Natia

"Students of the gifted-minds competition, how are you all doing?"

Freddie's grand voice tore through the dead silence of the auditorium, making a few of the students stir in their sleep. I, too, rubbed away the sleep in my eyes as I yawned in exhaustion.

All of us spent yesterday's night doing the practice round for writing in NYU's study hall. After the 2 hour long session, it took every ounce of my strength to drag myself back to the dorm room that Ruth, Ting and I shared.

The absolute silence in the auditorium was enough to answer his question. He walked across the stage in his freshly polished shoes and tailored suit, his short stature suddenly immensely puny when in front of the enormous theatre of students.

He continued. "Well I think you should all take a break from the serious stuff just for today."

My ears perked. So did my teammates as they lifted their drooping heads.

"Sasha, our new member of the gifted-minds staff team, suggested that we do some bonding time between students today."

A thin, petite woman popped out from behind the curtains and did a nervous wave. On her cheeks was an adorable smile, laced with the slightest bit of fear as she faced the auditorium filled with hundreds of students. A round of excited murmurs ran through the crowd.

Freddie, to my absolute surprise, did not start yelling or shouting or screaming at the unacceptable behavior of the students. Instead he smiled at the buzz of excitement in the air. He turned to Sasha and his smile stretched into a grin.

"Sasha?" I whispered to the two girls, who had identical silly smiles on their faces.

"Is our savior." Ting concluded. I nodded my head in agreement.

Freddie continued. "Your mixed groups will be assigned after lunch, and you will be completing a series of tasks with your team around NYU."

My breath quickened. I imagined Amsyar and I, walking side by side through the beautiful cobblestone pavements of NYU, admiring the blooming summer flowers as as we would sneak shy glances at each other-

"But remember that this is only a break." Freddie added sternly, the brief traces of friendliness suddenly stripped away. "You are ultimately participating in a an academic competition for the gifted and talented, and I would like you all to do some preparation for the multiple choice assessment tonight after this bonding session."

Some students groaned in frustration, as they were reminded of the tedious test coming up tomorrow. Freddie shot the noisy boys in the corner a hard glare. They silenced immediately.

"Might I remind you that your actual writing, debating and written assessments are coming up next week. I can assure you right now that these questions will be harder than any others you have done in the past."

The hall was quiet as a sense of dread hung heavily in the air.

"You are dismissed." He walked off, regaining his usual masked composure.

~*~

"Natia Jiang from Hong Kong?"

My hand shot up into the air. "Here!" I got a few weird looks for my overly enthusiastic demeanor.

We were a team of 11 people, consisting of students from 11 different countries. As we huddled together right in front the iconic water fountain of NYU, I stood on my tip toes to run a quick glance at the little group of students. I was ecstatic to find out that all of them bore unfamiliar faces.

The girl at the centre -who I reckon was the assigned leader- continued to run through the list of names. I was making small talk with the person next to me when I heard the name 'Aishya Jones' called up. Then a soft, melodic voice responded from behind, her voice so light it was like hearing the brush of dandelion seeds against the friction of the wind.

It was also familiar, like an old nursery rhyme humming faintly at the back of my head. I whipped my head around to find a pair of brilliant blue eyes staring back into mine. Framing the pools of clear blue was once again the same beautiful almond shape, the slanting sides intersecting to form a blunt point. Her skin was ghostly white, as if she hadn't seen the sun in years. Yet her hair was coal black, a bold stroke of color against her pale canvas.

Excusing myself from the extremely unentertaining conversation that I was having, I wiggled my way through the crowd to find the girl with the jet black hair. It wasn't until I was right in front of her did she notice me. "Hey Aishya, how are you?"

Aishya gave me a small smile. Though it touched her eyes, it wasn't as bright or as dazzling as her brother's. "I'm good! How are you?"

I sighed happily. "I'm so relieved that we finally got to take a day off. The past few days of practice competitions have been driving me nuts."

Aishya nodded her head eagerly, her eyes shining with understanding. "I know, thank god for Sasha."

"Oh my god," I clutched her arm excitedly, suddenly remembering Freddie's grin at the assembly, "did you see the look that Freddie gave Sasha this morning?" She shook her head, her eyes wide with curiosity.

"He was so lovestruck with Sasha I could practically see cartoon hearts floating above his head." Aishya laughed, and her solemn face instantly transformed into a lively, joyous one.

"Sorry, I didn't pay attention to the name list. What's your name?" She asked, flashing me an embarrassed smile.

I returned her smile. "It's Natia."

"All right. Freddie instructed us to finish all these tasks..." The girl with the name list yelled, her voice squeaky and ear-piercing. Dramatically, she used the back of his hand to flick her curtain of strawberry blonde hair onto one side of her shoulder, creating this spinning golden fan around her. I swiveled around to send Aishya an incredulous look, and she didn't miss a beat, returning me with the same expression.

The leader continued to screech on about unity and teamwork as we moved towards our first destination point. Aishya and I walked side by side. I noticed how her eyes darted from the sky to the grass to the trees and finally to the brick building. I realised that she was waiting for me to begin our conversation.

"Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask you this, but are you and the other boy in the debate related?" I asked, breaking the slightly awkward silence. I was still too afraid to pronounce Amsyar's name.

She rolled her eyes, and the tension in the air eased instantaneously. "Oh I wish we weren't related."

"Don't say that, I'd kill to have an older brother!" I said, frowning.

"And what makes you think that he's older than me?" She asked, raising her brows. I blinked, wondering how I should respond to that.

She sighed. "No, but he is. Or by 13 minutes anyways."

"Woah, you guys are twins?" She nodded.

I couldn't resist the grin spreading across my face. "That's awesome. It must be like having a best friend around you twenty-four seven."

She shrugged. "I guess."

We continued walking, and I noticed a few significant differences between Aishya and Amsyar. For one, Aishya was a lot harder to figure out more than her brother.

I contained the urge to pry into Aishya's life. Even though I didn't know her that well, I knew enough to understand she wanted to keep some things private. Perhaps some people were just not destined to be friends-

"You met my brother yesterday, yeah?" She asked gently, as if she could already see through my obsession with Amsyar. Was it that obvious?

I bit the inside of my cheeks embarrassedly. I looked over at Aishya, and she was observing crisp crunch of maroon leaves underneath her converses. I responded with a quiet 'm-hm'.

"What do you think of him?" She asked, still unwilling to meet my eyes. I considered her question carefully.

"He's very approachable." I said, reviving the sweet memory of his charming smile, the sincere glow in his eyes when he listened. "He's always so smiley, it's hard not to like him."

She chuckled. My eyes widened. "-as a f-friend of course. He's like everyone's friend." I added quickly.

She nodded in agreement. "I know, he's like our school's most popular guy ever. Like not the douchebag-jock kind. But the every-girl-ever-has-a-crush-on-him type."

I laughed. She smiled too, and I noticed that she bore the same radiant glow in Amsyar's eyes. "I can tell."

She caught me in a surprise as words began pouring out of her lips all of a sudden. "I-I just feel like Amsyar's super friendly to everyone, perhaps sometimes even a little bit overly so. He even is that way to me! His twin that he's been living with for 16 years now." Aishya took a quick draw of breath before she continued gushing.

"Like -I don't know why I'm telling you this- but he feels like a stranger to me sometimes. It's like he's underneath layers and layers of pretty wrapping paper constantly, I-I," She stammered, her eyes searching for recognition in mine.

"He just feels very fake. Artificial." She sighed, her hands frantically gesturing in front of her. "I don't know if you feel it too or maybe it's just me overthinking."

At the moment, I completely understood what she was saying as I looked into her desperate eyes. He didn't have the vulnerability that Aishya had right now, bare and real for me to see. All that I saw in the past 2 days was his perfect, dashing smile.

I looked down at my fingers that were now intertwined tightly. "Yeah. I see it too."

"People, can you contribute please? I can't be doing all the work here!" The leader cried.

Her voice just got more annoying as she nagged on. "We need two people to compete each other to try and get 15 high fives in 10 seconds. Come on-"

"Aishya and I are willing to do it." I grabbed Aishya's wrist and pulled her out from behind me.

"We are?" Aishya blinked in confusion as everyone stared.

"Yes! That's the spirit!" The girl squealed as she pulled out her phone. I flashed Aishya an apologetic smile. She just rolled her eyes.

"Alright. Ready, aaaand- go!"

I dashed through the open area and began tapping randomly on the other group's shoulders. I got a few confused looks, but most students just laughed it off and was willing to lend me a high five.

I was down to my last 5 seconds. I sprinted across to another team and asked in my hurried, breathless voice. "Dude, I need one more high five-"

3 seconds. The boy turned around, and I couldn't resist the shocked grin spreading across my face as I realised who it was.

His teasing eyes glinted as he bent down to meet my eyes. I was paralysed in my spot, my fingers twitching with desire to reach out and feel his splatter of freckles beneath my touch. My legs turned weak and wobbly as I gazed into his entrancing, honeysuckle eyes.

"Two seconds!" I faintly heard our leader's annoying voice screaming. I raised my hand in a high five position.

The corner of his mouths curled upwards. My grin dropped as I realized the sinister look in his eyes.

"Sorry, no can do."

"And time!" The girl screeched. I rolled my eyes at a bemused Amsyar. He smiled, teeth and all.

"Natia!" Aishya jogged over, her grin the largest I've seen since I've met her. "I got all fifteen! How many did you get?"

I was about to declare my defeat when Amsyar interrupted, his eyes beaming. "Aishya!"

He engulfed her in a bear hug and wrapped his long hands around Aishya. I smiled at the heart-warming scene. I looked around to find a few other girls also swooning over the spectacle.

Aishya pulled away. Even though I could still sense a thread of discomfort in her tense arms for hugging her 'artificial' brother, I couldn't ignore the genuine, involuntary smile stretching across her face.

"So I see you two know each other?" Amsyar asked, swinging an arm around his twin.

"Yeah." Aishya replied before I could. She shook Amsyar's arm off her shoulder and came by my side, resting her elbow on my head like an armrest. I giggled at her gesture. She peered down through her curling lashes and chuckled at our height difference. "We're good friends."

"Did you just choose weirdo here over me? Your hilarious, funky, totally awesome twin brother?" He said, his face a mask of mock hurt as he placed a hand over his chest.

"Yes. She just did." I said, leaning my head against Aishya's side.

"Natia, do you want to ditch the bonding time and go exploring with me?" She asked, her eyes beaming in enthusiasm.

I mirrored her excitement. "Yes! Let's pretend to be NYU students and sneak into a lecture."

She bounced up and down on her toes at the idea. "Oh my god lets do that."

We turned around swiftly and began chatting about our favourite musicians. I only took a quick glance behind to sneak a peek at Amsyar. Swiftly, I returned my attention back to Aishya, a smile growing on my face.

Amsyar was staring shell-shocked, his mouth wide and gaping as he watched us leave.

~*~

Author's notes: Hey guys! I don't do this often, but I've been playing around with the thought of switching perspectives. Would you guys want to continue following Natia's story or try out the other character's? If so which ones? Thanks for the help xx

- Jaeanne