Ed Sheeran- Perfect.
After the close of school, everyone was expected to observe the compulsory siesta which was from 3:30pm to 5:30pm, then personal time followed. It was an hour given to the students to either get teachers to conduct extra classes with those who didn't fully get some things in class, engage in peer teaching or just to do other personal stuff.
After personal time, they had dinner at 6:30. Right after that, prep commences for everyone from 7:00pm. Prep ended at 9:00pm for first years and at 10:00pm for second years and the famous prep until you drop for the third years.
They got to prep till anytime in the night beyond the second years' time. If they wanted to break, they went to bed and woke up at dawn to prep again but this time they were only allowed into their classrooms and the library complex only.
It was at one of these odd hours for first years to be roaming the school's grounds that Ashanti and Zaron decided to sneak out of the class they were sharing with many second years. They had stayed back prepping for an hour more since they were in a class full of second years
They walked out of the eighteen unit block for the second years and headed in the opposite direction of where everyone was passing to their dorms. The second years didn't even notice them slip in the opposite direction.
" So where exactly are we going?" Zaron finally asks when they had finally lost them.
" The chapel, they have a real piano." She informs him, tightening her grip on the sling of her bookbag at the thought of breaking school rules with an innocent boy but the thrill alone kept her going.
" But we can't get in." Zaron points out.
" I work there, that and the staffs repulsive restroom." She mumbles the last part under her breath, " I usually keep the keys so I can get us in. I just hope Reverend Darko doesn't decide to walk in because he also has a key. Come on let's go."
She drags him by the hand down the walkway passing the several oak trees lining it up.
It was a good twenty minutes walk to the chapel because they had taken an indirect route that most people didn't use to get to the place.
By the time they got there, loose dark strands of her hair was sticking to her face because of the little sweat that had suddenly broken on her brow due to the rush of adrenaline in her veins. Zaron gave her a boyish grin as they stared at the colossal ancient mahogany doors leading to the chapel.
" What?" She asks.
" Girls...they can't even handle walking."
" Of course I can, I work here every morning remember? I don't want us to get caught that's why." She says and the sound of a rustling dry leaves caught their attention.
They both froze and turned to the direction of the sound, a white cat comes running towards the other side of the street and they both heaved a sigh of relief.
Ashanti inserts the key and turns. They pushed it open and got in locking themselves in and taking the keys out. The room was pitch black but since she was more familiar with her surroundings, she felt the walls for the light switches and flipped the third switch on, lightning up only the podium where the piano was.
The huge auditorium becomes dimly lit. Only their footsteps echoed through the empty dome hall as they walked up the aisle to the podium.
Ashanti cautiously ran her fingers over the keys creating a melody.
" We're on." She says and pulls out two sheet music and a hymnal.
" It's been ages since I last played." He whispers with both hands in the pockets of his khaki shorts. He had to hide his shaking fingers.
" Why did you stop playing?" She asks out of concern, taking a seat on the stool behind it.
" Several reasons but one is this." He takes his hands out and they were still quivering.
She looked up into his eyes and he quickly diverts his gaze before she looked back at his hands. It was obviously a reaction from his brain that was causing this to happen.
" Did something tragic happen the last time you played?"
" I don't understand myself too, if you haven't noticed, I have a problem with... communicating with people... sometimes I might seem a bit rude too... I have ummm" He looks at his fingers and she finishes his sentence,
" Autism." She says with a knowing look.
" I had autism at a point in time too. It felt overwhelming to have people view you differently because of how you behave or what other people can do that you can't do." She relates, " I learnt to stop blaming myself for everything and to do things my way."
" How'd that turn out?"
" Horrible. But I still had fun. You see, the point is not to quit doing things you are good at, it's about doing them with the reason that you're doing it because you love it. If you have that view you'll never do anything with regrets."
She takes both his hands in hers and runs circles behind his palms.
" This is very weird." He states.
" It's a therapy session I went through and obviously I was just wasting my parents money because this was the only thing I actually learnt from going there three times a week. It's supposed to reduce my nervousness." She says and he laughs. She stops and surprisingly his hands had stopped shaking.
" You do remember the notes , staff and ledger lines don't you?"
" I do remember notes and staff but not ledger lines." He replies as she hands him a sheet music.
" This is the treble staff, each line represents a letter on the keys of the piano; EGBDF and in the spaces between the lines we have FACE."
" Oh yeah I remember, CDEFGAB. The keys on the keyboard." He recalls.
" Exactly, so listen and watch as I play a simple piece." She says and took the sheet music from him before placing it on the piano to follow. Beethoven's 8th symphony rang through the room but at a lower time signature since he was now relearning a lost talent. He read the sheet music and watched her fingers on the keys, he was getting it. Then she stops and turns to him.
" I think you should try something easier like twinkle twinkle little star." She says and rummages through her bag till she pulls out a smaller sheet from her binder, " Here."
" Oh come on..." He drawls and she gives him a ridiculous stare.
" Every pianist knows how to do that so don't give me that flimsy excuse." She urges, " You can read from the sheet so what's to fear."
She left the seat for him.
" I don't think I need this." He politely turns her down.
" That's the spirit."
He sat behind the keys and after taking in a deep breath he presses on the first key.
Everything seemed to rush back to him. He finished playing that piece in a minute.
" You got it right!" Ashanti says in excitement and slaps hands with him, " Try this piece then."
She hands him another piece, a general tune that went with most songs in the school's hymnal.
In an hour, he was playing good enough to play at any function.
" See, no one loses their talent completely. It's still inside of you." She commends as she packs the sheets back into her bag.
" What can I say, " He smiles at her, " I've got the best music teacher. Can I play you a song?"
" You don't have to... I mean you don't have a manuscript."
" I don't need one. I watched someone play it. And I'm doing it because I want to." He coaxes and begins a very unfamiliar introductory melody.
" Do you know the song because I was only planning to play it."
" I can't quite decipher it." She answers.
" Then I'll sing it to you." He concludes and continued before she could say otherwise.
He had a voice that had a calming effect on the listener. That also made the song sound more melodious especially since he wasn't singing on the microphone.
I found a love for me
Darling, just dive right in
And follow my lead
Well, I found a girl, beautiful and sweet
I never knew you were the someone waiting for me
'Cause we were just kids when we fell in love
Not knowing what it was
I will not give you up this time
Darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own
And in your eyes, you're holding mine
Baby, I'm dancing in the dark with you between my arms
Barefoot on the grass, we're listenin' to our favorite song
When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath
But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight
He stopped there and realized she had a film of tears in her eyes.
" Wow, you must really know how to get to someone. I didn't know you can go all Ed Sheeran on me." She jokes with a chuckle.
" Why do you look like you want to cry?" He whispered to her and stood up.
" Because to be honest, nobody has ever sung to me before." She says and a tear slips out of her eyes even though she was smiling.
" Hey, it's okay. We all feel like we don't deserve some things sometimes." He says taking his neatly pressed handkerchief out of his back pocket and wiped her tears and hesitated briefly before pulling her into a comforting embrace.
He had a wiry warm body that made her feel homey.
" What happened to the second verse?" She asks when they pull back.
" I am reserving it for someone... special, the girl I'm gonna end up with in the future." He says honestly and she chuckles, "What, I sound dorky don't I?"
" No, not at all. But I was thinking that that would mean that I am also special to you because you just sung the first verse to me."
" You don't usually hug people do you?"
" You noticed. There's a first time for everything." He replies avoiding eye contact with her like he always does.
He had noticed many strange things about her that hinted she'd lived a very lonely childhood. Everytime it was time to call at the phone booth, he found a seat far off and watched everyone from a distance just to see if she'd come to call. He'd never once seen her there.
Everyone had strained relationships with their parents but come on, doesn't every teenager? But they never failed to call home from school.
Well that was until two days ago when he had spotted her at the booth when everyone was long gone. She had hesitated to dial in a number. After several minutes of contemplating, she did and watched the telephone ring but didn't place it on her ear.
It seemed whoever she had called wasn't ready to pick up. She left on that note.
" We all have something we've never done before, for instance, unlike Lejandro, I have never jumped into a fourteen feet swimming directly without checking it's depth when I know very well that I can't swim." He says just to lighten up the moment.
" Wait, Lejandro did that?" Ashanti laughs.
" Of course, he's a bigger doofus than what meets the eye." Zaron adds.
" What did you guys do about it?"
" We guys?....well we have this rule for not helping each other out if the reason behind it is clearly stupid. It's a way of reproving you." He replies, " So we just stood there and gawked at him whiles laughing at him struggling, unfortunately Samed got too close and in an attempt to help himself out by grabbing his legs, he rather pulled him in.
We all don't know how to swim, so we had to go call a lifeguard to rescue two teenagers from a swimming pool where an eight year old was freely swimming." He narrates and chuckles at the memory while she laughed.
" You guys must really be crazy."
" Yeah we are, as Kobby likes to call it; THE ADVENTURES OF CYBER X." Zaron feigns the voice of a comic book narrator and says.
" I think we should get going." She says still smiling and zips up her bag but just then, they hear the door knob to the chapel jiggle, jostle and turn.
Zaron quickly pulls Ashanti with him under the piano and they sat silently. The door creaked open followed by footsteps.
" Oh there it is." Reverend Darko says and his footsteps drew closer and closer till he stopped at the piano and sighed.
" These kids, I've warned them about leaving the lights on. Oh lord help me." He turns the lights off from the front switch and walked away.
After hearing him lock the door from behind, they crawled out from their hiding.
" And that's phase one of the Adventures of Cyber X since I am the only one here." He declares.
" I think that's the second time we've been paranoid today. I'm guessing that's our cue." Ashanti whispers and they begin to walk towards the door.
" We need a plan first, Mr Seidu will be patrolling the school grounds by now, so I think we should use the fourth walkway since there are more trees there to conceal us and it seems closer to your house." He suggests as she unlocks the door.
" What about you, how are you going to get home? What if your house is locked?" She asks as they step out into the chilly gastly breeze outside, finally realising the essence of the sweaters Zaron always had on over any uniform.
Come to think of it, she had never seen his arms before, they were always covered up by his sweater. Even during PE he had a sleeve on under his PE top.
" Haven't you heard about Canticles, it is the only house that never sleeps. " Zaron chuckles," Even at this odd hour people are up and about as if it were daytime, just that we work with flashlights since the bell for lights out goes off at 10:00pm. What about you, how are you gonna get into your house?"
They begin to walk down the street towards the fourth walkway.
" I told Heather to listen for the pebble that will hit our window so she would open me." She responds, " Hey, what at all do you do awake all night?"
" Just studying ahead of class, watching movies on people's phones and peer teaching. In my dorm for instance, we prep till 2:00am. The second years come to the dorm by 10:00pm,they tutor us and we have some fun quizzes and story problems based on teenage lifestyles and whoever solves his first gets to go to bed."
" Wow, so what do you do the hour before they come because we end our prep at 9:00pm?" She still wonders.
" As I said, we watch movies and sometimes play videogames just to keep awake. In my dorm, Samed is our Movie maker, but if you can't, you can go to bed until the seniors arrive." Zaron shrugs.
" That's a nice strategy, what does your housemaster do about this?" She asks as nocturnal birds cooed from a distance.
" Mr Bonsu?...well, from what I've heard, he has stopped chasing us. He's pretty frustrated about it because it's been a legacy for Canticles to bring out the biggest, most powerful and influential men in this country and internationally so we need to back up in order to achieve that aim.
Everyone sort of gets possessed to stay awake but we just make sure he doesn't get to know about the phones. If that one comes to his notice we're dead." Zaron explains as they take a turn to the fourth walkway by passing around one of the school's magnificent boulevards.
When they got to the visual art block , Zaron spotted Mr Seidu, one of the school's security guards carrying his heavy torchlight and a military baton, approaching them. He was getting pretty close because now they could hear the fm station of his pocket radio.
Zaron thought fast on what to do since those classes were locked and they couldn't hide there, but the door to their restroom wasn't. Only the cubicles were locked but not the outer area of the room. He quickly prompted Ashanti and they ducked under a window and tiptoed to the room and pulled the door closed lightly.
It still made a whining creaking sound that caught Mr Seidu's attention and he glared at the door that was slightly ajar with suspicion and marched towards it.
As he drew closer, the wind blew at the door and it made the same sound again making him realise it must have been the wind.
His cellphone shrills and he quickly places the baton under his arm and raises his long robe in order to reach for his phone in the back pocket of the shorts he wore under it.
He brings out a brick phone and answers the call in his local version of the English language,
" O Hallo Baba, yes is me Seidu. Walai ano see you for lontime so I decide sey make I call you today make we talk but you didn't pick the call at first." He laughs.
His voice soon begins to fade away indicating he was leaving.
After waiting briefly, they come out and continue the walk to her house before later walking back to his.
Heather opened the window to her but as soon as she got in, Ciarra woke up.
" Where have you been?" She whispers in shock.
" You were supposed to be asleep." Heather says in a hushed tone.
" I can't when I know one of us is missing." Ciarra says as they turn their attention to Ashanti to try squeezing some information out of her.
OoO
Her internal alarm system did not fail to wake her up at her usual time though she'd slept late.
Before inspections, Ivy came into the dorm whiles everyone was dressing up.
" All freshmen, please give me your attention!" She calls with a clap of her hands and they all turn to her.
" Well I think this year our way of informing you guys has been different, mainly because Asare takes too long to approve stuff." She whispers the last part and most of the seniors scoff.
" Every fresheman group that comes around, we pick seven girls to walk our clothes on the runway. Asare was trying to procrastinate the confirmation but Ms Bella has given us the go ahead. Fortunately for us, our designer from dorm 4, some of you might know her already as Afrakomah, has already finished up with all fifteen clothes you'll be modelling today after school before the main show on Saturday.
I just need a few girls to model out the dresses. According to her, she has only three freshers so far who have the model look and body so she says since we have a lot of pretty girls in our dorm, I should bring the other four.
Girls listen, Manhattan never looses modeling competitions, I won for my year group so you'll meet me at the basketball court during recess for some quick training.
You also know this is a big deal for us because we need both scores from this and that of the Interhouse competition to win the fans, right guys?"
" Yeah, are we gonna be competing against each other or other houses?" Kweiba asks as she zips up her skirt.
" Definitely with other female houses. We are still the best female house in the school and we're gonna maintain that position by winning this.
Manhattan usually houses the prettiest girls but if you haven't heard, we're gonna have some competition this year.
We have Rebecca Asante from Miami house, the girl is her own slay queen. Leila from Florida house, she's got sass, Rufidat from Albuquerque and she's obviously photogenic. We've got Mahalia from Pennsylvania, she's from Venezuela for crying out loud. They easily win Ms World!
That's what we're competing with so be smart and beautiful."
Ivy looks at all of them and sighed, they were all so adorable,
" Okay so when I call you, you take a stand on my right. For my team, I'm taking Ashanti Goodman I love your legs." She observes and Ashanti walks to her right hand already fully dressed as usual.
" Veronica Baeta, the roaming beauty. You know Baeta, I can't clearly pinpoint what makes you beautiful, but I realized it's just everywhere." Ivy beams as Veronica walks to her right hand whiles still buttoning up her shirt.
"McAllister get over here baby girl. You have such beautiful eyes and yet you keep hiding them behind those contacts. Take them off now!" She orders and Ciarra slowly reaches her eyes and popped them out revealing her silver rimmed iris. She smiles nervously to herself.
" And you have the most captivating smile, your boyfriend must be enamored by it. I'm sure if he's now your ex, he'd probably go like ' Damn I still wants her back,' he is probably now realizing what he has lost." Ivy teases and all the girls give Ciarra a knowing look as Ivy pulled her in for a side hug since she was the obviously the youngest of the four of the girls she had chosen.
" Lastly I want one of my funny and crazy fair girls, Fayanna." She calls and Faye grins still with bags under her eyes from sleep even though she had already showered and was dressing up.
Her eyes sometimes seemed to give off that asian look and when she laughed too hard it all disappeared, " You rock the smiling eyes. God! you even do it when you're unconsciously and I love your eyelashes, you're probably never gonna need artificial long lashes for the rest of your life."
" Thanks." She mumbles.
" Not that the rest of you have a problem,no. We just needed four that's why and also for you Heather I hear you're on the dance team so I don't want to stress you." She says to the rest.
" Hey everyone, this is my team, who thinks otherwise?!" She calls out to the others in the dorm.
The room erupted into murmurs and applauses, Lartifa even gives them a standing ovation.
" Make us proud guys!" Zak calls from all the way up the dorm on her bed.
" I'm loving the combination already." Wathoni admires as she runs a brush through her hair and passes infront of them to Kelinam's bed to borrow her hairspray.
" Ran along kids, you have ten minutes till Ms Bella gets here for inspection." Ivy dismisses them.
The silence is broken once again by a loud shrill.
" Someone stole my gold watch, who the hell was that?!" Sabina exclaims suddenly from her open suitcase.
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Drama queen 😂
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