Ganymede chapter 5
Adam’s POV
“YOU!!” Tommy cried, choked, and spilled the water all over himself. My smile (actually that nutty grin) faded and my lips pursed, eyes narrowing. Oops, maybe I should’ve been more human. Like, a hello, maybe. Hmmm.
“Eeek.” He jumped.
“Here” I handed him my handkerchief. He looked at me as if I’d really asked him to belly dance naked in front of the whole class. I gave him an innocent smile. His expressions changed and he took my hanky, his face an adorable shade of pink.
He dabbed the piece of cloth over his wet shirt. Hmm, maybe he needs some help. I felt my eyes twinkle, and just like that, all the water was soaked in the handkerchief. Ta-daa! Tommy’s eyes widened. Oh, I looked away just in time. I saw him look at me, with his mouth hanging open, from the corner of my eye. Adam, control that nutty grin of yours! DON’T smile now!
“You-you saw that??” He asked. I looked at him with a curious expression.
“What?” I asked, slightly frowning, the “innocent-est” expression on my face.
“Th- uh, never mind.” He muttered, and started wiping the desk. Then he turned towards me. My heart stopped for a second.
“Th-thanks…” He returned back the handkerchief, which was as dry as the air outside. No one could tell that he just wiped all that water with it. Heh, the perks. Hope you understand what am I talking about? Aw! I just love talking about my perks sometimes…hehehe…
“Ah, that’s nothing.” I smiled, sincerely this time, and was taking my hanky back, when my fingers brushed his and I found my face turning red. Uh.
I swallowed and turned towards the board. Awkward!
After a few painful hours-or-maybe-days-or-maybe-centuries (seconds, actually,) when I thought that I might just die of silence, that awkward silence, he finally said something. Gee, thank goodness. But-
“So…” was all he said. I turned towards him, all blank. He was chewing his lips, and looking at me with a doubtful look. I tilted my head with further confusion. WHAT? My mind was screaming, but I thought that vocalizing that thought might scare him.
He slowly raised his hand, and it inched near my face. Just the way at the terrace. Same expressions too. Slowly those cool slender fingers touched my cheek, and I felt that something again. But then, I felt him pinching my cheek. Soft at first, but then hard.
“OW!” I pulled out of his reach. His eyes widened again, and he quickly pulled his hand back.
“Sorry, I…was just…seeing if you were for real or… not.” He softly mumbled, his fringe hiding his blush. Ohhh! I understood what he meant…The way I disappeared at the terrace, hmmm, that must have, like, really confused him. But really, is this how you see whether the guy sitting next to you is for real or not? But, I decided to play with him for a while. Ah, c’mon! He was too cute to let go!
“So…” I looked at him, with a mischievous smile, “you’ve been thinking about me?”
“Yeah, yea-”(was that a smile I saw?)”…no, wait- NO!” He panicked with the words. “I was, uh, um…well…”
“Never mind.” I couldn’t help but laugh, wasn’t he too adorable? “I’m Adam.” I brought my hand forward. Maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on him.
“Tommy Joe.”(I wanted to say “I know!” …Joe…Know…hehehe, rhyming? Maybe…I should become a poet. Okay, okay I’ll stop blabbering…) He smiled, his blush fading. Wow, what a beautiful smile! I felt dazed. Then he took my hand in his, and gently shook it. I felt goosebumps all over, with butterflies dancing ballet in my stomach. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but whatever. I really didn’t want to pull back, my nutty grin dominating my face. But then, the teacher walked in, and I had to let go. Okay, here goes another period of human drama.
Getting an admission in this school was easy (that’s why I was at the office, where I first met Tommy.) You know, humans, we have enough power to completely control them. And I thought this might be the best way to confront Tommy. As Ganymede had conditioned, this won’t surprise Tommy. Yeah, I mean, guess whether he’ll be surprised or not, if I landed directly in front of him with my ebony wings and the Godly halo around my head, and carried him in bridal style or something. Yeah, right, you get me. So, I thought I’ll pretend to be his classmate for a while. Then friends. (Then, maybe something more too. *Insert nutty grin here*) He just wont be surprised if he lets me explain then, right?
After my little act on the terrace, I dispersed the fireflies, and headed to this class. Music in the third period. Either this or history lessons. Yeah, I liked history, but I liked music more. Plus, Tommy was in music too. Yeah yeah, you must understand which reason was more dominating, right? Whatever.
I turned back and smiled at Lisa and Camilla, who were in pretty human apparel, and perfectly visible to the human eyes, sitting few seats behind us. What? I thought they might enjoy the human world too. They’re my friends you know, I thought they might like some human drama, (they are girls, after all, some drama might be funny and all?). And getting admission aint hard for us.
“Okay class. Welcome to the first music class of this semester.” The teacher, probably in her mid thirties smiled at the class. “I’m Mrs Emerson, you all know me.” Then her eyes landed on me. “Oh well, most of you do anyways. I see new faces here.” She beamed at me.”The new guys here, please introduce yourselves to me?”
I stood up. “I’m Adam… hey!” I smiled. She turned to Lisa and Cam, and they introduced themselves too.
“Okay. Great. Welcome to East Ends, hope you guys like it here.” She gave that welcome-y smile. I nodded. And then she started talking in inhuman speed. “Now class. Before I tell you about your first assignment, I want all of you to present an introductory piece to the class okay? So, you know my rules; you know your partners, get your song from me, pick your instruments. You all have twenty minutes to decide and have a quick rehearsal if you want…Okay?”
They know their partners? How? Eee! I don’t want another dramatic human to be my partner…’cause eeh! I sat around with a blank expression on my face, till I felt a delicate hand on my shoulder.
“Yo dude, you okay?” Tommy smiled. I shook my head.
“What are we supposed to do?” Did the teacher say something important when I was spacing out?
“Present an introductory piece, as Mrs. Em said. So you ready?”
“Who’s my partner?”
“Well, according to Mrs. Em’s rule, its your bench mate…So…its, uh…” He wandered off mid-sentence, finding his nails really interesting.
“You mean its you?” My face lighted up like a candle. He just nodded. Gee, I was excited now.
“So, what about the song?” The nutty grin came back.
“Uh, Mrs. Em gets to choose that. What instruments can you play?” He was stammering.
“I..hmm… vocals would be the best.” I flashed another smile, and he gave a weak nod.
“Uh, okay, lets get our song.” We walked up to ‘Mrs. Em’, as Tommy called her, who just had assigned a song to two boys. They didn’t look really happy. Now what?
“Ah! Thomas! And the new kid!” She beamed at me.
“Its Adam-“
“Its Tommy-“
We said in unison and she laughed. Maybe because of Tommy’s voice, which was a few octaves high.
“Kids these days. Oh! Okay, so the song…Hmmm…What about ‘truly, madly, deeply’? I like that song”
I didn’t recognize the song, but the look on Tommy’s face said that it wasn’t the best idea.
“But, Mrs. Em, why that one?” He protested
“Because, today’s theme is love. And I like the song. Now hurry up.” With that determined look, this human could even persuade (or rather scare) my father, y’know. Just as we came back to our seat, I saw Lisa and Camilla pass by, the latter winking at me.
“Hey, uh, Cam, I don’t know this song, what do I do?” I mentally talked to Cam,( remember my powers?)
“Don’t worry, what are we music faeries here for?” She smiled at me.
“Here are the notes” Lisa passed on me the lyrics and the notes, which were easy to learn, with my special talent in music and all.
“You got your song?” I asked.
“Yes sir.” They said in unison, but something about their smile made me think that they’d manipulated the music teacher. I was about to ask them, when a voice interrupted me. It was him.
“Adam, you spacing out again?”
“No, I- uh, sorry, I was just thinking about the song.” Which wasn’t a lie, teachnically.
“Come, we need to rehearse if we don’t wanna embarrass ourselves in front of the whole class.”
The fifteen minutes we got, went by in a whir. We were in one corner of the music room, sitting on the ground, crossed leg, next to each other. The way his hands moved over the instrument, the guitar I mean, was flawless. I swear his hands were like, flowing on the strings, dancing with the rhythm. I didn’t sing much, just pretended to match the scale, and clear my throat. All I did was look at him, and adore. Oh, I could worship him all day.
That’s when Mrs. Emerson called us for the show, and Tommy panicked, realizing that we did not rehearse at all.
“Relax.” I put a hand on his and smiled. This seemed to calm him and he smiled back, and nodded. Though I couldn’t just ignore the reddening of the cheeks. Both his and mine.
We were all standing in a crowd, next to the raised platform, and the teacher asked whether we would like to come up voluntarily or she needed to pull us up. A few pairs raised their hands, and she had this satisfied smile on her face.
“Lisa, and Camilla, right?” She checked the names. “Okay, you girls come in first,” she said and walked behind through the crowd, behind us.
Both the sisters got a guitar each as they took their seats.
“You know how to play a guitar?” I questioned.
“We are music faeries, Sir. When it comes to instruments, we can, like play anything.” Lisa smiled.
“Oh, and Sir, this song is dedicated to you…and your going-to-be husband.” Camilla winked. Both the faeries grinned to each other, as the comment left a blush on my face.
Before I could retaliate, they began their play with the strings. Their hands moved flawlessly on the strings. They were music faeries, and yes, they could play the best with any instruments they got. But sometimes it just someone else… whose playing, you cant even compare.
“There you see her,
Sitting near across the way.
She don’t got a lot to say, but there’s something about her.”
Cam motioned towards Tommy with her eyes, a mischievous grin dominating her face. No, no just no…They-they cant be talking about us! I mean, uh, who’s the “she”? I thought in a over-smart accent, mentally shrugging my shoulders.
I shot daggers at the sisters. They smiled at us.
“And you don’t know why but you’re dying,
You try, you wanna,
Kiss the girl.”
I shook my head, no! They nodded and gave me that all-knowing smile. I shook my head again.
“Yes, you want her.
Look at her, you know, you do.
Its possible she wants you too,
There’s one way to ask her.”
There was sincerity in Lisa’s eyes, as if she really meant what she sang. Except the “she” part of course. I just tilted my head and took a small peep at him. Okay…Maybe Lisa’s right. He was looking at the sisters, dazzled by the music(it was breath taking after all), his mouth hanging open just a bit, eyes sparkling. Daw!! So cute! Maybe…another kiss wont be such a big deal.
“It don’t take a word, not a single word.
Go on and kiss the girl.”
I didn’t realize I was staring until he turned towards me, and I turned away. Uhm, maybe I was too close, because when he turned, he looked directly into my eyes, and then I looked at his lips…Which of course I shouldn’t have. Because then I realized the situation we were in, and my mind screamed, “now its embarrassing to stalking, you lover boy!” And then I saw that I had to lean back to revert to my original position, which meant I was leaning towards him (!) I looked away, my face flaming, and for a while, lets just forget the kiss-me-again thought.
“Shalalala! My oh my!
Looks like the boy’s too shy.
Aint gonna kiss the girl.”
Lisa nodded to Camilla and she laughed out. They both turned and winked at me.
“Shalalala! Aint that sad?
Its such a shame. Too bad.
You’re gonna miss the girl!
Go on and kiss the girl.”
“Amazing!” Mrs. Em-whatever-was-her-name cried. She hurried past all the kids who were leaning next to the platform to get closer to the sisters and their music, and as they made a way for her, they pushed each other. And pushed us. It was really very…um, I don’t know how to describe it. One moment I am trying to stand away from Tommy, and the next, we are squeezed next to each other, chest to chest. I got my hands on his shoulder to steady myself, and he got his on my arms.
“Now’s your moment.
Floating in the blue lagoon.
Boy you better do it soon.
The time would be better.”
“Sorry,” I whispered, and tried to move away. He simply nodded. We moved apart and I tried to focus my attention on the singers, which was a bad, really bad idea, since they were singing to me. And smirking the “told-ya-exclaimatory-mark” smile, with their eyebrows raised in a look of superiority. I could listen to the smirks and grins in their voices.
“She don’t say a word,
And she wont say a word, until you
Kiss the girl.”
This time even Lisa had that “heh” look on my face. I pouted and shook my head again. They pouted and nodded their heads.
“Shalalala! My oh my!
Looks like the boy’s too shy.
Aint gonna kiss the girl.
Shalalala! Aint that sad?
Its such a shame. Too bad.
You’re gonna miss the girl!
Go on and kiss the girl.”
They were trying to persuade me. Huh! As if I would listen. I moved a step behind, and now was diagonally behind Tommy. “I’ll kill you,” I mouthed, and glared at them. Maybe calling them down to Earth wasn’t the best idea. They smiled sweetly at me, the innocent looking deceivers. And then I smelled…him, his fragrance. Actually, since I was standing so close to him, I had a feeling that I was breathing on his neck. I couldn’t stop myself and pressed a small kiss on his hair. And then I don’t remember much. Everything went in a haze, the faeries finished the song, and the teacher praised them and talked about getting them into the annual musical and all.
“Shalalala! Don’t be scared
You better be prepared,
Go on and kiss the girl!
Shalalalala! Don’t stop now,
Don’t try to hide it out
You wanna kiss the girl,
Go on and kiss the girl!”
And then suddenly, she calling out to me.
“You-uh, Adam right? Its gonna be your turn now. Come on Thomas!” She called out.
“Uh. Its Tommy!” Tommy said, irritated. And this time his voice was a few octaves higher than the last time. I just stood there blank.
“Lalalala, lalalala,
Go on and kiss the girl…
Go on and kiss the girl…kiss the girl…
Go on and kiss the girl!”
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