The cold water rushed and flowed over the ridges and scars on Aaradhya’s hand. Their bag sat near their feet on the tile floor. The edges of their grey sweater were darkened by the water.

The stitches were gone from the edge of their left pinkie and ring finger. Their father had made a joke when they’d taken off the cast that now Aaradhya can’t get married anymore. Though he hadn’t seemed too mad at the idea.

Every time, Aaradhya had noticed, that they touched water, questions about that night reappeared. Darkened and unfocused memories still lingered alongside the gaping questions. Mumbling to themselves, Aaradhya murmured, “Why had I been out there?”

Their father had reassured them in the Hospital that it was just a bad case of sleepwalking, but the answer hadn’t satisfied them. Especially since Aaradhya hadn’t sleepwalked since before or after the accident.

“Aaradhya!” Unknown hands threw them into a hug as they exited the bathroom.  Aaradhya blinked twice before awkwardly hugging back. “Oh my! How have you been? Obvious from the whole thing but I feel like it's been ages! How's the hand? You’ve got to tell me what happened!”

Giving an uncomfortable chuckle to Suzanna Jones’ sudden monologue, Aaradhya rocked slightly back and forth on the soles of their sneakers.

Suzanna, still bouncing with questions, continued, “My parents kept going on and on about how lucky you were. They were like - Suzanna the water should’ve killed them, and yet, here you are! How peculiar.” With open arms she gestured to Aaradhya.

Suzanna’s silver cross was laid squarely on her chest, at the edges of each point it was bejeweled. Suzanna’s wide blue eyes always made people remark that they looked like the ocean around Gamal. Her blonde hair was always primped and curled.

But, the most distinctive thing about Suzanna Jones was her ability to know any secret. Who skipped Church last week? She probably knew it before they did. You didn’t keep a secret in Suzanna’s vicinity. She was like a bloodhound for them.

Aaradhya wiped their still wet hands off against their jeans, “Yep. Here I am.”

Suddenly Suzanna linked their arms together, “Come on, we’re going to miss class.” Suzanna broke their hold on Aaradhya and sat down at her desk beside Alana Kahale, her best friend. The two of them smiled as they saw each other.

The class seemed smaller. It was the same number of kids, 12, all of the grade eleven kids were in the same class at Gamal Community School with Mr. Hughes as the teacher for everything. Gamal Community School was nothing beyond a small brick building in the south of Gamal. Aaradhya walked there every day.

The white concrete walls of the class were decorated with bright and colourful homemade posters. All decorated with either Mr. Hughes’ distinctive handwriting or Alex’s, his kids. The posters covered a wide range of topics; from essay writing, Shakespeare or even calculus and biochemistry. Though most of them were English based posters since everyone knew that Mr. Hughes was an English teacher at heart.

Aaradhya sat at the back of the class, like usual, keeping their gaze to the beige tiled floors and ignoring the wide eyes that followed them.

Aaradhya noticed the other kids in their class move in, Alex Hughes sat beside them and Kai Suzuki sat on the other side of the class.

Mr. Hughes closed the wooden door behind him, “Good morning everyone!” Mismatched responses of “good morning” sounded back. “Aaradhya! Good to have you back.”

Aaradhya flashed a reserved smile to their teacher. “Hi.”

They noticed Mr. Hughes' cast. He’d gone off island to get an air cast so he didn’t need crutches.

He sat on a small chair at the bottom of the black chalkboard. “You’ll have to bear with me as I give the lesson since I can’t stand for too long. But, today we’re going to talk about plant asexuality.” He continued on, writing notes in chicken scratch as he did but Aaradhya’s mind felt too fuzzy to pay attention.

Mr. Hughes was one of the newest additions to Gamal, as in he moved to the town when Aaradhya was in fourth grade. No one really came to Gamal, mostly they just left.

John Hughes was a medium sized man with short cropped hair that kind’ve made him look like he should’ve been in the army. But the rest of him looked the opposite of an army man, his white knitted cardigans and tortoise shell glasses made him look more like a professor.

The day flowed away like every tick on the clock was alike to a tap of Aaradhya’s pen against their empty paper.

Aaradhya had been scribbling absentmindedly as Mr. Hughes spoke. His muffled lectures were interspersed with the occasional question. Looking down at their black pen filled paper, Aaradhya spotted among pointless stars and poorly drawn animals, a symbol they did not recognize.

It was larger than the other doodles, as well as neater. As though their mind had drawn it with certainty. One long line with two heavy dots on the top and the bottom. One each side of the line in the middle mirrored the other with two interlocking half circles.

Drawing their gaze back to the board made Aaradhya’s heart stop in its place. Under a sudden white blurred effect the people they knew like; Mr. Hughes, Alana, Suzanna, all looked foreign. Not in the way of different faces or haircuts.

They did not look human.

Hot blood pumped like a bass through their ears as their heart beat drums in their chest and against their cracking ribs. Immediately they looked over to Kai, who they knew had been sitting across the class, who was suddenly gone. Unlike the others there was no blurry form or shape, all that was left behind was a deep shadow where he’d once filled the plastic chair.

Mr. Hughes’ muffled words continued as if he was not this creature sitting before them. Wrapped in long beige drapery, Aaradhya could no longer see his face nor his frame. Scrolls here held tightly at his waist and along his shoulders. Jutting out from between his shoulder blades, white and beige tipped wings spread across the length of the class. Mr. Hughes looked like the angels they’d read about in scripture. Suddenly he cracked a joke and a ripple of laughs sounded across the class.

On the chalk dusted black board the English scribbles of their teacher had also transformed. A range of symbols and glyphs covered the board, they felt… almost indescribable. Words Aaradhya did not know floated around their jumbled mind like a slow deciphering process had started. Like the dust was being brushed from the crevices of their mind.

Before they could understand the words Aaradhya tore their attention downwards. They blinked down at the paper. Mumbling half baked prayers as they fought to catch their breath and return oxygen into their arid lungs. The symbol sat there, the focus of their held gaping like it taunted them.

“Aaradhya? Did you have a question?” Tearing their hard fought gaze from the paper Aaradhya's ember eyes landed on Mr. Hughes. A human looking Mr. Hughes.

Still dazed Aaradhya answered, “Hmm? No…sorry.”

The bell rang and everyone in class shuffled out of school. Aaradhya packed up their books and made their way out.

“Aaradhya!” A voice caught their attention.

They turned and found Kai, “Yeah?”

“Mr. Hughes asked me to give you these. It's the stuff we did that you missed. Don’t worry it's all super easy.” Kai held out the papers and both made sure not to touch the other.

“Thanks.” Aaradhya took the papers, “Nice shirt.” Kai was wearing a blue shirt with a few dolphins on it.

“What? Oh yeah, thanks.” He looked down at his shirt with a smile, a short and pink blush spreading over his cheeks. 

Taking a longer look at it Aaradhya asked, “Did you make it?”

Enthusiasm brimmed his features in a way that made Aaradhya smile, “Yeah! I found this super cool tutorial online that lets you make your own shirts, you can make them with a makeshift projector. I found the first one and did it to one of my old shirts.”

“Cool!” Aaradhya hadn’t noticed how it was homemade but it didn’t surprise them. Kai’s shirt looked pretty professional. Most of the stuff on Gamal was either homemade, hand-me-downs or they’d gone off Island to get it.

A few seconds of silence passed between the two as they walked through the dusty hallways and past dented lockers. 

Twisting at their fingers, Aaradhya wasn’t big on conversation and now that it had waned, they had no idea what to do. “Why are we just talking now?” Immediately after saying it, Aaradhya cringed. It sounded way too aggressive even though they hadn’t meant it like that.

“What do you mean?” Kai fixed the straps on his backpack. Aaradhya noticed the way his black hair curled at the edges, the sight made them grin.

“I mean, “ Aaradhya choked on their words for a second, “We never really talked before. Why are we talking now?”

Still puzzled, Kai asked, “Do you want to stop talking? ‘Cause I can go.” He gestured awkwardly away from them.

Shaking their hands frantically Aaradhya stopped walking, “No! Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I don’t want you to go.”

“Okay.” He replied simply, a gentle smile crinkling the edges of his nice eyes and Aaradhya grinned back as they continued out of the cubed school hallway.