g i v e n . h o p e

[alyson marie swan*]

a ly s o n . m a r i e . s w a n

The sweet nineteen year old made her way to the courtyard. Her coat was smug against her body as she walked along the sidewalk almost through the two wide gates, making where the courtyard started. The sun was shinning bright and i warmed her a little. A dream day for Alyson Swan. Her footsteps were as light as a feather every step she made and her eyes full of life. Her auburn hair dropped past her shoulders and her face was a little cold from the breeze slapping against her face as she walked. Almost like always you could see a small grin hiding behind her lips that were calm and pursed together. Alyson made her way through the two gates and wasn't sure what she was going to do in the courtyard, but would find something to amuse her.

The grass was moist was the morning mist sprayed all over each piece of grass blade so carefully. It was early and Alyson liked being in the courtyard so early where the sun within minutes would rise and student's alarm clocks would go off and student's would get to their classes. Alyson worked at a small diner, but today was her only day off this month, besides the weekends of course. The breeze pushed her hair into her face slightly and she swiftly pushed her small curls behind her ears. There was a bench not to far away and she let out a grateful sigh. The bench sounded like a perfect thing to do while she just simply admired everything around her. No, Alyson wasn't overly happy it was just she had to live life to the fullest. Having cancer and being examed every six weeks made things hard... even harder when the doctors said maybe you could manage a few more years.

Alyson closed her eyes in pain, her grandfather said before he died to her 'life was always fair in the end' and she knew darn well it wasn't. The girl quickly banished her memories from her mind and didn't want to think about that now, not while she could live. She found herself now at the light brown bench that seemed to be welcoming even if it looked cold from the weather. It suprised her to see it wasn't wet from the morning moisture but it only made her delightful grin spread on her lips. Alyson sat down and put her hands on her lap closing her eyes... enjoying the nice moment.

[lauri kristopher hakala]

Lauri knew a lot about pain. Emotional and physical, they seemed to stalk him at every turn, at home, at school, at work. His every waking moment seemed to be comprised of parents who ignored him, classmates who hated him and workmates who despaired of him. He trudged miserably towards the school gates, shivering against the cold, his head low in an attempt to avoid attention. He always took this route, despite the knowledge of who would most likely be waiting for him, he tried his best to get there as early as possible to try and avoid them, but by the look of the various bruises across his face, that rarely seemed to work.

He raised his head slightly in surprise when he saw that the courtyard was not yet full to bursting with rowdy teens as it usually was, instead there was only one person sitting, a girl that he did not recognize. His first instinct was to get inside out of the cold, but as he approached the doors he heard the muffled sound of voices inside, shuddering as he recognized a few of them, this altogether shattering his plan to get out of the cold. He would choose frostbite over a bloody nose any day.

He instead turned to the bench that the girl was currently sitting on, a thought occured to him that he might as well stick around there for a while, maybe wait until the place got more crowded and try to make his way inside then, try and lose himself in the masses of people. He cringed slightly, not really good when confronted with strangers, as he wasn't particularly confident to begin with. He made his way slowly across the courtyard, absent-mindedly messing the strap on his shoulder bag as he stopped in front of the other, biting his lip slightly. 'Um...' he looked down at his feet, 'I-is it okay if I sit here?...'