Under the Radar // Devin Booker

Chapter 12

Nimali

Much to my dismay I had no choice but to sign up for the open mic night. With my teacher changing it from extra credit to a mandatory assignment due to the lack of participants, I was out of luck.

I really didn't want to go, I even went as far as calculating how big of a blow my grades would take if I skipped it. When I realized I'd damn-near fail the class, I put my big girl panties on and got over it.

I was currently sitting on a beanbag chair in the lounge trying to write a song. The only things I had on the page were a few doodles.

My creative juices just weren't flowing. Any other time, I'd have a few verses and chorus down and ready to go.

I was so engrossed in trying to get something written that I didn't notice the figure sitting in front of me until I felt someone staring at me.

When I looked up, I saw a tall brown skin guy with funky green hair. I automatically noticed him as the guy I sat next to in class. We never really talked to each other unless it had something to do with the class.

I closed my book and sat it to the side since he obviously wanted my attention.

"Hi." I said awkwardly.

"Hey, I'm Avehre." He said extending his hand for me to shake.

"Nimali." I returned the gesture.

"How's your open mic process going?" He asked referring to my writing pad and I sighed.

"It's kind of at a stand still. How is yours?"

"I guess we're in the same boat. I don't usually write songs for personal use and I can't seem to write anything that really relates to me on such a time crunch."

"Yeah, this may be a disaster. I may just end up doing one of the songs that I've already written at this point." I said running my fingers through my wild curls.

He nodded. "That's actually not a bad idea. It's not like they'll know the difference."

I nodded trying to figure out if that would actually be the best option when an idea hit me.

"How about this? Why don't you write a song for me and I write a song for you. If you don't like it, go ahead and perform one of your other songs and vice versa."

He thought for a moment before nodding his head in agreement. "You drive a pretty good bargain Miss Nimali, and I like it."

"Thanks. I do what I can, when I can." I said brushing the imaginary dust off of my shoulders.

We laughed as a weight was taken off of our shoulders with this new plan.

"Okay, well it sounds like a plan. I'll get right on that."

"Okay, great. Let me get your number so we can keep each other up to date."

He pulled out his phone and we exchanged them, programming each other's number before handing them back.

"I think this is gonna be good. Oh, and by the way, I'm sorry. I'm not usually this creepy, I promise."

"It's fine." I said laughing at him. "Well, I'm going to go back to the drawing board."

I began to pack my things up. My stomach was growling and I needed to eat something.

"Okay. I'll probably be done with it by tomorrow, which should give you time to fix it to your liking or scrap it all together before the big day." He said assuring me.

"That sounds good to me. Thank you and I'll get in touch with you very soon."

"No, thank you." He said as we went our separate ways.