Chapter 1 - 24th Nov 2008

I couldn’t help but smile as I looked out of the windows after I woke up. It’s here, the first snow of winter! The beautiful scenery was just so inviting that I decided to leave early to take a walk in the snow. As I thought, there’s no feeling like taking a walk in the first snow of the season, everything seemed cheerful to me and on top of that, I was also using the new jacket that my parents bought for me on my 17^th birthday last week. It felt great!

            It seemed like good things are happening these days. I just hope nothing serious happens, I mean something unlucky always happens after lots of lucky events. But never mind that for now! Um.. where was I? Ah! As I walked along the Chapel Street, I could feel the tingling feelings of snow melting on my face and my skin. I was so lost in trying to catch the snow that I didn’t even notice I’ve arrived to the town’s Clock Tower.

By the time I reached the Clock Tower, the snow had started to fall lighter as the Sun rose and warmed the King’s Town. So I figured I should stop and feel the last drop of snow before it disappeared. As I stared into the sky and felt the sensation of snow drops melting on my hands, I heard the bells from the clock tower. I could see the clock hand moved to eight as the bell rang and there, I saw him on the opposite side of the Clock Tower. A boy I have never seen before was also starring into the sky catching the falling snow. He turned to look at the clock and our eyes met…  I had no idea why but I could feel my heart skipped a beat….. Then the realization hit, it was eight and I was late for school!

            I started to run and made way to school but to my surprise, the boy was also running to the same direction. Panic! I know it’s stupid of me but I couldn’t help but thought that he was up to something so I run as fast as I could trying to outrun this stranger who was following me. In a flash, he was way ahead of me and yes, that switched on my inner competitive mood. Did he just outrun me??

I went after him as fast as I could to surpass him and before I knew it, we both were racing towards the school. That’s when I realized that this guy wasn’t a stalker but just some random student from my school… How could I not have noticed his school uniform??

            We both reached the school gate, out of breath and laughing for no reason. That was tiring though…

            “We made it, huh?” he said while wiping the sweat off his forehead. I smiled and nodded. He gave me back a sweet smile, which I swear melted my heart, before we parted our ways. I turned around to have a look at him for the last time as he went into the Student Administrative Office and me to my class.

            I was about to enter the class when I heard my name called. “Naomi!” shouted Erika while she ran with all her might towards me.

            “Phew… glad I made it!” said Erika. “Naomi is also late, right?”

            “Huh? Ah yea… but I’m still earlier than you,” I smirked. But she gave me this knowing smile and rolled her eyes.

“Yes. Yes. You beat me today, Naomi.”

 Erika knew that there was no particular meaning behind what I just said. I mean we were best friends after all, we can literally swear at each other and not get mad!

The day went by normally with boring teachers teaching boring subjects. I couldn’t concentrate on the lessons at all. All I could think about was my club activities and the music I was composing for the upcoming musical performance. Being the vice president of classical music club surely is a pain in the neck after all…..  

“humm~~~humm~~hum…” I hummed as I wrote down the new melody on the music sheet. I was so immersed in this new melody that I didn’t notice the teacher standing beside me with her hands folded.

“Naomi, is my class so boring that you have nothing better to do but sing?" said Miss Lizzy while giving me death glares.

“Ar.. uh…. No…I’m sorry, Miss.” I wasn’t actually singing though. And besides, hello lady! You teach history. Who wouldn’t be bored??

“If you’re sorry then do me a favour of bringing those books back to my office after class, will you?” She pointed to a pile of books on her desk. Sigh…. Teachers can also be a pain in the neck…

Another boring class ended and I made my way to the teachers’ office with this huge pile of books in my hands.

 I was going pass the Arts Building when I heard the music played on violin. Being the musician I am, I couldn’t help but wondered who this talented violinist was. I knew I just had to go check it out and although the books were killing me, I still went up to the 3^rd floor to check out who’s playing this beautiful music.

I looked through the windows of the music room and found someone who I least expected. It was him. The boy I met this morning, the boy who I tried to compete in running, the boy who smiled at me and the boy who made my heart skipped a beat.

Everything else in my surrounding was blurred and all I could do was just stood there and stared until I heard a voice.

            “Naomi, do you need any help?” someone asked me and reality came back. Then the boy stopped playing and turned to look at me. S**t! He caught me staring.

            Blushing, I quickly turned around to see whoever disturbed my day dreaming. Turned out, it was Mr. Aaron with a strange outfit on him.. again. Well, he taught in the Design department after all. There’s no wonder that his fashion sense was weird.

            I didn’t wait to have a chat with Mr. Aaron, more like I didn’t have time and yes, now my hands were really hurting from carrying heavy books. I left the place as quickly as I could.

            When I came out of the building, I heard the violin played again and this time, I was really curious of whoever this boy was and little did I know then that he would become a huge part of my life.