Anna thought the new school would be different. Like in TV shows, she believed it was all about being in a class with the same people during every day of the week. The reality turned out different. The place was more like a university, where each student, depending on their curriculum, continually changed classes, and classmates. What at first seemed great to meet even more people, and make more friends, became a routine of rushing up and down to get to classes where personal conversations were rarely made, and when they were, all revolved in topics she either did not know about, or had no interest in.
“It’s your eyes,” Nyx said. “They are not used to electric blue.”
“Nonsense. I’m just a weirdo.”
“Well, in that case, you just need to find other weirdos like you.”
“I’ll join the music club,” she said, stepping inside the busy cafeteria. “And I’ll speak with my music!”
The table facing the cafeteria’s entrance crowded a bunch of students with their hands full with percussion and wind instruments. They all dressed in an outlandish uniform of bright colours and extravagant design. Anna startled and froze. Without being able to take her eyes off them, her frown inspected one by one carefully for a long time and without shame. Each member noticed, sharing looks of bewilderment among themselves, as if their presence was something only Anna found ridiculously out of place.
“Unless you’re planning to kill them or getting autographs, I recommend you to move on, lady. You are scaring the minstrels.”
Following the smells of the trays filled with bulk-made food at the side of the room, Anna finally turned away, reaching for the self-service stands to grab a brick of choco milk and a couple of sweet buns. “They caught me off guard. I didn’t expect that.”
“What? A group of kiddos dressed for a performance?” In that instant, Nyx’s tone turned out too mocking for her liking. “Or them not inviting the weirdo kid to the weirdo table? You are in an arts school, Pips. People do artistic stuff here.”
“I know, I know. It’s just…They reminded me of old times. Somehow.”
Anna sat in one of the few empty tables by choice and scouted across the room, taking in the elaborate social dynamics around. At the very centre of the cafeteria was Kelly Ong, the leader of the most popular girl band, and as such the most popular of them all. Anna was not one to ask trivial questions, and yet, in less than a day, Kelly’s name and her members’ passion for dancing to J-pop songs had reached her ears.
Kelly’s beauty was undeniable, and in Anna’s opinion, it could have been even more striking if her makeup hadn’t pushed the boundaries of the school’s dress code. Her long, straight hair, cascading to her waist, shimmered with the light as she moved, and with every measured gesture in whatever story she was telling to her followers, her slender, well-proportioned figure exuded grace.
Around Kelly gathered her J-pop idol girls. Some shorter, some chubbier. But all pretty in their own way. And for some reason, beyond Anna’s understanding, none of them had a hairstyle quite like the others.
Anna watched them with detached curiosity. Kelly’s table wasn’t the kind of place she’d ever aim to be. The glitzy, polished world of idols, fashion, and trends never interested her. Yet, she couldn’t shake a bit of envy.
Her interest shifted to the band dressed for performance, instruments in hand and top hats on their heads, ready to head for action. Her mind wandered back, but this time about tales. She’d been always travelling with the Party of Heroes, and as a matter of fact, she’d never seen much of other minstrels herself. A few bards apart from Morrigan and she. Some jugglers here, some poets there. But most of it, the best of unforgettable performances and impossible shows, came from the stories and legends that reached either by word of mouth or in crumpled scrolls.
The boy standing in front of her made his presence known with a subtle clearing of his throat. He stood tall and lean, standing out from the crowd, with sharp features and intense, yet sad eyes. He waited, as if he had asked something Anna didn’t hear. Then he shoved hands into his pockets, slightly tilted his head and took a step closer.
“Hey, sorry to bother,” he said, his voice quiet but clear. ”I’m Darren. We are in music theory together. You were the one playing an air solo while waiting in the traffic light yesterday, right? ”
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Anna blinked, caught off guard for a moment, before a grin spread across her face. “You saw that? I get carried away sometimes,” she said, leaning back in her seat. “To my defence, nailing Mixolydian twists on a bag strap is almost as hard as playing a mandolin in full armour.”
Darren’s mouth twitched into a half-smile. “I-I suppose.”
The awkward silence felt worse with Darren’s fidgeting. To her aid, or rather punishment, Nyx came as fast as his mind could plan the jokes.“Very well played, Ross Geller. It’s fine, don’t worry. If he runs away, you can always speak to him with your music. Or to the minstrels, although for those it may be too late.”
“Shut up!” Anna thought. Noticing the casing bag resting on Darren’s shoulders, she tried again. “My name is Anna, and as you can tell, I’m awkwardly unfunny. Do you play the guitar too?”
“This is a bass,” he replied with a casual shrug, his eyes drifting across the cafeteria. “Been at it for a few years.”
Darren excused himself. As Anna feared her first attempt to make a friend had failed, he turned, hand scratching his hair. “I’ll be back. I want you to meet one of my bandmates.”
Before Anna could say more, she felt a sudden shift in the air: a sharp gaze burning into her from across the room. She looked up and saw Kelly, her eyes locked onto her from the idols table. Kelly’s face remained perfectly neutral, cold and calculating, but Anna could feel the weight of her judgement.
Anna stared back for a moment, refusing to look away first. She flashed a quick, defiant smile before turning away, though she could feel Kelly’s eyes on her for a few seconds longer. A discomfort making her return to the challenge.
The rest of the girl’s group, engaged in a conversation making them laugh too much, didn’t pay attention to their leader and it wasn’t until one of them, a petite girl with pretty features and big eyes, put Kelly’s interest back on them and away from Anna.
Almost certain it all had to do with Darren’s approach, Anna muttered inside her mind, ”First duel of stares, checked.”
“Want me to hum some Enio for you?” Nyx said.
Her hand instinctively drifted toward her bag, fingers searching for the shape of something familiar. Tucked inside rested the skull amulet she kept with her at all times. The rough surface of the crow’s skull pressed against her fingertips, and as soon as she touched it, a wave of memories flooded her mind. The sounds of the cafeteria faded, replaced by a distant, crackling campfire and the soft murmur of her old companions settling in for the night.
She remembered Oren, the warlock, always on the edges of the group, kept for herself. She was, as she always explained, an outcast. Never sure where or how she’d fit. She always spoke little, and most of the time, her gruff, aggressive attitude put Anna at a distance. That night, Oren approached her, forcing her lips to appear friendly. “This is for you,” she told Anna as she raised the crow’s head pendant. “It’s the container for my familiar. It likes you.”
“For me?” Anna said, surprised by a familiarity coming from someone she had not expected.
Oren sat on her side, shaking the log back and forth. “I heard from Morr that sometimes you feel you don’t belong in the group. That you don’t know where your place is. Well, my familiar and I feel the same. Maybe this is my way of saying there’s always someone.”
“Someone for what?”
“Not really sure,” Oren said in her deep, mournful voice. “Maybe someone to fill the gaps.”
The memory faded, and Anna was back in the noisy cafeteria, her fingers still dabbing the amulet hidden in her bag. The weight of Oren’s words turned too difficult to bear, leaving her with a sense of vulnerability impossible to shake off.
As her lunch break ran out of time, Darren returned to her table. “This is Wei Jian,” he said, nodding sideways to the tall, bulky boy standing next to him.
Wei had a quiet, shy demeanour, especially in the way he avoided eye contact. Maybe it was a behaviour so similar to Oren what struck her as oddly familiar, or maybe it was his physical appearance, similar to Adalan. Whatever it was, the extremely shy boy, without meaning to or trying to, shook Anna to the core.
“He’s my drummer,” Darren continued. “We’re looking for a guitarist. Are you interested?”
Anna felt her heart skip a beat. “Don’t freak out, don’t freak out,”
“I’m pretty calm just now. What are you talking about?” Nyx said.
The prospect of joining a band put her hair to an end. As her eyes widened, Wei shuffled, reaching for Darren to whisper in his ear.
Darren shrugged and tilted his head. In response, Anna raised an eyebrow, demanding to know what the big guy had just said. Darren, who seemed the kind who understood perfectly human interactions, raised his palms up. “He just said your gaze makes him nervous. Sorry, Wei is a little shy.”
She gave her best to play it cool, trying by all means to contain unfunny comments and jester antics. “No worries, not as bad as a rotten cabbage straight to the face, isn’t it? I’ll think about the guitar offer.”
After parting ways with Darren and Wei, Anna’s head turned into a war of opposites. Butterflies fluttering at the prospect of connecting with interesting people, fought against ants chewing her guts with the frustration of being embarrassed each time she spoke.