Just Dance [Part 1]

War!

We are ready, war ready.

Everyone was warned but no one listened.

With the rise in heartbeat, the knot in the stomach and the sudden change of behaviour; everything changed. For some, it grows and ebbs like the tide; while for others it comes in like a storm, leaving only destruction in the wake.

They called it extreme emotion. It being the highest high.

Well, I didn’t know what extreme was!

And then it hit me on a starry night of Winterfest.

***

I think it's cute and I think it's very sweet but yet utterly foolish on how I let my friends encourage myself to go try and talk to her.

“It will be fine. You have to start somewhere”

Yeah right!

Her name is Anastasia. People called her Annie.

I heard from faint whispers that she had another name, for which she preferred more to be called by; but somehow people never called her by that name and hence I never got to know about it yet.

***

On a summer of freshmen year

All we could think of, was how to get into the decorated school football team; but there begins a class of geometry which completely creates the yard scale calculations, a pretty boring affair. The teacher continued to teach with much vigour and passion even though there was a definite digression in the class.

A sudden knock on the door and the imminent arrival of the principal silenced the class altogether. But the principal was not alone, he was with a girl, the girl whose face was partly hidden with the thick locks of her hair engulfing her face, continuing till her shoulders.

The principal took a glimpse of the entire class. Perhaps he was thinking that we had no hope and this girl is here to save us all. With an intake of a brief breath he spoke.

“Class, meet Anastasia. She will be your new classmate from today.”

This, this girl-Anastasia; she didn’t even look up or respond. Perhaps she was cursing her luck to be dragged down to a wretched place; to delve along losers.

The principal continued: “Anastasia, why don’t you introduce yourself to the class?”

She finally looks up and finally says “Hi” while she moves her hair slowly using her fingers, from the temple of her head, adjusting it on top of her left ear. This girl wore glasses and she was continuously struggling to keep hair stay at one place. She tries to rest them again.

That sight, I felt something was happening around me. I was oddly looking at her since I found her interesting and she noticed that. I looked into her eyes, there she stood still. I felt to go straight and talk to her, but perhaps that would have been awkward in the class right away.

There is never much a thought when it comes to getting attached to a person. Perhaps there isn’t any. Because it just happens, like the sudden breeze of cool air flowing in a scorching heat of a scathing desert. You do feel nice, because that is the moment when you start  thinking that it is all that you were waiting for; for that is what you ever wanted.  That is the same time when you start to lean on the feeling, its warm embrace and also start to get a liking to it and hence wanting more out of it.

Am I thinking too much? Hell yes, I am!

She settled down on a seat diagonally before me towards the right. Soon the teacher continued the geometry session. I didn’t like the session again.

Football trials were four hours away.

***

Five more rounds!

The coach was fired up in the trials. We were informed in the wee hours that the trials will be a month long affair instead of a single session. Though it came as a relief but we did not know what was in store for us.

The school hired a new coach to improve their chances of winning the state championship and to restore a balance in the side. We heard that the coach himself is an alumni of the school and was considered one of the best strikers the school and the state had ever seen during his time. Though we felt good that we would be tested and trained by one of the best, but it soon grew up as a tiresome thought in our minds.

“I said five more rounds. Pick up your speed. Don’t walk…jog, run” the new coach says while we just completed seven rounds of the huge school track. It was day fifteen of the Football trial month.  Most of my friends had been dropped out, either from selection or from sheer exertion of the schedule.

While sulking on the coach and my dreadful choice for being happy for the trials, I saw Anastasia coming in the playground taking her seat in the stands with a notebook in her hand. She brought a notebook to the playground? She started scribing on her notebook, seemingly uninterested.

By now, I think everyone knew Anastasia. Her act of settling her hair locks to her ears had many fans including me! Obviously!

At the same time, Anastasia was categorized as a nerd and it did somewhat seemed true. She had very few friends and even with the friends she made eventually, described her as being awkward, since she spoke so less. One girl even called her rude. Apparently she asked too many questions when Anastasia was working on an important assignment.

“Bitch” she says while storming across the library hall. Anastasia didn’t respond. Maybe she didn’t care or she didn’t even listen to her, considering she wore one huge Bose headset around her ears.

I was sitting two rows back from her desk in the library with my friends, watching the whole episode while the librarian was asking everyone to maintain silence and then went on the tell the girl to behave properly in school.