In the four years he had spent in this school, Zachary was never tasked with something outside of his own schoolwork by someone else. Yet fate would have him be the subject of several "favors" that day, to people he never or rarely spoke with before, as if it was mocking him and spitting in his face.
Due to the recent absence of Mrs. Grace, there was no one left assigned to his class for the literature subject, leading to an incompetent substitute teacher coming in her place. That teacher had him as her "assistant" that day, with help from a "unanimous" vote of the rest of his class.
And so, he was thrown into situations he had never experienced before.
One minute he would be collecting papers from the students while they all left, and in the other, he would be rushing to deliver some late documents to the teacher's "supervisor." It was a cruel thing, almost ludicrous, having him carry the weight and the faults of a blundering tutor, and a temporary one at that.
If he weren't so inept during school time (and was set on just passing the year without raising any trouble even if it cost him inconvenience sometimes), he would be out and about in the school halls, howling criticism over her.
But of course, a student's worth amounted to nothing but dirt.
To Zachary, this was worse than a filler chapter in a shoddy teen drama book — not that he had particularly read anything of the sort.
"Crap! I'm so late!" He came to a realization.
Making it in time for the meeting place with Lauren was just not in his forte that day. After he was done, he rushed out of the school as fast as possible.
"Please be there!" He said as he made a run for it.
Perhaps working his legs like this was going to be his claim to fame in his chase for that ultimate dream. It was a simple jest in his thoughts, but it was enough to put a smile on his face and make him push through.
Sprinting like this reminded him of the moment he ran out in the rain to get back to Lauren and tell her how he felt and what he truly wanted. He was even repeating the same words.
The difference this time, however, is that he had faith that the girl he almost left out in the rain yesterday was going to wait for him. But then again, his undesired, yet logical thoughts came back to him: there can only be so much time a person can wait for someone.
Missing the meeting won't mean the end but it wasn't without consequences.
"You have to… you have to…," he was losing his breath, "You have to be there… please…!"
He had to make it no matter the cost.
He did not want that setback.
He had to run.
With vim and vigor, Zachary Ashworth ran.
※※※※
Lauren Cherith did not particularly have anything of interest that day. Being the optimal type of student, she was relieved of her duties in anticipation of this day. It may seem like her hangout invitation to Zachary the other day was out of the blue and something that came on the spot.
That wasn't the case though.
Everything that had gone down the day before; she planned for, not to the extent of every action taken or sentence that was said, so it was more like she anticipated it.
But it was all plausible.
After all, she couldn't let go of possibly the only person who understood her.
Despite her popularity among students, she never felt truly at a place she was comfortable with till she spotted Zachary a year ago, writing his little short story in the school's library. She was mesmerized by his determination as she would see him every day doing the same process — think, write, erase, repeat — and never looked bothered by it. It took all her power to finally approach someone as inept as he was.
Thankfully, it was all worth it. Hearing that he desired the same dream as she, was like music to her ears. She was finally going to find a place she was comfortable, even if it was with one person.
"But where is he…?"
Her disappointment slowly built up as she let out a melancholic groan.
Lauren ended up waiting at the station as intended, but a little earlier than usual. She thought leaving early would guarantee her a meeting with Zachary, as he would always be one of the first students to leave — excluding the other day where he was the last one to leave. Yet he was still nowhere to be seen.
「Should I have waited in front of the school instead?」
As much of an organizer she was at most times, she also had her reckless and impulse-thinking moments.
With a few hours on end and nothing to do, she browsed her phone for anything of interest, to distract herself from the wait. He wasn't picking up her calls and he wasn't about to suddenly appear over the horizon. If he did not appear in the next ten minutes, which would be the third time the tram stopped by, then she would have to do nothing but take the ride and head to the location by herself — it was a place she would often visit, after all.
「Please show up…」
Scrolling through eye-opening headlines and media posts that would usually take up all her time on her phone, she was still thinking about Zachary, this day, and nothing else. Her distraction was not working.
*DING* *DING* *DING* *DING*
The bell echoed deep within her ears, frightening her for a second.
Riding the tram a million times was still not going to stop the sudden fright she would get upon hearing the bell. They were a quarter through the twenty-first century, yet the tram was still stuck with the bell of a train from two centuries ago.
Shaking off the awkwardness of that moment from her head, she thought about Zachary again. There were a few people around so it was easy to distinguish him if he were here somehow, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Doubt filled her mind and she felt the bottom of her heart ache.
「Was I… wrong about him?」
※※※※
If this run was not hailed as the one for the century, then Zachary was… actually he wasn't going to do anything, but he was going to be quite mad about it. He could drop dead on the ground and he would think of it as his crowning achievement.
Up until now, he wasn't much of an athlete, he still thought of himself as someone with an average build as he would keep up with daily exercise to make sure that health did not deteriorate. But he never imagined he would be speeding through a quarter of the town in less than ten minutes on foot.
His heart was on the verge of stopping. He felt a shortness of breath in his lungs. His legs felt numb yet still kept going.
But he did not care.
It was all worth the—
Just as the thought came to his mind, he saw the rest of the street before him emerge. At the end of the horizon, was the girl he desperately broke himself for. She stood solemnly among a small crowd at the station. Seeing Lauren still in the place she mentioned brought him a huge sigh of relief. Not only because he got the station right, but because her words were truthful.
That sense of relief, however, was soon to dissipate.
Not a second later and he saw Lauren climb onto the tram before the car started driving off.
Of course, it was somewhat slower than most vehicles, and certainly a train, but it could still rival a human's speed, especially against someone who wanted to stop running as much as the next person.
Nevertheless, Zachary still ran, putting in more speed in his legs. He used his motivation to reach Lauren as a boost and it worked perfectly.
Even as he got closer, there was still the lingering feeling that he would not make it. This was the body of a human. There will come a time eventually before it deteriorates and completely collapses from exhaustion.
He had to do something about it, he thought. He had to call out to Lauren.
If he weren't going to make it then he should at least make her know well that he still made it to the meeting spot.
He must shout, say something, anything, to not keep it all in.
The times of hiding most of his thoughts were a thing of the past. To advance toward his dream and the betterment of himself, he needed to be forthright and honest with himself.
This was something that he absolutely needed.
And so, taking what little air remained in his lungs, he shouted, "Lauren!!!"
On the other side of the street, inside the tram, Lauren heard his voice.
She immediately looked away from her phone and leaned out of the open window. There was only one thought on her mind that made her smile: 'I knew it.'
She quickly took a step down the stairs, held onto the pole, and brought out her hand for Zachary to reach. No one inside tried the minimum to warn her or pull her back, which worked to her benefit. No matter how dangerous doing something like this was, she could not worry about her own safety now.
"Hurry up!" She finally shouted back at him with a look of confliction and resolve.
'I'm not gonna let you go," those were the words her eyes were telling him.
Zachary used his last resort and put all his barely remaining stamina into one final leap that would push him to reach Lauren's hand.
He stopped for a second, took a deep step, before jumping forward near the car.
She immediately caught onto his hand.
Taking a bit more of her strength to pull him in with one hand while holding onto the pole, she leapt backward. The two of them dashed inside and trampled on their feet in the process.
With a laugh starting to rise up in her throat, Lauren brought herself up on her feet and approached Zachary, who had crawled into the corner and sat there to take a breathing room for himself.
This was indeed the run of the century.
"And here I thought you dipped out on me," she put on a wry grin, "I missed out on two stops, because of you, before I sorta gave up."
"I know…," he was still breathing heavily, "I'm… I'm very sorry for… keeping you… waiting… like… oh god, my legs," he coughed and tried to adjust his breathing patterns, "I was caught up with—"
"It's fine. All that matters now is that you're here."
She seemed glad to just have him with her, and truth be told, he felt the same.
A mistake, an excuse… those meaningless things went away the moment they locked eyes with one another. It felt like they could forgive and forget all about their mistakes just to be like this. There was them, and only them in their little world of theirs. They needed to look out and trust each other.
Not one for savoring moments until the time was right, Lauren stepped away and looked at the window. And after enough time had passed for him to recover, Zachary stood up and joined her.
"So where are we going?" He still wondered.
She had determined that she was to keep it all a secret till they reached their destination. However, it was too hard not to say anything. She could not avert his question. It was bizarre, but strangely comforting in her view.
"...," She let out a sigh of defeat, "I guess I'll tell you. We're heading off to the Old Pier."
"Th-The Old Pier?!" He gasped in shock but tried to hide it.
「That place hasn't been touched in years. It's practically abandoned.」
"I've been there a couple of times," she held a genuine tone in her amiable voice, "You know there's an amusement park there? And it's still functional! Well, at least, most of it is… I think. There's a Ferris wheel, a carousel, a Tilt-A-Whirl, uh… what else… Oh! And a rotor, can you believe it? It still looks old but it's pretty impressive that it's still hanging. Best of all, no one's there, but I think you knew that already. It's a perfect place for a moment of peace. It has all sorts of colorful and eye-opening stuff, that's something we need as authors, don't ya think?"
He laughed nervously, "I guess so…"
But in his mind, Zachary wondered if he could make a run for it and escape.
The Old Pier was infamous for being a subject of bad rumors and terrifying myths. There was not much that he knew about the place. All the little bits and pieces he heard about made him figure that the place was rundown. He could not also ignore the fact that the town hall had deemed that place off-limits to everyone in the town — he was shunned out in his own world but he wasn't completely ignorant to what happened around him.
As much as he liked being with Lauren, he was not willing to give up on his life right then and there. He had had the impression that she was odd, and a little off the rails when it came to talking with him, but this was heading into "crazy" territory and he didn't want to be there for it.
Matter of fact was… this was not going to be an easy trip.