Dawn and Dusk and Dawn Again

When I Saw Her First

    Usually, I don't remember English classes. They breeze past me, and that's pretty much all I can recall - a distant memory. This one stood out, though.
Our English teacher, Mrs Naine asked us to do our introductions. It wasn't much of an introduction - all we said were our names. But I live in an non-English-speaking country, so standards were, frankly, quite low.
    Only two people raised their hands - Angelette and me. Naturally, Mrs Naine paired us up and asked us to be the examples for the rest of the class.
    We stood. She was at the front of the room, and I at the near back. I observed the unfamiliar face in front of me, but it wasn't long until I had to shift my attention to the nor-really-introductory introduction.
    "Hi, I'm Ikrosia. Nice to meet you."
    "Hi, I'm Angelette. Nice to meet you, too."
    The girl had a fascinating voice, a sort of weirdly satisfying combination between the smoothness of a pebble in a stream and the soft rasp of sand being lifted by the winds. She also had a special accent to go with the voice. It sounded like a cross between an Australian accent and a British accent. It shifted the way she pronounced each syllable, and I spent the rest of the English class trying to determine exactly which accent it was. This hard work ultimately yielded no results.
    When she said her name was Angelette, it felt right. She looked like an Angelette. She looked angelic. She had light brown hair that glinted caramel in the sunlight, and she looked paler than everyone else, too. I wondered  how on earth she could still be that pale after a week of military training under the hot sun.
    Something I did know was that this girl was definitely a tough competition. I was in a really competitive, adrenaline-filled mood that day. I'll crush her like a bug, I thought. Not literally, of course. When it came to grades, on the other hand...
    Looking back on this, I guess I wasn't really friendly.

    The next time I talked to her was in music class.
    We were, coincidentally, number 7 and 8 in the class, so we sat beside each other in subjects such as Computer Technology and Music. I decided to talk to this strange girl, since it was obvious she wasn't like the others.
    "Hi." I said. Real conversation starter, I know, but back then all that surrounded Angelette were the questions in my head, and the endless curiosity.
    "Hi," she replied shyly.
    When she turned around, I saw her eyes. They were almost the same color of her hair, and shaped like almonds. She had long, curly eyelashes that will certainly save her the money for mascara in the future.
    "Your English sounded really good." I smiled. I hope it looked friendly. I really didn't know how my face ended looking, since I often didn't look like what I thought I looked like.
    "Thanks. You, too." After a while, she added, a bit matter-of-factly, "I've gone abroad."
    The tone made me a little uncomfortable. Not just because of the kind of prideful way she said it, but also because it was a sentence I was all too familiar with myself. Did I sound like that to other people, too? Did I also make other people uncomfortable?
    Not willing to lose the competition that I now realize is not, and feel silly calling, a competition, I responded, "Oh, so have I. Where did you go?"
    "Brunei."
    "Ah... Where?" This might have sounded mocking, but I genuinely haven't heard of the country before. Did I mention I nearly failed geography? And this was before I even had geography. I hoped I didn't offend Angelette.
    "Brunei." she repeated, as though I didn't hear her the first time. I decided to go with it and pretend I was familiar with the country.
    Thankfully, she changed the subject by asking me where I went to.
    "America." I answered.
    "Oh..."
    Both is us were silent for, probably, the next twenty minutes, neither knowing what to say to the other.
    Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore. The whole thing was really awkward, so I tried the thing I went to whenever I find myself in an awkward position - books. This time, I picked Harry Potter.
    (Now, this was before J.K Rowling started spewing all those ridiculous statements. Of course, I completely disagree with her, and think she should change that way of thinking. But nevertheless, I still love the Harry Potter series. What have the characters done to deserve isolation when the whole thing is the author's fault? )
    "Have you ever read Harry Potter?" I asked. It only when it came out of my mouth did think about how weird it must be to have someone to suddenly ask you a completely unrelated question like that.
    "Are you talking about the English version?"
    "Yeah, English."
    Angelette started to respond, but she was cut off by the shrill scream of the school-bell.
    "Class dismissed!" yelled Ms Fu, our music teacher, and everybody stood up at once. The noise of desks and chairs being pushed around and chitchat erupting in already-forming groups drowned out Angelette's reply.
    As I walked down the winding stairs that lead to our home-room, I realized I haven't even heard one word Ms Fu said.