It was the 15th of July. It was a bit windy but the rays of the sun were as potent as ever. It was Shihab's first day at this new school. He wasn't particularly excited about going to a new school.
He walked into his first grade classroom and saw a brunette sitting next to the window, sketching something. He looked around the very empty classroom. Oh, well. He siddled up and sat next to her, eventually trying to start a conversation.
"Hey," he started, but the girl cut him off with a "shush." He obeyed. He didn't know this girl, but he got the feeling she was the type not to mess with.
He looked closer and saw her sketching a dragon with scary concentration. It looked quite detailed (especially for her age). Maybe it was just him, but that winged lizard had eyes much prettier than needed.
A few minutes passed in silence.
Dragon-girl regarded him with a sideways glance before turning her head to face him. She propped her pencil behind her ear and gave him a lopsided smile.
"Hey, you," he was a bit startled due to her suddenly talking while he was zoning out, "the name's Aisha. Forgive the late introduction," she laughed under her breath to herself (what's so funny?).
"And you are?"
Still caught offguard by her quick speaking and sparkly, curious, searching eyes, he said, "I'm.. Shihab. Uh, nice to meet you, Aisha."
"That's a funny name," she said, with little remorse.
"Well that's what they call me at home," He retorted, rather scornfully.
"Well, nice to meet you too."
She went back to sketching.
Little did they know this would be the start of a little something called friendship.
Most days, they sat next to each other, squabbling throughout classes and competing on who'd get the highest score in tests (it was usually aisha...).
Other times, Aisha sat with her other friends, and Shihab sat with their other classmates.
But, every time Aisha sat with anyone other than him, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. He questioned himself as to why he felt this way, but in vain. He just wanted to be with her. The only one with her. His little brain knew he shouldn't be feeling these things, but he couldn't help it.
One particularly sunny Monday, at recess, Aisha fell and scraped her knees while chasing a butterfly with her friend. Aisha, being the strangely indestructible magnet for catastrophe she is, was unfazed. What annoyed her, however, was that the butterfly flew away. Darn it!
But then Shihab saw her; saw her sitting with her legs in a V, both knees beaten up, one bleeding. She looked up and was able to see him for a millisecond before he rushed over to call their class teacher. He came back with the teacher tailing him as he crouched down beside her asking if she's okay ("Why wouldn't i be?") He moved aside as the teacher came forward to inspect her injury, but he stood nearby with a strangely worried face. Their teacher went to grab a first aid kit, while Shihab went back to worrying and worrying and worrying RIGHT UP IN HER FACE. Even though it was a tiny scratch that would probably be fine as long as she washed it, really.
The teacher disinfected the wounds and put a bandaid on her cut knee. Just like that the little rapscallion was up and about, gathering her friends to play hide and seek.
Aisha thought back to this incident a few times. She noticed how worried Shihab was acting over something that was, frankly, a weekly occurrence for her. Shihab didn't act like this when their other friends fell or got hurt. It was WEIRD. Each time she thought about it led to her non-stop train of thought to reach the next station; she didn't linger on it too much and just thought about something else. Still, she couldn't help but think Shihab was acting...
