The rest of the school day passed by in an endless loop of unachieved encounters. Jackson had tried to get Yezi's attention so that he could begin what he assumed was going to be a lengthy road to earning her trust back but she had ignored him each and every time. If it hadn't been BamBam at his side, Jackson would have gone mad with the jumble of emotions that bounced around his heart. All of his thoughts that day might have split away from Yezi but they eventually circumnavigated back to the anchor that was their temporarily severed connection. He had to mend the relationship.

A flurry of movement caught in the corner of his eye, snapping his attention back to the present. The school bell must have rung because his classmates were already piling into the hallway and merging with the stream of students who were already hurrying towards the entrance.

The sight reminded Jackson of the Koi that would whip and zip past one another during feeding time. There had been one particularly frightening time in which Jackson had witnessed the effects of hunger on a living entity. He had forgotten to feed the Koi while his grandparents were away on a voyage to the islands. When he had remembered to check up on them, he hadn't expected to see bits and pieces of flesh bobbing up and down throughout the crystal clear water.

Two of the seven smaller Kois had been devoured and a third had been nipped at around its tail. Neither his mother, father nor older sister could do anything about the injured fish and so Jackson was caught in hour after hour between heart-wrenching despair and worry. His mother assured him that things would be alright and that once the fish was okay, things would go back to normal. Tranquil little lies.

Even as a child, Jackson understood that nothing could be as it was before after even the simplest change. That Koi was still a Koi but his outlook in life had changed. He would never be the same again.

Looking back at it now, Jackson realized that it was selfish of him for having wanted the Koi to pull through—to expect something from the fish when he was the cause of its suffering.

G'Mama returned two days after. She said nothing about the fish despite seeing the way he no longer moved with the refined grace of his brethren.

That event cemented itself into his brain as the first time he felt this strong, inexplicable longing for the sea. That entire day, he moped around more because of the sadness that encapsulated his being and less because of what he thought the world might say if he didn't appear distraught. That day was the first of two vivid memories in which Jackson felt like the fish could have once been a part of his family.

Jackson checked to make sure the tips of his shoelaces weren't hanging over the edge of his soles before following after everyone else. He rounded the corner onto the first floor, looked up and stopped short of taking another step forward.

The trinkets on Yezi's bracelet jangled against her thin wrist as she raised her arm to open the cubicle's door. He had never noticed her trinkets before. They hadn't seemed like anything to notice but now he, despite not knowing the reason, couldn't tear his eyes away from the mix of silver and gold and alloy-infused metals. After a skip and a hop of time, the sound of his pounding heartbeat dulled into nothing more than a steady rush of blood.

His eyes lingered on the smallest trinket of them all: the gold-encrusted silhouette of a fish hidden behind a cluster of bronzed seaweed.

She replaced a green notebook with a torn paperback. She tucked a loose strand of hair back into her messy bun. She shut her door and yet, Jackson was paying her motions no such attention because his eyes remained glued to the trinkets that concocted a melody uniquely theirs.

"Yezi!"

Jackson startled. He yanked his attention away from Yezi and before he could connect the voice to a face, scurried behind the nearby row of decorative pillars. A teacher walked by, stopped and stared for the count of a few blinks before continuing on with a shake of his head.

Jackson peeked over the edge of the pillar. Yezi was gone. He rushed out through the doors but Yezi was already gone.

On his way to the bike ramps, Jackson spotted BamBam walking across the track field.

"BamBam!" he shouted. No response.

Pursing his lips, he turned and dashed for his bike. After two unsuccessful attempts at unclasping the lock, he gave up and dashed after BamBam.

Jack