tassel

CURRENTLY, I'M SITTING UNDER a mango tree beside the soccer ground with my legs outstretched, plotting ways to murder Arohi Narayan.

Mrs. Lowry asked us to prepare for a debate in the morning today, and the debate is the day after tomorrow. She was also nice enough to assign Arohi as my partner even though she is absent.

I whine at the thought. I just loathe debates. They're so pointless, especially when the topic has been given by Mrs. Lowry. The middle-aged ginger woman, although strict, is a pretty nice teacher. But one thing she doesn't know is to give a proper topic for a debate. This time, it is whether peanut butter is American or not. Either way, it would be considered as a fact. You can't debate with a fact. 

Google it up, copy some random lines, and I'll be done with it. Still, I need to arrange and prepare the script and above everything else, practice speaking. Because we have to debate in front of other human beings. And I get super nervous debating in front of other human beings.

Hope Tanner from English class was nice enough to offer me her phone for the leisure period. I don't want her kindness in to go in vain, so I'm trying my best to gather some valid points from the internet. 

Showing up in pajamas to school, that too late, is bad enough. Constantly reading and looking for information about a product you despise just for an assignment's sake is worse though.

I'm halfway through an article about conspiracies associated with peanut butter, when I can't take it anymore. I sigh and look up. 

It's a blue September sky, with clouds all white and fluffy. The sun shines just enough to leave a golden lining on the trees and lawn and flowers. It's a little cold, but my sweatshirt is protecting me and I mentally thank myself for falling asleep wearing it last night.

Kim, my other friend, suddenly pops up out of nowhere, blocking the view of a sparrow I just spotted. She leans down to look at me, making her long braid fall on my face. I swing it like a rope and send it behind her back again.

"Awesome outfit, Tassel. Looks just like you," she chirps and sits down beside me. "Like me?" I laugh. I don't understand it and don't bother to.

I had planned that after some content-searching on Hope's phone for the debate, I'd spend whatever time I have left of the leisure period taking a walk, searching for Hope and giving her phone back, and then go get lunch with Kim. But since she's already here, I'm quite sure the entire leisure period won't have a second of me preparing the debate.

Kim is a hell lot more fun than peanut butter, so I don't tell her to go away either.

"Why didn't Arohi come today?" she asks.

"I don't know. Maybe she's not feeling well." I reply half-heartedly. When Kim questions my tone, I narrate the story of today's English period. She only laughs.

"Help me, please," I groan.

"Way too boring. I'd rather help you out with your Biology homework if you have any. You know, Reproduction is a nice chapter to read," she says, wiggling her eyebrows.

I give her a blank look. "Are you sure you're still a virgin?"

She nods seriously. "But I wish I weren't," she winks.

I proceed to facepalm.

|| ~~~~~ ||

Kim actually helps me to finish up a bit of the debate. A really tiny bit, but that still marks as progress. And with her sporadic jokes, writing it is passable.

Peanut butter-skinned and peanut butter lover, she kept saying about herself.

When the bell rings, the two of us meet up with Hope in front of the Geography class. I give back her phone, and we go to the lockers to keep our stuff.

The lockers are the reason Arohi and I are friends with Kim. Both mine and Kim's last names start with 'Pa' - Pager and Patterson - so ours are right beside each others. And Arohi's was just eight lockers away from mine, to the left.

It was the first day of freshman year. I was not in the same school as my middle school; my parents made me change it so I'd get some 'quality' education. Fortunately, Arohi, a girl from my previous one, was joining Portmouth too. We weren't friends, but a known face is always welcoming to me.

(Considering the fact that I haven't had any bad relationship with them in the past.)

We'd already received our timetables before, and since the two of us were quite early, we decided to find and keep our things in the locker and explore the place as much as we could without a map. We were super-excited to come to a new school. Especially since it was High school.

We walked to where our lockers supposedly were. Hers was before mine, so after she was done, we started searching for mine. It was close by. Painted with white on the light grey-green steel, was the number 47, indicating that it belonged to me.

"A million colours to choose from, and they go for the one that looks like vomit," a tall, slender girl standing next to us suddenly spoke.

She was beautiful. Her dark brown hair was tied in a long braid, little strings popping out in a few places. A delicate frame of cheekbones and an eminent jawline embellished her face, her dark brown skin complementing everything impeccably. The maroon tank top and black jeans she wore showed off her fit body.

Arohi and I laughed at her remark.

"I'm Tassel," I said, giving a small nod.

I greet people by bowing my head slightly instead of waving. It started off in eighth grade when I suddenly became really lazy, resulting in being too lazy to lift up my hand. It's become a habit now. And it's not disrespectful; respectful rather, in Eastern cultures, so I never discontinued.

"Hi, I'm Arohi," Arohi said, smiling. "What's your name?"

"Kimberley or Kim. Nice to meet you guys."

Since then, the three of us have pretty much been together although we have utterly distinct personalities. Distinct, but compatible.

"Porridge?" Roberta, the lunch lady, asks. I smile and nod, and she plops some of the sticky substance onto my tray. The good thing about our school is that it actually has good food. Even the porridge is tasty.

Kim takes some too, and we head towards a free table and sit down. We talk about what else to put in the debate, while eating from our trays. Before break, I didn't even get time to think about my hunger. Now that I have spaghetti right in front, I'm literally stuffing as much as I can into my mouth at once. 

I'm about to glut down a meatball, when my eye catches a figure sitting on the opposite table. 

I recognize him as the Asian boy from Chemistry class. He's poking the food with his fork, hardly eating. His eyes, although looking at his tray, seem to be lost in space. The expression is familiar to me, so I decide to call him to our table.

Then I realize I don't even know his name. I don't feel like shouting out 'Hey, Partly Useful Lab Assistant!' in front of fifty other people either.

So I continue to stare at him, hoping he'll catch my eye. Luckily, he does, and I motion for him to join our table.

He's confused for a moment. Me? he mouths. I nod. Not so shyly, he smiles and walks to us with his belongings that include a schoolbag and a phone in his hand.

He's not an introvert like I thought.

"Hi, I'm Arashi," he says, sitting down in such a place, that the three of us almost form an equilateral triangle. 

I'm drawn towards his name. It's Japanese mostly, so I have no idea what it means. But there's a certain tranquility in the way he tones his voice and tells it, like a spring breeze tickling your ear. Suddenly, I feel too intimidated to ask him the meaning of it.

"Nice name. I'm Tassel," I introduce myself. "And that's my friend, Kimberley."

Kim gives a small wave. "Call me Kim."

The she looks at me, her face asking, Who is he? My lips respond, We're getting to that.

"You were my lab partner today, remember?" I ask Arashi.

"Yes, of course. The teleporter. Those pajamas are hard to forget," he says with quite a straight face. I turn pink like my pajamas and all of us laugh. 

"Why did you call her a teleporter though?" Kim asks him, in between her snorts. 

"He must've thought I teleported from my room to school directly after looking at my clothes," I say, rolling my eyes at my own answer.

Behind his fringe, Arashi's eyes microscopically widen. "As a matter of fact, that's exactly what I had in my mind at that time."

I let out a laugh, shocked that my wild guess is right on point. Arashi gives me a look I don't really understand, while Kim is trying her best to not produce another embarrassing snort. 

Oh God, the weather forecast should have warned that there'd be a chance of heavy facepalms today.