At A Game of Chess

VII

The next day I saw her again. She wore a dark grey shirt and jeans. But today, she carried a badminton racket. "You play badminton?" I asked nervously under my breath.

"Oh yea, but I'm not good though." I can tell from her tone that she almost felt insecure about it.

Curious, I persisted, "what team are you on?"

"Oh, Frosh and soph." She replied with a lower tone than before.

At that moment, my brain fogged, I didn't know what to say. I practically came up with the most generic yet encouraging comment I can think of, "that's pretty good you know."

No response. Was she mad at me? I only tried to make a conversation with her about her sport. If she doesn't even like the sport, then why even play it? I felt my heart sink.

Guilty.

I felt guilty for interrogating her and I felt even worse for trying to reason with my guilt. It is clear that I was being insensitive because of her and that is why she didn't respond.

This girl was completely different from the girl I met on the first day of school. That girl spoke, reacted, and initiated. This girl was quiet, dry, and mellow. How can someone change so much within the span of a day?

I looked at her and she looked up from her phone. She didn't let our eyes meet. Confused yet flustered at the same time, I quickly turned away. The group fell into silence. Not one sound passed by as we all continued to work on our packets. Alas, our silence was interrupted by the bell. Never have I been so thankful for a siren-like sound indicating the end of the first period. Yet the sound didn't put an end to our silence.

We packed up quietly and parted ways at the door. Third period rolled around and I saw her again. This time she walked into the room with her table mates. I looked at her with a slightly nervous feeling creeping up from behind me. Nothing happened. I don't know what I should have been expecting but I felt so defeated at that moment. It felt like someone just broke my first line of defense and took my knight.