Chapter 9: First day of School
shback.
You hardly ever find a girl -not to mention, alone- on the third abandoned floor of a high school on a
dramatic Monday morning when she should have been in sses.
More to say, she was crying.
It was the weirdest thing that had happened in a while; not that the girl was crying but that there was a
girl here, hardly anyone came around here.
The floor was made up different ssroom sections that were now too old to use and were to be
renovated, but renovations were not urring anytime soon. Some sses remained locked and a
series of divided sses were open to walk in though theyid dusty and abandoned.
Most kids of the school did not even know this part of school existed but it remained to the advantage
of Iyan. He could stay away- clearly no one would be bothered by his absence- and stay alone.
The sobbing grew quieter but continued nevertheless, Iyan waited for it to pass by and expected the
visitor to leave as soon as they finished their business of “sobbing” here.
Some few minutes passed, he heard no sobs now but the girl hadn’t left, intrigued, he got up and went
outside. In one end of a corner of the ssroom she lied, curled up like a ball, face dug inside her
hands that crossed across her feet against her chest in a protective way.
“Need some help?” he asked in a sarcastic tone.
She jumped up at the mere sound of his voice, she must have been expecting this ce to be a ghost
building. Iyan didn’t me her.
Wide open, engulfing and absorbing the stranger’s presence, her ocean blue eyes were puffy and
swollen, enclosed with a shot of red- probably from the lengthy sobbing. Stark and shocked, she looked
right into his eyes, the pain in her heart still flowing like a river from her eyes.
Iyan was instantly drawn to her at first sight, like a moth to a me. Her blonde locks were all over her
teary face and dried tearsid stained on her pinkish hot cheeks.
“Are you okay?” he asked again, this time genuinely concerned.
“Yeah, I’m fine thank you,” she said trying be as cold as possible, but in reality she was feeling so weak
that she was barely able to speak out loud.
She spontaneously got up, not meeting his intense gaze as he watched her gather her wits and her
open bag along with her schrly materials lying all around her.
He stood still, watching her move weakly, her hands barely steady as she picked up everything.
Fidgeting, she wore her bag at the back of her shoulder and turned to leave.
He noticed what she was wearing, a polka dot red dot dress that hung too well on her figure. He
immediately wondered how a basic dress as that could look still make her stand out in the crowd of
thousands, at least ording to him.
Coming forward, he offered right when she was about to leave, “You can stay if you don’t feel okay,
don’t worry, I’ll remain in my corner and you can be in yours.”
Without any reaction to him or his words, she hurriedly moved out of that ssroom and descended the
stairs.
He barely had any time to get a second nce of hers as he stepped out of the ss and on the
threshold of the abandoned floor.
It was hard to forget her face though, he wished he could see her again.
Over the next few days, he made sure to keep an eye open to all the sses that he followed, maybe
he coulde across that new student that way.
That did not go as nned, but he did suree across his half brother Scott. To his own surprise, he
had seen Scott present in most sses for the first time. But he also noticed that even Scott had been
on the look out for someone with his absent minded and inattentive behaviour.
Iyan shrugged it off immediately thinking that must be some other ruse of his- getting better attendance
to make up for his usually bad grades, at least mom would understand his effort. Of course, she new
saw him even reaching there inparison to Scott, Scott was already the apple of her eyes and her
eyes remained closed to Iyan, her own son.
A week passed, the next Monday Iyan was in the library in the far off corner, barely visible from the
entrance- he stayed quite the loner kid. All by himself, he sat down to finish the book he had started-
The 100 poems of Rain. He gave poetry time only when he had finished studies and the weekend had
been just enough to do that. For some reason, he thought of that girl again when he got interrupted by
a voice.
“Hi…”
He looked up to see Marie, unexpected as it was. Her blonde hair was neatly tied in a pony tail this
time, her long hair flowing to the back of her hips. She looked different this time; thest time he had
seen her, she was an absolute mess. She sat down and took out her wooden notebook. Or it looked
like a diary.
“I had to apologize to you about how I left abruptly thest time. It was my first day here and all I can
say is it wasn’t a good day,” she spoke quietly, embarrassed, refusing to meet his eye.
This part of the library had only two tables; on one they sat, and the other had remained empty, the rest
of the library couldn’t even be seen from here. But it was clear to Iyan seeing her rxed shoulders
and non-fidgeting hands that she was probably morefortable here than that ghastly abandoned
building where they had been only the two of them.
“It’s alright,” Iyan continued almost immediately, “Are you doing okay now? I don’t see the pretty girls
crying a lot you know,” he smiled teasingly.
She looked up and saw his face, she instantly categorized him as appealing in the first look, this was
practically the first time she was seeing his face. His dark brown eyes were covered and hidden with
the thin rimmed sses he wore all the time, his nose fit perfectly on his oval face with fringes of his
brown hair covering the start of his forehead. She took a good look at him and he smiled in response,
he was not scared of the attention. She liked his friendly smile.
“First days can be hard you know, specially when you have moved for the first time in your life,” she
said sadly.
“Crying does not mean that you’re weak, it means you have a heart,” he said casually flipping through
his poems book, he was looking for one that he had not read before.
She looked at him again, her eyes shone with a small spark of shock. Heart. She didn’t even feel she
had a heart, her heart had stayed frozen and detached for far too long. He looked up and met her gaze.
Her big blue eyes were so deep and intriguing.
“Are you always this serious?” Iyan asked mockingly.
“No…no it’s just the studies I think…I don’t think I’ll do too well, moving here in the mid of the semester
and the examsing in two months…” she lied.
She wished she could show a less serious face, she really didn’t want to ruin the chances of having a
friend for the first time in her life, after what had happened with her only friend Katherine, she had not
even dared befriend any other, the risk was too much. But this was a new ce, far away from Italy,
she hoped things would change.
“Oh that’s not a lot you’re worrying about, I can help you out if you need the help in studies…I mean if
you wouldn’t feelfortable, that’spletely alright too, I know I’m just a stranger,” he bbered
nervously, well what do you say to impress a girl whom you met crying in the first ce.
She smiled in response, “That will be too nice of you honestly, I am Marie Lewis by the way.”
“I am Iyan,” he said smilingly, “your name is beautiful, what does it mean?”
This belongs ? N?velDra/ma.Org.
“Who knows?” she shrugged and asked, “So let’s start tomorrow? After ss, here itself?”
“Sure,” he said at the drop of the hat, he couldn’t wait to see more of her.
She got up to leave and took her wooden notebook in her hands. She liked him. He was kind and he
seemed a lot like herself, lonely in the crowd, willing to tear away from the crowd.
As she walked past everyone in the library, all eyes had been on her, some stared in admiration and
some in lust but one thing was certain, she had gathered too much attention for a new girl.