My maid had cautiously ironed it for me the night before, as I had told her that I wanted to wear it the next day. I got up late that morning and I had no time to have breakfast. I quickly got dressed and sprayed a bit of my favorite perfume on. I grabbed my bag and ran out of the house; I would fix my hair in the car, I thought.
I heavily crashed on the back seat of the car and started fishing in my bag for my Discman. By the time I had both my earphones in, and put my favorite song full volume we had passed the baseball field. I tied my short hair in a ponytail wondering if I had completed all my homework for that day.
It was in May, and the exams were approaching. Many of my classmates had left and I envied them a lot. Within twenty minutes we had reached the school. The driver dropped my brother off first, than me, asking me what time he should come and pick me up. I told him two, having no idea that I would not be going home straight after school that day. I walked slowly to the school’s building trailing my feet, and humming the tune of my favorite song.
When I got to my classroom, my form tutor had already called out the register. We had French first, so I decided to go by my locker first as the French classroom was really close. I felt some sort of absence when I got to my locker. I remembered that Oliver wasn’t in school anymore to follow me around, and that was what I missed. The first few lessons passed by really slowly and I couldn’t really concentrate. I was so hungry that I decided that as soon as the bell rang I would find my friends and we would go to the cafeteria, because I was starving.
We met up behind the school with Tito, and we headed towards the cafe. We passed a few people in the queue and I got myself a chocolate cone ice cream and some chips. As we were walking back to our bench to get our bags I passed Oliver’s sister. I was really surprised to see her and asked her if her brother was in school too. She didn’t have to answer me as Oliver suddenly turned up next to me and greeted me. He wasn’t dressed accordingly to the dress code; which immediately made me realize that he had just come in for the break. He was wearing his baggy jeans with an amazing red shirt, and a black hat. There was a camera in his left hand and I gave him a questioning look. He told me that he had come in to say goodbye as he was leaving the school and wanted to take pictures of his friends.
He proposed to walk me to my bench and I accepted, delighted. He told me he wanted to surprise me by coming into school without telling me, and I told him that he had succeeded. We were both all smiles, as we walked behind the school, me finishing my ice cream, him enjoying the gentle breeze on that warm sunny day. The light wind blew a bit of sand towards us and made the branches of the palm trees sway. We met up with his friend and Oliver asked him if he could take a picture of us together.
We sat down on a bench and in the process, a piece of chocolate dropped on my shirt. I quickly smudged it and hopped down on the bench next to him. He put his hands around me and told me that he would miss me. I didn’t fully realize the meaning of his words as I was concentrating on posing for the picture. I regretted not fixing my hair properly that morning. His friend took two pictures of us, and I asked Oliver if he would send me a copy when he arrived to his new home overseas. He promised me he would.
Lying on my bed, I was smiling to myself. He had kept his promise and I was now holding that picture in my hand. I actually looked good in it, not considering my all messy hair and my half closed eyes. I decided to pin up that picture on my drawing board and put the other one in my locker. And every time I look at it a warm feeling runs through me and if I concentrate hard enough I can hear his voice whispering in my ear and the hot sun burning my skin, on that lovely May afternoon.
I used automatic spell check, and a Hungarian- English dictionary.
