Rin and the Raccoon . two

Sorry for being away last week! my friend wanted so concept art drawn for his music video animation (written and animated by himself (he’s pretty talented!) But I’ve come up with more Rin and the Raccoon.

If you missed the last one, you can grab it:

here: https://wordpress.com/post/literatureandwarmcoats.wordpress.com/267

(It’s all updated and everything.)

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy! xoxo

“Rin, Rin, did you see any?”

Mei comes running down the school hallway, coloured in a yellow coat; it shimmers with each step she takes.

“Rin?”

She pulls up next to Rin; they are both looking a little tired, but exuberant. Rin turns around, a little dejected and wistful, rubbing her eye with her sweater’s sleeve.

“Huh.” She pauses. “No, my dad made me go to sleep early, so I couldn’t get my wish.” Rin looks at the ground a little disappointed, even going as far as playing with the ends of her fingers.

“That sucks.”

Rin looks up again, smiling a little, “Did you?”

“No.” Mei lowers her head. “I had to go to bed too.”

Rin raises her arms apologetically.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait until next year.” She pauses, “Or the year after?”

“I don’t want to wait that long,” Mei sulks, folding her arms over a little. “I want to have a wish.”

“What would you wish for?” Rin asks.

Mei shrugs her shoulders, then as if rehearsed, “Probably a little dog. I’ve wanted one for ages, but my parents won’t let me.”

Mei’s always wanted a dog, although sh’d probably bore of it after a while.

“Yeah?” Rin raises her tone a little near the end.

Honestly, Mei is pretty brash, and Rin wouldn’t normally make friends with her, but she was persistent and they have a common connection over the lost of a sibling. Mei’s sister died when she was too little to remember most of it, but It was something, at least.

“What would you wish for?”

Rin looks for the bell, feeling dishearten and expectant, not really wanting to think about her brother any more than she needs to.

“I…”

The bell rings and Rin jumps a little, still off put by the waving creature from the night before.

“Let’s go to class,” Rin says, pulling on Mei’s coat.

“Okay, but you’ve got to tell me when we get there.”

“Yeah.”

They walk through the tunnelling halls, shattered with thin, veiled walls and thatched windows that glow with the morning sun. Long shadows etch their way around the corridor, peeling off the children’s faces, siphoning them down towards their classroom.

“So, what would you wish for?”

Rin thinks about her dad.

“My dad gave me a wish so…”

“Wait,” Mei pulls Rin aside. “Your dad gave you a wish?”

“Yeah, he said he’d watch the Soots and give it to me.”

“Adults can do that?”

Rin shrugs her shoulders, “I don’t know really. I hope I got it.”

“Do you think my parents could get me one?”

“Hello kids, come in.” Their teacher, long and feeble, almost like the trees that crown in the windows in front of them, waves them into the classroom. “How are you doing this morning?”

Mei raises a thumb while Rin nods.

“Take your seats and we’ll start when everyone else gets here.”

Rin walks up the aisle, carefully moving her body to stop herself from bumping into the chairs and students that collect in ordered lines.

When she reaches her desk, she unpacks her bags and sits, staring out the window for a while. She looks over at Mei, who’s casually drawing in the side of her notebook.

Rin smiles, blissfully hoping to see that creature again, anything to get her away from this place. It’s not that she didn’t like it, but she just wants to explore and get away from it all for a while. Being eight can really take its toll on a little body that doesn’t want to partake.

“Alright class.” Rin continues to look out the window. “Turn to page…”

She looks up at the windows and over the harrowingly empty baseball field and across, to the uncomfortably settled mountains that span around the town. She thinks about them for a while, dipping in and out of her teachers voice, all the while watching from the school’s hilltop view; she thinks of them as the sun scratches across the sky, leaving cloudy trails in its wake.