, at the hot chocolate shop or at school, I wasn’t going to find her today.

 

“My gosh, Miss Dadalian! You’re soaking wet!” Tipsy calls from across the room, grabbing me a towel.

 

“Sorry, I wanted to be alone for a bit, and the park was my best bet. It’s weird that we got rain though…!”

 

I stopped short, immediately remembering the abnormal weather patterns. Without a second thought, I go for the remote and flip on the weather channel to see if it was the same as that one week before.

 

“We now bring you “on the spot” weather for your location, where daily weather reports are kept track of.”

 

The screen switches to a weatherman in a yellow raincoat in what appears to be somewhere in town. I didn’t recognize the location.

 

“More rain passes through Hitomi,” he says loudly over the wind and rain,“only unlike the times before we’re able to track this one. It has already passed through several cities before Hitomi and seems to be continuing NW for the next few hours. We’ve heard reports of possible thunder and lightning, so we advise little use of electronic devices during the next 2-4 hours. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

 

Just as he finished a bolt of lightning flashed outside the window, soon followed by thunder. That told me it wasn’t too far off from Hitomi. I turned the TV off.

 

“So they’re able to trace it this time…” I put my hand under my chin and begin thinking.

 

“Is something wrong, Miss Dadalian?”

 

“Hm?” I look up and see Tipsy staring at me. “No, nothing’s wrong,” I tell her then turn toward the window.

 

”Do you remember the weather before during that one week and how it rained yet it was barely traceable by any weather network? It was centered on Hitomi. But this time they’ve got readings and are able to follow a pattern that doesn’t center on Hitomi. It doesn’t make sense…”

 

“That does sound strange. Perhaps it was just some abnormal pattern? Weather in Hitomi fluctuates differently from weather around us. Remember last year’s heat then cold wave?”

 

Maybe Tipsy was right, maybe I was just overthinking this. Before I could indulge any further though the phone rang. My mind told me it wasn’t who I wanted, but I still answered instinctively with, “Cocoa?”

 

“Well, the “C” is right. It’s Cody,” he says on the other end. I almost forgot I gave him my phone number the other day.

 

“One heck of a storm we’re having, right?” Silence, then, “So you haven’t found her yet?”

 

“No, and I’m worried. Even if we fight, she’d let me know that she was okay. It’s not like her to just leave me in the dark, you know?” I must have sounded more panicked than I thought, because he started to talk in a more calming tone.

 

“Well find her Random; she still has to come to school right? Have you tried calling her home or going over there?”

 

He’s right; I didn’t think she’d be there. Now I felt worse.

 

“Hey Cody, I’ll call you back.”

 

Before he could even respond I hung the phone up and ran back out into the rain. If Cocoa was home, I needed to talk to her, storm or not. But it put up a fight. The wind kept pushing me back as it whipped down the street and the rain made it hard to see. I managed to throw on a jacket before leaving, but even that didn’t slow it down or keep me from freezing. One thing I did notice is that the rain didn’t feel like it did that one week; it felt like normal water.

 

“Damn wind tunnel,” I swear as I push myself down the sidewalk.

 

Finally arriving I notice that Cocoa’s parents cars weren’t parked in their usual place. It’s like the universe didn’t want a sock found in a magician’s hat. That didn’t stop me from knocking on the door though, even if it hurt because of my numb hands. “Thanks rain,” I mumble, trying to keep my hands warm.

Knock, knock, and knock. I’ve been standing here at least 10 minutes waiting for some form of response, but nothing. The more I knocked the more I felt like nothing was going to happen. After 5 more minutes I decided to give up and head back home.

 

“You’ll catch a cold if you’re not careful, Miss Dadalian,” Tipsy told me as she ran a hot bath. I wasn’t paying any attention though. My only thoughts were if Cocoa was all right, and where her family was.

 

The next two days were rather uneventful. I still hadn’t managed to locate Cocoa and even though Cody asked me out for dinner again, I had trouble focusing during it. He seemed rather disappointed whenever I responded with, “Hm?”

Eventually I started to worry a little less. She was with Aurora who, even though I didn’t fully trust, seemed like she was keeping her safe. And speaking of that witch, I confronted her about messing with my computer in Mr. Bit’s class, but she had no "recollection" of it. Damn her.

My nightmares didn’t subside either. I found myself having to hide my hands out of instinct despite wearing gloves. But I forgot all about that when I entered into Mrs. Natsume’s classroom and found a new teacher, although temporary.

 

“Well, I don’t know what your other teacher was teaching, but according to her you have this test today,” she waves a stack of papers,“and you must show me your projects. Don’t worry; she’s given me the details. As you know, your assignment was extended to today. My name is Juliana Yodale, but you’ll just call me Miss Yodale.”

 

Mrs. Natsume’s temporary replacement seemed like she didn’t want to be here. She had a light and casual town to her voice and whenever she spoke it seemed like she cared less and less. She had red hair and wore round lens glasses that made her look very intelligent. Much like Mrs. Natsume, she wore a lab like coat over a blue blouse but had on khaki pants instead of a skirt and wore dark blue flats. She was on the thin side and lookedabout the same age as Mrs. Natsume from what I could tell; my guess was in her mid-30s.

 

The test was to explain the differences between older and newer AI models, basically what we’ve been learning. Since we were working on them all week, it was going to be an easy test, although most students looked like they were having trouble with it. Aurora, however, had no trouble getting through it, being the first one to bring her paper to the desk, along with her project. I finished shortly behind her.

 

“Well, when anyone else is done, just bring your project up here along with the test. Our two prodigies’ over here get to be graded first,” she waved a hand toward Aurora and me.

 

My cheeks flushed red faster than kernels popping in a volcano. Half the class turned toward me while the other half toward turn Aurora, who didn’t seem to notice. It was true I did know a lot about it, but it didn’t have to be pointed out, especially by a temp. I felt with Mrs. Natsume however I wouldn’t have cared as much.

 

After everyone else handed their papers in, we sat there in silence as she graded each and every one. She did it much faster than I’ve seen most teachers, almost like it was second nature. Within minutes she was already handing our papers back to us, going up and down each row of students. I wanted to question if she graded these right, doing it in the blink of an eye, but after seeing a 98% on mine I kept my thoughts to myself. But it did peak my curiosity.

 

Just as quick as the papers, she was grading the actual assignment. One after the other she brushed to the side after it passed what appeared to be 3 tests: Comparison, contrast, and similarities. She took more time on some than others because some either made it halfway through or couldn’t do what she wanted them to do, by no fault of her own. Mine and Aurora’s were first, and they both passed without a second glance. One even burst into flames, causing the girl next to me to sink into her seat with embarrassment. I guess it belonged to her. The rest went by without too much trouble.

 

“Congratulations, you can come get your results,” she told us nonchalantly.

 

Once she was done, she wanted us to go up and get our assignments ourselves. This didn’t take very long due to the amount of people in this class. I could see why she did it this way though; carrying a small stack of papers is easy, our projects would take at least 5 trips, not counting giving the wrong ones to the wrong person. She didn’t seem like the type to ask which project belonged to whom.

Once she was finished, she gave us some free time to work on what we wanted, but it wasn’t long after that that the bell rang.

 

Mr. Bit’s class was lack luster. He returned our scores for how well we did on handling his rouge programs and I ended up with 73.7%. This irritated me, but what irritated me more was when I approached him about Aurora and he said that nothing had gone wrong with my computer. It was like the class went just how he intended it. Maybe Aurora had another trick up her sleeve, like with her memory wipe on Tipsy.

 

In Mr. Reed’s class I found it hard to focus as Aurora, Cody and I all worked on our project. We were just putting the finishing touches on it, me not being allowed to touch much of anything, as usual. He soldered the remaining metals and started connecting the inner pieces. My job was to prepare the inner pieces, but my mind was still on other things. No matter how much I told myself Cocoa was fine, I couldn’t help but think of her.

 

Luckily that didn’t last too long when after class I headed to my locker as normal to get some things. When I closed the door and turned around, Cocoa was standing there, hot chocolate in one hand, papers in the other. It had been so long since I’d seen her I almost didn’t recognize her. She had her hair pulled back, which was unusual for her and wore a dark red t-shirt and a black skirt, which was also very unlike her.

 

“Hi…” she whispers, as almost if afraid to talk to me.

 

“Cocoa…”

 

I couldn’t get much more out than that. I hadn’t seen her for a long while and just having her standing in front of me filled me with so much joy that I jumped out to hug her, ignoring the fact that she was carrying things. The sudden shock caused her to drop her hot chocolate and she barely hung onto her papers.

 

“Random, I’m sorry I’ve been gone.”

 

“Don’t apologize, you can tell me about it after school.”