Left, right, left, right. Step by step, I walked into the classroom, knocked on the side of the door, and the man sitting in the chair with his back to me, turned and said "Ah, hello there, my name is Chris, you must be Miguel, please come, have a seat, the others will be here shortly"
After shaking Chris' hand I took a seat opposite of him, facing a window, letting the golden rays of light keep me warm while I slouched in the leather coated chair, waiting for the rest of my study mates to arrive.
"Hi Chris" said a voice of an excited girl.
I turned around to see a girl wearing baggy clothing, with her sandy colored hair tied up in a bun on top of her head, and an excited look on her face. I smiled as a friendly gesture, and she happily smiled back.
"Miguel, this is Tanith, and Tanith this is Miguel. He is the newest addition to our study group"
"Nice to meet you" she said as she held her hand out. At the same time I held out my hand to shake hers and replied back, along with a smile "It's very nice to meet you too". Her cheeks slowly turned as red as a rose.
Tanith took a seat behind me after glancing back with a sparkle in her eye, I smiled and turned back around to the window.
Three minutes later, I could here a group of footsteps on the wooden floor walking towards the room. I turned around to see three girls, one by one walk into the room and greet Chris and Tanith with a simple "Hi guys". Tanith replied with a simple smile, and Chris introduced each of them to me.
"Valerie...", she wore short shorts and a baggy navy blue jumper on top of her shirt.
"Jenifer...", she wore a long sleeve, pink shirt, and REALLY tight jeans.
"Aura...", she wore tight jeans and a cardigan over a simple singlet top.
I greeted the three of them the same way I did with Tanith, with a "it's nice to meet you too" along with a smile and small handshake, and strangely, they all replied slightly the same way as Tanith, with a smile and a sparkle in their eyes. Aura began to blush as she sat down next to Jenifer. The three of them sat behind me with Tanith. After a few minutes, whispers of gossip began.
"He's cute" one of them whispered
" The way he smiles" another whispered
I sat there for a while, looking out the window, and just thought "i guess they're pretty cute, but... probably... just not for me"
After a while, Chris started to hand everyone a sheet of blank paper and began to give us some instructions "now everyone, while we wait for.." Chris paused as he heard someone knock on the door. I turned around...
"Hi Chris, hi guys" Chris gave a slight nod and smile. The Tanith and everyone else looked at her and shrugged. And me, I just looked at her, she seemed different "Sorry I'm late"
"Not at all, your just on time, as usual Mariam" Chris said as he gestured to the seat next to me, the last one in the room.
The girl, still in her navy blue school dress, quickly walked over and pulled out the chair next to me, placed her bag on the seat and started taking out her pencil case and books, while I just sat there looking at her with curiosity in my eyes.
She didn't seem to act like the other girls, not taking much interest in me, not even looking up for a glance, she was different. She wasn't excited like the other girls, but... something on her face said, she was happy.
After a while i gave her a little smile, even though she wasn't looking at me, and turned around and started listening to Chris "Now that we're all settled in, let's get started. On that sheet of paper I would like you all to write a poem"
"What kind of poem?" I quickly asked.
"Well that's up to you, you may do a haiku or free form, whatever, it's your choice. You may write it on whatever you want, it can be about school, birthday, or someone that you just met..." Chris continued talking, but i slowly zoned out when he said "someone that you just met"
I turned my head slightly, to the right, my eyes drifted away from the paper. She had the most beautiful l straight black hair i had ever seen, all tied up into a ponytail with a small, red ribbon. I gave her another little smile, hoping she might notice... but she had already started her poem.
"...then in the next two lessons, you will then read it out to everyone here" Chris finished talking.
I quickly turned back to Chris "You want us to read it out??" I asked him felling a little anxious.
"Well... yes, is that a problem Miguel?"
I glanced back at Mariam, then to my sheet of paper, and i smiled. "No, there's no problem" I started writing.
After about twenty minutes, the class was finished. We all packed our bags, said goodbye to Chris, and walked outside.
Tanith, Valerie, Jenifer and Aura all gave me a smile with that sparkle in their eye, as they waved goodbye. I gave them a smile back and shouted "I'll see you next Monday" They dorve off.
Now it was just me and Mariam.
A few minutes later, I took a deep breath in and out, turned to my right, and walked over to the lonely girl who stood there holding the straps of her back pack, held out my hand with a slight smile and said "Hi my names Miguel, your Mariam right?"
She turned around and looked at me “Uhhh…”
“You know, you sat next to me during the study period” I said with a nervous, little sigh.
“Oh yeah, hi” She had the sweetest, soft sounding voice I had ever heard. I looked into her eyes as hers drifted down to my hand that was still being held out. She eventually held out her hand in return for a hand shake. But as soon as our hands met, I froze, her hands were as soft as cotton buds, her grip was light but at the same time firm “Nice to meet you I guess” She said looking into my eyes, and gave a little smiled back.
She didn’t blush, she didn’t have a sparkle in her eye… She was different.
“It’s nice to mee…” Before I could finish.
“Sorry, I got to go, my mum’s here, I guess I’ll see you next week” She slipped out of my hand, and walked across the street, hopped into the car and they drove off.
“See yah” I said quietly as I watched her sitting in the car and drive away.
I stood there for a while. “She’s… Just… Different” The one sentence repeated itself in my head.
