“Currents”

"Currents, was it water or electricity? Singular of plural", Mia thought to herself while trying to get her new uniform on.

A typical Monday morning at Winnington, tension and anxiety heightened day after day.

Friday was a free day, basically because of the emergency meeting that ended with staff bonuses and expelled students now called 'returning students'

When Theo said he would 'think about it', he meant something more.

Mia never expected it, and the text, it got her both aroused and scared. What did he mean by "she would pay?".

"Urghh, this stupid tie", Jenna groaned as she untangled her tie, pulled it from her neck and threw it on the floor.

"Can you chill, you're the major reason that we're here", Mia shot at her.

"I can't keep apologizing, I thought you said you forgave me", Jenna said frustrated.

The school came up with various reforms to evade a situation like the one that occurred the previous week from repeating itself. A part of that was mandatory uniforms and student ID.

All forms of identification would be done automatically on entrance and exit of the school's premises. Security was heightened, Winnington had now become a glorified boarding school.

"Okay, we're going to be late, we actually have a bus to catch", Darby announced. She'd say anything at this point to stop the girls from getting at each other's throats.

"Yeah, were choosing our extracurricular today", Jenna said with a little excitement.

"Mia, loafers! Nice choice", Darby gave a nod of approval at Mia's shoe choice.

It was a standard private school kids uniform with the sweater vest, white collared long-sleeves and black tennis skirt.

Since there was nothing in the memo about shoes, that was the only thing they could choose by themselves and they had fun with it.

They got into the bus, with the new changes there wasn't going to be any compromise with University students on the bus with Academy students.

"Hey, Jaden!", Jenna yelled at a brown skin 5'8 boy holding a basketball in his hand. They were on campus about to enter their individual classes. He took a glance at the direction his name came from before running towards her.

"J bae, what's good", he looked down at her first then gave her a long tight hug. Jenna was 5'4 so the difference in height was evident. She squirmed out his tight grip like a worm. With her hands on his stiff abs, she pushed gently till he was away from her, she held his eyes.

"J bae', really? You still call me that, that died JJ", she giggled.

"And so did JJ, mammi", he stared fondly. It seemed like there was some history in that stare. Mia and Darby stood and observed for a while but had to excuse themselves.

"Umm, 'J bae'", Mia said creating air quotes. "We're off", she said.

"Oh, my, I'm so sorry, I totally forgot". "Jaden, this is Darby and Mia", she made an introduction.

"Darby and Mia, this is Jaden. He's Brie's best friend", Jenna announced.

There it was again, that burning feeling in her chest. This time, she didn't know what it meant. Brie had a best friend and a boy best friend?

"Yeah, okay, I'm off", she dismissed with a terse response.

Darby followed behind her. "Mia! Mia!", she called out without a response.

"Mia!", can you wait up", she looked like she was running a marathon.

"Mia! Mi—a", Darby's voice started was now drained out in the noise on campus. Mia was halfway through the lawn and was almost in the building till she turned back.

She scanned the area and all she could see were heads but not Darby's. Her signature hairstyle were pigtails so she would be easy to spot.

Mia walked towards the middle of the lawn. She looked for somewhere high enough to scan the crowd.

Mia climbed onto the fountain at the center, she noticed a cluster of people and an ambulance approaching.

In the middle of the chaos, there she was—being carried on a stretcher. Darby had an attack why trying to get Mia's attention. She left her inhaler at home and the spare one was in Mia's bag.

Mia unzipped her backpack and poured its content into the grass, she was torn with doubts. When Darby's inhaler was the last thing that dropped out of her bag, her heart skipped a beat.

***

"Hello, earth to Mia!", Brie called it to Mia who seemed to have faded out. They were at the cafeteria.

Mia just stared into space thinking about how Darby could have died because of her foolishness.

The day was extremely gloomy, not just because of the unexpected rain that accompanied the snow.

She also took regular glances at Jaden who sat opposite her on the table.

"Currents, its not your fault, it was an honest mistake. We've talked to Darby's mum, she'll be fine", Brie spoke like she knew the exact thoughts in Mia's head.

Brie tried her best to pacify her to no avail. She rubbed her back slowly but that just triggered Mia's tear ducts.

"But now she has to be on observation for a week before she can resume classes. She'll be at home", Mia's voice was shaky.

She stood up as her sadness slowly turned to anger. Seeing how fondly Jaden talked to Mia struck a nerve. She was out of the cafeteria and on a bus in a flash.

***

Mia got to her dorm room, she stared at Darby's part of the room. It was practically empty, her heart sunk in her chest for a while. She jumped into her bed, it was not made. With the rush of the morning she didn't think about making her bed.

"Ouch", she hit something hard as her body landed into the bed. It was a box, she opened it to find a note. It said "Found you another obsession that's not me, sneaker head".

It was a new pair of shoes. The note didn't have to be signed with a name for her to know who it was from. Theo.