Chapter 3: CHAPTER 1 THE DAY IT ALL STARTED
"So eight years ago in the year 2016....,"
Humming to myself to the tune of Waka Waka.... What? It is one of the best song. So anyway, I made my way into my backyard. 07:15AM, I checked the time on my digital watch and sighed happily knowing how I am on time like always. I take out my bicycle and hop on. After a tiring weekend, I am finally going to meet my friends, Amelia Banner, Blake Banner and Adam Anderson.
From past 2 years, I am having this huge crush on Adam. I swoon every time when I look at his eyes, they are a unique combination of greyish black . He is so smart, funny, shy, sweet, boy next door type guy. And look at the coincidence, he is actually my next door neighbors' relative. He sometimes live with them when his parents are out of town. We first met when I accidently tripped over him on school playground, and he helped me. Long story short, we instantly clicked and became best of friends.
Amelia and I are friends since like forever. But even though we are best friends, I still am a bit skeptical about telling her about my crush on Adam. Only Matt, my younger brother knows my true feelings. I am a bit shy person when I want to speak my heart out. Amelia and I are friends with almost everyone at school. I can say that I am popular, but not obnoxious about it. I am not sure, but I think she does have an idea about my feelings for Adam. However she never pressed me on this topic, and I am glad for it.
And then comes Blake, who is Amelia's cousin. He is a huge player of our school. And being the captain of our basketball team, he is the most popular kid of our group. Adam and Blake are polar opposites, but still tolerate each other for my sake. First time I met Blake was when he visited Amelia's house, when we were toddlers. We eventually became good friends. Just like Amelia, I guess I know him my whole life. We are the only ones in our group who like Comic Books and Action movies. Blake gifted me an Avenger keychain, when we were in middle school. At that time, I actually had an attraction towards him. But then I forced myself to not fall for him as we were pretty good friends, so involving feelings, would have made a mess. Thinking that, I stopped acting on my crush years ago.
With these thoughts in my head, I already reached my school. Looking at the empty space in front of me, I start to park my bicycle. I was about to put it in the space when I heard the commotion behind me. Within seconds a bike narrowly missed me, knocked out my bicycle and then took the space in front of me. I noticed it was a Ducati and the rider was removing his helmet.
"Excuse Me Mister, what type of erratic behavior is this? You know that I was about to park my bicycle here. I mean, I was seconds away. And not just this, you actually startled me, knocked my ride in the ground and could have hit me. I mean, have you even checked the speedometer of that, that thing. News Flash, it is not an runway of airport buddy. Take your plane out of here." I rambled while looking at his leather jacket cladded back. The nerve of this guy, he didn't even turned to look at me.
"Are you even listening to what I am saying?" I yelled after ten seconds of him ignoring me.
"I heard you the first time." A deep voice said and the jerk turned looking at me with his fierce brown eyes." Just take a breather girl." He continued narrowing his eyes at me.
"This has been my spot for more than 15 days now." I said while glaring at the douchebag.
"Oh yeah? Well where is your name then?" He mocked.
"Are you for real? I mean you parked in my spot, you could have hit me, you ignored me while I was talking and you are not even apologizing." I said this while counting in my finger tips.
"Okay "Sheldon" this "Spot" is not yours, park anywhere else. And I never apologize to silly people like you. Now go bother someone else." He said this while doing sarcastic air quotes and looked at his side mirror to adjust his dirty blonde hair.
"Look buddy, why are you so high on your horses. And just so you know, even I am not interested in talking to you. All you gotta do is say "Sorry for startling you", and I will never bother you again."
"Look sweet cheeks, I didn't do anything wrong, you could have heard sound of my Beast here from one mile far. You were the one lost in your dreamland. So for future reference, don't live in your fantasy world."
"You --"
"Yo Carter!, coming or not buddy?" I turned around to look at a muscle prone guy surrounded by bunch of other kids, all wearing a leather jackets.
"Yeah, I'll be there in a sec Dylan." He yelled to him and then turned his eyes to me and said, "Gotta go sweetcheeks, see you never." He said while passing me a dazzling smile.
I was about to retort when he suddenly turned to look at me, startling me for the second time in span of 5 minutes, and said, "Sorry for startling you." I was surprised by his behaviour but after two seconds he yelled, "NOT". And then went to Dylan guy and his friends, chuckling.
"Jerk", I muttered and searched for the parking spot. Fortunately the second to this one was empty. Sighing, I parked my bike.
"Hey Ems!" , I looked to see the beautiful blue eyes of Adam. Just by looking at him, I can forget all my problems.
"Hey Adam! How you doing?"
"I am doing good baby, how you doing?"
My heart skipped when he said 'baby' but then we both burst out laughing.
"You know the usual. I was helping Amelia with her homework which she forgot doing just like every other time." I snickered and looked at Amelia who was smiling sheepishly and waved at me.
"Hey Amy! where is your cuz?"
"Right here Voldy", I heard Blake who put his arm around my shoulders and squeezing me for side hug. Ugh, just when I thought he would stop calling me this nickname.
"Ow, stop squishing me you stone man and don't call me that." I said turning my head to him.
"It's not my fault. You said yourself that Voldemort is cool a name, remember?" he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.
I glared at him and he followed suit by releasing me from his death grip. "So how was your weekend guys?" I chimed in while going to our classes.
"Ooh I watched this new film. The action sequences were like so lit and awesome. And Amelia spent it in parlor for being less ugly then before. And Adam spent it coping up in his room doing nasty science experiments to become new evil DC villain." Blake rambled and I laughed while Adam and Amelia narrowed their eyes and punched him on each shoulders.
We all walked with our own pace and suddenly Adam took me by my elbow and whispered in my ear, "Uh, Ems, I need to talk to you about something. Can you come?" I looked at him and our close proximity. I gulped hard and nodded, fearing I could be blushing.
"Uh guys, we will catch up with you in minute." Saying this Adam and I made our way to another hallway. Surprisingly, it was not crowded much.
"Ems, it might come as a shock to you but I need to tell you this. Because if I won't it will bother me. I have been meaning to tell you this for weeks now but I could not gather the courage. But today, I looked myself in the mirror and chanted that 'I have to talk to Emma' over and over. Look, I am not good at talking about this stuff. So, don't laugh, don't do anything just listen to me. God, it is harder than I thought. It is just a simple question." He rambled all this in one breath while looking up and down.
"Umm, Adam...?"
"Okay, yeah, yeah. Here goes nothing!" He sighed looking at the ceiling and then looked at me intensely.
"Do you think Amelia likes me?" He asked finally.
"Umm.. yeah, I mean sure she likes you." I said confusingly while looking at him.
"You are not understanding," he sighed again.
"Okay, what are you---", he cut me off.
"I think I have a crush on Amelia." He blurted while my heart skipped a beat and something inside me crushed.
"What?" I barely whispered.
"Yeah, I like Amelia and I was wondering whether she likes me back or not?" He said this all while having a nervous look on his face.
"I mean, I know it is sudden to you, heck, it is sudden to me. From weeks I am seeing her more than my friend. Firstly I thought that it was just random thing, but then I started noticing how she looks, actually looks, and I saw the way she smiles and how her eyes lit up."
He said all that with a dreamy smile on his face and here I was shattered with no sense of how to respond to that? Heck, how can I absorb this?
I mean never in my wildest dreams I thought that Adam will have feelings for Amelia. They bickered and teased each other. Within our two years of friendship they have fought more times than episodes of Friends, to say it was unexpected was understatement of the year.
And what about Amelia? I mean, she practically forced me to spend time with Adam in the past, right? Or was I just imagining all this?
"So, what do you think Ems?"
Adam's question brought me out of my reverie and I blinked back my tears and smiled a forced smile.
"Well, it was sudden, but I am happy for you. And about Amelia, I think she would be luckiest girl to have you." I said smilingly, while my heart crushed to atoms inside me.
"Well I hope you are right. I will make her fall for me. But you have to help me. I cannot do this without my best friend, can I?"
He asked me hopefully and I processed his words. I have to help him? I have to help love of my life to impress my best friend, my soul sister? How pathetic is this?
"No Adam, you have to do it yourself," I was about to say these words but the warning bell rang, and I was literally saved by the bell.
"Umm, talk to you later", I said hurriedly and rushed to another hallway where I had my Math class which I shared with Blake.
I continued walking without any sense, but my left hand was jerked out suddenly. I looked at the intruder, who was none other than Blake Banner. What is with all the boys today? Why are they so adamant to startle me?
"Where are you going? I saved you the seat right next to me like always." He said with a smirk and gestured to the seat to his right.
I didn't said anything and sat down.
"Are you okay Voldy? Looks like you are about to cry. I know Math is hard but it's no reason to cry over silly differentiation." He said while chuckling but his eyes held a concern for me.
Before I could answer, Mr. Peterson, our math teacher walked in.
I willed myself to concentrate in the class going in front of me, but Adam's words were still repeating in my head. I mean, I was confused, frustrated, angry, all at one time. How can I face so many emotions at the same time?
With these thoughts in my head, I turned to look at Blake, who was already staring at me with confusion.
He scribbled something and passed me a note after a minute.
"What's wrong? Are you okay Emma?"
I smiled at how he wrote 'Emma' .
Looking up, I nodded at him reassuringly with a genuine smile. He smiled with a wink.
After sometime the class was over and Blake reached out to me.
"Are you sure you are okay? Did Adam said anything?" he asked looking at me.
I stiffened at 'Adam', but nevertheless maintained my posture and smiled at him again, "Yeah I am okay." I deliberately avoided his second question.
He noticed this, but dropped the subject and flunked his arms at my shoulders and dragged me out of my class.
All the rest of my day passed in the blur after that. At lunch time, I pretended to be busy with my assignment, that was due next week. How can I ever face Adam now without giving away my feelings is beyond me. But I actually do want to confess my feelings to him. I am in dilemma right now.
Thinking about all this, I glanced at my watch. It's almost time for our English class. Shit, I actually forget that I share this class with all of my friends. Shit, shit shit. I managed to ignored Adam whole day. Even I caught him stealing glances at Amelia whole time at lunch. How unobservant was I before?
With slow steps, I deliberately delayed my arrival in class. As I was about to enter, a shoulder hit me out of nowhere, and I stumbled. Before I could blink, a pair of arms snaked at my shoulders and waist to steady me.
I looked up to see the brown eyes of Chris Carter who was holding me. He looked at me with his confused eyes. After many seconds, he finally smirked.
"Two times in a day? Sweet cheeks, are you stalking me?"
The nerve of this guy. I glared at him.
"I was here before you. How can I stalk you?"
"I don't know how you stalkers work. "
"Oh my god, stop annoying me you idiot. What is with you? Why are you so hell bent on making me startle today? First in the parking, now here. You can't drive properly, can't even walk properly. Did you lose your brain somewhere? Or did you fall repeatedly while growing up. Because whatever the case is, you are surely not acting your age buddy. And you don't even apologise for your deeds." I rambled while looking anywhere but at him.
After not hearing anything, I finally looked at him, to see him looking at me with amusement.
"What are you staring at?" I asked him, still glaring.
"What crawled up your ass and died? Take a break while talking sweetcheeks, you ramble a lot. First in the morning, and then you did it again few seconds ago. I mean, don't you need oxygen? And for your information, I did helped steadying you this time. It's not my fault that you get startled easily. You should be happy that I was there to save you, or you would have fallen with your face flat." Saying this, he removed his arms from me, which I actually forgot about and maintained a good distance.
With that being said, he went inside. I was still processing the whole fiasco and followed him in daze, when he again turned, invading my personal space this time and whispered ,"Although, I have to say, you are cute when you ramble. "
Before I could retort back, he chuckled at my expression, whatever it was and settled himself at the vacant seat of the last row. Coming out of my daze, I looked at my classmates and friends who were already looking at me. Some of them were standing with their mouth wide open, while others were whispering among themselves. Ignoring them, I went to sit with Blake, when I heard three different voices .
"What was that about?" asked Adam, from my left side.
"Was that Chris Carter?", Amelia gushed looking where Chris was seated.
"That was quite a show", murmured Blake.
Ignoring them, I took out my copies and assignments for the class. Amelia said again, "Do you know Chris Carter?" with a twinkle in her eyes.
"No, I do not know that jerk and I want it to stay that way. The guy is trouble, with capital T. He is an idiot."
Before she could ask something, Mrs. Matthews arrived. She was my favorite teacher, and I was her favorite student.
"So class, I am coming straight from principal's office..."
"What did you do Mrs. M? Are you in trouble", someone snickered and whole class chuckled at this.
"No Mr. Lucas, I am not in trouble, but you guys are."
Seeing the confusion of whole class, Mrs. M continued, "After some discussion with Mr. Cooper, our school drama teacher and principal Smith, we have come to conclusion, that we will organize a drama this year at the end of the month. You will be graded according to your role. You can be in charge of props, costumes, dialogues, songs, ball dancing, acting, voiceover etcetera. We will be doing a play on 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen. And yes it is mandatory for all. Your 50% grade marks are dependent on this play."
Many distinct groaning sounds resonated in class. I looked at Amelia who was smiling after catching my eye. Adam was sitting expressionless, and Blake groaned aloud.
"So I am passing you the list. Write your name and select one option from the boxes. But be assured that I can still change your role." With this being said, she passed the list to circulate in the class.
"What are you gonna do?" asked Blake, "I mean, you have a good voice, you can do a voice over or something like that. And even your craft is good, so maybe you can be in charge of props. And you have a good writing skills. You can do anything in this play."
"I know, acting is not for me. I am more suitable to backstage job. Props idea is good. So is writing part. I will see what I should do. What about you?"
"I am going to go with acting. Can't bury this handsome face with tedious backstage jobs now, can I?" he smirked and I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, even I am going to act. I have read this book million times. So maybe I can be Elizabeth or Jane Bennet," Amelia said looking at both of us.
"What about you Adam? I think you can help Voldy here with props, seeing you are also good at art and craft," Blake said having a little smirk on his face, mocking smirk.
Adam and I sometimes spent our time making small handmade things. That guy is a freaking genius when it comes to DIY products and all. So I know beforehand that he will be with me backstage.
"I will act." Adam said after fifteen seconds glancing at Amelia.
"What?" Amelia and Blake said simultaneously.
I was more shocked to say something. Looks like he wants to spend time with her.
"Yeah, I can act. It will be new and exciting for me. And Emma is more than perfect to be in charge," Adam said.
"Wow Anderson, didn't pegged you as a actor. Good for you man." Blake murmured again.
"We can be together, yay." Amelia squealed and smiled at Adam.
With all this, list came in front of me. I looked at the list, it had multiple options:
1. Props/Backstage work
2.Costume design/selection
3.Acting/Voiceovers
4.Writing Dialogues
5.All Rounder
I stared at all the options and looked at the names. Adam , Blake and Amelia have selected option three. I still am a bit shocked about Adam's decision. But I cannot force him to change his mind or anything. He is the one who decided. Coming out of my reverie, I glanced at the options again. Three options were maxed out. I had to choose between the two, either I act or I do the job of all rounder, whatever that is. Nobody volunteered for option five. I was about to raise my hand to ask about it, but Mrs. Matthews beat me.
"Oh I forgot to tell you, we have added an additional option, All Rounder. It is the job of looking over every group. You need to help with every problem a group faces. You will look over all things, suggest ideas, help in writing dialogues. You will basically be second in command after me. So it is the work of a great responsibility. If you fail, it will affect your score. But at the same time, it will benefit you with 60% grade marks. Yeah, 10% more marks than everyone, because you will have to work harder than rest. So choose wisely." She looked at everyone and then set her eyes on me.
I guess, I know what I am supposed to do. I selected option number five and handed over the list to Mrs. M. She took it and glanced at the list. "Wise Choice Emma", she said smilingly and looked at the list again.
"Mr. Carter, care to explain why your name is not on the list?" she asked looking at the back.
"Yeah, because I don't want to do it." What a douche!
"You are barely passing in the class, do you have any idea what not doing this can cost you? You cannot be that dumb. I am putting your name on the list." Mrs. M stated and the bell rang, signaling end of our day.
I packed my belongings and looked at my friends.
"I am staying up for the practice. See you tomorrow Voldy." Blake said and shoved me lightly. I smacked his hand to which he faked a pained expression but grinned nonetheless.
"I am going to read Pride and Prejudice again. I am getting a vibe that I will be Elizabeth. So I have to be prepared." Saying this, Amelia caught up with Lisa, leaving me alone with Adam.
"Emmie, do you want to continue our talk?", he asked me hopefully.
"Y..yeah", I cleared my throat and continued, " Yeah, we can talk. "
"I know it is shock to you, but you have to understand my turmoil and reasons to like her. Amelia is amazing, the way she talks, laughs and is different than every girl I know. She is just so beautiful and perfect."
Does anyone else can hear my heart shattering? God! why did I agreed to talk to him? I am really so stupid. Managing a small fake smile I listened to him talking about his "Perfect Amelia" for five minutes. As we were passing the hallway to get to my locker, Adam suddenly grabbed my arm and said,
"I am sorry for not sticking up with you backstage. I know we have a lot of fun time together. But I had to choose acting because of Amelia, as then I will be able to spend some time together, and I might be able to tell her my feelings."
I managed to nod and small smile. I don't know what to reply to it. I searched my brain to do something to come out this weird situation.
"Hey Adam, it's getting late. I have to go. Can I see you tomorrow?"
He looked like he was about to say something but then closed his mouth and smiled, "Yeah, okay. See you tomorrow. I will text you tonight. Bye Emmie, thanks for understanding. You are truly my best friend."
I nodded and cringed on the word "best friend". Guess that is all I would ever be for him.
*****
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