"Estelle,"
"Hey, Estelle. Are you listening to me?"
"Estelle!"
Estelle blinked her eyes once again. Only to see someone who was very familiar to her.
"Cathy?"
"Who else is talking to you right now?" Kathy said as she rolled her eyes.
A girl whose hair was tied in two braids and had freckles all over her face. Though she might look mean her heart was the easiest to get hurt and scared always.
{"Estelle. I will be spending my vacation at my Grandma's house at Bohol. Let's watch that series when I returned alright?"}
Horrifying memories and dread, filled Estelle's heart as she remembered Cathy's last words before she died in a traffic accident back then.
"Am I dead already Cathy? That's why you're here?"
Cathy raised her left brow and gave Estelle's a skeptic look. "Fool." She flicked her finger in Estelle's forehead. "Are you being emotional right now since it is our last year in elementary?"
"Pain?" Estelle touched her head. "Do ghosts feel pain?"
Cathy smacked her forehead when Estelle spouted more nonsensical words. "It seems something is going on your mind."
*Dingdong Ding* The sound of their school bell rang. Estelle felt a complete nostalgia hearing it. She just looked at her surroundings as Cathy pulled her out of their classroom.
'This familiar blue school uniform. This classroom. This hallway that I stayed in for my eight years of schooling from preschool up to the last years of my elementary days. 'What in the world is happening? Is this the afterlife? Was it really real that you'll go back to your childhood from when you went to the afterlife? Or perhaps, did I return back on time?"
"Estelle, your ID! Tap it already. A lot of people are waiting behind you." Estelle came back to her senses when she realized they were at their school gate. Cathy losing her patience already, grabbed Estelle's ID and tapped it on the screen. She waited until they heard a click sound, indicating that Estelle was already logged out of the school premises.
Cathy then pulled Estelle out of the school gates before the angry-looking students behind them would murder them for taking so long to leave. Cathy forced Estelle to take a seat first on the Gazebo that was in front of a small chapel just outside their school.
"Are you sure, you're alright?"
Estelle looked at Cathy blankly and this made Cathy even more worried. She touched Estelle's forehead to see if she have a fever. But her temperature was normal.
In the end, she sighed and take a seat beside Estelle.
"Well, I guess, it is quite nostalgic that we will be high schoolers next year." Cathy started to speak all of a sudden as she looked towards the school she studied with Estelle.
Estelle simply glanced at her without saying anything.
"We will finally become more adult. But I guess I will still miss the time we spent here together. But as long as we are together, the best of best friends in the world. We can have more lots of fun memories together even if we become adults!" Cathy said cheerfully as she jumped out of her seat. "What do you say, let's also make our high school a blast... Eh, why are you crying, Estelle?"
"Huh?" Estelle touched her right cheek and indeed it was wet. Tears continued to stream down her face.
"Why, why are you crying?!" Cathy began to panic as Estelle continued to cry. The other students were also looking at their direction now.
Not knowing what to do, Cathy locked Estelle in her embrace and patted her head. "There-there please stop crying now. I will not let you go until you stop crying."
"Ca-Cathy." When Estelle said those words, the emotions she thought she had already gotten over when her one and only best friend were gone, burst out once again. "Cathy!" She burst into more tears and Cathy tightened her hug as she continued to console Estelle.
"You're here again! You're really here!"
Cathy faintly smiled, though she was confused at the situation right now she continued to hug her best friend. "Of course, where else will I go, silly." She said as she continued to caress Estelle's hair. Since she was three-inch taller than Estelle, she looked like Estelle's big sister.
***
After their mini-drama in front of their school, the two best friends decided to stay inside the seven-eleven convenience story just a road away from their school. Cathy gave Estelle her favorite Coca-Cola Slurpee. She sat in front of Estelle and placed her Cherry Slurpee on the table.
"Are you calm now?" Cathy asked.
"Yes," Estelle meekly answered as she sipped her Slurpee. Her eyes widened in delight. 'It's been ages since I tasted this again. This surely brings back memories.' To her excitement, she slurped the Slurpee in one drink.
"Eek!" Her entire head started hurting like hell. "Ah, it hurts! hurts!"
Cathy shook her head. "Fool, that's what you get for drinking it like that." She just sighed as she watched her friend helplessly shaking her head up and down to ease the pain.
After a few moments of suffering, Estelle dropped her head on the table. She could already see her soul leaving from her mouth.
'With that so much pain, this is definitely not a dream nor the afterlife. Or perhaps this is hell? No that can't be. Cathy is just a child when she died. Then there is really one conclusion on this. After that crazy bastard shot me. I return back on time just like all those novels I read and watched. Then that means if I return back on time, not only will I be able to save Ashford but also Cathy and redo all the regrets, I suffered in my entire life...'
"Cathy! What will you do this summer break?" Estelle suddenly asked, startling Cathy.
'Is this the reason why she is crying earlier? Don't tell me she cried that much because she will miss me this much?' A tingling sensation erupted inside Cathy.
"I will be spending my vacation in my Grandma's house at Bohol. Why you asked?"
"Don't go!" Estelle screamed as she slammed both her hands on the table, startling Cathy once again.
'Heh,' Cathy stopped herself from grinning. 'So she is really going to miss me.'
She tried to sound normal and looked calmly at Estelle. "Even if I don't want to go, my parents have been decided all of this. I can't do anything about..."
"Then have you already booked a flight to Bohol?!"
"No-not yet! Mom said that they'll do it next week."
"Then tell them, I'm the one who will book your flight and choose the date of your flight. No, I will tell auntie myself! And I will come with you too. Don't worry, I will shoulder all your travel expenses! Let's go to auntie now!" Estelle grabbed Cathy's right arm.
And Cathy before she could register what was happening, Estelle had already dragged her outside and rode a tricycle towards Cathy's house. "Eh, what?"
***
And that was how the second life of Estelle started. But to her dismay, Cathy's parents didn't allow her to pay for their flight. And instead, she just let them chose the date she wanted them to book their flight since she insisted. She also got permission from her aunt to go with Cathy.
For the rest of the summer vacation, she spent the entire time with Cathy. And that was certainly one of the happiest days of her life, she thought she would never experienced.
The summer vacation passed in the blink of an eye and it was finally the start of a new quarter for her first year in high school. And the time, she would finally see him again. Blaze Ashford.