Chapter 7

Zayn yawned as he walked down the stairs to a classroom below his. Ms June had instructed him to pick up a stack of paper she had accidentally left. He was extra tired that day as he had spent working on his music track past midnight. The school was fairly quiet at eight thirteen in the morning, but Zayn was not looking forwards to the noisy lunch breaks later on. With the rowdiness and the crowd in the canteens, and the shrieking and the banging of tables as they go crazy, Zayn could only wish for a more peaceful school day.

"Where are you headed?"

Zayn was startled by a random person. He turned around to see a student at the stairs landing. Zayn immediately recognised his face.

"What can I do for a creep like you?" Zayn was not having it, talking to a stalker early in the morning

"Can't argue with that, but aren't you too?" He scoffed. Zayn knew where he was getting at, but he ignored it.

"I have something to fetch. You need anything...?" Zayn tried getting his name.

"Sean. Nothing... for now. See you." He walked away. "Oh, wait."

Zayn was ready to turn back but he called out.

"Amilia... do you think she is someone admirable?" Sean asked with a serious tone.

Zayn couldn't be bothered with him and left without a word. He quickly retrieved the papers as instructed.

'My heart yearns for her... probably.'

"A little bit late, Zayn," Ms June crossed her arm. She must have been waiting for longer than expected.

"Sorry. Something happened at the stairs," Zayn explained very vaguely, not wanting to disclose some weird talk he had with a schoolmate he barely knew. He quickly went to his seat after passing the papers to Ms June.

"What's up, man? Lisa?" Kim asked without hesitation.

"Wha-wha-what? What is it? What is it?" Hana quickly turned around within her seat. The name pretty much caught her attention after all.

"You're such a busy body, Hana. Face the front," Kim stuck his tongue out. The two of them got close after two weeks.

Zayn sighed quietly. He looked at Amilia, who was minding her own business. She must have heard Lisa's name, right? Zayn leaned on the chair's backrest, looking up to the ceiling.

"Luckily, it wasn't her but now some dude is thinking he's a superior provoking me. I don't even know what he wants," Zayn softly answered Kim's question. He didn't want to disrupt Ms June's lesson after making her lesson behind time.

'Huh?' Zayn heard somewhat a sigh of relief. "Did you say something Kim?"

"Huh?"

"Huh." Zayn looked at Kim. He was hiding his phone playing that same game.

Zayn swore he had heard a sigh somewhere. He looked at Amilia and Hana, who was closely paying attention in class. Whatever. Zayn sat upright and decided to follow up with Ms June's lesson on Citizenship.

***

"Now is P.E.* lesson, right?" Zayn stretched his body.

"Yep. Art was a little dry, just now. I was nodding away if I'm being honest," Hana zipped her bag.

Both of them took Art as their elective subjects, while Kim took Design and Technology and Amilia took Food and Nutrition. They were divided so that students go into their respective laboratories and rooms for their elective lessons.

"Well, whatever. Let's go," Zayn initiated. Hana walked beside him as they headed to the multi-purpose hall.

"Eh, wait." Zayn suddenly stopped.

"Something missing?" Hana asked.

"I left my attire in class. Go ahead; I'll go get it."

"Okay."

Zayn quickly ran up the stairs to his classroom. He was already panting not even halfway to his classroom. It did show that Zayn had not followed his P.E. teacher's advice on maintaining his body during the year-end break. Seconds later, he finally reached the level his class was located. He took a deep breath and gave in all he got to sprint to the classroom. He was already late for Citizenship class; he wouldn't want to be late for another lesson that day. As he sprinted, however, he had bumped into a female student.

Zayn and the girl gruntled in pain as she fell onto the floor.

"OH SH- AH! I'M SORRY-" Zayn handed out his arm to assist her but was surprised to see who she was.

"Oh... Zayn..." she said.

Zayn's trembling eyes wished it wasn't her.

"Lisa..."

Lisa reached out her hand and Zayn helped her get up from the floor.

"Sorry! Gotta go." Zayn quickly let go and got ready to sprint, but she called his name.

Zayn stopped. A bad aura can be felt between the both of them. He couldn't face her anymore. It was all too painful.

"I'm in a hurry. Next time," Zayn softly said, ending with a "hopefully not." under his breath.

She couldn't stop him no matter what. She decided to head back to class.

I saw those eyes when he looked at that girl. Is he really past me? Do I not have a way to redeem myself?

***

Zayn sprinted to the class in no time to retrieve his attire under his table and quickly changed in the classroom, after making sure no one is around. He sighed dreadfully as he prepare to sprint back down the stair for the P.E. lesson. In a minute, he was already with the class, preparing for their teacher's instruction.

"Had fun running?" Kim laughed at him, making sure their teacher, Mr Tan, did not notice him.

"Yeah, yeah man. Totally. Would ten-ten do it again," Zayn replied. Kim snickered at Zayn's attempt in sarcasm.

Zayn was mentally tired. Everything that has happened since yesterday were just destroying his motivation. He wouldn't regard the guy named Sean and his past, Lisa as a problem, but they could be.

"Alright, class. Let's do some cardio - boys go clockwise seven rounds around the field; girls go five anti-clockwise. Clear?"

"Yes!" The whole class responded as they got on their feet to head down to the field. Zayn sighed as he basically had no rest from sprinting up and down the stairs earlier.

The striking sun shone its natural light brighter than yesterday, making today's weather much warmer. It was not blinding but it was definitely scorching. The sound of stomping footsteps could be heard as the class of 3-1 ran around the field. Zayn and Hana were instructed to lead the boys and girls in their runs respectively.

"Zayn... what would you do if you... had to choose one person of the two... that confessed to you?"

"Kim... why... why the weird... random question."

"No reason... just to... distract me from... the running stitches."

"Stop talking... it's gonna be harder... if you talk... while running."

"Huh... really?"

"Yes... probably? Just... please stop... Kim"

The two best of friends were panting like dogs as they ran. Unlike the girls of the class who were at most jogging, the boys unreasonably decided to sprint. Is it a male student's urge and ego to do so?

Anna and Hana were jogging together, leading the girls in their run.

"How was the bubble tea that day?" Anna asked.

"Well, I guess I should have expected it won't taste as good as it looked," Hana shrugged it off, sounding a little disappointed to share her experience.

"Don't you think bubble teas are disgusting? Like, come on; so much sugar and weird combined ingredients," Amilia asked as she paced herself to match Hana.

"But it tastes so good! I don't get why you wouldn't try it," Hana gave a shocking look.

"BOYS KEEP TO YOUR RIGHT!" Kim shouted as he saw the girls pacing towards them. Amilia was startled by Kim's loud voice. She regained her composure.

"Keep to your right!" Hana only shouted loud enough for every girl behind her to hear.

Zayn looked ahead. He was amused by the sight of Amilia, running delicately. His mind filtered out everyone else as if it were only him and her. Never had a moment Zayn saw a girl running as elegantly. Her smooth silky skin was glowing under the bright sun. Her hair was swaying sideways hypnotically as it followed the beat of her jogging pace.

Oh crap.

Their eyes made contact for a split second. Zayn got flustered by such a short exchange, he lost focus and tripped himself. Zayn yelped as he fell forward onto the field. The boys behind him fell as they tripped over one another. Only Kim had managed to not lose his balance.

"HOLY SHI-"

"AGH"

"WHAT THE-"

All of the falling boys gruntled as they were stacked over one another, caused by one fella who tripped. Zayn groaned under the pile of boys above him.

Was I under some sort of spell? Zayn closed his eyes, shielding from the sunlight that could damage his vision. Only seeing her perfection and elegance is hard for a boy who is into with her.

'What a long day today is going to be,' Zayn cried in his mind.

*P.E. - Physical Education