I sat down with Andre in the empty classroom to work on the project with him. I was still upset over Nadia's suspension, as much as she deserved it, I felt horrible. I know it wasn't my fault that she got suspended and it was her behavior towards me, but I felt like it was my fault, if I didn't attend the school in the first place, she wouldn't have gotten suspended.
"Why do I keep thinking like this?!" I thought to myself.
Pulling out my notebook and pen, Andre and I immediately got to work. Andre already had a melody, so he started mumbling to help me get lyrics down, even though I already had a few written down.
"Don't worry 'bout why I'm here..." I hummed.
"I want to fight your worst fear." Andre sang back.
"Eh..."
"I wanna fight and keep you near?" he suggested.
"I like that." I complimented, pointing my pen at him.
He mumbled something under his breath, I looked up and raised an eyebrow, "What?"
"I said I like the number two." he said quickly, "Yeah, it's a good number."
I furrowed my brows then let out a chuckle, "Okay then."
"So what do we have so far with the lyrics?" Andre asked, scooting his chair closer to me and leaning over my shoulder to read.
While he was reading over my shoulder, I caught a whiff of his scent. It was a calming smell, it was so calming that I was starting to fall asleep.
"Hey, hey Sky." Andre whispered, nudging me.
I sat up straight, suddenly, "Sorry sorry. I guess I'm just tired."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I just-" Andre tilted my head up so I was meeting his eyes, "uhm.."
I cleared my throat, "So the song?"
"It's really good, you're a natural." Andre complimented.
I smiled, my face tinting pink. Andre pulled my chair so we were sitting, facing each other. I put the notebook and pen down on the floor and started messing with my fingers in my lap.
"Skyla," Andre said, causing me to quickly look up at him, I noticed his face was a bit red, "there's a reason why I wanted you to stay with me here."
Curious, I lifted a brow, "There's another reason? I thought we were writing a song?"
"Did you notice the theme of the song?" he asked, motioning to the notebook in the floor.
"Yeah, it was a love son-" I trailed off, now realizing what he meant, "oh."
"Skyla, I like you. A lot." Andre confessed, gently taking both of my hands in his, "Since the first day I met you, I couldn't keep you off my mind."
"But what about Nadia?" I asked, recalling a previous conversation Beck had with me where Andre and Nadia dated for a bit then broke up, just an on and off relationship.
"I don't want Nadia, she was cool in the beginning but she slowly became egotistical, and I don't like that," he explained.
"But you got back together with her." I argued.
"Because I thought I could give her one final chance at not being egotistical. I wanted her to give her and I one more shot. But she ruined that." Andre confessed, "And you, Skyla, you're humble. You aren't egotistical. You care about your friends and their feelings."
"Of course, I do, it's how I was brought up." I replied, "My grandparent's didn't want me to become like my father or my mother, so they raised me to be open minded, kind hearted, and overall just a good person to others."
"And that's what I like about you."
The room got quiet, I tried to let go of Andre's hands but he wouldn't let me let go.
"Can I be honest with you?" Andre asked.
"Go ahead."
"That day in court, I was extremely upset with your mother."
"Who wouldn't be?" I answered.
"But the thing is," he started, "she had this horrible smirk on her face for half of your testimony. And that horrible excuse of a defense attorney..."
"He was trying to get under my skin, trying to manipulate me into believing him. I knew the truth. Barba said that he didn't have a viable defense and the jury believed me more than the defense."
"But what she did to you, that's unforgivable."
"At least I didn't turn out like her, right?" I smiled.
He smiled back, scooting a little closer to me, "Right."
We got quiet again before he spoke up once more, "Listen, I want to be with you."
I, again, tried to free my hands from his grip, but he, again, didn't want to let my hands go. He gripped my wrists to stop me from breaking free.
"Andre, I-"
"Please, Skyla, listen to me." he pleaded.
"Andre, really, I don't think I can be with you."
He looked so heartbroken, "Why not?"
"Because I don't want Nadia to hurt you."
"Sky, she won't do that."
"But what if she does, I don't want her to find out, Andre. She was practically stalking me here."
"Doesn't she have that hearing anyway? So the principal and the superintendent can decide on whether or not to expel her?"
"Yes, but knowing her, she'll do whatever she can to get out of it."
Andre sighed, squeezing both of my hands, "Skyla, she changed. She's no longer that girl you used to know. She's become a bad person and hung out with the wrong crowd."
"But-"
"Sky, listen." Andre pleaded, not giving me a chance to interject, "I like you, and I want to go out with you. Will you give me that chance?"
I hesitated, wanting to think it through before making a decision, but when I looked into his eyes, I felt safe. I felt so utterly safe.
"Of course, Andre." I replied, smiling.
He returned the smile, capturing me in a hug. Giggling, I hugged him back. He then picked me up and spun me around, making me shriek and laugh. I could hear his laughter too. When he put me down, we looked into each other's eyes.
"Want me to drive you home, Sky?" Andre asked.
"Please?" I answered.
"Of course."
I collected my things, Andre walked with me out of the school and to his car, we got in and I gave him directions to my place. Upon arrival, he walked me to the front door. We hugged each other, remaining in that hug for quite some time. When we broke the hug, we looked into each other's eyes.
"Andre?" I asked.
"Yeah." he replied, glancing down at my lips, then back into my eyes.
Leaning close to each other, I could feel his breath on my face.
"Skyla, can I..." he trailed off.
I slowly nodded, closing my eyes as our lips connected. My arms snaked around his neck, holding him close.
We parted for a second, my eyes fluttered open, staring back into Andre's half lidded eyes. He let out a breath and smiled, I retracted an arm to place my hand on his cheek. He placed his hand on top of mine, leaning into my touch.
"Andre?"
"Hm?" he hummed as a response.
"I really like you." I confessed.
Andre chuckled, "I figured as much, Sky."
I smiled and hugged him again, happiness beginning to make my heart flutter.
"I promise you, Skyla, I like only you." Andre smiled, pulling away from our hug.
I leaned up and kissed Andre's cheek, "Goodnight, Andre."
"Goodnight, Skyla." he said, kissing my cheek before turning around and walking back to his car.
I watched as he got in and backed out of my driveway, and as he drove away, I closed and locked the front door. I turned around, pressing my back against the wall then sliding down.
"Holy shit." I mumbled out loud with a smile.
My hand hovered over my lips, the sensation still buzzing as I smiled.
"That was my first kiss." I said out loud.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few weeks went by with no word from Lane about Nadia, however, at the third week mark, Lane stopped me as I was walking to my locker, he was reminding me that Nadia's hearing was tonight and he'll update me about the superintendent and principal Helen's decision. As he walked away, I opened my locker and collected all my stuff for class.
"Hey pretty thang!" Andre called, "Look at you, looking beautiful today!"
I was wearing jeans and a tee shirt along with some sneakers, but my tee shirt looked like this:
Giggling, I turned towards the direction his voice came from, "Hey you!"
Andre paused when he saw my arms, I wasn't wearing anything to cover them. He slowly reached out to take my arm in his hand.
"What is-"
"They're from a long time ago, my mother's abuse and Nadia's harassment made those." I explained, "I'm okay now, that's all that matters."
He nodded, tears filling his eyes, "Promise me that you won't do this again."
"I promise." I whispered to him, reaching up to wipe a stray tear off his cheek.
We got quiet as the conversation died, I finished up in my locker and shut the door. Andre cleared his throat, causing me to turn towards him. His tears had dried.
"So, Skyla, I want to take you on a date this weekend. There's this karaoke place that a few of us went to before and I thought maybe you'd want to go?" he asked, nervously shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Of course, I'd love to go. Maybe I'll sing something!" I excitedly accepted.
Andre smiled, "Great, I'll pick you up at seven on Saturday then!"
"Perfect!" I leaned up and kissed his cheek.
"Ooooo~ You guys look happy!" Tori's voice sang.
"We are." Andre smiled, wrapping an arm around my waist.
"Awe! You guys are so cute!" Tori complimented.
The bell rang so the three of us began walking to Sikowitz's class. Andre and I sat together while Beck and Jade sat in front of us.
"Hello children!" Sikowitz greeted.
We all greeted him, he put down his bag then clapped his hands, "So! Our lesson today! Romance in theater! But first, we must learn about ancient romance. SKYLA!"
"Sikowitz!" I responded.
"What do you know about ancient romance?" he asked as he squatted down, locking eyes with me.
As this is my strong suit, I cleared my throat and began explaining.
"The ancient Greeks version of love had many different meanings. Agape, the unconditional love of one's humans, Philia, platonic love of one's friends, Storge, love of family, and Eros. Eros being the most common as it means deep, passionate love one feels for romantic and or sexual partners. Eros is also the Greek God of love, even though it is stereotyped that Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty and sexuality. It really depends on the myth you've read."
"PERFECT! So, we're going to focus on Eros. So what Ancient Greek myth gives us an example of Eros?" Sikowitz asked, standing up and scanning the room.
Raising my hand, I answered, "The most well known is the myth of Eros and Psyche."
"Exactly! So, to invoke Eros, what we're gonna do is practice confessions and the kiss scene!"
Some of us awkwardly glanced at one another before Sikowitz spoke up again, "You may pick your partners, but I will be assigning scripts."
Andre immediately grabbed my hand, "You're my partner."
I smiled, "Okay, I'm not complaining."
Andre's arm slipped around my waist as he pulled me close to him, "I don't think I could handle seeing anyone else kissing you."
I shrugged, "I've honestly never kissed anyone before. I mean aside from the other night."
Andre froze, "So I was your..."
"My first kiss, yeah."
Andre looked at me, "Seriously?"
"I'm being serious, Andre. You're my first kiss."
"We're gonna talk about this later." Andre jokingly said as he stood up to go retrieve a script from Sikowitz.
Giggling, I watched as he walked off, then Beck and Jade turned to me.
"You two seem happy." Beck said.
"I don't think I've ever seen you this happy." Jade smiled.
"I feel happy." I answered with a smile.
"Good," Beck piped up, "because you deserve to be happy. I know Andre, he's never gonna hurt you."
Andre came back and passed me the script as he sat down. Looking it over, I furrowed my brows.
"Classic trope." I mumbled.
"What was that?" Andre asked.
"This script is a classic trope, the girl confesses but the guy doesn't believe her, so she works up the guts to kiss him."
"Well, I mean, I'm sure we can improv some of this." Andre leaned over my shoulder, "But I agree, this script is a little bland."
Sikowitz then clapped his hands, startling us, "Now, any questions?"
Andre raised his hand, "Uh, yeah. Can we improv our scene if the script doesn't meet the requirements?"
"Yes, you can. These types of scenes are important for any romance movie or play, you can improve but stay with your theme in your script."
The bell rang and we all stood up to head to our next class, Tori approached me.
"Heyyyyy!" she was grinning.
"What's up?" I greeted.
"So, what's your scene?" she asked.
"It's a classic trope." I felt Andre wrap his arms around my waist, resting his head on my shoulder, "Girl works up the confidence to kiss her crush after he didn't understand that she confessed."
"How is that invoking Eros?" Tori raised a brow.
"No idea," Andre chimed in, "but luckily, we can improv the scene."
"That's a good idea." Tori sighed, "I just wish I had a partner."
"You'll find a partner, I know it." I reassured.
"Yeah."
"Come on, now. We'll be late for our next class."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that evening, I was at my place, waiting for Andre to come over so we could practice our scene. I had prepped some snacks in advance, I had asked Andre so I went out to the store to pick up our snacks.
After setting everything up on the coffee table, I walked over to my speaker and plugged in my phone, pulling up my Spotify playlist and playing it softly through the speakers for some ambience. I heard a knock on the door and fixed my outfit, hoping that I didn't look too out of character.
I was wearing this:
I walked to the door, unlocking and opening it to see Andre with a smile.
"Hey you!" I grinned, opening the door some more to invite him in.
"Hey baby!" he exclaimed, walking in.
I shut the door behind him and walked over to the couch, sitting down. He sat down next to me, pulling me close into a hug.
"So, we have time to spend together, here, alone." Andre whispered.
"Don't you think about it," I joked, "we're working on our assignment, remember?"
Andre playfully groaned, burying his face into the crook of my neck, "Why don't we do the assignment, then we can spend time together."
"Sure, just no funny business."
Andre, lifted his head up and smiled at me, then kissed my cheek, "Cool! So, you got the script?"
"Yep! Let me get it out of my bag."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We practiced the scene for about an hour, but I have been delaying the kiss scene for the actual class presentation. Andre didn't like that.
"Sky, come on, why can't we practice the kiss?" Andre complained.
"Oh don't pretend like we haven't kissed before." I teased.
"Maybe my lips are lonely." Andre shoved a hand in his pocket.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, looking him in the face, "Do you wanna practice now?"
I could tell Andre got flustered by my bold attempt, "I..uh. I'm not denying your offer."
Smirking, I leaned up, ghosting my lips over his. I wanted to tease him a little bit. Every time he tried to close the gap, I'd lean back a bit, only to ghost his mouth again.
"Stop teasing." he muttered.
"Maybe I wanna save our kiss scene for class." I mumbled, leaning back and looking at his face.
"What do you mean?" he questioned.
"I don't know," I shrugged, "why not show our class that we have chemistry?"
"You want to reveal to our acting class that we're a couple through an assignment?" he questioned.
"If that's okay with you."
"I'm down for that."
"Good." I kissed his cheek.
"So, we done rehearsing?" Andre asked.
"Yep, wanna just chill and watch a movie or something?"
"Actually, Skyla, I wanna hear you sing again." Andre confessed, sitting on the couch, "When you sang your version of that Shinedown song, it stuck. Your voice is addictive."
I blushed, "You're sweet."
"I'm serious! You got some vocals."
I smiled, "What do you want me to sing then?"
Andre shrugged, "Anything you want, it's your pick."
I thought to myself for a second, taking a sip of my drink, then snapped my fingers. I walked over to my phone, which was still connected to my speaker, and searched for the song in specific. I selected it and walked back over to Andre, sitting down on the couch next to him. The song began to play.
"High upon the Southern Downs,
Through fields and over stile,
I walked to old Thundersbarrow Hill,
Where I stopped to rest a while,
Then I saw a mighty hammer,
And a dragon in full sail,
It's then a voice tell its tale.
I will tell you of my Father,
Fury was his name.
A God of War with a poet's tongue,
To him they were the same.
He created all of Midgard,
Every field and hill and vale,
In the oceans a great serpent ate its tail.
Nine days to hang on Yggdrasil,
Nine nights upon the tree,
To learn the wisdom of the Runes,
While Thought and Memory,
Fly high over Midgard,
My stories for to tell,
To those who stop to rest a while,
On Thundersbarrow Hill.
I will tell you of the sacred well,
Neath the roots of Yggdrasil,
My Father asked of Great Mimir,
If he could drink his fill,
Blinded to all wisdom,
The gifts prophecy,
He gave his eye,
So he could clearly see.
Nine days to hang on Yggdrasil,
Nine nights upon the tree,
To learn the wisdom of the Runes,
While Thought and Memory,
Fly high over Midgard,
My stories for to tell,
To those who stop to rest a while,
On Thundersbarrow Hill.
I felt the breath of Summer,
I heard the Skylark's song,
And the curve of Thundersbarrow Hill,
That I had slept upon.
This land remembers stories,
Of all who came before,
And it will tell those tales,
Forevermore.
Nine days to hang on Yggdrasil,
Nine nights upon the tree,
To learn the wisdom of the Runes,
While Thought and Memory,
Fly high over Midgard,
My stories for to tell,
To those who stop to rest a while,
On Thundersbarrow Hill."
As the outro of the guitar and thunder played, I smiled at Andre, who looked surprised.
"How long was that song?"
"Six minutes." I bluntly answered.
"How did you memorize that much?"
I shrugged, "I've always adored Greek and Norse mythology when I was in middle school. So while doing research into Norse mythos, I stumbled across this artist. Damh the Bard, and it turns out he makes many songs surrounding these types of topics, according to his biography, his inspiration came from myths and legends of the British Isles and Ireland."
I noticed Andre was staring with an admirable look in his eye as I was talking, "Personally I think he's extremely talented and-....why are you staring at me like that?"
Andre smiled, "I think you look cute when you're talking. You seem really passionate about Damh."
"Well," I started, trying not to blush, "I'd consider him a huge inspiration of mine. Not only has he gotten me to fall more in love with the mythos, but I've also found a love for Celtic music. And that's coming from a girl who's listened to Halestorm, Shinedown and Kpop for most of her life."
Andre grinned, "I'll have to listen to what you listen to, I wanna know you better. Maybe your playlist can help me understand that."
Blushing heavily now, I began to stammer, "No, no, there's quite a few songs in that playlist that will give you the wrong idea."
"Awe, come on now, what do you have to hide?" Andre nudged me.
"Just a side I don't want you to see yet." I winked.
"Don't start something you can't finish." Andre said.
"Oh trust me, boy," I purred, "I finish what I start."
The room got quiet, then suddenly, my phone started blaring my ringtone. I scrambled over to my phone to answer the call.
"Skyla Naydeen, how can I help?"
"Hey Skyla! It's Lane."
"Oh! Hey Lane!"
"So we got some news in regards to Nadia's hearing."
"Is it good or bad?"
"Well, she's expelled. We've made a decision to not accept her back into the school so she's been kicked out for good. This was a quick call from the superintendent and Helen but this was for the safety of the student body."
"No way."
"Yes, but, Helen wants to keep an eye on you just in case this was a personal vendetta. She just wants to make sure you didn't plan for this. So my advice? Don't talk about Nadia's expulsion with anybody for a few months."
"Got it."
"Have a good night, Sky."
"You too, Lane! See ya!" I hung up.
"What was that about?" Andre asked.
"Oh! Lane just was updating me about Nadia's hearing. No biggie."
"Well what happened?"
"I'm not supposed to say, I might get in trouble with Helen if news spreads."
"I understand, I won't pry."
"Thank you."
"So, um." Andre hesitated.
"I know it's getting late, but can we practice the scene one more time before I go?"
"Yeah! Sure!" I exclaimed.