Strings Attached

~PROLOGUE~

To a woman so 'Heartless'

How could you be so heartless?

Oh

How could you be so heartless?

She gets up and straightens from her stooping posture, and our eyes meet for a second. I give her a lopsided grin and she turns away quickly, ready to go out of the room. I wanna laugh out loud to that, but I keep quiet, strumming my guitar. She is in a hurry to run away, and that's almost all the response I can get out of her at my song. If I have to win that bet (which by the way would be for her benefit too) I'll need to make her fall for me by the end of the month.
And making her speak to me or even say my name and all that seems a far-away dream right now. But, I'm determined to accomplish my task, and I'll do it. It's my reputation at stake here, people! So I sing again to her increased chagrin.

How could you be so

Cold as the winter wind when it breeze yo

At this point, she finally packs up her bag and runs out of the room, making me laugh to myself. I sing the last line louder than necessary for emphasis, without Mrs. Judy suspecting anything. As I said earlier, she really is a dear!

(Hidayah Ali)

God! That was my favorite song......until now, humph! Calling me heartless, hunh! I just don't understand the idiot's problem. I don't want to make any scene, that's why I avoid giving him any response. As far as I know about guys, they are response-hungry. Call me an ice-queen, but I won't stoop low and give that boy a reaction! And that's a promise I've made to myself. The more I keep away from him, the better! His personality screams 'bad news', from even far-off.

I've never encountered anybody who could sing like him. It was such a 'deep and stirring the heart strings' kind of voice. Gosh! And it will haunt me for a long, long time, I know that for a fact. Still, I'll try not to give way to his attentions because I know he doesn't mean well by giving me those looks and sugary smiles. I don't want to become still another one of his rag dolls.

Ya Allah! Help me.

I bet he opened the window knowingly just to detain me a bit longer, even though he was aware that the weather was quite windy today. I'll have to get all my notes in order now. Tedious task! I feel like cursing him but I'll just let it pass for once. I'm not in the mood to dirty my tongue with bad words. I might save it for some other chance, because I don't think he'll stop annoying me that easily. And that teacher, Mrs. Judy, until now I liked her. But, she didn't even say anything to stop him, clever woman. After all, he's the apple of her eye, I could just see it from the way he played with her.

I'm just looking forward to the day I leave this place, and him, forever.

I grab my stuff and get out to the wide balcony on the floor which houses the library and Mrs. Judy's room. It was getting too stuffy for me, anyway. I feel like I need some air. Slowly, I make my way downstairs to my locker heaving a big sigh of relief. I push all my notes into it, deciding to arrange them some other time. The bell has rung for the next class. Right now, I have Psychology, and I'm running extremely late. Mr. Jameson hates tardiness.

When I reach the classroom in record one minute, Mr. Jameson is just beginning his lecture. I quickly sneak inside without getting seen and make my way towards Caroline's desk. "Ms. Ali, you don't need to lie low, I've already spotted you," the teacher informs me. Da**! I get up and try to shake off some imaginary dust from my abaya. "Sorry sir," I tell him in a low voice. "I had been detained by another teacher." And it's true, although indirectly... maybe.