School life is precious because it’s the innocent times. The bearer of most of our childhood. That’s why so many people recall their school lives–the days when they only complained about not having enough friends, having a lot to study and… not being able to spend time with that person. It’s all cookies and candies, sweet and memorable, wanting to have more.
Class 9-B. The bell rang loudly, and students rushed out of the classroom to return home. Hurried footsteps and chattering filled the hallway.
“Walk in a line!” yelled the Math teacher as he saw the children laugh and snicker, pushing each other.
Nobody heeded to him, especially Aarush as he rushed to get down the stairs to the sports court. Next week was the qualifying match to play against St. Zelotes High School and they were not going to lose to Florence High this time.
As he reached the ground and threw his bag around, the coach said, “No practice today.”
“But we need to practice, Coach!” shouted Rowan, another basketball player for Blooms High School. He and the other tall boys were devastated hearing the Coach’s words. He turned around with a frown, gazing at Aarush. He was half-expecting Aarush to help persuade the Coach, but instead, Aarush said, “That’s not a very good idea, Rowan. It’s raining quite hard.”
As the droplets hit the sandy ground, nobody made a sound except for the patters until the Coach said to Rowan, “Your peers agree. So return home now, and let’s practice later.”
Rowan scoffed, and Aarush was just as displeased as he was. This was the next biggest match and an honour. Not to mention, everybody would be looking. It’s the golden chance to get noticed, to be seen by the girls and become the heartthrob. But Aarush didn’t even ask for that much. All he wanted was one girl to look at him.
“Aria, who do you think will win the upcoming match?” asked a girl, giggling after the teacher left the class.
“Uh, if our school is playing, then I’d obviously want us to win,” Aria said, unsure.
“Don’t be shy, it’s also fine if you want Florence to win. They’ve been winning every match after our seniors graduated. They are monsters in the field,” said another girl.
“Yeah! Two years ago was the golden era! I wasn’t even there, but seeing the recording melted my heart!”
“I know what you're talking about! It’s too bad they’re not in our batch. They were so cute at the end of the match! He was the ace, and she was the shy girl,” The girls started squealing.
The match two years ago against Florence gave the qualifying a new symbol. Aaron, a junior high schooler, also the Bloom’s High School Basketball Team ace, secured the crucial last goal and won the match. As the girls started drolling over his achievement, he ran to the audience and hugged one of them. Soon news spread that they were dating. Of course, it put a frown on all the teachers' faces but the students couldn’t care less.
For several weeks, they were the hot topic, until Elena, Aaron’s alleged girlfriend went abroad as they graduated when another rumour spread that they broke up. Still, they are one of the most talked about seniors in Blooms High School.
“So who will be the Aaron this year?” asked a cute, stout girl, with a bubbly voice that sparked the room with excitement.
“Oh,” said another girl, “Right! Let’s bet.”
“While we are it, let’s also bet for the next Elena,” said the girl next to Aria.
Watching all of these were Aarush, who pretended to do math. He had a week’s homework but all he could scribble was incorrigible doodles. His mind was filled with things he should not be thinking about. He could hear the girls next to him gossip, and he couldn’t help but eavesdrop.
He wanted to hear who she would bet on.
“I’ll bet on Jack,” said a girl, “He’s a year older and has got some good moves.”
“Right.”
“I agree,” said two girls.
“I’ll bet on Rowan though,” the chubby girl said. The group was met with a roar.
“Oh, yeah!”
“Right! I’m totally rooting for him!”
“We need to be able to win, with Jack and Rowan!”
“But,” started a girl, “He’s a freshman. The seniors are much better.”
“Hey, you don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Yeah! it’s screaming ‘I didn’t watch the latest FIFA’”
“He’s also been practising lately. I see him on the ground every day as I walk home with my brother!”
“I know right, he’s working too hard!”
The six girls averted their eyes to Aria.
“Aria, you know him, don’t you?”
“Rowan?” she said, “Yes. We’ve talked a few times.”
The girls let out a slow ‘ooh’.
“That day, he asked if–“Do you want to bet on him?” interrupted a girl eagerly.
Aarush stopped doodling, put his pencil down, and jerked his head up to look at Aria.
“Well, I’m not so sure. I know he practices a lot but there are also players–her eyes met Aarush’s, “who–dun-Aarush got up pushing his chair, his toes hitting the table. He bit his lips and ran out of the class, heating up.
“What happened to him?” Someone said as he left the classroom.
He slipped on his black t-shirt after removing the gym clothes. He had looked forward to the practice, only to let that anticipation end in vain.
If they train properly this week, like they have been since last year, they’ll win. But nobody else sees this other than him, because nobody wants to win this match.
After the graduation two years ago, nobody had hopes for the basketball team, and that began to grow on the players: They can’t win. But there was one person he wanted to win the match for.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, nervous and apologetic. He didn’t understand why she was anxious. She picked up the books that she thought she had knocked out.
“It’s fine, I bumped into you,” said Rowan, picking up the remaining books.
A book read ‘Philosophies of the Mind’ and that caught Aria’s eyes, “Are you into philosophy?” she asked eagerly. The anxiety her voice carried earlier soothes a bit.
“Uh,” Rowan didn't know what to say, “Not really. But I would like to try.”
“Oh, then this book is great,” she said, pointing to a book with a brain on the cover, that said, ‘Arthur Reynolds’s Guide to Life: Philosophies of the Mind.’
She picked it up along with the other books, and stacked the rest of the books into the bookcase except for that one book, “This is one of the best books I’ve read. It’s perfect for starters. This book gives you most of what you’ll be reading in the subject and some boring paragraphs, but it’s still fun.”
She got the books Rowan was holding and stacked them neatly.
“Uh,” he was using that interjection a lot, “Sure, I’ll read,” he said, picking up the book from her hand.
“So I haven’t seen you in the library before,” she said.
“Yeah, well, I don’t like reading. I’m just here for a project my teacher assigned me for being a major absentee,” he said, looking at the book
“Absentee?” she asked, fixing her glasses.
“Yeah, I’m a basketball player,” he replied, “We haven’t introduced ourselves yet, I’m Rowan, and I am practicing to be a member of the school basketball team.”
Aria’s eyes widened, and she gasped, “Oh. Now that you mention it, it’s actually you.”
Rowan’s eyebrows lifted.
“Ah, I saw you in the under-fourteen basketball competition, two years ago. And you were such a good player. My friends won’t stop talking about you.”
Rowan stared at her abrupt compliments.
“Ah, I’m Aria, the library head. Return the books you borrow on time, of course, if you borrow them in the first place and you can always find me here after school. Nice to meet you, Rowan.”
“Likewise,” he muttered.
The next day, he found himself sitting at the library, only reading two to three pages an hour, and mostly busy staring at the library head.
Three days later, she asked him if he liked the book, and he said he did.
Five days later, Rowan invited her to watch his match for the school selection team.
A week later, she turned up at the ground with her parents. But with her was also another family—Aarush’s. Turns out they are neighbours.
Three weeks later, she said, “I heard the match with Florence is approaching. I’m rooting for you, so do your best!”
Two weeks later, they still haven’t talked.
He caught hold of his pink umbrella in the locker. The weather forecast said the day would be filled with a gentle breeze and maybe a slight drizzle, but looking at the day now, it was a lie.
The downpour outside was ruining the ground so much that there might not be practice even tomorrow. Rowan tsked and slammed the locker door shut.
“We’ll have nice weather tomorrow, won’t we, Shail?”
“Yes, Ms. Brown, tomorrow would be the day filled with bright sunshine, a beautiful summer breeze and maybe a slight drizzle to add up to the fun at the end of the day.”
“Tsk, the weather forecast is never right,” muttered Rowan’s mother.
“Mom, I’ll get going,” Rowan said, stepping out of the door.
“Wait, take an umbrella,” his mother yelled from the living room.
“Why, the forecast said it’s going to be sunny,” Rowan yelled back. After a moment, his mother came back with a coral-coloured umbrella, and said, “Take this with you. The shaman said you’ll face a difficulty today.”
Rowan rolled his eyes. He wants to convince his mother that she’s been wasting money on tarot and shaman but he knows she would never listen, so instead, he rolls his eyes once more and takes the umbrella and leaves after saying goodbye.
It would have been nice if the umbrella wasn’t put to use today. He wanted to practice until Aria turned up and walk home together when the rain stopped.
But his plans didn’t work out. It was due to the senior members who resisted practice that the practice was cancelled, but it was because of Aarush for Rowan.
There wasn’t anything particular about him, except that he has good grades and good parents. But Rowan couldn’t get him out of his head after he learned that he and Aria were neighbours.
There was nothing that Rowan didn’t have compared to Aarush. He had the same things–good parents, basketball, Aria–excluding the grades, but it didn’t matter to Rowan.
However, something still put him at unease and discomfort. If he is just like him, then would his feelings also be the same?
He shivered at the possibility.
He stood in front of the wet ground. The exit of Blooms High School was just a metre away. With his bag on his left shoulder and his hands in his pocket, he heard the rain patters.
“Why did you say that?” A voice behind him said, above a whisper but barely a yell. He wasn’t loud, but his tone was rough.
Aarush turned back to see a pecan-haired boy lifting his feet to fix his white shoes. Rowan. He had changed into sports clothes and was ready to practise even if there would be an earthquake, but thanks to people like Aarush, the coach wouldn’t let him.
Aarush was sure that he had fought with the boys who denied practice before coming to him.
“I asked you something,” Rowan said, after observing Aarush.
“I already told you. The field is,” he turned back to face the ground, and the gate, “muddy. You’re probably going to slip, and hurt yourself before the actual game even starts.”
“I don’t care, Aarush. We need practice”
“I thought you knew better than that after winning a gold medal and stuff. You’ll not be able to play to your full potential if you hurt yourself. That immediately means losing the match. Moreover–” Rowan put up his light cerise umbrella, interrupting Aarush.
“I need to get going, my mother will be waiting,” he said with cold eyes, glancing around Aarush to spot his umbrella.
After scrutinizing, he said, “You don’t have an umbrella?”
“Duh. It was supposed to be sunny, according to Shail and his predictions,” Aarush replied, with a tone between hostile and friendly.
“Yeah, then enjoy soaking,” Rowan said to spite him.
“I have my sister to pick me up,” Aarush lied, “At least I don’t have to walk,” he rolled his eyes. He refused his sister’s offer in the morning to pick him up stating that he was not a child anymore, but he wasn’t going to say it again after looking at what it had got to him today.
“Why haven’t you guys gone home?” asked Aria, pushing up her glasses as she maintained eye contact with Aarush. Aarush looked away, his cheeks turning pink.
“We thought there would be practice today, but Coach cancelled it,” replied Rowan, looking at Aria’s hazel eyes beneath those round glasses.
“Oh, I suppose it’s for good. The ground is messy,” she said, sitting herself down in one of the chairs put up below the roof. Aarush looked at her questionably, but before he could speak, Rowan asked, “Aren’t you going home?”
He looked at her bag, then the chair, and then her eyes. She smiled and said, “I don’t have an umbrella, so I’m going to just stay here until it stops raining.”
“Oh, I was planning to do the same,” said Aarush, giving no time for Rowan to respond even though Aria had answered Rowan’s question.
Aarush gulped and sat two chairs next to her. Rowan was trying hard not to get mad at Aarush, but Aarush’s triumph took over him, and he said, “Wouldn’t your mother be waiting for you, Rowan?”
Rowan gritted his teeth, “Yeah, but I don’t think you can keep Aria company.”
Aarush’s eyes turned green with envy and he frowned.
“You said that your sister would come,” Rowan said.
“Yes, and?”
“I’ll walk you home, Aria,” Rowan said boldly. But inside, his heart was thumping so fast, and for a moment he wished he had not said that, but still his brown eyes looked into her hazel ones.
Aarush gasped at his boldness.
Aria chuckled. “That’s a very enticing offer, Rowan. But you don’t have to go through all the trouble.”
“Yeah, get home fast,” Aarush was panicking at the moment. It was right now that he realized that he wasn’t the only one who liked this girl.
“But I don’t want to leave Aria alone. I know your sister would pick you up, but Aria has to walk by herself, and it’s raining quite hard. It would be late before she reaches home. She should come with me,” Rowan declared, “Or are you telling me that you are going to let her be here alone?”
“Relax, Rowan. We’re neighbours,” Aria looked to Aarush, “Could your sister pick both of us up?”
Aarush gulped.
“Um, well,” he hesitated. Rowan picked up on it.
“It would be too much trouble, Aria. I understand you guys are neighbours but wouldn’t it be too difficult?”
Aria thought for a while.
“Well, I guess you’re right,” she said, “I don’t think I should expect your sister to pick me up too.”
“That– “So, are you coming with me?” said Rowan, expectation lingering in his voice.
Aria hummed, “Well, I suppose I would if you’d be kind enough to walk me home.”
“I would be so glad,” his face lit up and he showed a huge grin. He held up the umbrella and asked for Aria to join him.
“See you soon, Aarush,” she said as she got up from her seat and walked to Rowan.
“Yeah,” whispered Aarush, downcast and speechless. His hands unintentionally clenched, seeing how he and Aria lived so close to each other but were still so far away.
As Aria tucked a strand of her raven hair behind her ears, she whispered, “Thank you,” to Rowan for accompanying her. He laughed like a puppy and replied, “Anytime for you.”
They strolled together in the downpour, under the same umbrella, smiling as their shoulders brushed each other headed further in the same direction.
