#At School#Break Time#
She closed the door of her locker and banged her head against it once and groaned tiredly.
"Ouch! That has got to hurt!" someone said beside her.
She growled at the voice, not caring whom it was until she turned and faced him, did she squeal and jumped into his arms. He laughed lightly while embracing her tightly before they broke apart.
When he put her down, he pushed the few strands of hair away from her face and kissed her lightly on the lips. A smiled appeared on her face after a terrible morning start and he kissed her forehead.
"Mmmm. Morning, Tala!" she said, kissing playfully on his nose.
Tala, flaming red hair with two bangs that slightly covered his icy blue eyes, was wearing white jumpsuit over his blue sweater.
"TALA YURI IVANOV!" someone screamed in the corridor. The girl groaned as she gently hit her head against his shoulder, obvious to who was shouting. Tala chuckled lightly and kissed his girlfriend's neck and turned to face the popular yet insulting girl ever in Domino High, Hillary and her gangs of giggling girls.
The girl immediately, wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and rests her head on his left shoulder, watching the scene from behind.
"Hey boys." The girl greeted to her boyfriend's friends who were standing behind her.
"Hey Forest!" the boys chorused. As the giggling gangs got closer, Forest spoke ever so softly to her boyfriend, as his ears were just right next to her.
"I'm going to turn my back on her and listen to the sickening scene rather than watch."
Tala bit down the shiver he felt going down his spine when her warm breath touched his ear.
"Sure, darling!"
The girl smiled and smiling at her boyfriend's friends, she leaned against his back with her own. She heard footsteps coming closer and closer, the heels clicking with every step, as she meditate, trying not to go and rip out the snobby girl's head off.
"Hey there, Tala darling!" the snobby Hilary flirted, battering her eyelashes. The browned haired girl was wearing white skirt. Black crop top underneath her pink loose top that comes off her shoulders.
"Hi." Tala grunted and started to fidget. Forest felt Tala fidget and imitate him as not to reveal herself to the gang yet.
"What are you doing today?"
"Nothing much." Tala short-answered.
"Say you know, there's a prom coming up soon and I was wondering..."
"No!"
"... Would you like..."
"No!"
"... To go..."
"No!"
"... With me?"
"For fuck sake I said 'no' a thousand times." Tala stormed ever so quietly. But Hilary ignored his rude remark and bored her pink eyes into his blue ones. Just as Hilary was about to turn away, her friend whispered something to her and she nodded, turning back to Tala. Tala had raised his eyebrow a bit.
"Say, where is that bitch of yours?" Hilary smiled.
"Right here!" came the answer behind Tala. Forest stepped out of the shadows behind her boyfriend and presented herself in front of him, her long black hair hanging on her back that goes up to her waist, with streaks of green, her Forest green eyes, that gave her the first name, firing in anger, and her black clothes swaying slightly at the cool breeze that came through the door near her.
Just then the bell rang for the end of break and Forest was saved from any remark coming out of Hilary's mouth.
"Saved by the bell!" Tala said. "I can't stand her!"
"Me too! Well, I've got Maths so I'll see you," she said directly to Tala, "on the field under the Weeping Willow." She gave him a quick kiss before going away, bidding goodbyes to her other friends.
#At School#In Maths#
The Maths classroom was half full when Forest arrived with only a few minutes spared and sat down originally at the back of the class. She took out her maths book along with her diary. While she was waiting for the teacher to arrive and the rest of the class to arrive, she took out her sketchbook and continued sketching a picture of herself and Tala.
This is how it all started. On the day when they were assigned as partner in an Art class sometimes after Forest came to school a year ago.
FLASHBACK
"OK, students. I have assigned you with a partner for the portrait project and you will be working together for the next five weeks until the portrait is accurately done and shaded or coloured." Mrs Decolour, the art teacher said.
Students throughout the class groan at the set assignment.
"Don't worry. I'm sure you would enjoy it after all it is art. The beauty of the art is to examine the facial of a person, catching everything in sight. Now onto the partners."
Harry- Hilary
Ray- Mariah
Max- Emily
Kai- Aurora
Michael- Vivien
Steven- Silva
Tala- Forest
Bryan- Krys
Forest and Tala took a seat somewhere in the middle of the classroom, sitting opposite each other with two boards in the middle to draw on. Forest sat comfortably on her stool and was taking a few streaks of hair out of her face when she looked up to see Tala scowling.
"What?" she asked, but Tala ignored her. Forest get the feeling it wasn't her so she followed his gaze to find her best friend Aurora, sorting her hair out for the portrait. Forest giggled and shook her head, while turning back to face Tala. Tala now had a frown on his face at the reaction from his partner.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing."
"OK students. You may begin when you are ready."
They took a whole hour to do the outline of a face and an estimation of the shape of the features: the eyes, the nose, the mouth etc. then they use a bit more softer graffiti to put in the detail before using a pencil about 6B to darkened the outline of the feature.
The bell rang for the end of the lesson and Mrs Decolour collected the unfinished assignment, keeping it safe for the next lesson.
"I hope my picture would look better than a five-year-old scribbling." Tala glared hatefully at Forest. Forest glared back. She couldn't believe how much hatred this guy could have. "Count on it." she said before disappearing.
And boy did it count on it. It was the last hour of the art lesson in week five and the students were putting last minute touch. Forest had to keep looking up to Tala's face to capture the light that gleamed on his hair and shaded a lighter red on that part too. From Tala's point of view, he could see Forest eyes moving around the area really fast and her expression kept on frowning every few minutes.
%Tala's POV%
Whoa. Check out her eyes. They are moving about really fast on the paper; like a fast forward tennis game. Up, down, left, right, up, down, left, right! It was getting me dizzy.
But what afraid me most was her expression. She keeps on frowning every now and then. My heart is beating fast and the only thing was crossing my mind. What if she makes me look bad?
I don't want to think about that. I don't want to think at all.
%End of Tala's POV%
Tala couldn't do anything but sigh and continued with his piece of work. He was just finishing the streaks that were on her hair when the teacher announced that time were up.
"OK. I know we have about 10 minutes left of class but I want to use that time to show some of the work by you guys. Because there are less of you, the cleaning up would be done in about two minutes so we got enough time."
The students exchange horror looks to each other. Forest heart was speeding up a bit and her breathing became hard but she remains calm and cool. Even Tala frowned at the suggestion.
One by one, Mrs Decolour called the students name and each of them came up, producing spectacular work and getting murmurs of compliments from other students. Each of them sighed in relief and looked happy at the result.
"Tala Ivanov."
Tala took a deep breath and taking his work, he made his way up to the front of the class. He gave his work to the teacher and the teacher's eyes began to wide at the work before turning it around and showing it to the class. The whole class all 'wowed' and awed at the sight of what looked like an angel; the long dark hair with streak of green, dark green eyes, her face pale yet beautiful as it caught in the light and most of all, the smile. Her angelic smile. The class clapped politely as Tala made his way back to his seat next Forest and sat down, waiting for another dread. The dread of his portrait created by a girl.
"Forest Romano."
Forest took a deep breath and took her work to the front of the class. The teacher looked at it before showing to the class. Murmurs of compliment didn't come and fear clutched Forest's heart. She waited for a bit, waited for any sound coming from the students, but nothing.
Oh God! What if this class is like the one before? She thought desperately. Forest looked at the class slowly before she set her eyes on her best friend Aurora. Her eyes were registering the picture, taking in every detail but she made no sign at all. Forest then moved her eyes and landed onto a pair of icy-blue that was now softened. Forest realised that she was looking straight at Tala. She tore her eyes away and looked at the floor, a sprinkle of pink creeping up her cheeks gently.
Still there was no sound of anything from the student and there was nothing coming from the teacher. Fear gripped Forest's heart even harder, tightening it more and tears were welling up in her eyes, but Forest kept her eyes on the ground, the pink on her cheeks wore off.
Suddenly the bell for lunchtime came and every one snapped out of their trance. Forest quickly got to her seat and just stuffed her book, pencils and crayons into her bag, sniffing every now and then. Tala heard the sniffing and turned to look at the heart-broken Forest, closing her bag with a snapped and was out of the door in a blink of an eye, banging the art door against the wall.
"Who was that?" Mrs Decolour asked.
Aurora looked confused before she realised that someone wasn't here.
"FOREST!" she called but Forest was already out of the art department and was running down the stairs and was out of the door in no time. Her legs started moving across the playground, but Forest didn't register it as her eyes were still clouded with tears.
Her legs finally stopped and Forest got out of her trance and saw that she was standing in front of the school monument, where the best art students draw their favourite picture on the wall. She was in front of an Angel who was healing a wounded and at the bottom was a signature of someone who was so closed to her heart.
Flame Romano
February 1999
Forest couldn't hold much longer. She collapsed on her knees and cried her heart out, her head bowed, and tears dropping on the edge of her skirt.
"Why?" she kept whispering. "Why did you have to leave me? Ever since you were gone, I've... I've lost my confident. Oh sure I have done brilliant work but nothing was the same as before. Every time I presented my work, I return to my seat with nothing like a compliment stuck to my head. You were always the first to comment my work like I was the first to comment yours. But now I kept my mouth shut and so did the others."
Forest couldn't say anymore as she broke into more tears. And she sat like that, in front of her dead brother's work until the bell rang, indicating the end of lunchtime.
END OF FLASHBACK
Forest snapped out of her day-dreaming as she saw the class packing away and piling out of the classroom. Forest followed suit and went to her next class: English.
Forest entered the classroom and the first thing she heard was the familiar whistle. She turned to the source of the sound and found Tala sitting on a chair, his feet up on his desk, his hand folded behind his head. Forest smiled and made her way towards him. She gave a light kiss on his lips before moving to take her seat a few seats away from him.
Tala frowned at her behaviour and went to see what's up. When he arrived there, Forest was already doing the finish touch on her sketch.
"Hey." Tala said. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing."
"You sure? You don't look well."
"I'm OK." Her voice had a slight crack at the end. Not to make his girlfriend go against him, Tala left the subject, gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before proceeding to his seat.
"Good afternoon, class. Today's lesson we are going to write a short story based what's on our mind."
There were many confused looks on the students.
"What I mean is, we are going to write our day-dream or anything that happened in our life. Has anybody day-dreamed before?"
Many students either giggled or chuckled before raising their hand up. Only a few people didn't and Forest was one of them.
"Forest. Did you have any day-dream?" the Enlgish teacher, Mr Monk asked.
"No, sir."
"What did you have? Or did you no day-dream at all?"
"Do you mean the events of today, sir?"
"Yes, I am."
"I... more or less had... a memory jog." Forest answered.
"Memory-Jog?" some students whispered.
"Did you have an amnesia or what?" a boy with thick white hair, and tanned skin asked.
"No, I did not, King. It was just a memory that took this time to cross my mind."
"OK. Enough. If any of you had no day-dream, you may write a memory-jog or anything exciting that happened to you."
Some students groan at the option, took out their English book and started writing down their day-dream or memories.
Forest bend down from her seat to reach her book from her bag when she felt someone tapped her back. She looked up to see a boy with thick blonde hair and blue eyes that was filled with laughter smiling at her, holding out a piece of paper. Forest took it, mouthed 'thank you' before getting her English book again.
As soon as she think it was safe from the teacher, she opened the letter to find it was from Tala.
Hey. What's the matter? You look a little pale.- Wolfy.
Forest looked up to see the teacher still had his back on them students and quickly wrote down the answer.
I'm fine. Just a bit dizzy.- Leaves
She gave it back to Max who passed it on to the other students and finally it reached Tala. Tala opened it and a frowned appeared on his face. He looked up to see Forest swaying a bit and then fall onto the ground.
"FOREST!" Tala shouted, getting the class's attention. Everyone looked up from their work and saw Forest lying on the ground. Tala was at her side immediately.
"What's going on here?2 asked the teacher.
"It's Forest. She's feeling dizzy." Tala answered.
"I'm fine." Came the muffle answer from his arms. Forest was opening her eyes and got up.
"Miss Green, I suggest you go to the nurse." The teacher said.
Forest nodded and made her way out. Tala made a move until the voice of Forest stopped him in his tracks.
"I can go on my own. Just leave me be," and she was out of the door.
"Wonder what's up with her." Max asked, although it was a statement than a question.
#At School#Lunchtime#
English lesson came and went during an uneasy silence, where Tala used up all of his will to control himself from getting up from his seat and follow Forest. And he was glad that the bell rang and was the first one out of the door, before anything could be said.
Tala went straight to the nurse office and found out that she didn't go to the nurse office at all. Tala searched through the school and asked one of the girls if Forest was in the bathroom. The girl giggled and did as she was told to find out she wasn't in there. Tala growled deep in his throat and left to continue to search for her outside of the school.
"Forest where are you?" Tala asked to no one in particular.
"Hey, Tala." Someone called. Tala turned around to come face to face with Forest one and only best friend.
"Aurora. Just the girl I want to see."
"What happened?"
"Do you know where Forest is?" Tala asked.
Aurora, taken aback, looked confused, but answered. "No. Why?"
"Damn it. She took off from English class, claiming that she was dizzy and wanted to be alone."
"Hmmm. Was she in the nurse office?"
"No."
"Check the school monument."
"Why?"
Aurora started to head to the cafeteria. "Just go there."
Tala shrugged and headed to the school monument just as Aurora said.
"FOREST! FOREST!" Tala called as he arrived to the corner where the school monument. So far there was no sign of her until he heard a whimpering coming near the new school monument. Tala jogged round the corner and saw, leaning against the wall under the picture of an Angel was Forest, her knees up to her chin, her arms wrapped around her legs, her head buried in her arms, sobbing quietly.
"Forest." Tala ran to her and was kneeling beside her in a blink of an eye. Tala gently pulled Forest arms off herself and pulled her into his own embrace, tightening his grip on her to stop her from shaking. Forest rested her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist and cried her heart out.
"Yuri, I can't take it anymore. Ever since Maths, ever since I had that flashback, I can't handle the pain." Forest sobbed.
"Handle what pain?" Tala asked quietly.
"The pain of heart break. The pain I had taken so long to endure since the death of my twin brother." Forest cried out more.
"It's OK. I'm here for you now. Come on." Tala stood up and help Forest up. Then placing an arm around her waist and one around her shoulders, he led her to his Mercedes and sat down in one of the seats, with Forest on her lap, calming down. Eventually, Forest fell asleep in her protective boyfriend's arms until the end of the school, which neither went to the last lesson.
There was ten minutes left of school when Forest woke up to see Tala was also asleep. Forest smiled a bit and kissed his lips gently and found him awake after that.
She gave him her rarest smile that was always reserved for him and he kissed her back, this time more passionately.
"How are you feeling now?" Tala asked as they broke off.
"Better, I guess." Forest answered. They sat in silence for a bit until the thing that nagged her mind came out of her mouth. "Remember the day we first met?"
"Wasn't it the time we were partnered for an art lesson?"
"Yeah. You didn't give me your comment on your portrait. And neither has the class." Forest said quietly.
"I guess I froze."
"Why?"
"I guess I froze... at how it was done..."
"What do you mean?"
Tala frowned. "I can't remember. It was a year ago. I need to see it again to remember."
"Can we asked if Mrs Decolour has it?"
"I guess so."
The couple got out and went into the art room to find Mrs Decolour, clearing up small bits and bobs around the room.
"Hey, Miss." Forest greeted.
"Why. Hello. I guess it was a while since we saw each other."
"A whole year." Tala said.
"Yes and I'm guessing you want to see the portrait."
Forest nodded.
"You know, I didn't exactly know what happened on that day."
The couple stayed quiet.
"What did happened?"
"You kow how every one gave compliments to other students? Well Forest didn't get any."
"And remind me of my twin brother. He was always the first to give me the heads up. I guess without him around, I-I-I don't know. I guess I just lost it."
Mrs Decolour nodded and found the portraits.
"Well. It's never too late. You can have a look and compliment it now."
Mrs Decolour took out the portrait that was covered in neat white sheet and placed it on one of those stands and pulled off the sheet. Tala couldn't help but gasped at the sight of himself drawn, shaded and coloured by his girlfriend, who he had been dated for almost a year.
"Oh Forest." Tala eyed the picture more carefully. "It's wonderful."
Tala turned to see Forest eyes brimmed with tears of joy.
"You think?" she whispered.
"I'll leave you two." And Mrs Decolour disappeared into her office. Tala wrapped his arms around her skinny waist and pulled her into his kiss, deepening it. Forest felt her heart fly with joy all the way to heaven as she wrapped her own arms around his neck.