Butterfly Years

Chapter 2

I groan and stretch on my bed, resting my elbow on my geography book.

Turning around, I look at Tia and the guys, minus one.

Geography has never been one of our strongest subjects. We’re good in English, rather excellent in math, and surprisingly awesome in History and Commerce. But the problem is with geography. So the five of us – Tia, Carlo and Marco, Sabby and I – meet up at my place almost everyday to group study. And unlike most of the study groups around the world, we actually study.

But now would be a good time for a break.

“Guys?” I ask, and look around my cozy bedroom. Carlo is on my laptop, checking some maps. Marco is lying across my pillows, staring at his geography textbook, with my teddy sitting on his back. Tia is reciting some huge answer rapidly, loudly, and rather distractingly. She stops immediately and cocks an eyebrow. “Break?” she asks me, and grinning, I nod.

It’s something we eagerly anticipate during our study sessions. Usually we have popcorn or pancakes, and watch whatever’s going on on Food Network Channel. Crazy food is one of our favourite subjects.

“But pancake-man isn’t here yet!” Carlo whines. Pancake-man is the person you know as Sabby. He has this talent for making pancakes. Well, we all can make pancakes as good as him. But only he reserves enthusiasm for that one job none of us are energetic enough to do.

But sadly, today, Sabby isn’t here. He was supposed to join us, as always, but he decided to spend the afternoon with Ryan.

In case you’ve been wondering, my little group of friends gets along with Ryan. Well, we get along with almost everyone, except for Aiden, probably because of last year’s fiasco. Plus, it helps that Sabby and the twins were (and still are) part of The Pack, so they’re on good terms with Ryan. The Chinese boy doesn’t really have his own group of friends. He’s the sorta guy who stands along in the corner and makes it look cool. He might hang out with the computer geeks one day, the jocks the next, and then back to the computer geeks. It’s just something he does.

Sabby must have decided to play some basketball with Ryan. Or maybe Ryan invited him over… I wonder why I care so much.

“It’s popcorn then,” Marco decides, shooting a glare at the book open in front of him, before jumping off my bed and running out the kitchen, teddy in hand. Tia rolls her eyes and smirks before running behind him.

“C’mon Syaz, you’ll miss the I-burnt-the-popcorn ritual!” she screams over her shoulder.

Instead I pull out my mobile and speed-dial Sabby. Carlo stays in my room with me, and we wait for a reply.

After a couple of rings, Sabby picks up. Immediately Carlo pushes his ear up to mine, intent on listening in to our conversation. Smiling, I put the call on speaker mode.

“Syazza?” Sabby asks, and at once I realize his voice is strained, and he sounds weirdly tired and weary. No one is allowed to call me “Syazza”, except for Sabby. He gets the privilege because he’s more of an elder brother to me than a friend.

“Sabby, it’s popcorn time!” Carlo screams into my mobile. I sigh. Jeez, boys can be so insensitive sometimes.

“Shoo, Lo,” I whisper at him, “Go help the others make popcorn. Tell them not to burn anything this time.”

Carlo rolls his eyes and says, “Fine, I’m going. But if you two start whispering sweet things to each other…” he trailed off and I smacked his arm playfully.

“Going, going, gone,” he calls as he backs out of my room.

“Carlo?” Sabby asks into my mobile, and I smile. “The one and only,” I say back, “So what’s up?”