inter(acial)mingle

chapter one

"I always used to think falling in love was flawless and easy, I've learned that it isn't. However the fall is still blissful, through it all you find a part of yourself, and you find a part of them and together that little void deep in your soul seams to begin to seal up."

Amelia Arthurs and Dev Haldar lived their lives very differently before the introduction or shall we say their worlds collided.

Amelia Arthurs was active, she didn't work out not that kind of active. She was active in the community and her school. Clubs involving God and surrounding skills that could prepare and advance her in her future were her interests. Almost every morning in a week she had some sort of club meeting or activity to attend to. Her busy life style gave her little time to really do much else but what she found important she made the time.

Dev Haldar in the spring attended track meets and competed in athletic events surrounding track and field but was usually in his room listening to some edgy music, hanging with his few friends outside of school or going to ACT and SAT tutoring. Here and there he might have had a club meeting but he lived a very reserved and quiet life outside of school and especially inside the classroom.

It would only be the third year of high school for their world's to abruptly juncture within the walls of an advanced language classroom.

For Amelia language and literature had always been something that had come easy, she could talk in discussions whether she had read the book or not, she was also able to write about anything and nearly everything. It came easy to her, and partially probably because her opinions that she actively voiced and her fearlessness in the classroom and confidence that lined her soul. No one really knew where her confidence came from. Amelia wasn't exceedingly beautiful however very few would consider her ugly. There however was something about her that was alluring, however as many say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and very few beholders had seen the truly marvelous person Amelia Arthurs was.

Dev Halder on the other hand was more of a math and science wiz, he was able to solve vast problems but literature and public speaking was far from what he did naturally or even well. He was more of a dark horse, he had a thing for photography and nature and was very artistic as well, being able to construct architectural pictures though that wasn't the end of what he was truly good at.

In an AP Language class junior year on August 4th would be the first day Amelia and Dev would even realize the other existed. For Amelia she found little comfort in having a class of little to no people she really considered friends, she didn't have some cookie cutter friend group, however it was disappointing not to have atleast one of her very good friends in the class. Amelia was more of a floater, she had friends in all places of the high school. She found herself befriending and becoming friends with a group that was labeled "Christians" by many, and also she became well known by the sophomore class, not to mention other smaller groups and cliques. Amelia's personality was the leading reason she even merely had friends in all these places, if she were introverted it would not have been so. Dev found himself as more a loner, he wasn't lonely or atleast he wouldn't admit it to himself and he would die before someone labeled him that. He mainly hung out with the people like him, Indians. The Indian population at the high school was substantial and he mainly befriended the more outgoing Indians.

Looking back Amelia recalled one of her first memories of Dev. 'Surely he must be new. He's a very attractive Indian.' Now don't mistake Amelia as a discriminating or even racist individual. She just naturally never found herself attracted to different races, that didn't limit who she liked but it wasn't everyday she found herself drawn to a race different than her own. For Dev it happened to be a very different situation, he never really payed attention to girls of a different race because to him they just seemed out of his league somehow. That however wasn't the only thing that stopped him from paying attention to girls of vast races, his family would probably give a very disapproving lecture if they ever thought he entitled the idea of himself with anyone different than his own race.

Amelia's attention would only truly be drawn to his boy through the teacher's constant remarks about this student. "Dev do you know the answer?" the older gentleman would ask, clearly knowing his student knew nothing but the lyrics of the song he was listening to despite the teacher asking crucial questions for the class to answer and for discussion. "No." he would reply in some sort of quiet innocence. 9/10 he never knew the answers to the various questions asked. In the advanced placement language class Dev found himself doing one of two things, being on his phone or simply putting his head down. Amelia was vastly different, she was attentive and found herself at times daydreaming. The class itself was a melting pot of individuals. There were a vast majority of ethnicities in the class of twenty seven. Amelia relished in a setting with such diversity, it made her almost feel like it was a judgement free zone. It was a small compact class of three white boys, two Asian boys, four Indian boys and one black boy. The girls on the other hand were vastly white, with a mixed girl, two middle eastern girls and one Asian girl. Though it was an odd concoction of individuals it somehow worked perfectly. Individuals sat in alphabetical order and from there stemmed the two sides of the classroom and friend groups within the side. Amelia found herself befriending two girls and two boys on her side of the classroom. Barun was one of Dev's main friends in the class. Bear as he was nicknamed, was a stoner of sorts. He was a sneaker head who smoked to take off the edge and pain that this world had to offer. He had different colored hair at times. He would sometimes have a pink, blonde or even teal where his hair kinda came to a "swoosh". He naturally wore a hat, and enjoyed casual yet professional button up short sleeved shirts with dogs or various objects on them. Barun was one of the kinds of people you considered a free spirit, he was funny and would comment stupid things despite his intelligence. He was similar to Dev in a few ways. Dev had this thing about him, he was mysterious and distanced himself majorly from everyone. Snarky side comments and a bad attitude kind of deal in his case. Amelia saw a troubled and even lonely soul. She was drawn to him. And so it began bit by bit conversations in class, exchange of phone numbers and as time went by in March of the school year, facetime calls. Amelia liked talking to him, he was good company and he listened and that was more than most people did nowadays. She wanted to know about him. He intrigued Amelia. She wanted to know about his family and his views, his thoughts and beliefs and she found herself whole heartedly interested. As time, progressed Amelia and Dev talked, they would facetime and discuss stupid things like classes but also goals. In the hallways, they would acknowledge each other's existence. Battling with the troubles of this world to Amelia it seemed as if things were turning up.