Adelaide
It was two days later, I saw him again in music.
"No. This is not happening." Nat whispered and dragged me to the opposite side of the room.
The tall, stern teacher slammed her hands onto the table, her face broken into a menacing smile. "Class, now that I have your attention, I will be announcing a new assignment. It will be a self-composed song that you will play in front of the class."
She smiled around the class.
"And I will be choosing your partners."
Damn.
Glancing down at her sheet, she pairs different people before saying, "Natalie Cheesyballs, you're with Lachlan."
"Ew gross," said Nat.
"Amelia and Ricky."
"Maya and Joel."
"Amanda and Ben."
"Zoe and Henry."
"Ella and Ryan."
"Juliette and Hamilton."
"Taylor and Jeremy...I mean Taylor and Barry...I mean Taylor, Barry and Jeremy."
And lucky last my otp - I mean my last two unpaired, *cough* single *cough* people. "Ethan and Adelaide."
"Okay class, sit with your partners and start working."
I glanced around the room once, Nat was eyeing me disapprovingly. I ignored her, and walked over to Ethan.
It was the most awkward thing ever.
"I can't really be stuffed doing anything, last period on a Monday. Why don't we just chill?" Ethan said casually.
The truth is, I wanted, more than anything, to work with him. Even on a Monday afternoon. But of course, my brain stopped functioning and I let out a string of weird noises, "Yeah.. uh.. we.. um.. sure..okay then."
I sat silently for 60 minutes.
Before we all rushed out the door, Ms Isla yelled, "Hope you managed your time wisely. You will be performing your duets in class tomorrow!"
Oh great.
Surprisingly, Ethan didn't even notice. Not until I approached him and said, "Hey, did you hear her? We're performing tomorrow!"
"Um, what? Oh right. Who cares."
"This assignment is worth 40% of our final marks!"
"Uh. Well. Guess you have to come to my place tonight. 7pm?"
"Okay, great, see you then."
***
I was there at exactly 7.
His mother let me in and led me up to his room.
Ethan was lying on his back on his bed. He gave me no acknowledgement as I walked in, so I stood awkwardly in the corner.
About 5 or so minutes later, he rolled off his bed, onto his feet.
"There's a party at Chris' place tonight. I shall go."
"We have an assignment to finish off."
"Assignment. Screw the assignment."
"You're not going anywhere until we finish the duet."
"You can't stop me," he said, heading towards the door.
I lost it. I slammed the door shut in his face and yelled at him, "Do you have a problem? What is with this screw everything attitude because I really don't like it."
He went silent.
Surprisingly, he cooperated with me and we managed to finish writing in an hour.
"Now that we're done here, I shall go to Chris'. I think you should come too."
"Why do you think I should come?"
"You need to chill out, Adelaide."
"I don't need your opinion of me."
"Opinion or not, are you going to come?"
I remember dreaming about this moment. Being alone with Ethan Karpathy. It didn't seem so appealing to me anymore. Nevertheless, I agreed.
***
The place looked like a mess. Red plastic cups were scattered around the room. Music was blaring, making my ears start to throb.
I yelled at Ethan, but it wasn't enough for him to hear me. I grabbed his arm, but he shook me off. He made a gesture for me to sit down, so I did. I sat there for what seemed like an hour, maybe two.
I checked the time and it was almost 10. On a school night. I was about to leave when I saw Ethan lying on a couch, surrounded by a group of people. It struck me that we had a performance the next day.
"Um, is he alright?" I asked, pointing to Ethan.
"I guess.. He's just completely smashed," one guy said.
"He's drunk?"
"Ya."
"What is he doing drunk? But he's only 15."
"What everyone does." The group walked off.
"Great," I mumbled.
I rolled Ethan off the couch and struggled to get him to stand. I swung one of his arms over my shoulder and tried to make him walk. He just slumped on me and we almost fell. I ended up half carrying, half dragging him the short walk back to his house.
