"Come on - you'll like this," Tao said, pulling me towards the door. "Tao..." I said quietly. He turned around and faced me, "I promise you."
I've always had a talent for reading people. I can tell what everyone's personality is... even before I get...
Every once and awhile, I'd sneak a glance at his little Panda. It was very happy and playful. It kept looking at me whenever Tao started to get restless. I caught Tao himself looking at me two times, just after his Panda tapped at the side of his head.
When the bell rang, I followed everyone out into the hallway. My phone in my pocket buzzed and I pulled it out. There was a text from (o/f/n) '(f/n) have second lunch today, meet us in the new cafeteria. We have a surprise for you.' Rolling my eyes at them, I texted the Panther back. 'Aye, will do.'
English passed by fast, nothing special happened and I kept trying to figure out how Tao's personality matched his animal. Clearly he was a Panda in the sense that he was really soft-spoken, sweet, and caring for others. But Pandas can be fierce! He must be very determined then. Pandas are often emotional as well, so I have to be careful of what I say.
My phone buzzed again and I looked up at the teacher, who was absorbed in grading our latest essays. Taking my book from on top of my desk and put it onto my lap, leaning it against my knees. Then I slipped my phone out of my jacket pocket, placing it quietly on top of the open book. I turned down the brightness a little bit, tapped on messages and (f/n)'s name popped up with 2 new messages.
The first one read 'Did (o/f/n) tell you that we have a surprise?' And the second read "Thinking about Tao...?'
Ugh, she never gives up I swear. I responded quickly, 'Yeah, she told me. Actually, I kinda am thinking about him :)' I found myself smiling at the thought so I pushed it away and put my phone back in my pocket.
Walking into the cafeteria, I saw (f/n) and (o/f/n) sitting at a table for four. Sitting down across from them, I pulled out my lunch bag and water bottle. "Someone's sitting with us?" I asked, motioning to the seat next to me.
"Yup, guess who?" (f/n) said, raising her eyebrows a few times for effect.
"Panda?" I guessed, making the little ears with my hands. They gave me looks of confusion.
Then it hit me that they wouldn't know what I was talking about, duh... I'm a bit forgetful sometimes about seeing the animals since I label people by them so often.
"Sorry, I mean Tao, is it?" They looked at each other and then back at me, smirks on their faces,
"It's Tao, you got it." Just then, I saw motion out of the corner of my eye and spotted the cute Panda trotting along with Tao into the room. He was next to some popular guys in our grade. (p/g/n) and (o/p/g/n), Fisher Cat and Wolverine.
"Yuck alert, It's the heartless duo" (o/f/n) scoffed, pointing to them.
"Tao!" I shouted, watching him turn to me. He broke into a smile, nodded to the duo and jogged over to our table.
"Nǐ hǎo!"
During lunch, our group talked about everything from favourite colors to what we wanted our kids to be named. I learned a ton about Tao and he was just like what I thought. He was so determined to do what he loved: performance. He was trained in martial arts and vocals. I asked him to sing for me but he wouldn't at the moment. He gave me the, 'later, I promise'. Yeah sure, like that was ever going to happen.
With a few minutes left in lunch, we got on the topic of C:5 again. "Do you have a favourite?" I asked. He shook his head, "i could never have a favourite, I love them all."
I respected that, "Aye, that makes sense, they all are really great, at least on camera."
Nodding, he looked around the cafeteria. His little Panda was shaking a little bit, like it was nervous. I scrunched up my face a bit, why would he be nervous about the band? Brushing it off, I asked a new question, "What is your favourite title track?"
He thought for a second, "I like Star Light and Cinema" Ooh, those were good choices.
"I love Cinema! The music video is so cool. The way the backup dancer did that side flip during the bridge and the lighting with the UV-A is so well thought out!"
Tao started blushing a little, "haha, yeah that was really cool!" He scratched the back of his neck as the Panda inside started pacing around, looking nervous again.
Weird.
After lunch, there was only one more class to go to. Computers. Piece of cake. Actually, it was a piece of ice cream cake because the Arctic Fox teacher insisted on some cold weather for her sub-arctic room. Our first half of the class was just typing exercises on our own. This was my favourite type of class because the teacher let us listen to music.
I put in my earbuds, clicked onto YouTube, and opened C:5's channel. Thinking of Tao, I scrolled down and found Cinema. Opening it, the first chords hit me right away. Putting my phone down on the desk, I started the exercise, jamming to the music. When the bridge came, my favourite part, obviously, I paused and watched it.
The part I was looking for, the backup dancer doing the cool side flip, looked different for some reason. I rewinded it and put it on half speed. Trying to decipher what was different seemed impossible, I had watched it a million times. Then I saw a glance of what was under the dancer's hood. His face was pale with blonde hair, making the black of his cloaks seem irrelevant. I rewinded again, finding the perfect place to stop. I looked closer and took in the facial features of the boy. He seemed pretty young...
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