Hope Is Mine (A Stalker Story)

Chapter 25

(A/N: Because we're all fed up in Hope's POV)

Denver's POV 

"You're Diana's younger brother, aren't you? Though you look very different from her." Mrs. Rose, a 12 grade math teacher, asked me. She carries her bag on her shoulder as she steps out of the room.

Even though I want to correct her, I have no interest on prolonging out conversation. My parents and my sister all have red hair. I'm actually the only one in our family with a black hair, which is unnatural. I just dye my hair black for some random reasons.

"Y-Yeah." I forced a smile on my lips, however my green eyes lack any positive emotion, resulting for the teacher in front of me to drop her smile and gaze suspiciously at me with concern.

"Are you getting enough sleep, young man?" She asked, out of a sudden. I nodded quickly. Despite of not believing at my answer, she sighed in distress, knowing that there's no way she will squeeze out sincere answers from me. "You sure you're not leaving yet?"

Walking out of the classroom, I carefully carry the 2 boxes containing various school equipment, on my arms. "I sure am, ma'am. Most volunteers had already gone home and yet there are still a lot of things to fix in here."

She cocked her head as she placed a hand on her hip. "If you really want to help, then I won't stop you. Still, thanks for everything. I'm looking forward to be your teacher next year, Mr. Freeman." She stated, turning around to leave. "Ah! and say hello to your sister for me." She added.

"O-Of course." I replied in a haste then head quickly to the school's laboratory. There are still 5 students inside the lab, cleaning and arranging the whole room. I've seen their faces before but I've decided to just ignore them and do what I have to do. I walk over in front of an empty rack. Placing the boxes gently onto the floor, I started to remove the tools inside the first box, putting them neatly to the rack.

"Ahh. It seems like we've been cleaning this room since forever." I heard one female student complained. I didn't bother looking at her as I was busy doing my own business. "Stop complaining and just do it." A guy said.

The graduation ceremony for the seniors had happened yesterday and officially, the school year has ended and vacation starts. For a mean time, as most teachers will be gone, school staffs and volunteer students are all worked up, cleaning the whole school.

"Eh!? I didn't volunteer just to clean for the whole day. I just want to see this year's valedictorian. I thought he'll be here." The same girl complained, making me raised an eyebrow in annoyance.

"Well honey, that's too bad for you. Now, for Pete's sake, stop complaining and do your freaking job." A different girl snapped.

"I'm not getting paid for this." The girl frets; I catch a glance of her at my peripheral vision, wiping a cabinet with a cloth.

"Are you all talking about Clifford Winchester? Man, I saw his speech last night on the school's page and what he did was pretty an awesome job." A guy, whose deep voice was familiar to me, said. I look at him for awhile and I've realized that he was a classmate of mine. "Though, he looked somehow stressed and did you notice how inconvenient he was while raising his left arm?" He added.

I clasp the rack under my trembling hands. Why do they have to talk about him? Frankly, my guess is that, out of all students who were ecstatic about the vacation and how smoothly the graduation went, I was the only one who's stressing out and very unhappy about it. How could I possibly enjoy the fact that someone who's very important to me is still missing.