So I was on Pinterest, trying to get rid of this boredom I have right now and I decided to go through and find some nice writing prompts and maybe use one or two to do a short story as my post today. So here it goes!
Hayden sat in her class, listening to her teacher lecture to everybody about how important it was to do well on their next test plus be on their best behavior as the next day they were to have another teacher instead. Hayden usually paid attention to all of her studies, but it wasn’t her day. It wasn’t rainy or gloomy outside nor was it Monday, it was just one of those weird days that seemed to come a lot more often than they used to and as Hayden thought it was annoying in the beginning, now it was just becoming something she was getting used to on a normal basis. Hayden’s attention was what was going on outside their classroom in general. The windows had blinds on them as majority of the teachers like to keep them close, Mrs. Cloris didn’t. She liked to open hers as she found more students liked seeing the sunshine while they were busy working on their assignments. She even made a note to all of her subs to keep them open if there was a pretty day while she was gone. Hayden was looking out the window a lot more than she ever realized, even when she went home on the bus she didn’t stare out and escape for a bit like she was doing now.
After a while Mrs. Cloris started to notice that her favorite student was losing focus on her schoolwork. As keeping the blinds open were a great thing for some students, a lot of her students paid more attention to her and the assignments as it was brighter and too bright for them to fall asleep in the middle of, so it had a plus to it. “Ms. Jennings, could you please direct your attention back to the front of the class?” Mrs. Cloris said in a slow and comforting voice, which snapped Hayden back to reality. She looked back to the front and her neck started to hurt as she had her head in that position for half the class. She missed quite a few notes and the lecture. She knew if she was going to be able to pass that test tomorrow she’d have to shape up and forget about what she saw outside. Even though, just before the bell had rung and Mrs. Cloris let them out she took one more glance outside and even mouthed the words, “goodbye” before turning her attention towards Mrs. Cloris who was standing a couple of inches away from her and was stunned to watch her look out to nothing but the wall of the next part of the school next door. “What were you looking at out there, Hayden?” Mrs. Cloris said as she stopped her honor student as she was walking past her. “The old man on the black horse.” Hayden said in a soft voice. Mrs. Cloris was fascinated with what students saw when they looked at pictures and loved to read what they saw on writing assignments, but this wasn’t one of them. “You know there’s nothing out there sweetie.” Mrs. Cloris said to be the bear of bad news. “Not if you look passed the buildings, there’s a whole world on the other side.” Hayden said with a smile. She even waved to the window as Mrs. Cloris’ other students were walking in and sitting in the seats. A couple of the new kids sitting in their seats snickered and watched her give a little wave to the wall outside.
Hayden left her classes that day and immediately went to her locker where three boys were already waiting for her. Hayden knew all of the boys, not only were they the ones who laughed at her while they were coming into Mrs. Cloris’ class earlier and saw her wave at a man and his horse that nobody could see. She just needed to drop some books off and switch some books to put in her backpack to leave. The boys had another agenda, ask her about what kind of mental problems she has wrong with her. The first boy, Derek was a tall and slender, he had dark hair and blue eyes. He was definitely the ring leader and called all the shots. “So Hayden, are you seeing things now? Always knew the smart and nerdy ones had crazy sides to them.” Derek said as his friends around chuckled with him. “I’m not seeing things. You might be seeing things if you and your friends don’t back up away from me.” Hayden said in a stern voice, she wasn’t kidding either. She knew how to protect herself. “Oh! Seriously though, tell me we didn’t actually see you waving at the wall outside the window?” Derek’s friend said, who looked like she needed a shower just to untangle the strawberry blonde birds nest on the top of his head. “I think you guys were just seeing things.” Hayden tried to brush it off, but only because explaining to them wouldn’t do much for her credibility and the fact that she couldn’t hurt them as they were still inside the school in the first place. When she finally got her stuff inside her backpack, she sprinted out of there and ignored the three boys til their voices were just a memory.
Normally, she rode the school bus home, but she’s been very interested on the property next to the school. The land was located a couple of blocks by Mrs. Cloris’ classroom. She has been riding her bike to the property everyday after school. There were always tall grass, so she could store her bike in the mess of them and climb over the fence. From honor student to a girl who didn’t care about rules anymore. She always made sure nobody was around when she’d jump over but knew somebody was watching over her. Once she was over the fence, she’d walk a few miles to the spot that was the most beautiful to her. There was an abandoned barn and old rustic, but red truck. It had been made in the 50’s or 60’s because it had that old vibe to it everytime she touched it. She’d go inside the barn ever so gently, because her worst fear was that the barn would collapse on her at any point of time and she’d be trapped in the debris. The barn smelled off fresh hay and bird poop. It was an interesting combination since she had actually talked to the land owner before and he told her that nobody’s been inside that barn in years, but the family chooses to keep up. Hayden continues to walk inside and turns to one of the rooms, to where the old horses stables were, and there were old name plates still on the stables. “Jack,” “Patches,” and “Echo” were the three names still standing on the doors. The “Jack” stall door stood open like a horse had just gotten out and then the smell of a horse came behind her. “I see you got yourself in some trouble with your teacher.” a man’s voice said behind her as a large black horse walked up beside her.
According to reports she looked up online one day, an old couple lived out here by the barn for most of their lives with their horses, then a fire broke out in their house and it was while Todd was away. His wife was apparently taking a nap and didn’t know anything about the fire and ended up dying in the fire. He was so distraught about what happened that he didn’t even bother rebuilding their family house and just started sleeping in one of the unused stalls in the barn. They all say he died of a broken heart, but some of the family members kept trying to say he had bad asthma and had died of a heart attack instead. That same night, his trusty horse “Jack” had died by his side on the other side of the wall. After the funeral was over, the sold the other horse and didn’t go into the barn again. After Hayden’s first encounter with seeing Todd and his horse Jack while she was getting off the bus one morning, she saw an old man with a shovel just watching all of the students and waving to them. When she waved back he actually gave a smile back to her. She literally thought what everybody was thinking of her right now, that she was losing her mind. Ever since she’s been sneaking onto the property to spend some time with Todd and Jack after school. “It’s nothing like what the boys saw me do.” Hayden said to him as she turned around to look at him. “They saw me wave at you.” She said in a quiet voice. “You’re not going crazy dear, you can just see your guardian angel. You should feel lucky you can.” Todd said as he cupped his hands on her face.
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