Heartstrings Unraveled

Chapter 2: The Curse Made it's Way.

Chapter 2: The Curse Made its Way.

Sario was in class, fidgeting with his pen. He gently tapped it against the table, his fingers moving up to press down on it. Class overall sucked; school sucked; everything about going to school sucked. His head slowly turned to look over at Elnio.

"Damnit," Elnio sighed heavily, slouching in his chair.

He could tell Elnio felt the same—both of them hated school with a burning passion. Well, not just them—maybe the entire school hated it. That didn't sound right. Yeah, it was very much wrong. Ms. Galen wasn't there yet, and everyone was waiting for her: she was currently late by...

"Two minutes? No... I think by three—" His voice was cut off.

"—By five minutes," a voice interrupted.

"What?" He looked over at the person who answered. It was Cel.

"You were asking, right? Five minutes—she's five minutes late," Cel answered.

"Well, thanks, Cel," Sario thanked politely, giving him an awkward smile.

Cel honestly didn't give a shit but wouldn't hesitate to insult or physically fight you if he was ticked off. He sometimes pulled down his under-eye while sticking his tongue out to provoke people when he was annoyed or just wanted to. It might have been a habit of his, or he was just trying to hide how pissed off he was. Some people even started a rumor about how Cel and Tsernio hooked up when they were hanging out at Tsernio's place, but as far as Sario knew, it wasn't true.

The boy next to Cel, Tsernio, was shy and timid. Tsernio was afraid of public speaking and often worked alone. It was a pretty boring description, but Sario didn't blame him—he himself wanted to work alone. Tsernio wasn't really known by many people and was often seen as an outcast, unlike Cel, who was quite popular. Maybe they had a loser x popular dynamic. Tsernio had blonde hair that looked kind of yellow, which people often mistook for yellow when it was actually blonde.

Just in time (it had been 6 minutes), Ms. Galen finally arrived. She greeted everyone, who all stood up to return her greeting. It felt weird—Sario tended to find good things "weird." Maybe because he never really felt the good things.

"Alright, everyone, I know we're pretty late into the year," she began.

"But I want to announce that we have—"

"—Hello," a soft voice echoed through the classroom.

Sario's eyebrows raised as soon as he heard that voice, his curiosity piqued. He looked over at Elnio, who seemed just as confused as he was. Honestly, everyone in the classroom but Ms. Galen was confused. A new student? A new teacher? A new... never mind, he couldn't think of anything else.

"This is Wanda—she's a new student." Ms. Galen gestured to Wanda to come inside.

Slowly, the new student (Wanda) made her way into the classroom. Her footsteps honestly felt like Satan coming from hell. Was that a bad thing? Or a good thing? Satan wasn't good, but how was it a bad thing? Jesus, why was he so stupid?

Why couldn't Sario figure out what he was feeling right now? His friends often called him "oblivious" or "someone who can't figure things out for themselves," but they weren't wrong. He really couldn't figure out what he felt most of the time—it was complicated.

"I'm Wanda—Wanda Bliss, and I'm your new classmate," Wanda said.

"Wanda is such an intelligent girl. She has a 4.0 GPA!" Ms. Galen happily talked about her.

Honestly, Sario didn't really care at that point. It was just another smart girl who was probably kind and sweet or whatever. Though, Elnio was an exception. He was pretty smart in his circle of friends and was Sario's best friend. He was cool and not like those stereotypes! He had a pretty short temper and often lost his cool whenever someone annoyed him a little too much.

Ms. Galen just kept going on and on about Wanda's life story, and Sario found it pretty boring. She mentioned how Wanda was a student council member at her previous school, how she was a reliable person, and something else he didn't give a damn about.

"You can sit down in a vacant seat, maybe over there?" Ms. Galen pointed to a seat next to Sario.

Seating arrangement (updated):

Board

Ms. Galen's desk

Front row: Kern, Lesenna, Bianca, Reyn, Rick, Heina

Middle row: Tsernio, Cel, Sario, empty seat Wanda, Elnio, Kiera

Last row: Nikola, Amelia, Tarrio, Brunio, Cairo, Yamena

Wanda nodded in response before making her way to the empty seat. She settled her bag next to the legs of the desk as she sat down.

Sario looked over to his right and saw her. The way Wanda sat down was so elegant, the way her dark-brown hair rested over her shoulders, the way she greeted people, the way—

"Hello!" Wanda greeted him softly, a small smile on her lips.

Sario blinked a couple of times, still processing her words. It took him seconds to realize: she was talking to him. "...Hi." He returned her greeting, an awkward smile tugging at his lips.

He watched Wanda turn her head towards Ms. Galen as she resumed the discussion. He felt so weirdly weird. How could he explain it? He felt excited, but it wasn't like the enthusiastic way he felt when Elnio bought him snacks. It was an unfamiliar excitement. He felt so giddy and excited for no reason at all.

What was this feeling and why did he feel it towards Wanda?

"I really need to stop smiling, I look like an idiot," Sario said, turning his head back to Ms. Galen, his attention shifting from Wanda to the teacher.

Wanda set her elbow on her desk, leaning forward to rest her cheek on the palm of her hand. She was pretty bored in class; Ms. Galen had the worst discussions ever, if she was being completely honest about her feelings.

Bianca noticed that the new girl looked bored, but she couldn't quite blame her. She turned around in her seat to look at Wanda completely, taking in her beautiful appearance. "Hey," her voice immediately attracted Wanda's attention. The other girl looked over at her. "I'm Bianca, nice to meet you."

"Bianca?" Wanda repeated, her eyebrows shooting up as she watched the blonde girl nod her head. She looked really pretty with her blonde curls and the red ribbons she wore. "Well, nice to meet you, Bianca! I'm Wanda, but I'm sure you already knew that since Ms. Galen announced it to everyone in here." She greeted as the two exchanged friendly handshakes.