The Great Thief
School had been long as usual. During Study Hall, Ariel had managed to complete the Math homework she had managed to neglect the night before.
As lunch came, Ariel met up with Kayden who, having come from the Chemistry lab, had a small burn on her shirt.
They waited in the line and ate their food. Math and English dragged on, as per norm.
Then, finally, the sound that students and teachers alike pray to hear.
The Final Bell.
The students packed up their things and began to escape from the imprisonment known as school.
Ariel waited outside the school gates, waiting for Kayden.
She came running up to her.
"Sorry, damn teacher had to talk to me about something," Kayden sighed "ready to go?"
Ariel nodded "but I have to be back by 6. Family coming in at 7."
Kayden looked down at her watch.
4:13
"Well, that gives us about an hour and a half between being at my place and leaving," Kayden said "so we better hustle. Did you pick up your painting?"
Ariel's shocked face revealed the answer.
"5 minutes?" Ariel pleaded.
"Until I leave," Kayden replied.
Ariel immediately dashed off into the school.
~:|:~
As Ariel ran towards the Art room, she noticed how the school seemed so different when nobody was around. The halls were silent and the air was empty. A calming quiet was tied with a deafening silence as it enveloped Ariel's senses.
Ariel continued to run towards her destination, and upon arriving she saw something surprising.
A man in a black burglar outfit and mask was approaching Ariel's painting with a gold scalpel.
Ariel opened the door quietly and crept into the room, hoping her initial impression of the masked figure were incorrect.
'Please say he's from the Drama club,' Ariel begged.
"Time to see what's underneath," the man said as he raised the scalpel, ready to plunge it into Ariel's work.
Ariel suddenly switched into protection mode and sprinted across the room, jumping over the man's head, landing on the crown of his head. As she leapt off, she forced them man to fall forward, Ariel expertly grabbed the painting whilst in the air and moved swiftly to the window. Ariel opened the window and swung one leg over, she looked back at the rising figure.
He looked up with determined eyes.
"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.
"I'm the fricking artist, and stealing is where I draw the line," Ariel smiled.
The man stared at her with an odd glare.
"Wow," he said "how fake are you?"
"Actually," she countered "people often say I'm too real."
And with that Ariel swung her other leg over and ran to the front gates, where Kayden stood with an impatient look on her face.
Ariel glided past.
"Let's move!" she said, not stopping.
Kayden began to run after her.
"Mind telling me why we're running?" Kayden asked "y'know running is a pain."
"There was some guy trying to steal my painting and I knocked him onto the floor, so I'm hoping that by running we can avoid having a reunion," Ariel explained.
"How the hell are you able to talk and run at the same time without caring?" Kayden puffed "how fit are you exactly?"
Ariel shrugged "you're the state champion runner. How are you so unfit?"
"I can run, I just don't enjoy it," Kayden said.
"But you fly down the track like it's nothing," Ariel countered.
"That's right. I don't run, I fly," Kayden said.
Ariel stopped talking, taking in what Kayden was actually saying. She wasn't talking about running.
Ariel looked forward.
Burke Avenue*
'Burke Avenue. So, to Kayden's house is two lefts and then it's the sixth on the left,' Ariel remembered.
She looked back to check on her friend, however, Kayden was nowhere to be found. Ariel stopped and looked around. Both confused and worried.
'What if that guy got her?' Ariel thought 'he steals and damages painting, who's to say he won't do the same to Kayden?'
"Looking for someone Miss?" a voice asked.
"Yeah," Ariel said, somewhat absentmindedly "I'm looking for my friend. She's this tall. Brown hair. Blue eyes. Her name's Kayden."
"Hmmm, she sounds like a very [giggle] beautiful," the voice said with pride.
Ariel stopped looking around and turned around and looked to the figure on top of the signpost saying Burke Avenue.
Kayden was standing, tall and proud, on top of the sign like she was Queen of the World.
"I swear you're part monkey," Ariel shook her head "how do you get to these places."
"Evolution baby," Kayden said, gracefully jumping back down to the ground "something you've to understand. Nun."
"I'm not of any faith, I just don't grasp the concept of evolution," Ariel said, continuing towards Kayden's house "I don't think the answer to our existence can be answered by one theory. And whether it be evolution or genesis; the way we came to be always seems to be decided by a man."
Ariel walked at a steady pace, allowing Kayden to quickly catch up to her.
"Oh come on, if there were a God then why would He send down such crap on His creations?" Kayden argued "he wouldn't. But if there was no God then everything could be a simple matter of fate."
Ariel sighed.
"Everyone spaces Religion and Science so far apart, maybe if you worked together you might get an answer," Ariel countered "besides, both ideas are pretty farfetched. On side says, we were made as we are by an Almighty being; although it's questionable when looked in to, after intensive years of argument and study we still can't say whether He exists or not. Another side says, we were originally bacteria that basically mutated into monkeys, which mutated into us and gave it a nice name; one guy decided this and nobody could find a real fault. But what about people with deformities? Did their 'evolution' try again and fail? Or did some almighty force decide that as a child must be restricted before it's born? If you ask me, they both have a lot to answer for."
Kayden looked at her with a questioning gaze.
"What are you exactly?" she asked.
Ariel then licked her hand like a cat "well, from my analysis, I do believe I'm human."
Kayden stared at her for moment and then laughed. Ariel soon joined in.
Kayden then looked under Ariel's arm.
"Hey, I almost forgot. You ran all the way here with that painting," Kayden pointed out.
Ariel looked down at her 'masterpiece'.
"Yeah," Ariel blushed "I actually forgot about it and nearly dropped it."
Kayden looked at her and then moved forward, they took a left.
Without realising it, they had arrived at their destination.
Kayden put the key into her door and turned, allowing entry into her domain.
"Hello! I'm home! Ariel's here!" Kayden called up the stairs "we'll be in the kitchen!"
Kayden motioned for Ariel to follow her. She lead them into the kitchen, Kayden went to the fridge as Ariel found a seat.
"You can leave your painting on the table," Kayden said "just make sure you don't forget it again."
"Well, I doubt it'll get stolen, as I recall the last time someone tried to rob you, you punched them in the nose and bit his shoulder until he bled and went away almost in tears," Ariel remembered the details of the story.
"It was nothing really," Kayden said.
"You were 9," Ariel argued.
"He thought there was something valuable in my toy box," Kayden countered "he made it personal not me."
Ariel had to laugh at the argument "no burglar has come to your house since."
"I don't care if they take most of the stuff in this place," Kayden waved "but if it's in my room or the TV, it's essentially a declaration for war."
Ariel laughed. She looked down to her painting. She honestly thought it was the best she'd ever done. Its only challenger would be, perhaps, the Angel of Hope. Ariel smiled calmly. The Angel of Hope and this, all that she hadn't named it yet, were so synchronised.
"So, any thought as to what you're going to call it?" Kayden asked. Ariel continued to look down at the painting. She began to squint in a way that meant she was looking for something. Kayden began to look for what Ariel was looking for.
"What is it babe?" Kayden asked, taking her attention away from the painting.
"That's not mine," Ariel said, Kayden looked surprised "this is isn't my painting."