I completely forgot I had Music class on my schedule because I was so preoccupied with the movie at Sanya's.
I almost nodded off after I got home and quickly took a shower and changed into comfortable jeans and a T-shirt.
Shouldering my guitar bag, I rushed to class, ignoring my mother's offer of dropping me off.
I stopped running when I caught sight of a lone figure partially hidden away by the cluster of trees.
"Kabir?" I whispered.
The leaves rustled as the figure moved and bowed his head down and offered a little wave over a branch that partially hid his features.
He sported a striped T-shirt paired with a mustard suede jacket.
David.
"Oh, hi. Nobody's come?" I asked awkwardly, pushing a stray hair behind my ear.
"No. The door is locked. I guess we're unusually early." He pulled his sleeve up and checked his watch.
I balanced my guitar against the wall.
"So you thought I was Kabir."
He said with a slow smile and I wondered what the context of that statement was.
"I mean, you looked like him from back there when I was walking," I replied.
I didn't need a response but he continued anyway: "How's it between you both?"
"Normal. How should it be?" I almost snapped though mentally felt a little nervous.
How much confidential information did this fellow have?
"Kabir tells me everything," David declared like a proud father and I gave a slight shrug of my head and let my gaze wander to the vegetation in the porch garden.
He had a sense of style, judging by his shoes. I found his tangerine sneakers more interesting than his mode of conversation at present.
"Master was talking about some changes in our performance." He spoke.
I broke away from my train of thought and stared blankly at David.
"Oh."
"He also wants one of our vocals."
I thought back to the time David was hollering some rock song during class and I had to plug my ears with a headset because he was, unfortunately, next to me. I don't particularly remember Ajay's voice because he never speaks, let alone sing.
And that left three of us.
My hands were already trembling in dread and I groaned internally.
David was observing my reaction so I schooled my features. "I see," I replied with a shrug and he chuckled.
"Don't pretend that it doesn't matter to you! You just paled out for a moment."
I didn't. But even if I did, you couldn't see it under my tan!
"Don't worry. It won't be that bad. Just six of us. Not the regular students and all."
I shot a dirty look behind his back. He was pacifying me?
Most of David's and my interaction were mostly tangent to an argument because he was always poking his nose in my affairs and now he was being nice?
What changed now that he knew I liked his friend?
I couldn't adapt to this new development!
He turned back and smiled at me again like we were childhood buddies and I offered an obviously fake one in return.
He turned away and I could hear his chortle.
A few annoying moments later, our master was walking patiently towards us with the keys in his hand.
He raised his eyebrows at me. Because I rush into class like a tornado without punctuality most of the time.
He looked like he hadn't shaved for days and his shirt was a little crumpled.
"Are you alright, sir?" I asked.
"Yes, thank you. I wasn't well for a few days that's all."
He unbolted the door and sneezed simultaneously.
"Bless you, sir," David said while he looked for a hanky to wipe his boogers.
I trudged through the polished marble floor to our practice studio, our haven for the past months.
It was the Institute's tradition for Grade 4+ learners to form a band and collaborate for events.
Most of those students are supposedly passionate about their music. My lips quirked up thinking back to the reason I even joined the band. Not very passionate.
I rested my music notes on the pedestal and strummed a few strings to see if my guitar was in tune. Master was attending to the other students outside.
David was adjusting his keyboard next to me.
I stopped strumming when I saw Kabir lugging his keyboard inside with him.
He was sporting a black turtleneck sweater that hugged his lean frame paired with faded vintage denim.
David looked down at me as if he wanted me to hurl myself at the boy and weep in his bosom or something.
So I ignored him and his friend and continued to softly strum chords.
Usually, myself and goth girl flanked the keyboardists on either side, David next to me and usually a sullen Ajay on the other.
But Kabir went ahead and broke the five-year-old habit by installing his keyboard next to me.
Not at all suspicious.
But on the bright side, Nia would be far away from him.
When Ajay walked in, he looked a little lost because his place was next to me. I actually saw a semblance of an expression on his face.
But he settled himself somewhere between David and the wall. Closer to the wall.
Master came back into the room with the expected announcement. That we needed a vocal lead.
The last time we tested our vocals was to find our niche. It was very brief because Master just asked us to croon softly to decipher how our voice vibrated.
"Soprano," He said gesturing to Nia.
I couldn't believe he addressed her by her voice type.
Nia began singing some Black Peas album song and I perked up.
She was good. Her voice was so powerful that it sliced through the silence in the room. She sounded like an opera singer.
"Okay," Master said as if we just didn't discover a blooming talent and then was directing his gaze on each of us, one by one.
I couldn't believe we were still going to have to sing even when Nia's voice was just served on a platter!
I didn't want to sing out loud with my crush next to me. Please.
Master was kind of exasperated when I wasn't very audible so I had to go up to him and sing it into his ears. The last song I heard was an old Album of LiLo's. Well, I could work two lines with that.
I forgot after four lines so I stopped.
I looked up from my fingers and he nodded.
"Your vocals is good, you just need to work on some aspects.Good, though,good," He said as if he was giving me a consolation prize.
Yes, my sister thinks I sound like a strangled peahen.
"But don't get so frightened. Relax and feel your voice."
"Yes sir."
I kept my guitar back in my lap when Kabir casually started singing. I didn't want to stare so I looked at my guitar board, listening to him.
He had the most adorable morning voice that was the perfect balance of honey dripping sweetness and baritone.
I would've applauded with pom-poms but master just skimmed over him like it was nothing.
"Ajay has already requested not to be a part of vocals..."
Wait, there was an option like that? I gave the boy an accusing stare. His head was dipped low and he was staring at his fingernails as if it was the most fascinating thing ever.
"So, I would like Nia to lead the vocal this time..."
I relaxed into my seat.
"I think Shyla and Kabir can sing the seconds together, I'll mark your parts...David, I'll work on your vocals."
"I can beatbox," David offered which went partially unnoticed.
Practice for another two hours.
The intermittent breaks for the voice training were appreciable because the pads of my fingers were red.
I rubbed them together. The skin was hardening.
I parked my chair opposite Kabir's when we could relax.
"Hi."
"Why did you sing so softly? I've never heard you sing, I couldn't hear a thing," Kabir muttered, brushing his wavy hair back.
"That.Was the point." I replied and he raised his brows.
"Okay, so I shouldn't hear you sing?"
My nerves were frazzled because you of your damned presence, you idiot!
I couldn't just say that. So I grabbed my water bottle and ignored him.
That's what people get for being so damn intimidating.
Um, attractively intimidating.
"Sir?" I heard him call. I took a swig from my bottle.
Master walked up to us.
"I just thought we could try and sing before you... You know, to find the sync in our vocals..."
I almost spat the water in my mouth.
"Sure, sure!" He was delighted, of course.
"Here are your notes, Shyla," Kabir offered courteously.
"Thanks. You're so....kind," I bit out.
Kabir's lips quirked up. "Anytime."
Master told me when to pick up after Kabir started and he began effortlessly while I just experienced some kind of seasickness all while sitting in a plastic chair with an Aquafena bottle in hand.
I'm positive that my voice quivered. I accidentally glanced at Kabir and my voice faltered off into thin air. Head tilted, he was observing me as if I was a little infant learning to walk.
"Why are you nervous?" Master asked. "Your voices are going well together."
"You... Look somewhere else..." I told Kabir lamely.
"What?"
"He's making you nervous?" Master placed an encouraging hand on my shoulder and Kabir crossed his legs and winked.
It was a sexy wink actually.
Enough to make me stammer like an idiot.
"Uh, he's just...Looking like very uh, I mean staring and it's not... You know I have stage fear as a child, my mother said--"
"Okay, okay."
I wouldn't be surprised if he expunged my place from the vocals after this episode of demented behaviour.
"I'll try again," I told him earnestly. Kabir was just masking a smile.
"You look somewhere else." I snapped at Kabir and he dragged his chair noisily to the side, looked away and rested his chin on his forearm.
"Now, Shyla... You will perform on a stage in a few weeks and you can't ask everyone to look away when you sing," he remarked worriedly.
"Okay, sir. I will work on it," I mumbled sheepishly and felt a little foolish when he turned away.
Kabir grabbed my water bottle."You're doing a decent job. You don't need to hesitate in between, you know."
"You're just being nice," I stated.
"No! Why do you have such preconceived notions about yourself! I'm being honest. We probably don't sound like Nia but it's not all that bad either."
"Don't you feel jittery at all to sing before some people?" I asked, trying to find a crack in his armour.
"I don't know. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Right."
"Or it's just with me?"
"What?"
"You're nervous because it's with me?" He asked in a silky voice, steepling his fingers.
I froze for a moment and then opened my mouth to deny the very foundation of that statement when he came forward and the plastic chair groaned under him. His knees were almost touching mine now. I didn't shy away from the contact.
"Because if it's like that, I want you to know that I'll treasure this experience, even if we suck, okay?" I could almost see my reflection in his brownish orbs, that were framed by long, sooty lashes.
"Yeah. I'll do what I can." I quaked. It must be illegal for boys to acquire such eyelashes while my sister used three twists of her mascara stick every day to clump them together that would unflatteringly powder below her eyes by the end of the day and make her look like a 20-year-old panda.
~
I was in a perfectly good mood when I dropped to school the following day and what Sanya had informed me completely flew out of my head.
So I was puzzled to see boys sitting on the right of every wooden bench, the slightly unpopular ones looking nervous while the popular boys who already didn't have a beautiful classmate of the opposite gender giggling flirtatiously, had some specifications for their bench mate.
My eyes roved over the class until I saw Sanya, also standing like a nomad in the desert and I joined her at our usual seating and plucked the dirty brown backpack next to me and kept it on an adjacent table.
The entire popular gang who were perched on the tables in the back of the class started talking in hushed whispers and some heads turned to focus on me as if I did something atrocious.
I even dutifully relocated a bag that was on Nishika's and Kayal's bench and I could feel their gazes burning holes in my back.
I smiled to myself and continued my morning rant with Sanya, half expecting some sort of confrontation which would have provided some entertainment but all they did was stare.
Vikram, the familiar face with the incredible bushy eyebrows and bunny teeth, seated behind me and awaiting someone like a nervous bride.
The entire class almost filled up so clearly he didn't have a female companion.
It was none of my business, so I just smiled and greeted him like any normal day.
"So you all won't sit with the guys today, eh?" He asked.
"I have no problem sitting with a guy, I just don't want to do it under this kind of social pressure," I affirmed.
He nodded. "So alone it is," His bright smile was already drooping at a nominal rate. I recognized this expression from the time in kindergarten when he dropped his ice gola into a sandpit.
So I adjusted my skirt and scooted to provide some space on my bench.
"If you don't think it's ruining your image in class, you can sit with us, actually," I offered.
He silently took his bag and squeezed himself in our bench.
We were expecting Gangu in the first hour but our class teacher entered into the room with a prim smile.
"Oh, god," I groaned even as I pulled myself up for the morning greeting.
Not even fumbling with the attendance sheet, she pulled out a fat Physics Guide from her handbag and perched at the edge of the table. "Quick, pull out your notes. We'll start from where we stopped last time."
I flipped through my pages and glanced at Vikram's book. "Wow, I've not written all this. What in the world is this diagram?"
The teacher's voice was maddeningly enthusiastic for a Monday morning: "...Electromagnetic induction-we discussed it last week, can someone recall it for me?" Even as I reached out and stole Nishika's ruler from under her nose, I chose not to maintain eye contact with the lady.
While a lot of bright children raised their eager voices to explain how the electric coil changes the magnetic field, I stealthily began to imitate the diagram in Vikram's book. I was far more interested in the subject when our first lesson in Physics was 'Humans and the Colourful World' and there was a little picture of a boy chasing a butterfly. Now it was all reduced to circuit diagrams and problems with electricity, che!