Chapter 4

'I thought I could return her chemistry notes.'

Zayn stopped at the yellow line of the platform, looking around and finding Amilia. It has been a few days since they first met, but Zayn thought they were well acquainted as classmates already. Zayn shuddered at the fact that they already had so much homework in the first week. His mathematics teacher did not hold back giving a whole exercise from the thick textbook.

Checking the time, Zayn was neither late nor early. It could probably mean that something had happened to her, whether sleeping in or running a small errand early. Despite the fact that they have only known each other for a few days, Zayn could tell that Amilia was a responsible and diligent person. He scolded himself for thinking that Amilia might have overslept. 'What a girl; beautiful and hardworking.'

Zayn bobbed his head to the rhythm of the song he was listening through his earbuds. The earbuds however weren't as loud as they should have been. Zayn was too tired to listen to loud sounds after waking up on the wrong side of the bed. But even so, he still can't have his mornings without any music. With his hands in his pocket, his eyes were focused on the scenery beyond the train platform as he stood still. Unlike other mornings, the sun that day was hidden behind the outcast condominium next to that station. Unlike other apartments and flats that looked retro and old, that condominium was pretty new. It had a futuristic design and colour scheme that added contrast to his town. Why would the town management build a huge building that sticks out completely from the rest?

His view was disrupted by the arriving train that slowed down into a complete stop. Zayn waited for some of the alighting passengers to move out before boarding on board. He leaned against the opposite doors as he always would, with his hands still in his pocket.

***

"Alright class, I need you to seat into your groups of four and discuss the series of events that led to the cause of World War Two in Europe," their history teacher, Mr Raju, instructed.

Multiple students stood up to shift their chairs and face the other two members of their group. This goes for Amilia and Hana too, who turned to face Kim and Zayn. The four of them prepared their textbooks and pens and additionally, Hana prepared a writing paper for them to jot down whatever they needed to write.

"Teamwork in the morning! Let's get to it," Kim exclaimed.

Kim seemed active at eight in the morning, unlike Zayn who yawned with his head resting on his arms.

Zayn looked at Kim, "How the hell are you so.... like dude it's eight in the morning." Zayn couldn't find the word to describe Kim's lively attitude.

"What's so hard? You just have to think right," Kim patted on Zayn's shoulder. Hana giggled at their small conversation before she initiated the discussion.

"Okay, guys. Let's do some work," Hana placed the writing paper at the centre of the table. The other three watched her write down 'Events leading to WW2 in Europe' on it.

"Zayn. Do you think the British and French negligence towards Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland led to the second world war?"

Zayn was brought back to reality. He looked forward to the front and left to see Kim and Hana still having their conversation. Was he drifting away?

"Hello?"

Zayn looked in his northeast direction. It was Amilia. Was she the only one concentrating on doing their work?

"Sorry.. what was it?" Zayn politely asked Amilia to repeat her question.

"Do you think Germany's invasion of Poland and Britain and France's negligence led to World War 2 in Europe?" Amilia repeated in a harsher tone.

Zayn held his breath for a moment. He should try not to make her angry, but luckily enough Zayn knows the answer to that question. He was fairly good at history.

"It should be a 'yes' because the tension that arose between Britain & France and Nazi Germany led to a huge disagreement regarding Poland and territorial disputes around the region. This eventually led to the announcement of war between them by Britain and France," Zayn explained.

"Great. So we have that, the Peace Conference, formation of Non-Aggression Pact and formation of the Allied and Axis Powers," Amilia jotted down.

"Great! We're done!" Kim exclaimed.

"You didn't even do a thing, Kim," Zayn covered his face.

***

Amilia looked at the board where the chemistry teacher was writing reaction formulas. Beside her was another classmate, Ying. Ying was a quiet student, and Amilia was only close to Hana, so they did not talk as much. Lucky enough, however, Hana sat in front of her diagonally, which allowed her to exchange notes without trouble.

As a person who disliked chemistry, anything can easily distract Amilia., and that includes Zayn. Amilia was not sure what Zayn was doing or why he was doing whatever that he did, but it caught her attention. Amilia continued to watch the lunatic-behaving Zayn.

Zayn was tapping on his table weirdly with his fingers and pens. His leg was bouncing consistently, in sync with his head bobbing. Just by looking at him, Amilia was sure Zayn was not even trying to pay attention. Amilia frowned as she found herself puzzled over Zayn's behaviour.

'What is he even doing?'

As idiotic as it seemed, Zayn was only tapping on to the rhythm of the song that was stuck in his head. That was how Zayn would be whenever he was distracted from the lesson, or too engrossed on his current project he worked on. For that moment, he was deeply attached to Marshmello's track, Blocks. Although Zayn thought it was normal for him to tap to a music's rhythm, he was well unsure of how weird he looked like when doing so. One could compare him to a person doing a sketchy ritual.

The marker screeched upon writing the final letter on the whiteboard. "So, class, that is how you write the reaction for-" the teacher's explanation was paused halfway. Looking in the direction of Zayn when he turned.

As fast as lightning, the teacher threw the marker towards Zayn, hitting him in the head. Amilia, who was watching from afar, flinched when Zayn reacted to the hard, painful knock on his head where the marker had landed.

"ACKK!" The whole class laughed at Zayn for letting out a weird noise as a response.

"Pay attention, please," the teacher glared at Zayn.

Zayn rubbed his head as he looked around the class. The whole class were looking at him, some covering their mouths to hide their laughter, some didn't care to hide it at all. When he faced Kim who sat behind him, Kim was mocking him tapping as he did a while ago. Beside Kim was Takashi, a foreign student who just laughed along.

Without being noticed, , too, giggled.

'How cute.'

***

The sun slowly set as the day was about to come to an end. Zayn, Kim and Hana were walking towards the school gate, heading back home.

"Oh yeah, where's Amilia? She disappeared out of nowhere, somehow." Kim was curious.

"Well, I'm not too sure... but I'm pretty sure she is ahead of us."

"That's quick..." Zayn muttered to himself. What could have possibly made Amilia rush?

"Alright guys, I'll take my leave here." Zayn waved at the pair.

"Sure, sure. See you tomorrow, lad!" Kim gave a bright smile.

"See you, Zayn!" Hana waved back at him.

Zayn adjusted his back before continuing to walk towards the train station. He sighed, tired from the long nine hours of studying in school. Zayn was honestly confused at the gap of how hard students study between Secondary Two and Secondary Three. It seemed like he was required to work a hundred times harder than he did last year.

Zayn stopped at the pedestrian crossing, that lit up a red pedestrian. He partially covered his eyes as he looked up to the sea of clouds on that orange-purple gradient sky. 'Pretty'. A sudden gush of emotions whelmed him. The same set of emotions he had felt when he first saw Amilia.

"What's this..." he questioned those emotions.

He looked forward from facing the sky and his eyes widened over what he saw. About two hundred metres ahead of him was Amilia... and another male student?