It was Valentine's Day and shortly after dinner when Ainsley started digging around in her backpack with panic. She couldn't find it! Where was it? She had worked so hard in class making it and now she couldn't find it? She was positive she had placed it in her backpack before she left school. Her face had a rather calm expression on it, but her eyes were looking sadly at her backpack. It wasn't there. She must have left it at school. The child made a rather exasperated sound as she sat down next to her backpack and started putting her shoes onto her feet. Snap. Snap. She buckled her shoes in place and stood up. She grabbed herself a jacket from the hook and then grabbed her bag and swung it over her back after she had put her jacket on.
She would go to school and find it!
Quietly, the child opened the front door and slipped outside. It wasn't too cold yet, but the child could still see her breath on the air when she breathed out into it. Thankfully, the air wasn't too cold that it made her nose feel strange when she breathed in. She looked left and then right and then began walking back towards her school. She just had to find it.
It took her shorter than usual to walk to school because the child had been walking faster than usual, as if her little life depended on her getting to school and finding the thing she had been missing. The thought of it put a little smile on her pale face but upon making it to the gates of the school the child's expression fell. No. The gates were locked. Why? Did they always lock at this hour? Wasn't there usually someone around? She looked frantically but she couldn't find anyone.
"No..." she said out loud as she leaned against the gates of the school, dropping her bag onto the ground. She looked at the ground with a look of disappointment, staring at the bag she had dropped. There. Peeking out of the front pocket of her bag! She had packed it into her bag after all! Quickly the disappointment fled the child's face as she retrieved her bag from the sidewalk. Now all she had to do was find... him. Senri. Her face brightened a little as she thought about it. She wasn't sure if she would be able to give to him face to face. No. She couldn't give up! She would deliver her gift to him.
With confidence and her mind set, the child rushed off to find the older boy. Along the way the child was doubting if she could do it, and then trying to cheer herself on. She could do it! What if he didn't like it and gave it back to her? No! Senri wouldn't do that, he was so nice to her! He had played the piano for her, saved her from the accidents that occurred in December, and even left her with his jacket so she would keep warm. There was no way he would give it back, right? The child smiled thinking about the blue-haired, blue-eyed boy's kindness.
With such thoughts in mind, it was no surprise Ainsley had practically walked right by Senri's place. It took her several minutes to realize this and then several minutes to walk all the way back. After she had gotten back, she paced back and forth. What if Senri sent her away before she had a chance to give him his gift? She worried but before she knew it she was at Senri's door, knocking her little fists against it. She waited, and waited but there was no answer.
"Is he not home?" She wondered out loud to herself. Perhaps he just did he not hear the door. She knocked again, trying not to bend the item that was in her hands. There was no answer at his door though and the child just stood there waiting. Perhaps he hadn't come home, or maybe he was out for dinner? Although she was worried, she had really wanted to give it to him in person -- but the child did not know when, if at all, he would come home. She had to get home and go to bed... she had to.
Her goals pushing her own, Ainsley slowly moved to the mailbox. It had seemed like forever had passed as she just stared at it and then after a moment she slipped something inside of it. She continued to look at the mailbox, making sure her gift wasn't suddenly going to spit back out. It didn't spit back out and the child smiled as she waited for just another moment with a small blush on her face before she hurried away from his door, rushing back home.
Back at Senri's place there was something sitting, and waiting. It was waiting for Senri, it was a small piece of paper:
