DAY 2: Graphical hearts

Alright... steady... Today's day two.

Remember the rehearsal, remember the rehearsal. Remember your destiny

[Eric actually rehearsed to talk to Mabel at home the day before]

Don't let it go to waste. She's not here yet. Which is fine, the universe gave me some more time to prepare.

[*Throwback to the REHEARSAL:

Eric practiced saying "hey Mabel" for like atleast 100 times to his count before the mirror in his room. His younger brother who was just outside Eric's room heard him and was sacred that his elder brother was possessed]

Huh!! There she comes !

Day 2:

"Hey M..." , I stuttered

"Hey Mabel, I made this wrist band , do you like it?", Interrupted Nadia.

Nadia you bi.....

Mabel looked the wrist band with amusement and asked , "Woah! Can I wear it for today?". She took the dark purple wrist band and slid it into her wrist.

I looked at the timetable hoping to find any "not boring" class today. My eyes instinctly stuck to the computer class. What I like about computer class , you ask me? It's the only freaking room with proper air conditioning. Gawddd!!!! How good it would be in this hell of a summer. But it's the last class, I gotta be patient till that

[School bell rings]

There were go, the lame daily routine starts again.

And all the teachers were revising the stuff they completed, cuz our farewell for our last year is in a few days... 8 days counting today. After that, they'll be some study holidays and they would start with it final exams. We may not be able to see each other during the exams (Eric and Mabel)

So I gotta LOCK IN !!

[Few classes passed]

It's small break now and as usual, our group would sit together and start yapping random stuff. Mabel went outside the class now. But when I stood up to follow her, Billy, Derek and Sullivan surrounded my desk and started the talks. As time went by, I was fully focused on the conversation that I didn't notice Mabel standing beside me. When I did and look at her

"Can you get that water bottle?" , she asked unable to reach to her desk as the boys were sitting all around it. Luckily I was in the right spot. My hands reached for her violet coloured hexagonal water bottle. I gripped my fingers onto them. Lifted it up and gave it to her. (Tried to touch her fingers with mine when I was giving it though.)

Mission unsuccessful.

But no worries, it was a side quest afterall. I did the main quest by handing over her bottle of water to her.

With a "thanks", she left. My moment brightened up having the feeling that I helped her. But a laugh worse than that rusted door screeched through my ears, it was Nadia's. Her voice so irritable that I could lose my sanity, that bit...

Gotta control, control.. (Breath in) .... (Breath out)... The TOTAL CONCENTRATION BREATHING. Work it (breath in ) with Mabel's picture in my mind (breath out)

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Good thing, there's no Spanish class today. 2 classes passed since the break and my mind is still occupied by her "thanks". And I could always see her within my field of range, blurred at the corner, but still pretty. As mesmerizing it could be, I didn't notice my pen fall off my desk. It fell almost towards HER desk.

I bent down to take it but, my head banged on something, maybe.... You know what it was. I could see Mabel's hair. She tried to help me and our heads crashed. The world around me froze, I was in a a trance. And again I didn't realise that my hand was on top of her's who reached it first. I got chills down to my last nerve.

"Sorry" , I said pulling back

"Well no problem", she said handing over the pen to me, a quite husky voice

"DAMNN CUTE!!!" , I screamed in my head.

Two incidents in the same day!? Damn, I'm lucky af.

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And finally it's that time of the day, Computer class

We walked to the lab, my eyes never leaving the Mabel. (Not to mention, I even tripped on the stair cuz of that)

The seating arrangement in our lab is what I like. There were 3 long tables, one in the right corner, one in the left corner and a wider one in the middle of our class. It was extruded to nearly the end of the room. The computers were arranged on top of the tables. The tables on the right and left corners had chairs facing the wall. The middle thicker table had chairs on both side, yknow kinda parallel and facing each other. But a damn big computer hides the other side ofcourse. I always used to sit on the middle one, why?? Because the air conditioning system give chiller breeze in the middle than in the corner. Just as usual, I sat there and the teacher , Ms.Olivia (not much I could talk about her, she was new to our school) told us to boot our PCs.

When I turned it on. There was damn screen on it like it had a factory reset(ofc it did). Not only me, many had that screen. When one of the students complained bout this, Ms.Olivia asked that for how many of us this screen showed up.

We raised our hands. Almost one third of the class did. And straight opposite to me, behind that big monitor I saw a familiar hand. Mabel? Maybe? I tried to guess. That's when I noticed the wrist band on her hand which Nadia gave to Mabel, the same dark purple one. At once, I confirmed it was her. The monitor so damn big I couldn't see her face, well, atleast I'm near her (in front of each other, to be precise )

After the fixing the computer start up, we were told to type in a python code

To show graphs. I did so, and the lines showed up at the defined co-ordinates. Derek was seated next to me and we thought the same thing. We teamed up, and started to code a square.

The square appeared !!!

"Yaay lessgoo", we exclaimed and gave a little high five. The celebration didn't last long cuz our teacher saw us. She gave us a deadly stare which said everything. She's definitely not a rookie teacher, I swear.

Then Derek and I came up with another plan, if we could do a square then why not a circle. We did the coding and the circle was displayed. Although not a perfect circle, it looked somewhat like what we call a circle. And then we came up with a crazy one.

"HEART!!"

Haha! Yess.. we tried to code a heart now. Bit challenging though. We did many attempts, and saw different shapes humans weren't meant to see. I was so locked in that I forgot about Mabel. I bent to my side, exhausted by speedrunning python graphs, unaware that I had a clear view of Mabel. Well, she had a clear view of me too. That's where things took a sudden turn, she laughed.

She was laughing at something. The melody of her giggling made me notice her. She was laughing her a.. mrghh mrghh (clears throat) I mean 'heart' out. I wonder what so funny did she see. After a while, she came to a control of herself. I was looking at her. She saw me, and.... LAUGHED?!?!?

What the F..!!!!!!

She was laughing at me?!?!

She tried to control her laughter but whenever she sees me, she bursted out in laughter again.

"W– What– What's wrong?", I asked. She didn't mind but continued laughing.

"Derek is there something on my face??", I asked Derek

"No"

"Is my face funny??"

"Well, that's a question"

"Dude, be serious"

"Okay then, no" , he replied

Finally she came to a steady state.

"Why were you laughing?" , I asked.

"Oh sorry , never mind", she said giggling and finally controlled her laughter going back to work.

I immediately hid my face behind the 'damn big' monitor screen which I thought as an obstacle.

What the hell just happened now? Is it over? Do I look that funny? Is it my hair? Urrghh what the hell!!

"Dude I finished", said Derek

With a "huh", I lift my head up to see the graphical heart in my monitor screen. There was a line in the middle of the heart which divided it symmetrically. I did some coding and I fixed it.

I fixed that heart but mine?

[The school bell rings]

I was walking my way back downstairs lifting my bag. Actually my bag wasn't heavy, my heart is. I wouldn't forget this incident for years

But suddenly, I saw Mabel, it looked like she was waiting for someone. No- not her again!! I tried to sneak my way through.

"Eric?!", she called out

I stood mid stance as if someone said "English or Spanish" (shit!! That reminded me of Mrs.Martina).

I knew she was gonna apologise for that but I never predicted it would happen this soon. What shall I say after she apologizes??

"Don't mention it" ?

No it doesn't work

"You don't have to" ?

Aah I can't come up with a reply

"Eric.." , she started ,"did...", she continued

"YOU DONT HAVE TO APOLOGISE", I overlapped her talk.

".....did you see Nadia?", she finished.

Wa... WAIT.. WTF NADIA?!?!??

"Nadia?", I asked as she exclaimed, "apology?"

"You're one silly guy, Eric", with a teasing playful laugh she went upstairs in search of Nadia

I had a brain freeze. I'm so cooked.

What will she thinks of me now?!? Why did she laugh in the first place??

With all these questions in mind, I walked out of school.

(Guess I'll go hear to sad songs at home)