“You sound happier than usual today”, Claire said with a chuckle and her phone pressed against her ear. “Did something good happen?”“Well, it is Christmas”, Jess replied from the other line. “It’s the season of cheer!”“If you say so”Claire continued to walk towards the bus stop. It was the morning of Christmas Day and she had gone shopping for gifts just then since her salary for working part-time at the library and tutoring Ethan was just wired to her the night before. It was pretty hectic at the mall, and it was extremely difficult to find things worth giving since most of the good stuff already ran out of stock.“Don’t forget to come over for dinner!” her friend reminded her. “Jay is looking forward to seeing you today, as well”She sensed a hint of tease in her tone and laughed. “Sure sure”Then, after bidding goodbyes, she drop

It was Monday yet again.Jess complained how the winter break passed by in a blink of an eye, but to Claire who found her break eventful, that wasn’t the case. She had lunch with Jess and Jay last weekend to celebrate her birthday but she could barely concentrate since she suddenly became fully aware of the feeling of the cold metal bracelet on her wrist.“See you later!” Jess waved goodbye before jogging towards her class.She waved back with a smile and headed towards her class while the bell rang as if on cue. Just when she was about to enter the classroom, she felt a pat on her shoulder and immediately halted in her steps. When she turned around to look at the culprit, she saw her homeroom teacher smiling at her.“Miller”, she smiled in greeting before pointing a thumb over her shoulder. “I’m sorry to pull you out of class but there’s something that I need to discuss with you”Claire nodded

“Yes, sir!” Claire answered in a hurry upon hearing a guest looking for a server. Her arms were starting to scream in pain but she was lucky enough to have managed to balance the tray while fast-walking and dodging people left and right. “Drinks?”The middle-aged man frowned impatiently at her but decided at the last second to not bother lecturing her. He handed her his empty glass and took a new one from her tray before turning around to leave.Claire had been keeping herself busy for the past few hours, rushing from one end of the room to the other, to avoid stumbling upon Ethan and Stephanie. This was fairly easy to do since the couple was always surrounded by people.Upon realizing that her tray was once again empty, she walked back towards the kitchen.“Ugh”, she groaned the moment she set the tray on the counter. Then, she stretched out her arms to ease out the pain. Her hands were already starting to tremble from

Claire clutched her textbooks against her chest as she stepped out to the school corridor. The bell rang a couple of minutes ago, signaling the end of the morning classes and she was supposed to have lunch that day with the committee as the trip was right around the corner. She cursed under her breath as she struggled to push her way through the hallway. The conference room was on the opposite hall where the cafeteria was, thus, she was literally going against a wave of bodies. As she concentrated on getting herself past the crowded corridor, a student suddenly bumped into her and she gasped in surprise as her textbooks flew to the floor. “Sorry!” Claire craned her neck to see the culprit running away while waving a hand over his shoulder. His attitude annoyed her but instead of calling him out, she sighed and bent down to pick up her stuff. She tried to pick up everything as fast as she could as she was in the middle of the hallway but unfortunately, she was

“I think we can wrap it up here”Claire sighed in relief before dropping her pen and stretching out her arms. The camp was finally coming up, and the committee has been working harder than ever to finalize everything. It was fortunate that they never had to revise their draft plan outlines since even the principal himself was being lenient— as long as they stick to the allocated budget, that is.“Justin”, Patricia called out, and the boy perked up almost immediately in response. “Make a follow-up call on the t-shirts, don’t forget”Justin nodded. “Will do”She looked at her notebook. Her meeting notes were usually organized and neat, but because of the incident at the library last weekend, she couldn’t seem to focus at all. Her mind automatically drifted to the memory of kissing Ethan which was then immediately followed by a strong feeling of guilt.For the past couple of days, she h