Lachlan
Everyone is staring at me like I have two heads when I enter the hall. Which is fair, considering I probably look like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards. My hair, which was neat before I left my new house today, is now a mess thanks to the wind and rain and I'm pretty certain I have a leaf on my cheek. I run my fingers across my damp skin and, yup, a leaf.
My new teacher, Miss Maureen, starts talking to the class but I'm not really listening. I look around the hall to try and familiarize myself with the people in it. There are six other students, three boys and three girls who are scattered all over the hall, stood by their swords.
The first girl nearest me has brown hair that's so dark it almost looks black. It's slicked back into a low ponytail. She's got wide, brown eyes and she's quite pale. She has a teal tank top on and black shorts. The girl behind her is smaller, pale and her brown hair is folded into a long braid that runs down her back. Like the girl in front of her, she is also wearing a tank top but hers is a light purple. Her eyes look grey from under her purple framed glasses.
Behind her is a guy with brown hair that isn't all that different from mine. He's tall, intimidating almost. He's looking down, fiddling with his blue T-shirt. The guy on the bench at the back, who I suppose is Aaron, has hair that's a dirty blonde colour and his eyes are a dull green.
The third guy is stood slightly in front of the brown-haired girl and boy, has dark green eyes and hair so dark it looks black. He has a similar blue shirt to the other guy, which makes me realise; everyone here is very coordinated.
Then, there's her.
She's... stunning. Her hair looks like it's on fire in the light, and it's tied in a high ponytail. Her green eyes shine in the light as she glares at what I'm hoping is her teacher and not me. Like the two other girls, she's also wearing a tank top, only this time in red. I wonder if it's a trend until I realise there's a logo on the back. Oh, it's uniform. Once I realise I'm staring, I tear my eyes away from her and stare at the floor.
"Would you like to introduce yourself?" Miss Maureen says from beside me.
"Oh, sure." I reply. "Um, I'm Lachlan and I'm from Canada." It's very simplistic and reminds me that I'm the new kid here. I push that thought to the back of my mind as Miss Maureen speaks again.
"Great, if you want to take a seat beside Aaron," She nods towards the back of the hall and Aaron gives a little wave. "In the meantime, I'll decide if I'm going to get you both to borrow swords from someone and do them after." She smiles at me as I turn away. "The rest of you, just normal two-and-one!"
I make my way towards the end of the hall as Miss Maureen starts the music. I sit down beside Aaron with a quiet hello.
"So, you're Canadian?" Aaron asks me after a moment of silence.
"Yeah, Toronto." I smile.
"Woah," Aaron replies. "That's a pretty big change."
I nod as I think about the busyness back home in Toronto versus the quietness here, in Lochmartin. I mean, I didn't think Inverness was all that busy when we landed at the airport, but this is so much quieter.
"What's the population of this place?" I ask. I'm sure there's got to be around a thousand. Maybe less.
"Seven hundred? Maybe?" Aaron shrugs, "It's a small town, everyone knows everyone, and everyone knows everyone's business. Watch out for that." He warns.
"Oh, thanks." I smile. I open my mouth to speak until I hear a clatter. I look over to see the girl with the braid trying to correct her swords mid-dance.
"Stay inside that box, Mirren!" Miss Maureen yells. "Good points, Mhairi."
My eyes stray towards the girl at the front, her ponytail swinging with every move. Mhairi. Her name is Mhairi.
"She's beautiful, right?" Aaron says from beside me. I turn to see a wide smirk across his face.
"Oh, uh," I hesitate. "Which one."
"I mean, all of them are pretty, I guess, but I meant Dawn." He says, nodding towards the girl in the teal.
"Yeah, she seems nice," I say, but my eyes look back to Mhairi and the concentration on her face as she finishes the dance.
"That was good guys. Take five." Miss Maureen smiles. "Actually, Mirren. I'd like to talk to you." She adds. The girl with the braid, who must be Mirren, sighs and nods. My eyes keep following Mhairi though. It's like they're glued to her. She's gorgeous.
Just then, the two other boys make their way over to the bench we're on. Well, one does. The other one makes his way over to the two girls, who I suppose are Mhairi and Dawn, and says "Pretty sure I heard your swords move a little during that, right, Mhairi?"
"Ha-freaking-ha." Mhairi says, her voice soft and extremely sarcastic. "That wasn't even me. That was Mirren." She protests.
"Shouldn't you know that Ross, since you're looking at her all the time?" Dawn jumps in. I hear Aaron snicker from beside me. And apparently, so does Ross.
"Oh, shut up Aaron. I'll stab you with your sword, oh wait," he pauses. "You forgot them."
"Why are you always picking fights? Plus, we've got a new kid here and you're being rude." The other guy, whose name I don't know, chimes in and gives me a supportive smile.
"No change there." Dawn scoffs, taking a sip out of her water bottle.
"Of course, you're being a people-pleaser, Harris." Ross rolls his eyes.
"He's right, mind you." A new voice is added into the conversation. "He's not going to want to come back next lesson, thanks to you. Eejits."
The girl, who I think is Mirren, rolls her eyes as Ross mutters an apology.
"It's not me you should be apologising to, but never mind." She shakes her head and then turns in my direction. "Hi, I'm Mirren." She smiles as she stretches her arm out. I shake her hand as I introduce myself.
"Lachlan." I reply, "It's nice to meet you."
She nods in agreement. "Since no one else here knows how to introduce themselves, I'll have to do it for them."
I smile as she continues, "That's Dawn, Mhairi, Ross, Harris and I'm assuming you know Aaron."
"Hell yeah, we're best friends." Aaron replies, smugly. "Right, Lachlan?"
"Sure," I say, trying to hide my amusement, but it doesn't really work.
I make a mental note and match the names to the faces. Dawn is the dark-haired one in the teal, Mirren is the one with glasses, Ross is the tall one, Harris is the one with black hair and Mhairi is the one in red. She looks good in red.
"Wait a minute," Harris says, pausing to look around. "Where's Miss M?"
Everyone takes a minute to look around. Another spell of silence falls over the group of us but once again it's quickly broken; this time by Aaron.
"Meh, what cake does she want at her funeral?" He smirks.
"Hm, I'm not sure, Aaron. But when I do die, you are certainly not invited to my funeral." Miss Maureen says, spawning from nowhere and Aaron's smirk is wiped clean off his face.
Half an hour has passed by and a hundred shuffles later, my legs feel like they're away to give out. It's not like I'm not used to this much physical exertion, Marlin - my old teacher - used to push me just as hard as Miss Maureen. but when you're, like me, jet-lagged from a ten-and-a-half-hour flight and running off no more than two hours of sleep; you feel borderline dead.
I take a seat on the bench where the rest of the boys are sat and envy everyone that has a water bottle to hand. I was so worried about being late to class, which I was, I forgot to bring a water bottle.
"Hey," I ask quickly. "What time does this lesson end?"
"Half seven," Harris answers quietly, his eyes flicking to me and then to the clock and then back to me. "So, we have fifteen minutes."
"Thanks," I smile. I've noticed that Harris is quiet, only speaking up when he needs to. It makes me wonder how he's such good friends with Ross and Aaron who, in comparison, are complete opposites to him.
Just then, Mhairi approaches, water bottle in hand. She picks up Ross' jumper that marks 'his spot' on the bench and dumps it on the floor. She sits down where the jacket previously sat and crosses her legs. She looks me up and down. "Have you not got any water?" She asks.
"Oh, no." I reply, rubbing the back of my neck. "I forgot it in the haste of moving everything, you know?"
"Not really." She shrugs. Stands up. "Follow me." And I do.
I begin to follow her away from the main hall but as she makes her way to one of the doors at the end of the hall I pause.
"Where are we going?" I ask, my eyes flicking back to Miss Maureen who's currently lecturing Ross and Aaron who were seeing who could leap the highest at the end of their Seann Triubhas. "We might miss the next dance."
"Calm down," she giggles and God, it's an amazing sound. "Just trust me, alright?" She opens the door and leads us into a dark hallway. "So," she begins, "when did you fly in?"
"Earlier today," I answer. I realise it's vague but everything that's happened recently has become one gigantic blur I'd rather not think about.
"Cool," she replies as we step into a dark room. She flicks on the light as a large kitchen is illuminated. "How long have you been dancing?"
"Since I was five." I reply, smiling at the thought of little me. "What about you?"
"Three." She turns her head and smiles at me before bending down and opening a cupboard. She pulls out a small plastic cup and makes her way over to the tap. "Why'd you move here?"
The question catches me off guard. I knew people were going to ask it, but I just didn't expect people to ask so soon. "Um, my mum is from Scotland, and she moved to Canada when she was little, but she wanted to move back to 'connect with her roots' or something." I reply. It's not really a lie; she did want to move back. But it's not the main reason we moved.
"Cool. It's a nice place. Pretty quiet, though." She smiles, passing me the cup.
"Thanks." I reply, as she pushes herself up onto the counter. I take a sip. She sighs. "What's your least favourite dance?" I ask after a short stretch of silence.
"Mine?" She asks, kicking her legs. She tilts her head to side as she thinks. "Probably like- any national, to be honest."
"Why?"
"Not graceful enough."
"You are." It slips out. I watch as her lips part in surprise. "I'm sure." I add with a half-smile.
"What's yours?" She asks, hopping down from the counter.
"Hmm," I pretend to think even though I already know the answer. I take a sip of my water, finishing it off and placing it in the sink before answering. "It's a basic answer but probably the Hornpipe."
"The hornpipe!" She exclaims. "Are you crazy? That's one of my favourites! Why'd you hate it?"
"The Pumping step," I say, screwing my face up at the thought.
Each dance has multiple steps that you can perform during the dance, and in the sailor's hornpipe; the Pumping on is by far the worst. You need to crouch down, spring back up onto your heels, crouch down again and spring back up extending one of your legs. Then you repeat it again, changing the leg you extend. You then do the break - which is just a repeated motion you do throughout the dance, also done in the Flora and the Irish Jig, - and repeat that all again.
"Why don't you just do a different step?" She asks, tilting her head to the side. "There's like," she pauses and counts on her fingers, "ten other ones. At least!"
I shake my head and shrug. "Marlin, my old teacher, used to make me do it."
"Miss Maureen hates that step - she says it ruins your knees - you can just do a different one." She smiles balancing on one leg and rolling her ankle.
"Oh yeah?" I smirk, "What would you suggest?"
"I always do the Gathering step."
"Then I'll do the same."
"Cool," she turns to the door and begins to walk towards it. She pauses. Looks back, smirking at me. "I probably do it better."
"You probably do," I agree, crossing my arms.
She looks down at the floor and laughs. "We should probably go back through. We're probably going to do a Reel of some description next, and I don't want to volunteer." She walks towards the door and switches the light off, leaving us in darkness.
"I hate volunteering."