❝Man is full of desires. He loves only those who can satisfy them all.❞
— Blaise Pascal.
It's not until the end of lunch that I receive a notification on my phone.
When I check it, I realise it's from Line. I feel a little relief rush through me as I read the message but it doesn't last long since I don't know how everything's going to happen. We haven't really met our group members outside the class on Saturday so it would obviously be difficult to coordinate with everyone. Moreover, it was Monday already and we had skipped the weekend time to discuss the choreography.
Line: Hey y'all I came up with something. I'll tell you about it after the afternoon classes so be in the studio a bit early. Thanks x.
Everyone in the groupchat seenzoned her. Before the afternoon classes began, Leo took the liberty of telling me that Line's finally talking and that the two of us should go there together right after the classes ended and I refused at first but now, here I was walking next to him to the studio. Leo's trying his best to try to talk to me but he eventually gives up when I refuse to give him replies with the same energy.
We went to our respective changing rooms. When I'm there, I find Line, Akira and Zia already there. Line and Akira are engaged in a hushed conversation so they don't notice me but Zia does. She looks at me and gives me a small smile before turning back to her bag.
I walk inside one of the stalls and change into my dance clothes. It's a simple black shorts and a grey coloured tank top. I take a minute to adjust my hair in a high ponytail before walking out. Freva is the only one here right now and it looks like she just entered the place. She looks at me and flashes a wide smile as a greeting before getting inside one of the stalls.
When I come back outside, almost everyone is here already. Zia is standing alone in the corner with her headphones on, Line is standing in front of the mirror tapping her foot against the floor, Zed, Remi and Akira are engaged in a conversation. Leo has just entered the room. I drop my bag in one of the corners and sit on the floor, cross legged while scrolling through my phone.
It takes about five minutes for Freva to come back out of the changing room. The moment she's here, Line's eyes flick up to her in the mirror and she claps her hand, turning to face us.
"Okay, hey," she says, "I'm really sorry for not contacting you guys over the weekend but right now, we've got about an hour before the class starts. I'll just explain how I've planned everything to go like and we'll all do our best, right?"
"Hey, superstar, quit being like a teacher and get to the point." Remi rolls his eyes. "You already wasted the whole Sunday and now you're pestering us all during our free time?"
"I'm sorry-"
"If you really want to spend the time apologising, then we can just meet up after the class," he says rudely and I don't blame him. I'm pretty sure half of them are thinking of the same thing. All Remi said is exactly what most of us are thinking. "Stop bossing around and just get on with it."
"I already said I'm sorry," Line says, her voice clearly telling us that she's offended.
"That's what I-"
"Hey, Line, isn't Sam coming? He should be coming," Akira interrupts, hoping to break off the conversation to something more important. It's then that I realise that the third member of Melpomene is not present here. I've only seen him twice - once during the evaluation and once during the group allotment on Saturday morning. That guy seemed to be quite a troublemaker. His attitude and body language screamed delinquent and I had no idea how he made it into this school like that. The first time I saw him, he had swollen eyes.
I'd spent an hour on Saturday to find the overall first year rankings of all our group members. He's one hundred and second among all of us, which means he's not exactly a bright student. Out of the twenty dance students, he had ranked seventh, which isn't pretty bad. I'm convinced he's accepted in terms of his dancing techniques and skills instead of academics. I wouldn't be surprised if his parents paid the school to raise his score.
"Who's Sam now?" Zed asks.
"He's the tall guy. The rude one," Leo replies.
"That's Remi," Zed says and earns a death stare from him, which he just shrugs off. "Who's the guy?"
Akira clicks her tongue in frustration. "He's our classmate and our teammate. How could you forget the name of a person who's your own teammate?"
"I've literally only met you guys once and you expect me to remember your bio datas?"
"Who said anything about biodatas? All I'm asking you is to remember our names. Is it that difficult to do?"
"Yes. It is. I don't want to remember the names of insignificant people like you."
"Guys!" Leo interrupts Akira and Zed, stepping between them. The two of them stop for a second, both throwing annoyed looks to him before resuming their argument. Leo sighs in frustration and raises his hands up as if saying that he comes in peace. "Can't we all just get along with each other?"
By now, Zia has put her headphones down and is glancing at them with a concerned look while Remi is standing at the back of the room, scrolling through his phone with an annoyed expression on his face. He looks like he's trying his best not to lash out at them. Freva, however, seems to be recording the argument with interest. She's interesting, I suppose, since not everyone would record someone while they're fighting instead of stopping them from ripping each other's throat.
"That's enough." Line's voice suddenly turns cold. "If you all are here to argue, I just won't put my idea forward. Will you be happy if we fail?"
"I'd honestly rather fail instead of working with these two rats at this point," I hear Freva mutter, her tone bored. "Just say it if you want to, Lane. If they want to listen, they will. If they don't, well, then," she shrugs, "Their loss, I guess."
"It will be our loss," Leo reminds her. "Do I have to remind you that we all would be graded over this?"
Freva shrugs. "It doesn't matter. If I go down, you all go down with me. What's the big deal?"
"Are you for real right now?"
If this goes on, no one will be able to do anything but blame each other. That's the point of this team up. I was wondering why they would give a group assignment this soon into the year but upon some thought, I did understand why.
But first, I need to break them all up.
With a sigh, I lift myself up and walk to the centre of the room where the four of them are bickering with each other. I would never step into shit like this but right now, I have no other option. They're wasting a lot of time.
"You," I keep my hand on Leo's shoulder, asking for his attention. He looks at me and raises his eyebrows. "Go there." I point towards one of the corners of the room.
"Seriously, Harley? What are you, my mom?" he asks me and I have a feeling that he is going to continue but I shoot him a look that makes him quiet. He quietly walks to the corner and slumps down, sulking.
"Now you," I point towards Freva and she looks at me with a confused look, "Keep your fucking phone aside before I break it and you go crying to your mommy."
"Joke's on you. I don't have a mommy."
"Great, then. I can break your face too then without the fear of having my ass busted." Her face drops. "Keep your phone aside and go stand on the other corner. If I see you making a remark right now, I'll kick you."
I don't know why, but my words seem to move her a little since she walks to the corner while complaining and muttering under her breath.
"Now, what do we do with the two of you?" I say as I walk towards Akira and Zed. I stand between them and my eyes dodge between their faces. "You, in that corner. And you, go with that short tempered buzzcut." They take a moment to process the situation but eventually they do move and walk to where I've asked them to.
"I'm not short tempered, by the way," Remi says.
"Did I ask?"
He doesn't reply and looks at his feet. I finally turn to Line, who's looking at me with an expression of awe.
"Do I have to send you out of the room or will you speak?"
She immediately steps forward and clears her throat, not sure where to begin. I make my way back to the place where I was sitting, feeling everyone's glare on me.
"Alright, okay," Line finally begins. "Sam's not here yet and I don't think he's going to come because... I don't know. I'll just explain it to him later. Anyways, our topic is spring. Like the season. The song I've chosen is 'River Flows In You'. Have you all heard about it?"
Of course. It's a common song, and one which people play on piano for practice. It's a good choice on Line's part but choreographing it with the concept of the season of spring, it will be a little difficult.
"What does that song have to do with spring?" Freva asks, her arms folded. "I mean, I don't see how the song even resembles the season. It's not related to spring. Is this what you were doing all weekend? Because it sucks."
"Hey, hear me out, okay?" Line says. "I'll explain it to you. Do any of you get what I'm trying to say?"
"You haven't explained anything," Remi mutters.
Right then, Zia raises her hand. At first, no one notices her but eventually, Zed looks at her and raises his eyebrows. "Hey, she wants to say something," he announces and everyone looks at her, waiting for her to speak. Even though I wait for her, she doesn't speak. Instead, she makes some gestures with her hand, her face showing the desperation of what she wants to say. I recognise it as sign language.
Oh, the realisation hits me out of nowhere. Zia's mute.
"Hey, use your mouth," Akira snaps.
"She can't." Freva sighs. "She's mute."
"Oh," Akira says, guilt washing over her face. "I'm sorry."
Zia sighs in frustration and looks like she's about to storm out of here but instead, she takes out her phone and begins typing. All our phones ping collectively. I see Freva glance at me before taking her phone out.
Hi. she writes in the groupchat. I think I understand what Line means. Can I try to explain it?
She looks over at Line, who just nods with a smile.
Zia: River Flows In You is a piano piece that depicts how two people can fall in love with each other. One of the reasons why it's popular is that it's a piece that connects with the listener. I think the concept Line came up with is pretty complicated to understand. I think she represented winter and spring as lovers. Winter is harsh and cold, but then spring comes and takes its pain away. When the snow melts, spring takes over. They only meet for a brief time period and have their roles to play and are opposite to each other and yet, winter waits for the arrival of spring and sacrifices itself and spring comes to put an end to its suffering.
Zia: I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense. I didn't know how else to put it in words.
My eyes go over to Zia after I finish reading it and I see her looking at me instead. When she notices that I'm looking at her, she looks back at her phone and I'm left to wonder why she was staring at me. In the next minute, the people in the room process and go over her explanation. Line finally sighs.
"Yes," she finally says. "Zia's right. That's what I mean. I want to represent two individuals as spring and winter."
"That's okay and all but you're telling me that we're going to do this complicated concept and present it on Friday?" Remi scoffs. "Yeah, we're failing."
"Remi, she knows what she's saying," I say, getting annoyed by now, "Stop complaining unless you have a better idea."
"Okay, hold the fuck up." He turns to me. "Who the fuck are you to speak? Okay, I get that you're the first ranker but that doesn't define you. Stop acting like you're superior."
"Is this what it's about? Because if that's the case, you're being really whiny right now."
"No, shut up! Why are all of you so- so-"
I sigh, getting up from my place and brushing my clothes. I walk up to him, making eye contact but he doesn't seem shaken. No one in the room stops me as I approach him with an expressionless face. "Let me guess, you wanted the leadership role. You've always wanted it and judging by your attitude right now, you're not used to it at all. Your ego is hurt that you weren't chosen for the choreography because you're just too used to bossing around instead of actually cooperating for once."
When I finish, there's pin drop silence in the room. No one's moving or saying anything and I know that whatever I said was absolutely right.
Then, in a split second, Remi steps towards me, grabbing my wrist. I flinch a little, the pain from my previous injury still significant enough to make me feel something. However, I still keep my composure as he tries to twist it.
"Hey, hey, hey, what the fuck?" Leo says as he steps forward to stop him and processing the situation for a few moments, the others step towards us too in panic.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Remi snaps. "You don't get to say stuff like that and get away with it."
He's mad and I do the most unexpected thing ever. I lean in and a deadly look on my face. Looking into his eyes, I see what my words have done to him and I feel the satisfaction rush through me. "Get your hands off me."
"You really think I'll let you get away with this, huh?" He turns to face the others that are walking towards us. "If either of you guys step between us, I'll-"
"I said get your fucking hands of me," I whisper, my expression dropping and I see him hesitate. When he doesn't let go of my hand, I sigh. "You know what? Go ahead and break it. Do it. The camera's right there and you'll get expelled for anything you do to me."
Even after saying this, he doesn't let go of me. His grip tightens instead and his eyes suddenly fall at my arm, widening. I follow his gaze and realise that he's looking at the series of scars on that arm, some faint and some deep, as if I hurt myself recently. His grip falters suddenly, and just when he's about to leave me, a new voice echoes throughout the room.
"So, you're gonna hold a girl even when she asked you to let go of her?"
Remi immediately drops my hand and all eyes move towards the person who's leaning against the doorframe. He looks like he's just a little taller than me and has warm ivory coloured skin. His features are sharp and soft at the same time, if that's possible. His hair is light brown and curly and his eyes are focused on Remi.
"Well?" he says again. His expression is serious and his eyes are neutral as he begins to walk towards us. "What was your name again?"
Remi doesn't answer.
"Sam, where the hell were you?" Akira asks him. She's trying to break them apart already because she knows that a fight could break out any moment now.
Sam holds up his hand as if telling her to stay quiet for a while. "Let me finish up here real quick," he says to her and then turns back, switching on his phone. "You knew there was a camera in here but you still did what you did because you know they won't be checking all the cameras at once."
He turns the mobile screen towards Remi. It's a small video of the scene that happened here.
"But if I send this to the school, what's the guarantee that they won't check it and suspend you for at least a week?"
Remi swallows and looks at me, an unfamiliar expression on his face.
"Don't look at her, look at me," Sam snaps. "If you do anything like this ever again, I'll just send this to the authorities."
"You wouldn't." Remi tries to sound confident but even a kindergarten student would tell that he's acting and is doing a damn bad job at it.
"Are you challenging me?"
Remi says nothing then and walks towards his bag, grabbing it and muttering a little 'Forget it' to himself. No one says anything till he's out and the sound of his footsteps begin to fade away.
Breathing out, Sam looks at me, his eyes holding the same expression as before. "You okay?" I see his eyes trail down that arm, looking at the scars and I know that's why he's asking me that.
"Yeah," I reply.
"You're welcome."
I don't say anything.
Freva clears her throat. "I think we should, you know, meet up after the mandatory classes or something? Like, at least we know the concept of the act now, right?"
Line nods. "Yeah, cool. We still have half an hour before the classes begin." She pauses. Looks at Sam. "Did you read Zia's text?"
He nods. "That's why I was here in the first place. Is that what you all are going to do?"
"Yes."
He shrugs. "I don't really get the cheesy concept. If y'all are okay with it, I'm good."
"Okay, then," Line says, "We'll just resume at six. I'll see you all later."
After throwing me a last look, Sam exits the room as well. I suddenly feel tired and light but manage to walk to where my bag is and drink some water, the small feeling of panic that had developed in my chest fading away as I count in my mind and try to stay calm and focused.
I walk outside the spare studios and sit alone, scrolling through my phone while waiting for the time to go by so that the class begins.
The little excitement I felt over the weekend for the assignment is nowhere to be found anymore. Our team is scattered and not fit to perform together yet. Moreover, the interaction inside has created some unwanted tensions between all of us.
I don't think anyone else has realised the motive behind assigning a group assignment right at the beginning of the year.
I won't break this to them just yet, though. There's no way I'll break this to them now. If they figure it out on their own, then that's their gain.
I let out a breath.
Till then, I had many other more important things to do.
Author's Note
i think this chapter was the longest till now lmao
thanks to everyone who's reading amber eyes & ty for almost 900 reads i'm so happy bro like-
anyways. tell me what you think about this chapter and all the new characters in the comments!
pls vote and comment <3
— evy